Cack-handed

“There are many colloquial terms used to refer to a left-handed person. Some are just slang or jargon words ('cack-handed'), while others may be offensive or demeaning, either in context or in origin. In more technical contexts, 'sinistral' may be used in place of 'left-handed' and 'sinistrality' in place of 'left-handedness'. Both of these technical terms derive from sinister, a Latin word meaning 'left’” – Wikipedia

I new something was wrong with me but holy shit.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-handed I am a stuttering, dyslexic, schizoid devil child who needs a sound beating anytime I use my left hand.

Oh but wait! While I am not stu…stu…stuttering through my plans for world domination with the evil twin (in my head) apparently I have a predisposition to creativity and intelligence!

“While there is an unresolved debate within the scientific community on how to operationalize both intelligence and creativity, some studies have demonstrated a small positive correlation between left-handedness and creativity/intelligence.” - Wikipedia

Although a small one…shit.

At the moment I am locked in a mortal battle with my left brain that wants me to go back and fix the writing I have up to this point but so far right brain and I are beating him back and things are progressing. If I allow evil lefty to overcome me I will literately write the same damn scene for-bloody-ever.

The story line is a little shaky but I am letting things flow naturally. I have no idea where I am going but I am having fun and good old righty hasn’t let me down yet. I like the free flow of ideas as I write. I don’t judge, I just listen and type.

-Jim

Dreams on Spec

A documentary following three aspiring screenwriters through their painful journey of trying to get their shit bought, made, noticed…anything.

All three subjects had industry contacts of some sort. I would have liked to have seen at least one of the subjects living in a dumpster and knocking on doors of agents trying to get noticed, on the outside looking in so to speak.

It seemed like the subjects were concentrating on their one great script that would ascend them to their WGA cards. One of the first things I learned when I began researching screenwriting was always be working on your next script, always be writing. The two subjects that really put all their energies in their current scripts for months, even years were unsuccessful. We entered the story of the third subject at the point where he already had a director interested.

I liked the show. It was funny and sad. It didn’t pull any punches on how tough the industry can be. The interviews with successful screenwriters throughout the movie were great. The DVD has an extended interview extra that’s worth the price in and of itself.

While the realities of becoming a screenwriter are far out there it doesn’t stop me from visualizing what I want and working towards those goals. I want to tell stories for a living.

-Jim

Up a creek with a map and a GPS and still don't know where the hell I am...

I spent the last few weeks filling out beat sheets and outlining my story. Forging ahead with great expectations and the thrill of the hunt I blasted through the first two scenes…

…and effectively dismantled the rest of my outline.

I am not sure if it’s my outline that’s too vague, I am not being strict enough in following the outline, or if this is the way story writing works and I should go with the flow and let it be.

I wish I could describe how the scenes unfold and where the story comes. I sit down, read the outline header and start typing. Most of it is crap, some parts I read and go, wow. Hopefully as the pages mount up I will find myself saying, “wow” a lot more often.

I don’t have a clue and time will tell. For now I am letting the story tell itself and having fun.

-Jim

Smokin' Aces

A quick note on NetFlix:

If NetFlix shipped porn it would be the all time greatest internet business model ever. There is more than enough room in the small white envelope for a wet wipe, they need to consider it.

What would be really neat is if IMDB hooked up with NetFlix and as I research movies on IMDB I can click somewhere on the page and add the current movie to my Queue.

So on to Smokin’ Aces…

Not a review per se, more like a short rant.

This was the first movie I could tell a scene was cut immediately.

The small Tremor brother is peeing on the car and the tall buff Tremor brother, (played by Kevin Durand who by the way was voted the funniest new COMEDIAN in CANADA in 1994! Who’d a thought that shit?), looks back at him and all of the sudden they are mad at each other and fighting. I rewound that scene twice to figure out why the hell they were all of the sudden beating the crap out of each other. Totally lost me. Well after the movie I headed over to the extended and cut scene features on the disk and there it was. About a minute worth of dialog triggers the fight. Not sure why the cut it but I thought it was cool I caught it.

Entertaining film over all. Alicia Keys is hot. Lot’s of gun play. The ADD Karate Kid was disturbing yet funny. I was hoping to see more of Jeremy Piven but there were too many other characters to cover. Still holding out for PCU 2.

There is a short documentary about the director that I think I enjoyed more than the movie.

-Jim

Sophomore

The bad news:
I don’t live in LA.
I have no formal training in writing other than creative and technical writing classes in college.
I have never written a screenplay.
I have a full time job and a family that makes it tough as hell to find time to write.
I am 34 years old.

Who cares? Cry more newb.

I like stories. I like movies. I've always wanted to write. As long as I write good stories that I would want to see the rest will take care of itself.

It’s odd how invigorating this is. I created this blog yesterday, went home and did a complete rewrite of my beat sheet and outline. I have a few more plot points to put in and I will begin a draft. My first major hurdle is to not allow my self to stop, rethink or edit during this draft. I am horrible at writing a scene then scrapping it two minutes later.

Write the whole damn thing, let it age a bit then hit it again. I have four other high level ideas waiting in the wings that call out to me from time to time. I have to get this one written and move on.

Spellchecker owned me yesterday. I sent out a company email where I ment to apologized for any "inconvenience" an issue had caused folks. I hit send, the spellchecker popped up and I hit change because I knew I had spelled inconvenience wrong and sent it on its way.

I ended up apologizing for any incontinence I had caused anyone.

My writing career is off to a good start.

-Jim

Post 0

Hello all,

My first post here on my blog. My name is Jim. I am a software engineer working in Seattle striving to be a screenwriter.

I try and stay current on quite a few boards and blogs. The screenwriting community online is entertaining and helpful. I will include the links to my favorites as I go.

I am currently in the outlining stages of my screenplay. It’s tough to work an eight hour day, commute two hours, spend as much time with my four year old son and wife as I can at night and still get writing done. It doesn’t help that I am avid gamer as well. You can’t take the game out of the gamer so I try and limit myself to a few hours a week. Good luck.

My goal with this blog is to keep a record as I travel down the screenwriting path. The odds are against me but I am determined to give it a go. All I want to do is write movies that I want to see, tell good stories, and perhaps make a living doing so.

A quick word on the title. I've always been a big Dungeon's and Dragon's fan. Of course that translated into MMO's as the pen and paper games found a new life online. One day a group of us were geeking out and telling stories about our gaming exploits and somehow it came around to weapons. The Titanium Spork (+5) was born. I know it sounds wierd but it was funny had you been there.

Anyways I have been carrying that around for quite awhile. Apparently it has gained some popularity as titaniumspork.blogspot.com was already taken when I created this. No worries though. I own http://www.titaniumspork.com/ and http://www.titaniumspork.net/. Someday I will turn those sites into something.

-Jim