1) The weather will do whatever it wants, whenever it wants to do it.

2) Toilet seats in Oregon are a whole new level of cold.

3) If you’re a man living in Oregon, you must grow a beard. It’s the law.

4) Tarps.

5) Telephone polls do still exist.

Had oodles of fun, but missed out on visiting Astoria, where Goonies was filmed. A bummer, cause Micky love Goonies like Sloth love Chunk.

Learned a ton of info for my project, which–fingers crossed–will be announced in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, stay tuned for other updates!

Until such a magical artifact is invented, however, writers will be forced take a more critical look at their work, and keep in mind the importance of suspension of disbelief. Sometimes, for the writer just to acknowledge to the reader/viewer that they’re aware of a potential wrinkle is enough. In True Lies, when the Harriers get called in to wipe out the terrorists high-tailing it over the causeway, one of the pilots asks if their missiles will detonate the nukes. Arnie says “negative,” then looks at his partner as if to say “at least I hope not.” It was enough for anyone in the audience who was asking the same question to feel that the issue was acknowledge and just enjoy the show.

And then of course there’s always the tongue in cheek style action sequences where we’re really all just along for the ride and we’re not asking too much. Even that line, however, gets crossed too often. It can be tricky knowing how much is too much, and everyone has a different tolerance level, but it’s always worth reflecting on, and sometimes presenting to a test audience to gauge reaction.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m trying to figure out where I left that stupid time pod…

For the love of God, please don’t ever begin a scene this way. Why on Earth is Fred telling Bill what Bill already knows? Because a writer is trying to get across some information to the viewer/reader and he/she’s taking the easy way out. Here’s another one:

Fred and Bill are on a spec ops mission in the South American jungle. Fred says:

“Remind me again why we’re here?”

Fred and Bill have obviously gone to great lengths to get this location and for some inexplicable reason Fred needs to be reminded what the Hell they’re doing there. Even if it’s meant to come across as sarcasm it’s still a clunky, transparent, lazy exposition device; one that rears its ugly head far too often.

If you want your writing to stand out, look for ways to convey necessary information to the reader/viewer that feel organic and true to the situation and the characters. In Jurassic Park there was a fair amount of scientific info regarding the cloning process that needed to be expressed to the audience clearly and succinctly. This was done through a video presentation to the protagonists, and at the same time, the audience. It made sense that folks taking the tour would be curious and it was also logical that a video presentation would be created to facilitate this need. The exposition felt true to the situation, the information was delivered, and the audience was free to sit back and watch a T Rex pluck Martin Ferrero off a toilet and use his femur as a toothpick. Mission accomplished.

Also during that time I started writing fiction, including the Unbroken short story and Ashbringer graphic novel. Something I never really worried about while I was doing all this? Self promotion. I didn’t have to; not only do Blizzard properties have their own built in fan base, but we also have a crack team of marketing folks.

One thing I’ve learned a lot more about in recent years is the more traditional route most writers use to become successful. And something the most successful writers become quite adept at is, you guessed it, self promotion. So I got a Facebook account. I joined Twitter. And now with the assistance of some very talented individuals I have my own website.

Shameless self promotion always felt awkward to me, but the whole endeavor feels much less self-serving if I can provide assistance, inspiration and information to fellow writers. So keep an eye on this blog for tips, tidbits, thoughts, theories… and of course pop culture references and (as this entry no doubt attests) the occasional rambling soliloquy.

Yes, it can be frustrating, and it can make you feel like you’re solving problems that don’t really exist yet, but trust me, you’ll run into those same problems in the project proper, and it’ll cost you a lot more time and effort to course-correct there than it would have if you would have done the outline before setting sail in the first place. So do yourself a favor: invest the time early on, and outline.