“The Quest of the Valuable Fugitive” Posted

I’ve posted a recording of my most recent writing exercise “The Quest of the Valuable Fugitive” on SoundCloud and on my website.

I wrote the story based on the randomly selected title in 30 minutes.

Description: George Potter lives in fear. He goes on a short quest to seek his release.

·         https://soundcloud.com/dynamiclethargy/the-quest-of-the-valuable-fugitive

·         https://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/audio/

Random Title Generator

I’ve noticed that the random title generator I created (https://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/random-title-generator) has been getting more views these days. The random title generator for things (https://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/random-title-generator/random-title-generator-for-things/) is also getting more views.

YouTube Channel

Over the last few months I’ve had an increase in the number of subscriptions on my YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@DynamicLethargyFilms/videos). I’m only 99,832 more to reach 100,000 subscribers!

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

The Dread of the Daring Rocketeer

I finished recording my writing exercise based on the title "The Dread of the Daring Rocketeer". I’ve posted it on SoundCloud.

Circumstances force a rocket scientist to take a risky chance. He hopes he won't regret it. https://soundcloud.com/dynamiclethargy/the-dread-of-the-daring-rocketeer

I was a bit stumped by the title, but once I started to write, the story just seemed to flow out of me.

I think the story would work well as a short video. I just need to create a video image of a rocket. I’m not sure when I can get to it. I have a couple of unfinished videos almost ready to go. I should get those done first.

 We generated the title randomly on the page: https://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/random-title-generator/

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

A Futuristic Tale of a Brave Man in a Dangerous World

A while back, I posted a new short story, "Pete's Plan" on my website, then I forgot to tell anyone.

http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/stories/petes-plan/

"Pete's Plan" is a short science fiction story set in a future where mind uploading is a reality. (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_uploading) It is not the Utopia that many had expected and Pete has a plan to change that.

Have a look at it and tell me what you think.

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

What Would A Revolution in the Future Be Like?

I posted a new short story about a revolution in a future society. 

"Pete's Plan" is the story of a man who wants a better life for his children. In the world he lives in there isn't much of a future for them. But, one day, Pete realizes that he has a unique opportunity to change that.

Read it here: http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/stories/petes-plan/

The Story Behind the Story

I wrote this story a couple years ago. In part it was inspired by an article that I wrote some time earlier: "What Would A World With 90 Per Cent Unemployment Be Like?" http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/articles/what-would-a-world-with-90-per-cent-unemployment-be-like/

The story ended up to be almost exactly 1,000 words long. I felt good about it and submitted it to a science fiction magazine. They rejected it, so I tried a few others, but no one bought it. The main criticism was that it read more like a proposal for a story than a story.

I was reluctant to rewrite the story, because as it stood, it reflected almost exactly what I wanted to say. I put the story away with the idea that maybe down the road I might come up with a different approach. The one possibility was that it could be rewritten in first person. I think it would lose something.

Finally, I decided that I should go ahead and post it. I hope you find it worth the read.

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

“Pete’s Plan”, “The Barrier”, and Various Distractions

I was disappointed to get another rejection of my short story “Pete’s Plan” this week. “The Barrier” is almost one-third done now. My various distractions may delay progress.

“Pete’s Plan”

I got another rejection for my science fiction short story “Pete’s Plan”. It took them 3 months to respond and, by the time I got the reply, I’d forgotten to whom I submitted the story. It was a disappointment and part of me wants to give up and post it on my website like my other stories. I still have a long list of places I can submit to though.

“The Barrier”

I got seven more scenes done on “The Barrier” this week. Most of them were quite short, so they only added about 9 minutes. In total, I have 27 minutes done.

I feel confident that the final film will be feature length when I’m done. I took a short break from creating scenes to plan the whole film a little better, so I know where I’m headed. I’ve done 17 scenes now and in all I have 58 scenes planned. My average scene so far is 1:35 and if I keep that average, the final film will be a little over 90 minutes.

When I edit them together, I’m sure to lose some time. Some of scenes are quite bare bones, so if I develop those further, then I should make up for the lost time.

My plan is to get all the scenes done and edited together. After I’ve had a look at how it works, I plan to do some clean up work and revisions. When I’m done that I’d like to release it as Version 0.9 and ask for feedback.

I find the story interesting, but I can’t be sure if anyone else will be willing to watch it all the way through. For a film to be successful, people would enjoy it enough to recommend it to others. Maybe that is too high a goal for now.

I picked up a few more tricks in Xtranormal. I’ve started to experiment with the smart camera feature. In several of my scenes, I have the characters move around the set. That makes it very difficult to set up camera angles because you have to watch the movie to see if you got it right. I think the smart camera may make that easier.

I may try the smart cameras on a couple of scenes I did already. After I watched them, I felt that I wanted to use different sets. I hesitated because redoing all the camera set-ups was such a pain. If this works, it may not be so bad.

Various Distractions

I would like to put more time into “The Barrier” to get it done, but it isn’t the only thing in my life these days.

Spring is finally here. With that comes allergy season. That tends to slow me down. I’m in itchy sneezy mode these days. With spring comes yard work and garden work. I do enjoy the yard and garden, but it does take up my time.

I just watched a video where the speaker says that you need to take time away from your thinking in order for you to keep you mind clear and focused  (http://fora.tv/2013/02/24/Maria_Konnikova_How_to_Think_Like_Sherlock_Holmes) So maybe it is good to have distractions.

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

Science Fiction Story Update 2012 August 5

I hadn’t planned to work on my science fiction story until later, but the ideas just poured out of my head this week. The story has a (tentative) title now: Heat Wave. I’m taking a slightly different approach to how I write this time. We’ll see how that goes.

Through out the week, I wrote my ideas, along with some dialog and description to use in the story in to my notebook. Later in the week, I started to work on the story itself. I decided that I should write the story in first person.

Most of my stories have been in third person because movie scripts are in third person. It wasn’t until this week that I realized that all scripts are in third person. I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard anyone point that out. Even when you use a voice over to have a character describe how they feel and what they think, the script itself is still in third person.

About a month ago, I did an outline, but my concept of the story changed since then. I did a new outline. I gave the characters names and then I started to write parts of the story.

Normally I work from a general outline and write each scene in proper order. This time I decided I wouldn’t write them in any particular order. The main reason is that I have some very clear ideas about some scenes, including the final scene. For the other scenes I had only a vague idea what I wanted to do. As I finish scenes I expect to think about the other scenes, and that way build up into a complete story. So far, that approach seems to work.

I transferred what I’d written in my notebook with a voice recognition program. I think that sped up the process. I think the words flow easier when I speak them aloud. The voice recognition isn’t 100 per cent accurate, but I think I caught most of the problems. I got about 1,400 words of the first draft done so far.

I used Celtx for my story. It has some useful features. The “index cards” make it easier to move blocks of text around. Celtx was originally for movie scripts, but it does have a novel option. I used it on Bright Freedom and it was a big help there.

As I’ve thought about the story, I’ve started to realize that there are some parallels between the story and some of my personal experiences. I’ve altered the story a bit to take advantage of that. Recently I’ve read several books about H.P. Lovecraft. Despite his stories being weird fantasies, they point out where he has incorporated his personal experiences into his stories. Most authors do that to some extent, but it helped me see that I could use my experiences in this story.

The books I read were.

H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World Against Life by Michel Houellebecq,

Lovecraft: A Biography by Lyon Sprague De Campe, and

Lovecraft: A look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos by Lin Carter

I don’t plan to push ahead on this story. When I get ideas, I will follow them up. I had some more over the last few days, so I’ll likely do some more work on it this week.

Pierre Berton suggests that you read a good story before you write. I wasn’t sure what would be appropriate for my story. Yesterday I decided that I would read Earthlight by Arthur C. Clarke. I read the book back in high school, so my memory of it is a bit fuzzy, but I think it would be a good influence on my writing. In particular, the narrator is similar to how I see mine.

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

New Short Story – “The Crying Woman”

I invite you to read my new short story The Crying Woman.

http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/The_Crying_Woman.php

A woman whose life has just been turned upside down tries to run away from her problems. When she has a chance meeting with a man on an elevator, she is drawn into a conversation by the empathy he shows toward her.

I wanted to do a story that was very different from the stories I wrote before. It was a difficult story for me to write.

I want to eventually develop this story into a movie. I would like to hear if you think this would make a movie that you would like to see.

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