Short Story Television

I've only watched one episode, but I'm looking forward to seeing more of Science Channel's re-airing of Steven Hawking's Sci-Fi Masters.  I don't know how many of you watched it when it first aired. Or watched Rod Serling's Twilight Zone or Night Gallery.  The Outer Limits was another one.  These were television shows that featured short stories by the likes of Harlan Ellison and Serling himself.   Twilight Zone in particular featured stories that left you with something to think about. This is what I like best about science fiction.  Stories that raise questions, that expose the ideas behind the concepts we take for granted.

Watchbird, the first episode, took our anxieties about surveillance and the role of the government in keeping us safe, to a conclusion. What the conclusion is depends on what question you ask..  In the episode, the question is taken to the personal.  Who is ultimately responsible for what happens to what we create?  That's the question we ask about science often.  Who is responsible and how are we held accountable?

I don't know what the next episode asks.  Looking forward to it though. 

On the other hand, I was watching the Oscar-nominated shorts when the universe conspired with itself to line up Time Freak with my writing this blog post.  Love their answer to the question, "What do you think will really happen if someone masters time travel?"  Funny movie. 

That's what I love about spec fic. The variety of the questions and the breadth of the answers.  Meanwhile, I have a new bunch of authors to get to know.
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Starting Over, Over again...

OK back to writing about writing.

I stopped because I was actually writing. Really. Put words on paper in the kind of order that encourages someone to follow them to the end. At least that is what I've been told about my writing.  It's readable.  And that is a good thing.

As for the other parts of writing, the revision and submission parts. Not so good.  I have a portfolio of stories, several drafted novels, tons of great ideas and not much completed. Oh, and I left out the poetry.  Not to mention all the other unfinished projects I've devised and begun.

Beginning to get a picture here?

Lots of beginning again.  Lots of something else that I have not put my finger on yet. It's not quite procrastination. It's something more subtle than that.  And that subtle this is what the Alchemist is good for.

I've brought it back to life, the concept of the Alchemist as a real-life character playing out an Adventure.  I had not considered what my next NaNo novel would be and it came to me that I could write her story, the story of the Alchemist Bard and it would be also about me.  Not literally. That would be really, really boring.  But, about the things I have a problem with.  Again, not literally. That wouldn't help me one bit.

I have this idea that putting what we know into story form gives us the perspective we need to see ourselves more clearly.  That is the idea behind writing to learn stuff.  I did it when I created Pod, one of my novel characters.  Created him in order to learn about language learning. He even ended up having a starring role in the final paper I wrote for that English composition class (if fact, the paper stalled until I surrendered to the Call to put him in the paper).

For some reason, I followed a blog link on Holly Lisle's forum and fell in love with the writer's process.  She writes about the work she is doing in the clinics she's taking from Holly.  I had been thinking all week that I need to do something like that, write out my process.  Another manifestation of the Alchemist Bard is as an RPG, role playing game, character. That one is really me.  Seriously. I am mentioning it now because there is, in the gaming world, a version of writing about the writing process. They are called "adventures" and they are little stories that help a dungeon master create plays for particular "campaigns".  Campaigns are the epics that players come to week after week and adventures are the episodes that make up the campaigns. That's my take on it, anyway.  For the moment.

All of the definitions are probably going to change as I adapt D&D to living my own life as an Adventure.  Why? Because I need the help.  Back to starting over again.  When what you are doing doesn't work, you need to try something else or drive yourself crazy.  So, in an effort to not be crazy, I am trying something else.  Using the system of leveling up and gaining experience points from D&D (by the way that's Dungeons and Dragons. Sorry), I'm setting up goals and intentions for this campaign of living my life better.

Why an RPG?  Ahh. That question is better answered by an expert, Jane McGonigal.

And I just got another answer, a more alchemical one.  Because I am a Dragon and I need to be freed from my own dungeon.  That's the campaign.  Now, for the Adventures!
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