10-03-2020, 08:43 AM
I'm at the 119 mark of 146 pages. I'll have a lot more to say when I finish, and in the general vain of what Yeti and DM have said. But what you've got down on paper is fascinating in its own right. It's the detailed accounting of something very unique. A job where you are constantly tasked with creating things and often with limited time and resources to do it. And you're thrown in with lots of other people at different levels of authority and ability with similar assignments. And this all leads to all kinds of conflicts. And somehow you have to make it all work.
So you've got that low-level insanity pinned down, though in places I wanted more detail, or a fuller explanation of the resolution of some conflict (and there should really be a glossary for us to turn to when you describe tools or machinery we don't know), and now you just have to layer in something more.
Most of all, and most emphatically, this book is about you. Characters make the story, and in this you're the main character. The reader wants to climb inside your head, understand what your thoughts and feelings are, how this job is changing you, helping you grow -- or how it might be desensitizing you to certain things. Are there points where you have doubts about yourself or this profession? Are you still pursuing screenwriting? How are you living at various stages of all this? Your hobbies, etc.?
I'm envisioning occasional chapters not attached to some movie project, perhaps named Intermission 1, Intermission 2, etc., where you step back and assess where you are and how you've changed, what your life outside work is at this point. These would occur after noteworthy projects that perhaps shaped you most. Tremors had to be one. Mr. and Mrs. Smith (which I'm on now) is another. Perhaps after Planet of the Apes. Dammit, I'm forgetting a couple that seemed especially traumatic. These could also address how you view your reputation this industry. Are you becoming a go-to guy in ever-higher demand, or are you getting a reputation as difficult-to-work-with? How fair do you these appraisals are?
One or more of these intermissions could be a deep dive into some aspect of your job, or the industry itself, detailing something not limited to a specific project.
One thing I'd like to see is how all this has affected your movie-going experience. Can you still suspend disbelief and enjoy a movie, or are you ever looking at the construction and props? Does it change at certain key points? Should you mention driving a few friends nuts while watching a movie you worked on?
But, yeah, the more "you" you can put into this, and the more introspective and candid, the better. You're getting the nuts and bolts parts down solid. Next up, layer in that main character.
BTW, you say sensitive things about important people, including Eddie Murphy and Brad Pitt, or give unflattering details about fellow workers, producers, or work-place politics, etc. Or incidents that just seem too much like bathroom humor. I like these things, and hope you can hold onto as much of it as you can. But editors and others might want you to tone that down. I'd say resist them as much as you can. Don't let them water it down with claims that "no one is interested in that stuff." Don't let it become an "over-worked painting" all glossed over.
I'll shut up now. Got stuff to read.
So you've got that low-level insanity pinned down, though in places I wanted more detail, or a fuller explanation of the resolution of some conflict (and there should really be a glossary for us to turn to when you describe tools or machinery we don't know), and now you just have to layer in something more.
Most of all, and most emphatically, this book is about you. Characters make the story, and in this you're the main character. The reader wants to climb inside your head, understand what your thoughts and feelings are, how this job is changing you, helping you grow -- or how it might be desensitizing you to certain things. Are there points where you have doubts about yourself or this profession? Are you still pursuing screenwriting? How are you living at various stages of all this? Your hobbies, etc.?
I'm envisioning occasional chapters not attached to some movie project, perhaps named Intermission 1, Intermission 2, etc., where you step back and assess where you are and how you've changed, what your life outside work is at this point. These would occur after noteworthy projects that perhaps shaped you most. Tremors had to be one. Mr. and Mrs. Smith (which I'm on now) is another. Perhaps after Planet of the Apes. Dammit, I'm forgetting a couple that seemed especially traumatic. These could also address how you view your reputation this industry. Are you becoming a go-to guy in ever-higher demand, or are you getting a reputation as difficult-to-work-with? How fair do you these appraisals are?
One or more of these intermissions could be a deep dive into some aspect of your job, or the industry itself, detailing something not limited to a specific project.
One thing I'd like to see is how all this has affected your movie-going experience. Can you still suspend disbelief and enjoy a movie, or are you ever looking at the construction and props? Does it change at certain key points? Should you mention driving a few friends nuts while watching a movie you worked on?
But, yeah, the more "you" you can put into this, and the more introspective and candid, the better. You're getting the nuts and bolts parts down solid. Next up, layer in that main character.
BTW, you say sensitive things about important people, including Eddie Murphy and Brad Pitt, or give unflattering details about fellow workers, producers, or work-place politics, etc. Or incidents that just seem too much like bathroom humor. I like these things, and hope you can hold onto as much of it as you can. But editors and others might want you to tone that down. I'd say resist them as much as you can. Don't let them water it down with claims that "no one is interested in that stuff." Don't let it become an "over-worked painting" all glossed over.
I'll shut up now. Got stuff to read.
![[Image: 3ec22951b25652c9a304c88398706173_w200.gif]](https://i.gifer.com/origin/3e/3ec22951b25652c9a304c88398706173_w200.gif)