I find it difficult to get started on my rewrite of my science fiction story "Felix". Once I get started, I am sure it will go OK, but I haven't got started yet.

I feel frustrated at my lack of progress. Part of the problem I think is that the rewrite is daunting. There seems like so much that I need to do. Somewhere I read that the way to rewrite is to rewrite several times. Each time you focus on a different aspect. I think I will try that approach.

My first rewrite will be to make structural changes to the story. This isn't too big an issue, but I think it will help me get started. I want to move some sections around. What I have now is strictly chronological and I think parts of the story should be told as flash backs. There are also some parts where I want to cut material out. I have some long sections of detailed description that I want to be just suggested.

In my second rewrite, I plan to replace several sections of the story. This is primarily because I have changed my mind about what should happen. In some cases the sections are too short and not in enough detail. In others I have the plot develop too fast. In both cases the changes are drastic enough that I think it is better to start over from scratch. I expect this rewrite will take up most of my time.

I plan to do several rewrites that focus on just one character at a time. I want to ensure that each character is consistent in how they talk and behave. I have 4 main characters, so that means 4 rewrites.

In my final rewrite I want to focus on the details of the writing. That will include grammar, spelling and sentence structure.  At the same time I plan to work on what I call word-smithing, where I revise the writing for clarity and flow.

Hopefully, this will greatly improve the story. Then I can start to ask people to read it.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

This, That and The Other Thing

I wasn't very productive with my film and writing projects this week. I dabbled away on "Felix", "Bright Freedom", "The Barrier" and "Two Friends".

"Felix"

(see: http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/category/stories/sciencefiction/)

I did do some analysis of my story "Felix", my Lovecraft/ Science fiction story, in preparation for a rewrite. Mostly I tried to work on the structure and where I needed to rewrite. I wanted this to be my top priority, but I have made any progress on it.

"Bright Freedom"

(see: http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/category/film-projects/bright-freedom/)

I also did some analysis of my story "Bright Freedom", about the woman lawyer. I haven't done any work on that since the summer of 2012. Again, it was mostly reworking the structure. It needs a lot of work.

"The Barrier"

(see: http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/category/film-projects/the-barrier/)

I did a little experimentation on "The Barrier", my transportation planning story. Someone suggested that the robot voices really detracted from the movie. I tried to record my voice to replace Arthur's voice in one of the scenes. It really didn't work well. I got the timing off. Arthur's lips were still moving after I finished talking. It is a skill I just don't have. Maybe I can do it with a little practice.

Xtranormal did allow you to use pre-recorded voices in place of the artificial ones. There is still a rumour that Xtranormal may be restarted, which would allow me to use that approach. Otherwise, some other animation programs have a similar feature.

"Two Friends"

(see: http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/stories/two-friends/ or https://soundcloud.com/dynamiclethargy/twofriends )

I tried out soundcloud.com this week. It is supposed to be like a YouTube for audio. I recorded my short story "Once Upon a Time", my fable of greed and friendship, and posted it a few years back, but later removed it.

I made one change: I renamed the story "Two Friends". The audio had the old name, so I tried to re-record the title. Unfortunately the sound quality was very different, so I couldn't use it. Instead, I found the phrase "Two Friends" in the story and did a copy and paste. I had to modify my website. I renamed the story and added an audio player to the story page.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

How Not to Promote Your Movie

Like any movie maker, it is important to me to have people see, and hopefully enjoy, my movies. How do I get people to watch my movies?

I find it very difficult to promote my movies. Partly it is because I don't feel comfortable promoting myself, and partly that I just don't know how. I've read many blogs and articles, but I still haven't found something that works for me.

They say that the best way to promote your work is to produce high quality and unique movies. Even if you do, it is still hard to get people to watch. Another twist to keep in mind is that, no matter how good your work, not everyone will like your work, so you need to reach the people who will like your work.

There are many "tricks" that people use to attract interest, and it is easy to be tempted to use them.

Search Engine Optimization

It seems like you find people who push SEO everywhere. This can be done in a positive way, since there will always be people who want to find what you have on offer. All too often though, it can be just a bunch of tricks to get people to visit your site.

Time and again I've visited sites that seem to promise something that interests me, only to find it isn't what I wanted. I get quite annoyed when that happens. I often see people in comment sections expressing their anger at this kind of thing. I must admit I used a similar approach with my movie Who Shot the President.

Another problem with this approach is that it is self defeating in the long run. For long term success as a movie maker you need to develop a fan base. When you turn people off you've lost them forever.

Get More Followers

Many people believe that you need to build up the number of people who follow you on Twitter and other websites. You can even buy followers. Even when they don't buy followers,  some people resort to various tricks to get others to follow them. One that particularly annoys me who follow me, then when I follow back, they thank me and then un-follow me.

It was my practice to follow people who followed me, but I now doubt that this is a wise approach. I follow far too many people to really follow what they post, so why follow them. On the other side, what is the value of followers who never see your posts? When I checked this morning I had 1,543 followers on Twitter. I doubt that even a tenth of them have ever noticed any of my posts.

One good follower who supports you is better than a 100 that never even see your posts.

Face Book Pages

Face Book pages are supposed to be a good way to keep in touch with follows. With recent changes to Face Book, that has become more difficult. Even before the changes, if someone didn't click on your posts on their feed, Face Book would not put them on their feed anymore.

Once you're no longer on people's feeds, it is very hard to get back on. Many people are angry at Face Book for this change. I wouldn't say I was angry, but I am disappointed that people who said they want to know what I'm up to are cut off so easily. On the other hand, is there anything I can do to get people to interact with my page more, so they continue to get my posts?

Rules to Follow

I have started to adopt some rules that I think will work for me.

Don't Annoy People - Do not do anything that would annoy me if someone did it to me.

Don't Look for Followers, Look for A Follower - Build up your followers one at a time. It is the quality of follower that you need to focus on, not the quantity.

Don't Lash Out at Criticism - A nasty response can drive people away. A more constructive response can draw people in. This has been a challenge for me.

I am sure that there are many more that will help me, and fit in with my approach to life.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

My Goals for 2014

A couple of weeks ago I looked back at what I did in 2013. In this post, I will talk about what I want to get done in 2014. Some projects never seem to end. I would like to hear what projects you think I should focus on.

Felix

My first priority this year will be to rewrite Felix, my Lovecraft inspired science fiction story. I finished a first draft of Felix early in 2013. Since then, I focussed on The Barrier. Even so, I thought about Felix from time to time.

I've come up with some ideas about how to develop it further. Some sections I think I will just toss out and rewrite from scratch. The dialogue needs work. One thought I had was to use Xtranormal/State to work with the dialogue. I found that it was a big help when I wrote The Barrier.

The Barrier

I had some vague idea that I might remake The Barrier as a live action movie sometime in the future. I wanted to leave it as it is for a while and cogitate on the feedback I would get.

I haven't had a lot of feedback so far, and it is hard to fully absorb the feedback I did get quickly. Nonetheless, I am left with the sense that the movie has potential, although maybe not enough to justify the cost of a full-blown movie.

The feedback I had from transportation planners was positive, but mixed results from other people. It may be that my market may be limited to transportation planners. I want to get some more feedback from people outside the transportation field.

Right now my thought is to make some major changes to the animated version of the movie, and make that the final version. There is an issue with the legal status of Xtranormal, so I would need to redo the whole movie with a different system if I did major changes. Maybe I can do some improvements with less drastic changes

Some of the ideas I had:

• redo the character voices with real actors,
• add music to the sound track (although I have no idea what might work), and
• change the order of the scenes

I am inclined to do some experiments with real voices and different types of music.

Replace Xtranormal

I found Xtranormal to be a useful tool, and I am disappointed that it is no longer available. I want to find something to replace it. There are several options I want to look into: http://plotagon.com, http://www.moviestorm.co.uk/, http://stateplus2.hackernewbies.com/, and http://www.reallusion.com/products.aspx. I might be able to find some other ones to look at too.

My Most Difficult Case

This has become a permanent feature of my to-do list. I would like to get this project behind me. I'm not even sure just what I still have left to do. I hope I can keep it to some minor fix-ups.

Bright Freedom

I have a first draft of this story, but it has been a year and a half since I last worked on it. From time to time I have ideas to add to this story. I converted it from a movie script to a novelette. Now, after my experience with The Barrier, I wonder if I should make it into a movie again. Like with Felix, I think I could use something like Xtranormal to help me rewrite the dialogue.

Before I take it too much further, I really should get some one to read it and get a better sense of how people react to it. I need to do more research to ensure that it comes across as realistic. With the other projects I have in mind, I don't expect that I will get far with Bright Freedom this year.

Creative Experiments

I think I need to put aside some time to experiment with writing and movie making ideas. I didn't do much of that in 2013 because I was so focussed on The Barrier.

I did a little experiment last week. I just finished reading Will Murray's Writing in Bronze about Doc Savage. It inspired me to come up with my own Doc Savage story.

I tried to write a Doc Savage story once before; back between high school and university. I think I only got a couple of pages done before I gave up. I did use the book title later: The Smiling Corpse. I think I still have it sitting in a box in my basement.

I got about two pages done on this new idea, which I call The 89th Key. Unlike the last time, I did work on an outline. I think that my failure last time was because I didn't develop and outline.

There are some Doc Savage fan fiction sites, so I could find people to read it when it is done. I'm not sure I want to do any more work on the story now. Maybe later I will get re-inspired. I read a lot of Doc Savage in High School, but I haven't read much lately, so I am not as familiar with the style now.

I think trying little projects like this will help me be more creative in my major projects.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog