Quirky Monday: ScriptFrenzy

ScriptFrenzy.

It's a real thing. Now, I don't know how long it's been around, but I'm glad it is. Most people have heard of NaNoWriMo--which happens in November--but surprisingly few people have heard of ScriptFrenzy--which happens in April. 

Basically, the only difference between NaNoWriMo and ScriptFrenzy is the subject matter. National Novel Writing Month(NaNoWriMo) challenges writers to write a novel(200 pgs minimum) in a month. ScriptFrenzy has the same challenge, only it's a 120 page script(120 pgs is minimum.) 

People who take this super seriously post bits of their scripts on the website--I'm not one of those people. 

But I do take this challenge. 

Really, all you have to do is write this thing from beginning to end, which you would think is the easiest thing in the world. Sure, that's if you can get your inner critic to shut up for half a second to get off page one.

 Also, because you have thirty days to write it, this means that you are writing for five or six hours a day--which for me, is awesome, but it also does things to your social life. 

Which is why I write bits on my phone, or on my daily commute, to get my daily writing in. Usually, when I'm writing something like this, I give up halfway through and let it sit for months. 

But for some reason, when I'm working under a specific deadline, my critic shuts up until I get to "the end". And then you let it stew for--oh, I don't know until you have time? Or, in this case, a couple of days. 

There is nothing more satisfying than seeing "the end" on a script, and know that you wrote that. It may not be 100% polished, but you wrote that. In a month. 

That's ScriptFrenzy--30 days to write a script, and if you finish early, more power to you!

Tidbit Tuesday: Storytime--The One with Bears

Two things:

1. A bear's paw is friggin huge.

2. My family is friggin crazy.

There is no other word for it. My family is crazy. We do crazy stuff, for crazy reasons, at crazy times. And sometimes crazy things happen to us; and some of these things are worth sharing. So this Quirky Monday is not necessarily about a quirk--it's story time.

About six years ago, my family decided visited Yellowstone. And we drove. Eight of us in an SUV for five hours.  GAG!!!! Don't get me wrong, it's great spend time with my family, but when there are eight people in a car for five hours, things get hairy. Or funny. Or both. Like this:

While we were driving to Yellowstone, we decided to take a detour through Bear Country. Guys, this is a real, legit place. It's got bears wandering around this big open area and you can drive your car right past them and see them up close. I'm not kidding. It's sipic!

One rule they have there, though, is that you can't stop your car. They don't exactly explain why, but it there on the entrance sign "Stay in your vehicle. Don't stop your vehicle. Don't feed the Bears." Yes, it literally says "Don't Feed The Bear" Only there's no Winnie-the Pooh behind this sign.

Now before I go on, I have to explain two quick things. One, my mom loves taking pictures. Of everything. Especially on vacations. Family photos, solo photos, landscape photos, the works. Not that I think this is a bad idea. I love seeing these photos later. But I hate posing for them. And she still insists on taking them, so we smile and get it over with.

The second thing you have to understand is that at the time my youngest brothers were eight. Very cute; very excitable; very --loud? Yes, loud they were loud. They still are loud. And we were in a car. This will make sense, I promise.

Anyway, we got into the park and drove around. There were bears--brown bears, black bears, cubs, the works.

My mom was snapping pictures, as was my sister, and my twin brothers were in the back of the car with their noses pressed to the windows and my other two brothers were pushing against me and my sister to see out the window.

And I don't exactly remember the details, but we stopped the car so my mom could roll down the window an snap a picture of two  little cubs. This one, actually:

What we didn't see was the other bear on the other side of the car.

Our car that was no longer moving.

 So the bear went up on its back legs put its front paws on the car...

 And ended up nose to nose with my eight year old brother.

Cue reaction: A very loud "ohmygosh!!!!" And a mile-jump-in-the-air-and-eyes-popping-out-of-the-head kind of noise.

And laughter from the rest of us.

So yes. My family's nuts. We encounter bears on our car--but we get great pics because of it!

Also, if a sign says don't stop your car, then don't stop your car--you could end up nose to nose with a bear.

Quirky Monday: Mood Music

Ugh. Finals. The last Finals of the rest of my life. For now anyway. This week's quirk is going to be short, and kind of a throwback, since I've displayed it often enough. To make up for it tomorrow, you get a story. Today though, it's a short and obvious quirk.

Guys, when I write something, I can't function without music.

It's really bad. As I've said before--in person and on this blog--I have to have something to get me in the mood and to keep me in the mood to write.

Sometimes it's just a single song to begin with.

That I listen to on loop.

For days.

And drives everyone crazy.

 That's when I'm still hammering out ideas. And then once I have the plot figured out--or maybe just the characters--the one song turns into two, and then four and then I have a whole playlist!

Yeah, I know you've probably see all of them before--my Production Soundtracks. The ones that are on the blog anyway. Or Instagram and Facebook. Like this one:

I pick theses songs for different reasons. Maybe it helps with the mood of the whole show(3 Doors Down and ANGELS ALLEY; Boy Bands and SIMPATICO); maybe one specific song reminds me of one specific character, or specific scene(like a proposal--thank you Jason Derulio and Marry Me).

But the upshot of all this is that I end up with about 30 songs per sound track, and these then get listened to on loop.

For months.

And it's funny, but when this music plays, not matter where I am, I can keep the story I'm working on at the forefront of my mind.

It'll probably be this way for the rest of my life.

Name of the Game: OR #creativepeopleproblems

It's weird that sometimes what starts as a conversation turns into a blog post.

 The other day I was talking with a friend of mine at work, and the topic of conversation was that as creative people, we have major issues.

Not bad major issues, just--#creativepeopleproblems. That's what they are. Things that make creative people what they are and things that people who aren't creative don't necessarily get. Like this:

Guys, there are two times I don't sleep.

One is when I'm sick--for some reason my body freaks out if I'm not perfectly healthy 24/7, which only makes the virus I happen to have really happy and bound to stick around for a while.

The other time--or times--I don't sleep is when my Muse is on a Creative Rampage. Which, let's be honest, is most of my life.

The one--ok the....nevermind how many--all nighters I have pulled in college? In my life? Yeah, all of those were for writing, or acting, or directing, or designing. I had to finish that one scene; that one conversation; that one blocking note; that one costume, lighting, make-up design; and oh look at that, it's 3am and I have work in three hours and have had no sleep!

I can't tell you the number of times I have been all ready for bed, and my head hits the pillow and my Muse goes "hey, write this down".

I tell him(yes, most of the time, my Muse is a "him") to shut up.

His response? "Write this down or you won't go to sleep."

My response "Shut up."

His response? "No sleep. MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!"

So then of course I have to write it down. On my phone; on a 3x5 card, notebook, laptop, whatever's closest.  In every teeny tiny detail. And it doesn't stop until the scene or conversation is over. The upshot? I get no sleep, or very little, or whatever. And I still have to get up and go to work and school and everything else.

Cue adrenalin rush.

Wait, though, it gets worse.

When my body is running on adrenaline, it thinks it doesn't need food. 

Anytime I have anything to do with a show--writing, designing, directing, whatever--not only do I not sleep, I don't eat.

Opening Night? I don't eat. Until after curtain call.

 Script Revision? I don't eat.

Tech Week? I don't eat.

Night of a Reading(something of mine or someone else's)? Nope. No food. At all.

Not that I go anorexic or anything. I'm just--not hungry, so I don't eat. Meals, that is. I snack when I think I'm going to die--you know, the odd handful of granola, yogurt, couple of carrots, Zone Protein Bar, whatever--enough to get through work like a normal person. But take time to make a meal when I've got a scene to finish or a rehearsal/performance to get to? Who has time for that?!

 Which means by the time I type "the end" or hit opening night, I'm starving. And sleep deprived, and running on adrenaline.

This is a good thing, and a bad thing. It's great because while I'm on the adrenalin high I have all this energy and everything, but once it's over and the crash kicks in, all I can think about is food.

That is when I eat.

That is when I sleep.

For a day.

Maybe.

And then it starts all over again!

This week's Game: #creativepeopleproblems. It's a thing.

Quirky Monday: Nerd Alert

Raph. Leo. April. Casey. Hawkeye. Cap. Iron Man. Black Lightning. Winchester. Buffy. Angel. Spike. Willow. Mal. Kaylee. Splinter. Castiel. Clark Kent. Oliver Queen. S.H.E.I.L.D. The Winter Solider.

Familiar? Of course! Any nerd knows who they are, or at least has an idea of who they are. These belong to DC, Marvel, Mirage, Eric Kripke, and the Whedonverse. Still don't know who they are?

That's ok. I didn't either. For a long time.

Yeah. Just....yeah.

There are nerds that are born and then there are nerds that hide in the closet and bloom later.

I was the latter.  I grew up on Winne-the-Pooh, Peter Pan, and Ducktales, which I suppose counts as nerdy, since Ducktales are also comics(I found this out and had a serious nerdout!!!). I was convinced if I concentrated hard enough I could fly, and that there were such things and Heffalumps and Woozles, and "The Odyssey" was about a dog who lived in Ithaquack and got turned into a pig(thank you DuckTales).

This show guys. This show, this show, this show!!!!!!

 But I didn't read comic books, I never saw Justice League, or Superman or TMNT or any of that. And there were a number of reasons for this--not the least of which was we didn't have cable growing up and I was too busy scribbling the stories in my head to pay attention to anything else.

My grandpa used to babysit my sister and me when we were little, and every time he did he'd bring a new movie. For two little girls who watched Peter Pan  and Winnie the Pooh more times than was probably reasonable(thanks for your patience, Mom!) this was a novelty.

Neverending Story and The Princess Bride. Those became our "grandpa movies"--Neverending Story for my sister; Princess Bride  for me. And yes, Neverending Story terrified me. To no end. I only watched it when my sister was in the room, and had to make myself sit through the sequels on her birthday(all of them--agggg!) Princess Bride did not terrify me. I watched that thing so much I think I wore out the VHS(the 90s, guys. This was the 90s.)

The one scene in Neverending Story that didn't freak me out. With a giant doggy thing that--yeah. Moving on. 

Point: these two movies had nerdy stuff. A lot of 70s and 80s nerdy stuff, but still--nerdy stuff.  Flying dog things, weird giant rats, swordfights, fisticuffs, classic corny lines, the works. We dabbled in nerdom for those movies.  And it got better from there.

When I was seven, my second cousin showed me Star Wars. And the nerd bug bit me hard. Because there were lightsabers, and spaceships, and little furry thingys that ran around making squeaky noises and looked like teddy bears(Return of the Jedi, guys. That's what he showed me.). I was gone. Gone, gone, gone.

My first exposure to the comic book wasn't even an English series. My sister and I got into the Asterix/Obelix  comics--which are basically about two Celts who bash the Roman's head together for fun and possess a magic potion that gives them super strength. And is so delightful!!!!

So yes, I read those.  Binge read is more like it. 

And then my brother was born. This is the sibling of mine who is basically the male version of me. He's creative, and charming and a very loud nerd. This was the boy who checked out Superman, and Batman, and TMNT and comic books from the library and watched them ad nauseum. He was the one who showed me all these delightful comic book characters--Batman, Robin, the Peguin, Leo, Raph, Superman, Splinter, April, Casey, etc. etc.

Yep. I saw this. Too much. Did I get what was going on? Not exactly? Did I want more? AB-SO-FRIGGIN-LUTELY!!!!

 Once I got introduced, I got totally obsessed(emotional investment, remember). I had to find out every little thing about TMNT, about Marvel, about DC. At this point there were also new movies, coming out; and there was YouTube, and my brother, and so that helped.

And then there's the Whedonverse.

You know, until I had access to Cable, I had no idea what I was missing. Which was a good thing and and a bad thing. My family has PBS, which meant things like Arthur, and Zoom and Wishbone(agggg! there's another show I miss so much!!!!) and we had the basic channels--ABC, CBS, NBC etc, so we could watch primetime tv too(like Home Improvement--such a great show!!!). So good thing--because no access to questionable stuff.

But bad thing. 

 Because I missed the Whedonverse!!!! 

People my age would talk about Buffy, and Spike, and Faith and why did Firefly get cancelled and I'd go "....what?..." And of course, by the time I got around to looking into what the heck they were talking about, all of the shows were off air.

 But they were on DVD.

 Cue binge watch. 

And a deeper dive into my nerdom.

Now, I read all the comics I can find. I watch Star Trek and Star Wars and Princess Bride without shame. I know what people are talking about when they ask me with Turtle I prefer(Raph, people. Always always Raph.) or what made the new Batman trilogy so sick(or wrong, depending on who you talk to). I own TMNT and Whedon comic books(from the BEST comic book store I've been to in my life and should probably never be allowed in again, but that's a post for later). I watch other nerdy shows and get into debates about their accuracy--and everything else. 

So yeah, it took me a bit to get comfortable with this quirk of my personality, for more reasons than one. 

Now, I am a nerd, people! And I'm #soproud!

Name of the Game: OR Sipic

As you can see from my Thursday postings, I love playing with words.

No surprise, I'm a writer.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about a specific word, and it's origin. I said this was my favorite word.

Well, I lied.

There is another word I love, and I use all the time. To describe nearly everything I love. I even have a shirt with this word on it.

This isn't me; but this is the shirt.

SIPIC.

I first heard this word in a movie some of my friends about a year ago called Inspired Guns. Guys, this movie is delightful--about two LDS missionaries who get mistaken for the Mafia. Not exactly A-list academy award winner, but still so much fun!  So of course this movie made it to the top of my Bubblegum Film list, not just because of the comedy and fun little storyline, but because of this quote:

"Oh my--that was sick! That was--epic! That was--sipic!"

You see? Basically, it is the word "sick"+ the word "epic" and is used to describe something so phenomenal that there is no other word for it.

This is the name of the game this week. My second favorite word, people. You're welcome.

Quirky Monday: Bacon

Sorry guys, this isn't about the delicious food. This is about another way I entertain myself.

I am one of those weirdos that plays Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

For those who don't know, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon came about because of a statement the actor made that he could tie himself to every actor in Hollywood. Translation: everybody in Hollywood knows each other. Well, of course they do.

I have a friend who takes this super seriously. I can't go see a movie with this guy without hearing a "Bacon Number"--it's enough to drive me nuts.

So I do it sans Kevin Bacon.

Because I can count the number of Kevin Bacon movies I've seen on the fingers of one hand: Footloose, RIPD and Balto--which does really count since that's only his voice.

Yes. This is Kevin Bacon. With four legs. And fur. 

But I digress. 

There is nothing more entertaining to me than to see how many different actors do movies together, and who knows who and how well. Granted, this happens because it's Hollywood;  and  any time you're in a show you get so close to the people you work with because you are basically stuck with them for a specific period of time. I know from experience.

And since I don't watch Kevin Bacon, I do it with other celebrities. Sometimes from other film eras, or forms of media, like BBC Radio(side note: the US doesn't do radio plays anymore because???????).

I once tied Stanley Tucci to Humphrey Bogart--which isn't actually as hard as it sounds.

 I watch waaaay to much tv and far too many movies, and sometimes I need to do something entertain myself while being entertained(multitasker, remember?). So I started playing this game without knowing it. I'd go see and movie with my family and could tell which actor was in what other movie with whom and when.

They told me to shut up.

So now I do it in my head.

Name of the Game: OR Acronyms

My brother didn't find out what VCR meant until he was sixteen.

He only knew about "TTFN" because of Winnie the Pooh

FACE to him meant the thing that's on the front of your head.

And that big black brick that used to be how we watched movies? That was a movie, not a VHS.

Granted, he was brought up in the era sans VHSs, so this is hardly surprising. But he didn't know about VHS and DVD either--what they meant, I mean.

Neither did I.

Thanks to a nice little sitcom--Red Dwarf--I can proudly announce that the letters in DVD stand for Digital Versatile Discs. VCR means Video Cassette Recording and a VHS is a Video Home System. FACE is another way to remember the musical notes F, A, C, and E. Now y'all can sleep better, knowing that.

Why do I bring this up?

Because Acronyms are everywhere. Acronyms and mnemonic devices.

We use them for memorizing notes in music, in acting, in academic study(ie: Noisy Yolanda Nutty John Rode Into Connie Verm's New Hamster=New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire--the only states I can still remember in order, by the way).

An actor friend of mine memorizes his lines by writing them in acronym form. It's weird, but it works.

I work at two different libraries with two different classification systems. How do I remember the different call numbers? I use acronyms. Again, weird, but it works.

So the name of this game is acronyms. Where do you use them? How do you use them? I'll tell you, it's a lot more than you think.