A Week in Writing #247 | Distractions and Writing a Synopsis

Okay, I'll be the first to say it, I didn't get to everything I wanted to this past week. Sometimes I think I never will but that's part of the fun, I guess, in writing. There's always something else to be working on.

There were a couple of factors this week. I've been trying to spend some time each week with ComixLaunch's ListLaunch seminars. That got off because last week we had an assignment to try to come up with a personal brand. It was only supposed to take a couple of hours but I never had the time, or want for that matter, to spend this much time on something so I never got to the next seminar. I never really liked homework and perhaps wrongly saw this as a major timesuck when time is at such a premium during the week. I played at it a little bit but I never have that much time to spend on it. I'm probably going to skip this and go on to the next seminar without having completed it.

Time is one of the reasons I don't watch much television during the week. Let me restate that by saying the TV may be on but I'm not really watching. I don't consider reruns of Friends as something I'm watching. They're on, in the background, as a sort of wallpaper. I don't need or want complete silence when I write. Even now I'm listening to a Sirius XM Alt Nation Xtra channel. There are very few shows I really watch and they are usually connected to a meal.

Well, this past week, one of the few shows I actually watch, The Big Bang Theory, went off the air and the final episode was an hour long, which delayed things to the point that a lot of the night was over before I could get started. Not to say die, I did work a little on a synopsis for Broken People, the rewrite I'm trying to query; so far with no effect. I came across one agent who wanted a synopsis, which I didn't have in my back pocket to send. I figured I'm fairly close, however, having written one for A Killer Blog, the predecessor to the current story. So I've spent a couple of nights this past week working on that synopsis. And this is the short one at that. It's going to take some work to get into shape, but I know it's a necessary part of the process.

Sadly, I don't think I got back to The Runaway at all. Nor have I heard back from the editor on Familiar Stranger. It's sort of like he doesn't exist or more like I don't exist in his universe. It's been more than a year since I sent it to him. I guess if you're immortal, time doesn't mean anything to you.  That's the only explanation and even that doesn't make much sense.

I did complete a review for Trophy Unlocked, Heat Lightning (1934). Not sure when it will appear since we're still in the midst of Batman month on the blog. This past Saturday's Morning Review was Batman & Robin, which Paul reviewed.

Powers Squared was a bit more active this week. To begin with, we received 4 penciled pages from Rachel. Paul and I had a couple of suggestions, which she turned around pretty quickly.

We paid for our table, so in two week's time, we'll be at the San Fernando Valley Comic Book Convention looking for additions to the mailing list and to hopefully introduce new readers to Powers Squared.

One thing that goes hand in hand with readers is criticism. Now that people are reading Powers Squared they're making their opinions known, always to our face. I'm not going to identify who said what or what they said but only it is part of the process for every creative. People have opinions which sometimes sting a little, but at the same time, you have to learn to live with. There is no need to get into a tit for tat with people, that's a no-win situation. But I do see why many actors and artists don't read the reviews.

Paul and Trevor's photo from the story in The Roundup.

Speaking of media coverage, which I really wasn't but go with it anyway, Powers Squared got a bit of it this past week. "Dynamic Duo on and off the page" was a feature story written about Paul and Trevor by the Features Editor of Pierce College's The Roundup, the student paper at the community college, the boys attended. You can read it here.

One of the things we've toyed around with is the idea of pitching Powers Squared as an animated TV series, it's even in the article linked to above. Well, to that end, I began the very tentative steps towards putting one of those together. Like doing a comic book, we really don't have any idea what one looks like or how much work it takes, but we're willing to learn. More as that develops.

So that looks to be it for this week. Keep writing.