jake – Page 57 – The Jake of All Trades

On Fan Fiction, and an Announcment

Fan fiction has a strange place in the realm of ‘real writing’. To say that it isn’t real is like claiming remixing isn’t music or that what I do on at a club is called ‘dancing’. It is reader fantasy. It is the big “what if?” that we take after we have seen a movie or read a book that didn’t give all the answers we wanted.

I spent a good portion of time doing fan fiction of sorts. I was a part of the ‘hunter list’, which was an email list for White Wolf’s Hunter: the Reckoning. We posted stories about what our characters were doing, interacted through email and wrote. We wrote. At one point i was posted 1500 to 3000 words a day on this list.

And in that time I learned a lot about myself, about writing. I learned that I love an audience. I found the restrictions (and there were restrictions, this is a roll playing game with RULES after all) to almost be freeing. How do vampires work? Are there ghosts? Can my character survive a conflict with a werewolf? These things were answered. My job was to write the story inside of this box.

Admittedly this is different from the type of fan fiction where you deal both in the world and the characters that are there. I feel i’d have to turn in my geek card if I didn’t have an idea for a Star Wars novel, or a Star Trek serial. Now we are talking about not just the setting, but also the characters that belong to someone, or some-corporation. As a writer, how do you work under the confines of Han Solo, or Mickey Mouse, or Harry Potter? How do you work where there is already a canon, and you are, well, just dreaming?

Does it matter?

Fan fiction is beat up on as immature, or unprofessional, or what not. Is it? Sure, why not. Just as we draw things we see, or just as we sing songs during karaoke, we are still practicing art, even if it is with the greater help of someone else. It is a stepping stone, sometimes one that people stay on, but a step none-the-less. How many writers started out by saying “I wonder what happened afterwards…” and even if we didn’t write it down, those thoughts shaped into plots and characters, turning into afternoons with legos and transformers, or friends with swords and jungle gyms.

I found myself back in fan fiction recently. I started having dreams, vivid dreams that I would write down each morning of fantastic adventures across time. I was bemused at first, curious as time went on, and then it happened. I got the fever, the urge, and my figures found a keyboard and I started to write. Still the dreams came and still they fueled me.

Doctor Who is something I came to much later in my geekedness than I should admit to. Sure I’d heard of this dude with a long scarf, but it wasn’t until a few years ago I’d seen even one episode. SInce then I have consumed and consumed, wearing out my Netflix streaming with Tom Baker, Christopher Eccleston, and David Tennant.

Now I have these dreams, now I have these words, what should I do with them? I am not going to stop writing them. I had been in a lull, in a bind, this awkward place where the words just weren’t coming. Sure you force yourself, but those are the ones that get left behind I find. These words, these tales of a Doctor that showed up in my dreams were not forced. They just start as I place my hands on the keyboard.

So I am going to post them, episodically, of course, here. Not for fame or glory, but to share an adventure with some friends. I hope they are as much fun to read as they were to write.

A Month in the Life, January

Here is my first monthly update on the 365 project.

First off, I survived. Which is always a good way to start. There were nights where I was fully prepared to fall into the deep sleep, and realized I had not yet posted something. There were other days where I posted several things before noon. But I did make each day of January (well, minus the first few where I had not yet decided to start, but I made up for them throughout the month)

There was a bit of a range, tweets, photos, drawings. I wrote in my journal; I posted on my blog; I played violin; I danced.

So what did we get? A pink elephant seems to take the prize of the month. I purchased SketchBook Pro for the Macintosh, as well as Sketchbook Mobile for my phone and have enjoyed doodling. Who knows, by the end of the year I may be good at drawing. As of now, I am still at the “display on my mother’s fridge” level.

Oh, and the train is on my mother’s fridge.

I have worked on poems too, but I find them still hidden away. There will be another post about this once I collect all of my thoughts. Also on some stories, but that is part of something you’ll seen soon enough. Rules for a Godzilla Movie was one of my favorite posts in a while. Somedays, however, it was a struggle to find even those 140 characters to post.

I suspect that at some point this project has a danger of slipping from ‘art project’ to ‘work’ and I will fight that. This is about habit, not repetition. This is about behavior and passion, not ‘forcing’ or ‘bribing’. I do this because I love it.

Ok, February, let’s see what you have.

As always, follow the 365 project here : https://jacobhaddon.com/blog/art365/

Rules to Making a Godzilla Movie

Legendary pictures has picked up Godzilla and will be doing a new American version. This will be the first time the big guy has been on the screen since Final Wars from 2004. Final Wars is fantastic, by the way, you should watch it. Like now.

When making a Godzilla movie there are certain rules that must be followed, or you’ll get that big fish eating lizard movie with Matthew Broderick. I write this list for Legendary Pictures to keep nearby as they make this new movie.

The movie is about Godzilla. The people are setting or back up characters at the best. They are to be one dimensional and expendable. A love story is inappropriate for Godzilla movies. When composing a scene without a huge lizard in it, one should ask “Is this really important?” The answer is usually: no.

Speaking of humans, in no manner, shape or form can the humans kill Godzilla. Most of the efforts of the humans will simply bounce off of Godzilla. At best, the humans will only succeed in pissing him off more.

The other monster is the bad guy. Always. Yes, even Mothra (unless she is there to help Godzilla, see Final Wars). The other monster shows up and does its part, but in the end, Godzilla kicks its ass back to space/mountain/corporate America, where ever it came from.

Side note: if you have Mothra, you have to have those two tiny asian women who sing. Don’t argue, just do it.

In the end, Godzilla returns to the ocean. This is the best case scenario for all involved. He will return only after two things has happened: he has done a full and complete beat down on whatever other monster has encroached on his territory; he has destroyed some stuff as payment.

Godzilla does not need an origin story. He is, and that is all that is important. In fact your origin story sucks, I guarantee it. So just leave it out. Make it a prequel comic book if you must.

All of the following are perfectly acceptable without explaination: aliens; airplanes that defy physics; waiters that are smarter than scientists; politicians with secrets; top secret robots; psychics; a bad ass dude who stares down Godzilla and smokes a cigarette but then gets stomped. Godzilla can use his tail like a baseball bat, and his enemies like baseballs. Godzilla’s breath weapon will fuck up just about anything, but it is acceptable for him to miss.

As I’ve stated before, 90% of Godzilla’s roars can be translated to “Bitches!” This will be useful when making the sound effects.

Godzilla is not to be taken seriously. This is not a ‘realistic’ movie. You are not going for ‘dark and gritty’. Nor, however, are you going for ‘campy’. I suggest “Godzilla 2000” for a good example of how a good Godzilla movie should be. I would add that “dark and realistic” were done in “Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah” and it is a good example on how not to make a Godzilla movie. We want big monsters fighting and see large portions of cityscape destroyed (after there has been an evacuation, that is).

I would argue that Godzilla is a dude in a rubber suit, not CGI… but I suspect that argument would fall on deaf ears. Follow the other rules and we’ll work with the CGI.

Yes, some of these rules have been broken in the ToHo movies. But like afore mentioned “Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah”, it still resulted in a bad movie. In the case of “Godzilla versus Destroyah” it was done by someone who is much more experienced at making Godzilla movies. (another good one too)

Take these words to heart and you’ll come out with something worthy of the name Godzilla.