script frenzy

1/May/2012

On Gender-Neutral Pronouns and Other Neologisms

I just figured something out. Gosh, I like the feeling of figuring things out. Goshdarn.

(This is a shortish post. I’ll be writing the first edition of the accompanying page sometime later this week or next week.)

Background: Most every time I present someone with a story where I use gender-neutral pronouns, they say that might distract from the story at hand. I mean, unless they are already as much for such pronouns as I am. The ones I prefer to use are ze and hir (English; pronounced ‘zee’ and something somewhere between her and here, like you started saying ‘his’ but switched the s to an r at the last second) and hen and henom (Swedish; you don’t need the pronunciation). I’ve seen it happen with friends’ stories too. This bothers me because they’re a pretty natural part of my vocabulary.

Solution: Just use more neologisms. Not quite James Joycing it up, but somewhere in that direction.

Just make it part of the story. I would like for language to be all cool with the use of gender-neutral (personal; third-person) pronouns that aren’t they, but obviously it is not. I could mope at individuals for not being as accepting or down with the feminism or [adjective] as I am, or I could just use more neologisms. I love making up words. This is so not a problem. If they think it still distracts (and hey, it still might) that is still their problem.

I will attempt to make a list of all the new words I will henceforth use in my writing. It will be good. It will have the word ‘pinnaturn’ in it, and it will be alphabetical. [EDIT: the glossary is now live: https://zombiesintelligently.com/glossary/]

Also: I totally won ScriptFrenzy with my super secret unbloggable script. Yay me!

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2/Apr/2012

Script Frenzy: Notes on Pages 2-3

Hmm.

Well. What happens here then? I literally haven’t the faintest clue right now. Okay, now I have the faintest clue: let’s meet their boss. They talk to the boss and the boss says… what? The boss has no point in this story. Away with them!

So what would this pair of oddball policepeople do once they’ve been to the crime scene? Paperwork. Donuts. Conspiracy theories. Interviewing suspects. Consulting the machine of death. Talking to the coroner. Putting up ads in the local newspaper. Talking to psychics.

I want them to consult the machine, but not just yet. Maybe if we switch to other characters?

It is difficult to carry plot through dialogue.

Also, Brook should totally be a workaholic. Wait, no she shouldn’t. BAM, framestory. Or maybe she should, and she’s trying not to be, but that’s not how you set up framestories. Screw it. It’ll become apparent after a few lines of this thing anyway.

And that’s when I lost interest in this script, my dear friends. Not to worry, not to worry: I will simply think of something else. Maybe a comic book script works better for the sort of things I have in mind. This particular script just didn’t have any soul. No main conflict. I figured out a way to make the frame story nice – by having it be a first date, which would end with a kiss for poor Brook, or something – but that just turned ridiculous. Part of the problem may be a complete lack, on my end, of ability to introduce scenes with only sounds. The friendly note of ‘SOUND: DRIPPING‘ would probably have evoked sewers rather than … the nondescript room I was imagining.

At least I wrote the greatest thing I ever have written:

BROOK:

Give me one of those air fresheners.

(sniffs it deeply)

Do you always carry these things around?

VINCENTE:

I don’t believe in deodorant. Usually it’s just one, but you know. Special circumstances.

Oh yeah.

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1/Apr/2012

Notes on the First Page of My Script

I thought I’d post the notes I’m making to myself as I’m writing this thing. Perhaps someone will find it entertaining. Well. That’s enough ado.

Needs more cowbell. Also more hinting at what the devil will happen later in the thing. Currently only one ‘hook’, which is far too little to be reliable. Can’t tenter anyone with that shit.

Well okay. What can the hook be? What the fuck actually happened there? The way it is in my head right now is someone stored up lots of blood in a freezer until it was time to set the Plan in motion. But if the blood was refrigerated, then the smell thing is not right, because the stench would be there before the blood had all thawed. Wunderbaums, wunderbaums everywhere.

Okay, so, disregarding the idea of air fresheners, perhaps most of the blood is actually still frozen; they just didn’t notice. Which begs the question how did they not see the blood floes?, and begging the question is a fallacy. So, no.

Well, this is problematic. I have no idea what actually happened. I like the idea of someone faking this so they can escape something. But no, this is all wrong. I seem to have set up something impossible. Crud. What do I do now?

[ten minute pause to think]

Okay, I fixed it. Wunderbaumen it is. “I don’t believe in deodorant,” says Vincent.

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31/Mar/2012

As of right exactly this now, there are 15 minutes to go until Script Frenzy starts. If you don’t know what that is, follow the link down at the bottom of the page, educate yourself.

I will be writing a Machine of Death audioplay. (Again, if you don’t know what that is, there is a link.)

I will also be trying to update the blog during the time. And I will continue to write drabbles. I will busy myself; I will do this. I might post the script on the blog. That sounds like an okay thing to do, as I won’t be doing anything else with it.

Now there are ten minutes to go. I wrote 15, but ten. I think the rule is to write them with letters up until 13, where you switch over to writing with numbers. This makes it consistent, not with itself but with a rule. Conisistency is important. There are now seven minutes left.

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http://scriptfrenzy.org/

http://machineofdeath.net/

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