Writing Wednesday: Doing things for others

Hey Guys,

This is the part of the week where I update you on the work I have been creating for the week and what stage everything is up to.

It will also include the area that I have been focusing on the most and how helpful it has been to me.

This week I’m not going to update you on my own writing. Instead I’m going to focus on somebody else’s.

This week one of my dear friends announced that he would be releasing his book very soon and released what genre the book was.

So I thought that it would be nice, and kind of me to help him along, as I am rather excited for his book release.

My friends name is Joseph Eastwood and the book he will be releasing is called Lumen. An exact date has not been noted but he says that it will be coming out very soon.

So how has Joe explained Lumen and is it the book for you?

This is Joe’s first book that he will be releasing, so as he says, in his words, it is like his baby. He wants to make sure that it is perfect before airing it to the world.

Here is a little image he made to help describe the book.

If you want to know more about Joseph Eastwood then follow this link to his blog: http://www.josepheastwood.com

If you want to know more about Lumen then follow this link: http://www.josepheastwood.com/2012/08/is-lumen-for-you-updates.html

If you have any handy writing tips, then leave a comment below and let me know.

Stay safe,

Matt

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Welcome Wednesday: Tim Popple: Moon, Monsters, and Money

Hey Guys,

Wednesday is the day I introduce a guest onto my blog and let them write me a post. They will be posting something about their area of knowledge and each week I will try and have a different area.

Sometimes I may post a response to what the guest has written.

The major theme running through this week seems to be Sci-Fi, and why break the running theme? This week we have Guest Star, Tim Popple who will be discussing the thrills of British and Low Budget Science Fiction. Make him welcome:

Tim lives and works in Bristol, and spends his spare time living and breathing cinema. He runs http://the24thframe.co.uk/, a website dedicated to film reviews and features (one current feature involves looking one Star Trek film a month, until the new film is released next year!). The site has a Facebook page, www.facebook.com/the24thframe, and you can follow Tim on Twitter @VoxPopple.

Low budget SciFi has often been something of a contradiction. Take an idea that seems like it ought to need a big budget, and craft something unique and wonderful with a tiny budget. Use that budget’s limitations to focus your creativity. From films like Silent Running – directed by 2001: A Space Odyssey’s effects guy, Douglas Trumbull – through James Cameron’s classic The Terminator, and on past oddities like Shane Carruth’s Primer (an altogether different take on time travel to the Schwarzenegger film) across different countries like Spain’s Timecrimes, and South Africa’s District 9, and on to recent times with the one-two Brit SciFi punch of Duncan Jones’s Moon and Gareth Edwards’s Monsters, and the US’s grunts’-eye view of an invasion with the underrated Battle: Los Angeles.

With Nir Paniry’s film Extracted getting good press at festivals, I wanted to look at these most recent British SciFi low budget films which are not only sterling examples of low budget SciFi done well, but are actually two of the best films of recent years. Indeed Moon topped my list of films of 2009. Sam Rockwell is the sole occupant of a base on the moon, mining precious fuel discovered there to help an ailing planet below. Coming to the end of his “shift”, slowly he realises things are not entirely as he thought. With nods to 2001: A Space Odyssey in the Kevin Spacey-voiced ship’s computer, as well as the solitary life of Silent Running, it has fine SciFi as its touchstones. Yet even without that historical layer, Moon still works as an astonishing piece of SciFi. It takes a futuristic setting – a realistic futuristic setting, no less – and posits the age old question of what it means to be human, how human is human? The struggled relationship between man and machine is brought to bear most succinctly, and man’ resilience, his fight for survival, is made frightfully real. Tonally, Moon has heart, pathos, and in a lovely touch to the wake up call, humour. It is, quite simply, one of the greatest debut films since an upstart 20 something decided to make a little film mocking the most powerful newspaper magnate in America, with snowglobes, pleasure palaces, and a mystery called ‘Rosebud’.

Gareth Edwards’ Monsters is a kind of road movie. It takes the familiar set up of an alien invasion, and fast forwards to the end of that film. The aliens have arrived, we’ve become accustomed to them, and they live in a specific area. So far, so District 9. But while District 9 was a thinly-veiled nod to apartheid within South African history, Monsters looks at a more specifically American concern: border control. Trapped with no option but to travel through the area infected with the mysterious aliens, a photographer and his boss’s daughter struggle with each other as much as they do with their environment. It’s a SciFi road movie buddy movie, if you will. People turning up expecting Independence Day 2 were always going to be disappointed. Of course you see the aliens here – to not do so would have been a huge cheat on the audience, micro-budget or not – but it’s about the situation, the interactions, and the relationships. And surviving a potentially hostile environment. Monsters is a brilliantly realised vision that, like Moon paints a painfully realistic future. That is its strength. By framing the unbelievable within a believable structure, it improves the suspension of disbelief.

Throwing money at a film can often do it a disservice. Necessity begets invention, and it is necessary with a smaller budget to be inventive in one’s portrayal of the fantastical in a way that remains believable. Monsters, by its overt necessity to visualise creatures of another world had a harder job than Moon which required a Moon base, and shots in space. Both achieve, both excel, and both show how much is possible, even on the tiniest of budgets.

If you have any comments or views on what has been discussed then please place them below. If you would like to appear on my Welcome Wednesday blog then let me know.

Stay safe,

Matt

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Writing Update Wednesday: You've Got to Read to Write

Hey Guys,

So you’re wondering how my writing is going? You wanna know what I’m getting up to on my stories or what’s going to happen next? Well let me update you on everything so far.

Sometimes when writing a new book, or new chapter, etc. you need to do a little bit of research and this week has been no different to me. I have completed 5 chapters of my Mysery book, almost finished the sixth, and have started rough work on my next book, Bitter Shandy.

Bitter Shandy is a story about a girl, Shandy, who is rescued from a life of drink and drugs. She is given a chance to live her dream of being an actress, but the stress of acting and her new boyfriend, Malik, get too much for her. To add to this Malik confronts her when he suspects her of cheating. Can she handle all this new stress, or will she go spiriling down into worse situations?

This story is not like any other one I want to write, and it will be very hard for me, as it is in a non-linear form. It is not just about the two main characters, or even just about Shandy. All the characters are key parts to what happens to Shandy in the end.

To work in this style I have had to read through countless books and online blogs to see what I can muster from them to help me in this new style. Some are more helpful than others.

Also, whilst researching, I have decided to read Belle De Jour - The Intimate Adventures Of A London Call Girl as I thought it may help make my character more rounded and structured. Well seeing as I have kind of fallen in love with Belle I’m guessing the book will probably help me along the ways.

So my point today is that sometimes you don’t need to write as much in one week, because maybe that week you need to do more reading and research so that your characters, and story are more believable and creative.

Stay safe,

Matt

Welcome Wednesday: Tonya Polk: Movies Vs. Books

Hey Guys,

Welcome to Wednesdays. Every Wednesday I will introduce a new person who has a simular interest to myself who I think that both myself and you guys can learn from, understand and take things from. Each week I will post a short intro to the person, what they have to say and their important links. Maybe even do a response once or twice.

This weeks guest post is my American friend, Tonya Polk:

Tonya is a fourty one year old housewife and mum, who ‘refuses to ever grow up’. She lives in Bangor, Maine, USA. She is very proud that ‘It’s also hometown of famous author Stephen King’. She considers herself to be ‘an unofficial expert’ on such things as movies and books, which is what her guest blog is about. Hope you enjoy what she has to say:

Movie vs Book. 

Hey Guys,

This is something I never gave any thought to as a teenager or young adult.  I remember sitting in a packed movie theater anxiously waiting to see my favorite Stephen King novel brought to life in front of my eyes.  

Having read just about every book he ever published, I didn't care that the movie didn't exactly follow the book~ who would care when your hometown author has just filmed an entire movie in OUR hometown?!? 

Many years later, after I re-discovered the joy of reading again (I have to thank Stefanie Meyer for that, and yes, I am a proud Twihard) was when I discovered how a director and screen writer can ruin a great love story, or any story for that matter.

Don't get me wrong, not all screen adaptations are BAD (Harry Potter was spectacular)  but for ME, reading is an escape from reality, like a little personal vacation into a fantasy land.  Using your imagination, getting your own personal vision of what the characters look like, visualizing the scenery, smells, sounds...all are very different and personal to each reader. 

Do the directors and screenwriters actually READ the book (s) ? Or do they just read the back cover and get some input from the author?  Do they understand that readers have a very personal connection with the characters and the storyline? Do they even know HOW WELL we know the book, every detail, every love scene, every detail of every place the characters have been?  Do they even care? Who is to blame? 

As talks are in the works and directors are being talked about,I am very nervous about my beloved "Fifty Shades" being made into a film.  Will the actors be good enough?  Will they pay attention to the LOVE story and not just the "other" stuff in the books?  Will I even WATCH the movie? Or let MY Christian and Ana live in my head?  Seems silly to stress over fictional characters in a book, but if you are like me, and love to read, you will understand exactly what I mean. 

So now, my thinking is, maybe it's better NOT to read the book first, that way all expectations are gone (well, except that the movie is at least GOOD) and you don't find yourself stressing over the screenwriter leaving out your favorite scene or changing dialogue that make you want to get up and walk out?  Or will the screenwriter be so amazing and blow all my expectations away? ( Hunger Games comes to mind on that note). 

So which would YOU choose? Book or Movie?

Stay safe,

Tonya

My Response:

Most, if not all, movies are based on something. Such things as books, stories, poems or even other movies (postmodernism). So this is a good thing to look at.

When basing a film on a book you have got a lot riding on the end result, most of the time there is just too much in the book to possibly fit into the movie. Other times the auther themselves says ‘look I’m not that keen on that part, can we not place it in?’ but this does make the fans of the books unhappy.

As Tonya said, we all have our own imagionations and will read a book differently; we all pick out different immergry that effects us the most. So when we are getting shown how to feel, it is much different.

A good film, based from a book, that does not get much credit is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) Directed by Tim Burton. Whenever I mention this film I get ‘oh it’s not as good as the original’ but how can it not be better, when it follows Rhoald Daul’s creation to the last T, even including the original songs that Daul wrote?

So I do agree with Tonya, when reading a book you have your own vision and imagionation on what is happening and directors should take this into consideration more. They need to make sure that they try and read the book and consult with the Author, or as close as possible.

Let me know what you think? Do you agree with Tonya? Is there any films you can think of that are as good, or maybe better, than the book? Is there any film that ruined the books for you?

Check Tonya out on Twitter:

@Summersunluvr

Stay safe,

Matt

Welcome Wednesday: Guest Blog: Joseph Eastwood:Why Branding is Necessary

Hey Guys,

Welcome to Wednesdays. Every Wednesday I will introduce a new person who has a simular interest to myself who I think that both myself and you guys can learn from, understand and take things from. Each week I will post a short intro to the person, what they have to say and their important links. Maybe even do a response once or twice.

This week my guest is a good friend of mine from university. His name is Joseph Eastwood, he is 19 years old and studies English and Creative Writing at University. He is an aspiring writer who's book, Lumen, is coming out very soon. This is his blog about writing and how 'indie' writers should have a brand and a genre.

Hope you enjoy it:

Why Branding is Necessary

I feel that as an indie author you need to have a brand, you need to have a genre, you need people to remember who you are---being another self-published author is hard.
I'm going to kick this off by telling you that if your Facebook page doesn't have your name in the title, then there isn't much point in having it.
Book pages are useful, but they are also very boring and don't offer as much as author pages do. I find that author pages are more personal, where book pages just have pictures of the book...or random pictures of people they want to fill the characters etc. and yeah, that's fun and everything, and you want people to "like" your book, and unless that's the only book you're ever going to write, I would delete it!
I believe that if you want to be indie you will not become successful over just ONE book! So quit promoting it to hell and back! Instead, I think you should focus on your writing, Amanda Hocking did not become famous for that one book, nor did Stephen King, or anyone else for that matter. They all wrote several books and have a backlog.
Just like an musician must build a repertoire of songs because lets face it, if they listen to the same song over and over again it just gives you earache and you start to hate it. I think the same thing goes for an indie author who keeps on pushing their book everywhere you look and I've actually said to myself..."No, you're not buying that, it's just spam! The author has done nothing to try and sell it to me, just forever posting it and the reviews they've received."
You need to hone your genre and you need to write, write, write! Not everything you write should be published for money, some things you write can be free! You know, like in your notes that people can read because there aren't a lot of people who are going to be taking a chance on an indie author.

For more information on Joe, his writing or any of his blog posts, check out the following links below:


Blog: www.josepheastwood.com

Twitter: @JoeEastwood

Page: www.facebook.com/josephswriting

If any of you fancy writing me a guest post for next Wednesday, could you please get in contact with me. Either on here, or on Facebook/Twitter. Links below:

Page: www.facebook.com/MattThomFilm

Twitter: @No1MattThom

Stay safe,


Matt

Writing Update Wednesday: Mysery and Photoshop, Book Cover

Hey Guys,

So you've been wondering how my writing is going? You want to know what I’m getting up to on my stories or what’s going to happen next? Well, let me update you on everything so far.

This week I have been playing around with Photoshop and been trying to create a few front covers, now I don’t want to be showing them all off at once and give the game away before it’s even started but I want to talk about how it may help your story progress more and maybe even give you a few more Ideas.

Now recently I’ve been paying most of my attention towards Mysery, (A story about a girl who ends up in a large city that she has never been to before; she has no clue how she got there and knows she does not belong. It is a story of adventure and love.) Now even though I know exactly how I want the story to go and what I want to happen to the girl, Mysery, there are still little bits that are still to be discovered as it is a story of discovering and adventure. I’ve been working on it for quite some time so it tends to change shape quite often.

So I have been sat here pondering over what to do with the character and where to take the character and it has been slightly more testing than normal, but I found that playing around on Photoshop and trying to create something that explains how the character feels has helped me dramatically. Not only do I now have two drafts for my front cover but I have two more chapters and two more added ideas to place into the story.

This hasn’t just helped with the one story either. It has helped me with a few others and made me think about trying to write a series of books. Now that I have the cover, which has made me think ‘The character is this kind of person’, I feel like the stories are just going to flow afterwards.

The reason I have two drafts for Mysery is because I made my first draft, and had a perfect idea of how I wanted it to be set out, but unfortunately I was using images off Google to edit and was told about copy-write, and didn’t want to risk it, so decided to start again and try and create the look and style myself, which has been rather testing.

So here for you are my first two drafts of my book covers for Mysery:

This was my original idea, using images. I really liked this idea as she is a girl from 1920 who has somehow ended up in the modern day. I thought this showed that idea perfectly, but unfortunately the only way I could have truly created this with my own images was to go to London myself and, from where I am, it’s rather far and rather expensive just for one photo.

So my second Idea was as follows:

I tried to stick with the original idea of the girl in black with the long grass, whilst having a coloured background, but I wanted the colour to stand out more so decided to have contrasting colours put together.

As I said before I have created other covers for other books, but seeing as some of them have only got a tittle and a basic layout, I’m not as willing to start handing out all the information for them.

These are just first Drafts and I may change them or play around with them a little.

So overall I believe that playing around with Photoshop and editing, Even if it’s just to create a basis or just an idea. You don’t have to be a Photoshop wizard, but I believe that it will help you with your writing and make you think of ideas you never had before.


Stay safe,


Matt