July 2008 Archives

You may have noticed a few changes around here. Yup, I've been tinkering with the code again, tweaking the front page of the blog and freshening up the comments section. Some of the changes, although minor stylistic issues, were long overdue.

You'll also notice that SezWho has now been installed to add extra functionality to the comments.

In fiction, there are no limitations on the worlds you create. But once you establish a fictional world for your characters to inhabit, it becomes fixed. The rules of this fictional reality have to remain constant. Once your reader or audience has constructed an understanding for your world in their minds, changing the rules later on can shatter the fiction.

A rare opportunity has come available to work as my off-sider at Netregistry. If you live in or around Sydney, Australia and are looking for an exciting writing job with a permanent salary and plenty of opportunity to build a name, you need to get in touch. Plus you get to work on the next desk to me as my right hand. If that doesn't scare you off, read on.

Here is the ad as it appears on Seek.

Hugely busy week, not made any easier by my promotion to Acting Marketing Manager – woohoo - and my wonderful editor at ‘Nett Magazine’, Josh Mehlman, forgetting to tell me next Monday’s copy deadline has been bumped back two weeks. (He’s going to read this and claim it was deliberate to help me get ahead of the curve. Trouble is, he’s probably right!).

Yup, you too can now enjoy the wonders of having Kimota appear on your blog.

I've been thinking about doing some guest posts for a while now, but it took the wonderful Kimberley Bock (Spostareduro) inviting me to guest post on her blog 'Learning SEO Basics' that actually spurred me into action.

I'm counting down until I can get to see 'The Dark Knight' this weekend. Let's hope it won't disappoint like some other recent blockbusters I could mention. In the meantime, you may have noticed I've been tweaking the site here and there trying to fix some irritating browser issues. I've been a Firefox user for a long time and find it hard to understand why some people still insist on using IE.

Since starting this blog last year, I have regularly been asked about how to become a professional writer. Mary, one of my keener subscribers (see - I didn't forget you), recently raised the topic again and prompted me to think some more on it. Some of the issues related to this discussion I covered previously in my series on 'The Professional Writer', but what I didn't cover was how to get writing work in the first place.

Way back in 2004, I entered the Australian version of the Project Greenlight competition. Modelled on the US cable TV show devised by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, the series applies the Pop Idol principle to movie scriptwriting. The winning script would be produced for cinematic release, directed by the winning scriptwriter, and with a $1 million budget.

My vampire script, ‘Nightfall’, achieved a top twenty placing before elimination. I can still remember the devastation I felt on receiving the call informing me I wasn’t going through to the Top Ten. But, considering that there was a full field of 1200 entries, and that elimination up to that point had been through a complex peer-review process followed by an experienced industry panel, this was enough to encourage me to develop the script further.

It’s been quiet in these parts for the last few days due to my teenage daughter descending on us for the school holidays. Suddenly, life revolves around entertaining someone whose default setting seems to be ‘bored’.

I originally started putting together this weekly wrap-up yesterday, but found I had more to say on ‘Hancock’ than I thought – hence yesterday’s post. Since then, I’ve discovered I’m not the only one to have made the observation of the incredible change of direction at the halfway point. I’m just hoping that ‘The Dark Knight’ doesn’t disappoint, but early signs are good.

The Wedding Planner

No, not the godawful romcom from a few years ago. Although hiring a wedding planner, even one as annoying as J-Lo, would mean Shelley and I would not have to look at one more bridal magazine or spend hours walking from venue to potential venue.

Yup, I’m over the preparations with five months to go.

Script by Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan

I don’t think anyone was surprised that the new Will Smith vehicle, ‘Hancock’ smashed the $100 million barrier on its opening weekend in the States. This creates a new record for Smith, the first star to have eight consecutive openings gross over $100 million. But what will be more interesting will be to see how the public reacts after seeing the film.

We saw the film last night and we’re rather surprised at how unrepresentative the trailer turned out to be. The first half of the film contains all the humour (most of which was in the trailer) while the second half turns to much darker territory – threatening to become a standard superhero flick with barely a laugh in sight. Of course, I’m not going to give away the twist here that signals the complete change in tone, but it is there, is unexpected and I know my family felt we had seen a different film to what we expected.

My computer hates me. For some reason, it believes it should be given a break every now and then from the constant workload and overnight tasks I set it. So I’m interpreting last night’s meltdown as a form of tech protest. 

So it looks like I’m without the main machine again until the weekend, forcing me to resort to quick posts in my lunch hour at work and working from the mini laptop – the Asus Eee – at home. As long as I get the treacherous tower back by the weekend, I won’t start panicking about downloading this Saturday’s ‘Doctor Who’ finale.

Speaking of which…

Warning: The following post discusses events from episode 12 of ‘Doctor Who Series 4. Do not read on if you are trying to avoid spoilers for episode 12 – ’The Stolen Earth’. The post does NOT contain spoilers for the finale – ’Journey’s End’’.

This post is about spoilers and in no way tries to create any. So if anyone decides to add a comment claiming they have a spoiler or have worked out the answer to the ‘Doctor Who finale, it will NOT get posted. But, as I will have been exposed to the offending comment in order to delete it, I will track your ISP and hunt you down with a rusty knife. Comprende?

Since last Saturday’s episode of ‘Doctor Who’, I have had a number of people ask me what is happening, in the belief that if anyone would know, it would be me. But, for once, no one seems to know outside of the production team.

To say that Russell T Davies and his band have pulled off a pretty impressive coup would be understating the impact the episode had on an audience conditioned to expect spoilers and pre-publicity to lay out the major plot points and twists in advance.