CURRENT PROJECT

When I finished "Death's Horizon" (I still need to change that title), a few people asked me what the next project I would be working on next.  Truthfully, I was working on the next project while I was completing "Death's Horizon", so I don't really consider it the next project.  I always try to think one or two stories ahead of what I'm writing, partially so that I can be ready to start on it right away as soon as I've completed the previous story, but mainly so I can avoid writer's block or getting stuck.  This way, if an element of the plot line stumps me, it's no bother because I'm still writing the current work.  Since the best cure for writer's block is writing, it's a pretty good system for me.

That being said, when an idea is mostly finalized in my brain, I try to let a few people know about what I'm developing.  It helps build excitement (mostly in me), and more crucially it adds and element of expectancy, as in when I know people are expecting me to finish something, the less likely I am to quit halfway through and let it vanish into oblivion.  This worked during a halt in the last script's creation when my cousin kept on messaging me: "WHEN AM I GOING TO GET TO READ YOUR SCRIPT!!??"  Thank heavens he did that, because otherwise I don't know if I would have completed it.

SO, unless something elementally wrong develops with my current work-in-progress, in the effect that the story begins to offend me or transforms into something I cannot recover, positing about it on this online journal is a good assurance that it will definitely be completed.

Anyway, here goes...

I've taken a short break from the screenplay world and have re-entered the novel universe after a long hiatus from the form; it's been six years since I've written a novel -- way too long.  It centers around a love story amongst the homeless community in a large city.  The working title is Magic in Dogtown, and I've been working hard trying to complete it in as short of a time frame as possible.

I'm not writing it as a form of documentation about homelessness (which in itself is a very important subject that I hope more people do investigate properly), but rather a completely fictional story about a group of people struggling to survive an altered lifestyle that most of us simply can't imagine.  In any case, I hope it will be something you will enjoy reading.

Remember the ending of Sid & Nancy?  How, despite the grisly subject matter, it still managed to make you smile?  Whether or not that quality was useful for a true-life story of Sid Vicious, I really enjoy stories that surprise the audience or readers with a sense of warmth, even if it is tinged with sadness.  Whether or not Magic in Dogtown will achieve similar reactions in readers is to be determined, but it's something I definitely think about when writing it.