Global Spin » Writing

Scrippet (you know, for script snippets)

Chris — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:30:31 +0000

This is a test of the Scrippet plugin for Wordpress, which would help me render bits of scripts and screenplays and such. I’ll be tweaking this until it looks OK.

INT. RESEARCH OFFICE – DAY

SMITH stands next to BILLY, who is seated at his desk. Billy hands him a fat folder.

BILLY

I don’t even think you’ll need a costume, Mister Vintage.

SMITH

Nope. It’s like going home for spring break.

BILLY

Except you’re supposed to have fun on spring break. You are going to have fun, right?

SMITH

(opening the folder)

You should know, Billy. Isn’t there a high statistical correlation between me staying on a college campus and the simultaneous occurrence of fun?

BILLY

Are you accusing me of forcing co-eds on you?

You might recognize the awful dialogue from The Last Domino, my cursed time-travel screenplay from Script Frenzy a couple years back.

Click Swiftly to the Swivet (But Don’t Panic!)

Deb — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 05:45:24 +0000

I have recently discovered The Swivet. It is the blog of one Colleen Lindsay, a self-styled “unrepentant nerd” and a literary agent with FinePrint Literary Management.

I am posting the link to her blog since it’s a lot easier than re-posting every link she posts to Global Spin.

In fact, I would like to submit a motion to include Colleen as an honorary member of the Global Spin geek freak squad. She’s lived in San Francisco, has a link to XKCD on her blog and posts things like this and this. So, just a humble suggestion to read her blog, folks.

Let’s play piggyback with the American Family Association

Deana — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 22:17:50 +0000

I am stealing this idea from Fark. The AFA is incensed that Hallmark is making same-sex marriage cards and is boycotting the company. In addition, they have a very nice website where you can write to those durned lib’rals at Hallmark and give them what fer! As was suggested on Fark, it’s also a convenient way to send Hallmark letters of support. So pass it on, because I would be very happy if they got more support letters through the hatey website than hatey letters.

on iPhoneDevCamp and a lack of writing

Chris — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:52:24 +0000

Things have been quiet at Global Spin lately, but not because I have nothing to talk about. I’ve just been doing my writing elsewhere, like these two stories about my recent trip to iPhoneDevCamp. From GeekDad:

I had a great time at iPhoneDevCamp 2 in San Francisco last weekend. Lots of geekdads and their kids were in attendance. Joe Michels got an iPhone so he could show off photos of his kids, but now he’s writing apps. Carlos McEvilly (pictured) wrote code while his daughter Annika playtested games for other developers. Ray Valdes and his kids worked together on a mermaid game, while Camp organizer Dom Sagolla’s infant son Leo offered to judge the Tastiest App award.

And the apps? I’m biased, but Fwerps is so awesome! A fwerp is a virtual pet–think tamagotchi tribble without the trademark infringement. The idea came from LC Boros, who also served as art director and “fwerp herder”. We wanted to make something that was unique to the Touch platform, so we concentrated on the accelerometer (rocking it to sleep), touch gestures (petting), sound/vibration (purring), and network (reproducing). Our “code gopher” Matt Paul hunted down utility code, and I put the pieces together in Xcode. It took round-the-clock coding and a lot of help from other developers, but we got something that worked well and didn’t crash during the demo! (Video of the demo is already online.) [Read more...]

…and from Webmonkey, another Wired blog:

Wow. If there was any doubt that the iPhone is a hot platform, iPhoneDevCamp 2 just squashed it like a tank tread over a pile of Zunes.

Hundreds of attendees got together for a weekend of iPhone application hacking, discussion and beer. Buckets of beer and piles of pizza, all supplied by sponsors eager to find out who might have the next killer app. And apps there were aplenty; 44 teams submitted them for the hackathon, including 3 top apps from satellite camps.

I didn’t mention sleep, because there was none. This was my very first time developing for the iPhone (or in Objective-C at all), so I coded into the wee hours of the morning just to get things to compile. My team got a lot of help from Objective-C gurus on site, too. [Read more...]

I also started a project page for Fwerps, because you know I need more projects to work on.

Sad news from Discworld

Deana — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 13:33:18 +0000

According to a note from Terry Pratchett posted on BoingBoing, he has been diagnosed with a rare, early-onset form of Alzheimer’s disease. I hope it goes well for him and that some biochemist fans answer his call!

nanowrimo update

Chris — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 05:26:14 +0000

As you can probably tell from the dearth of new material here, I’ve been a bit busy lately. I’d love to say I’m working on some exciting new project, but the truth is I’ve been sick, traveling, working, or combinations of the above. It has succeeded in making Jack a dull boy, so I’m going to take it a bit easier this November than I originally planned.

That’s right, no NaNoWriMo for me this year. Karen is still participating, and hopefully she’ll take some time to post occasional updates here (nudge nudge). I won’t be completely out of it, though. I’d like to edit a first (and possibly second) draft of my entry from last year and present it here for you to read by November 30th, a kind of NaNoEdMo if you will. We’ll see how that goes.

ideas are scary sometimes

Chris — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 03:05:51 +0000

If you dare, take a look at my new divestment banking clubs idea. This is what happens when I have to figure out where to store all that new camping equipment.

the script unleashed

Chris — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 19:29:21 +0000

It’s what you’ve all* been waiting for, the blockbuster hit of Summer 2009. The Last Domino finally has a screenplay, and you finally have a chance to read it.

Let me know what you think of it.**

* Deana, basically
** only if you loved it

a minor victory, a minor defeat

Chris — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 05:03:34 +0000

The good news: The script is done. The accursed, untenable, unsalable, hackneyed, nagging time travel screenplay has finally been completed. The entire plot outline was covered, the crises averted, the ending tied up in a neat bow. I’m done with the first draft. Done!

The bad news: It’s less than 16,000 words, around 85 pages. That’s probably too short to be a truly complete draft (there are lots of places where more dialogue or description is probably necessary), and it’s over 4,000 words shy of winning the Script Frenzy challenge. It’s the very last night of the month, and there’s no way I could add that much to the script in time to meet the deadline tonight.

Here’s the kicker: I don’t really want to, either. Sure, I could write a couple dozen pages’ worth of space monkeys attacking, but it just doesn’t feel worthwhile. Not the script itself; I’m immensely proud of completing it, and I think it could be pounded into something mildly entertaining with a few more drafts. I’m glad I spent some time this month working on it, but I’m also glad I didn’t spend any more time on it than I did. It’s been a busy month in all respects, and when it came right down to it I picked family, friends, other projects, and sleep (oh, that) over meeting a screenplay challenge.

From here… I’m not sure. I’m thinking of asking K to check it for embarrassing bits. If she doesn’t howl with laughter, I’ll post it in the writing section for your amusement.

Final word count: 15,741.

in which our protagonists share their first kiss

Chris — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 06:17:48 +0000

Wow. I just made it through one of those sections of the plot outline that was a single line, and even that line was hand-waving. (Seriously, it read “Block 5: montage of LURVE.”) It’s the part of most movies that doesn’t work at all if the actors don’t have chemistry and the director doesn’t have a soul, so there’s usually not a lot going on in the script.

Unless that script is The Princess Bride.

If you haven’t seen that film, go watch it now. Now. I’ll wait. Done? Okay. Compare the scene in the fire swamp with the scene at the beginning with the water jug. Which one makes you believe that these two people love each other? Which one makes you wonder if it’s going to be a kissing book? Exactly. What’s the difference? In the fire swamp, the actors have a steady stream of dialogue and actions they can hang their emotions on, and the director has a million places to insert a hand-holding here, a quick embrace there, a significant look.

I did not, in fact, write a scene like that. However, the scenes I wrote were a lot more like that than the water jug scenes, so I’m hoping the audience won’t have to take it on faith that these two cardboard cutouts really are meant for each other. That will come in handy in the next few scenes when I pit them against each other.

Word count so far: 6,965.