Zen Ken

Wow

Jeff Bridges young digital self is a little off, but the rest of this video is awesome.

 

Gearing up for NaNoWriMo and What I'm reading

Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow is a slog.  I don't know who can read that for enjoyment.  I'm over halfway through it, but I need something more inspiring for NaNoWriMo.  So I'm reading this:

 

It's pretty riveting, not because it's Star Wars, but because it's based on material and interview written just AFTER Star Wars became a hit (late 70's).  The ideas, concepts, progress and efforts were all fresh in everyone's minds.  It's coffee table sized, but dense with information.  It also describes each iteration of the script from the beginning, and it changed A LOT.  Ben Kenobi as a character only showed up in the fourth draft.  It's pretty inspiring to read just on the creative process and effort alone.  Since Lucas was writing something completely new, he was free to throw away ideas and rearrange parts and roles until he got something that because a solid story.

I think perhaps that might be the failing of the prequels.  So much had been made after (the 3 movies, countless comics and novels) that the story was probably set in stone with not a lot of wiggle room.

Writing a story is a lot like that.  You write something and you feel that you have to keep it because you wrote it.  But don't be afraid to throw garbage out and keep only what's important to the story.

NaNoWriMo is approaching fast.  I'm considering setting a higher goal for myself than the typical 50,000 word limit.  75,000 or 100,000 seems pretty lofty.  What do you think?  Should I do it?  :)

As my mentor used to say 'Limits ARE goals.'  Don't be afraid to take things to the limit.

Oh, and I'm reading this via audiobooks:

Also interesting.