Hello, hello!
Well, we’re nearly at the end of 2023 and heading into the holiday season. So, this is the last blog for the year!
I took a bit of time tossing up what to write about for this one. I considered another thought piece. I considered something more introspective. But ultimately, I settled on something reflective.
I went through a lot of change this year – moving states, new house, new day job, new everything. Life feels completely different now than it did when the year started. And that also extends to my writing! I made some major changes to my writing goals as I gained clarity over what I want to get out of it.
This feels like a good time to look back on what I achieved throughout the year and dwell on those major changes. Now I do I admit this will be helpful to me personally, but I also hope my followers and fellow writers find something to relate to. If you do find something, I’d love to hear more in the comments!
The Blog This Year
This year I hit the brakes a bit on my blog, scaling back from posting monthly to posting every second month. Life outside my creative space has been busy this year, and it seemed like a logical decision to scale back to focus more on my writing.
At the start of the year, I consolidated my YouTube history into my blog. Doing this gave me a chance to reflect on all the video projects I’d worked on before committing fully to writing and all the lessons I learned about screenwriting from working on real projects.
I talked about two new inspirations this year – Star Wars and Doctor Who. It was great to reflect on these series as I haven’t paid much attention to them in recent years. I was most inspired by these series during the mid to late 2000s, so it felt quite nostalgic to go back and revisit them.
I also wrote up some though-pieces surrounding sequels and adaptations – discussing what these concepts mean to the world and industry, what they mean to me and how I think about them in regards to my writing.
Nash II
I started this year with a solid plan to write a screenplay sequel to my Nash screenplay. I already had a head start by completing the Info Book at the end of 2022 so I was ahead of my game and ready to dive in.
Following my strategy for completing a single screenplay within a year, I was on track and had all the planning completed in May. I was ready to start writing the screenplay. This was about the time of year the big move interstate happened and my writing was pushed to the back burner as I worked through all that hecticness.
Once the move was done and everything had settled, I had an epiphany. One that changed everything…
The Novel Pivot
Screenwriting was really just a hobby. I never believed I would have that impossible moment when someone would read my screenplay and want to make my movie. I just enjoy storytelling and love the screenplay format as I’m a big fan of visual storytelling mediums.
This year I was starting to realise, with input from others, that I was struggling to contain my stories in a screenplay format – which has stricter rules on formatting and page numbers. My ideas were too big and complex, and I didn’t like the idea of butchering them too much.
I won’t bore you with my thinking process. (Though I will tell you I watched a series called Silo, which I LOVED, leading me to realise many great movies/TV series stem from novels in some way.) Basically, one thing led to another and I decided that what I valued more was telling the story I wanted to tell properly, in a way that almost anyone could consume it. A novel was without a doubt the best way to achieve that.
I’ve spent the second half of this year learning all I can about the novel structure and diving in to retell Nash I in novel format. I’ve done the planning now and am partway through the infamous first draft. It’s been a wildly different experience, and I’ve definitely found writing a novel a much larger task to manage. But I love the freedom of the blank page and all the power I have to tell my story the way I want to.
While I knew getting my screenplays made was basically impossible, I do believe my novel has a higher chance of being seen by even just a small audience. I know it’s still close to impossible, but the chance is higher. A novel is also a more digestible and widely accepted form for people to read. No, I don’t think I’m going to be the next Stephen King, but I would like to take the novel a bit more seriously and genuinely consider finding an audience for it.
Plans for Next Year
So that’s where I’ve been this year. But what of 2024? What’s next?
In terms of blogs, I’m going to stick with this pacing for now. I’ve planned to write three more inspiration posts (which should round those out) and two thought pieces. I think I’ll stick with the end-of-year wrap-up for the sixth blog.
I’d like to take some time to try to build a timeline for my writing process. I don’t like to restrict myself with extreme deadlines, but some guardrails help me focus and motivate me through the process. While a screenplay was probably more easily divided up into blocks of time, I don’t think a novel will be as it is a huge slog – one that requires more creative motivation.
I need to put more effort into balancing life and writing. Sometimes I let life become too dominant and I use it as an excuse to avoid writing (really, I’m procrastinating). That said, I don’t want to spend so much time writing that I begin to neglect life either. It’s all about balance, and it’s something I haven’t mastered yet. Though seriously, I need to stop procrastinating.
Lastly, as a side goal, I’m not fully done with screenwriting. There’s still Highton Heroes. I haven’t decided if I want to keep this one in screenplay format or pivot to turning it into a novel series as well. I do want to take a leap of faith and try my luck with the pilot episode in some festivals (you never know). Ultimately, I still have a lot of questions to answer about this series. I’m not getting any younger and I want to get these stories down on paper in some way!
Well, that wraps up my blog and 2023.
Thank you so much to my small number of readers out there! Even though this blog takes out some of my writing time, I find a valuable place to share my work and reflect on the craft.
As always, please share any thoughts or questions below in the comments!
Enjoy your holidays and happy new year!
Til next year,
Dean
Space & Lasers 