Things I'd rather do than write.

It seems I would rather watch a load of crappy films as "research" than write. I mean how am I supposed to write a moody atmospheric neo-noir if I haven't yet seen the (allegedly - I hear) craptacular MAX PAYNE? It just feels like I can't. And I can't sit here and watch it on the very publicly displayed comp because it looks like every now and then it's gonna get rude and you just know that'll be the moment someone walks past and then everyone thinks I'm looking at porn.

Other things I'd rather do include reading (more research) and gardening. Every now and then I spend 15 minutes in the garden. I turn my compost or pull out some weeds then walk soil all over the floor. I have an onion planted at the moment. It had sprouted in the cupboard so I figured I couldn't possibly fuck it up. Also some garlic cloves had sprouted so they're in there too. How do they grow, are they vines? I put some strawberries in some pots and I think I see the first couple of shoots. I planted some tomato seeds on a whim last year just to see what would happen. It was too late in the year but surprisingly I actually got some green tomatoes. I didn't eat them though.

Metal Gear Online. It's so much fun and so frustrating. I'm a level 10. Not great but it's OK. I have a live in girlfriend. 1 television. I can't play much when she's home so I have to play when she's out or asleep. Also when she is home we tend to do things together, ie not sit at the computer writing. It's a conundrum.

Piss about online. Instead of writing my own movie I read about other peoples. I see what's coming out in 2 years time or read about anime's I haven't seen. I spend hours gaining all this useless knowledge in the hopes it will filter through and make me a better writer.

Another thing I'd rather do than write THIS script is write the NEXT script. The newest idea I've had that just seems so much better than my current one. They always seem better.

I managed to trim a whole page off of TOMB OF THE VIKINGS just by merging paragraphs and rewriting the odd line to shorten it. Go me. I'm not going to add anything more to it though. My new ideas can wait until the rewrite. My other half is going to go through it for me and see if it makes sense to her. She liked the last version so hopefully this one will meet her seal of approval.

I had a thought about WAR MOVIE too. I often have a trouble with theme. People always want scripts to have a theme. I mean what's wrong with robots fight aliens or here's what happens when lots of cool things blow up? Why does it have to say something more? I mean I get that it elevates the work from trashy entertainment to art. The problem I have is when I try to add theme I tend to substitute one thing for another. I do allegory instead. Like let's write a film where aliens invade and we fight back only its really a film about Iraq I've just swapped everything over.

I thought maybe for WAR MOVIE I actually would have the heist element. I didn't want to but it makes sense. The guys are useless and aren't involved in the war at all. They just want to collect pay cheques until they can leave. Then they hear about a hidden cache of gold. Suddenly there's a chance to get rich and they get involved. Substitute gold for oil and we have a social commentary on US motivations for the invasion of Iraq.