Month: May 2019

As my current project nears completion, I’ve been thinking about what to do next. I have notes for the next few novels in the series, and one of them would be a good candidate. However, the part of my brain responsible for such things says I’m going to write a screenplay. What do I know about writing a screenplay?

Sure, years ago I read up on screenwriting. I wrote a few (fake) commercials just to see what it was like. That doesn’t mean that I’m going to do a really good job on a screenplay for a movie. Unfortunately, that’s the story my brain says I’m going to write.

It seems as though Hollywood likes bringing back old (intellectual) properties and rebooting or extending them. Sometimes this has worked (I really enjoyed The Predator) and sometimes it has not (Tom Cruise’s The Mummy starring Tom Cruise). My brain tells me a story that extends a television show I enjoyed in my youth. I must write it. Can I do simple fan-fiction and be done with it? No, it has to be a screenplay.

So, I’ll get started on the research to make sure all the incidental facts are correct in the story. I’ll also have to refresh my memory on screenplay formatting and nomenclature. If/when I finish it, I’ll have to seek out an agent to try to sell it to the people who own the characters.

Who knows, maybe this will turn into a profitable outlet for my energies. It may also go nowhere or may get me sued for infringing on some copyrights, trademarks, or other obscure movie thing. Of course, if it does work, I also have an idea to get rid of that Mummy picture, start the mummy series on a new, updated path, and still include Brendan Fraser.

Most of the editing is wrapping up on the second novel. The scenes have been laid out and characters assessed. The last part will be adding weather to the story. “Shouldn’t that already be done?” you ask. Some bits, perhaps, but now the real weather work begins.

It is very easy to get wrapped up in all the details of a setting. When that happens, those details can slow the pace of the scene. On the other hand, a scene can fly by so quickly that the reader has no idea what is going on with the setting. Weather is one of those things that can get in the way or can help.

On the first draft, weather was only mentioned if it had a direct impact on the action. In those cases, the story would not make sense without explaining the effect of the weather. You don’t want to forget about that while planning to add it later. What about the rest of the weather?

There is a lot of emotive potential to properly used atmospheric phenomena. We tend to associate sadness with cloudy days or happiness with the sun in spring. Refugees on a long slog down the road are that much more miserable with a downpour. We should take advantage of these things, but we must do so without making it a weather forecast.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I make a list of all my scenes and what happens in them. This helps me check the continuity of my story. The next use for that list is to map out the weather. I’ll make note of any scenes where the weather was already defined. Then, I’ll plot out what the weather should be in order to augment the emotive potential of those scenes.

The pattern to the weather will follow the story arc. There is the initial disruption where stories start, the changes, the character growth, etc. We know those things follow a pattern, within reason. The weather should support that. The story is about the character’s world, and that should be shown in all aspects of that world.

Of course, your story may need something different. For example, you may have a character who is sad about something on a very pleasant day to show that the world goes on despite the character’s plight. Every story and author will use these things differently, but it must be given some thought.

After mapping the weather, I’ll have to apply it to the story. It must be subtle, never disrupting the flow of the writing itself. Noting how a street light reflects off the wet pavement tells you that it has recently finished raining. Characters can be uncomfortable because of the humidity and the sun beating down on them. The same sun, without the humidity shows a pleasant day. These are the sorts of things that use the weather to add depth to the story world but not disrupt the story itself.