Backburners All The Way Down

I like to occasionally blog about the creative projects I'm working on, and the ones I probably won't finish. Part of the purpose is to generate interest among both of my blog readers, so maybe they'll ask me about a project I'm working on, and that will spur me on to actually finish it. Part of the purpose is to record the ones I might forget about, so I can revisit them or just reminisce about them later. If/when I finish any of these projects, you'll see it mentioned here and everywhere else I can think of to promote it. Here's the current flurry of activity:

1. Horror dream. I woke up from a dream which looked like a teen horror flick. A guy caves in a girl's skull, then tries to explain to his friends why he was justified. Hijinks ensue. I started embellishing that dream scene and trying to just make a solid treatment, for now. I think I've got something fairly unique, although I'm really laboring to persuade that guy's friends (and the audience, and myself) why he might have been justified.

Prospects of actually finishing it: I've set one goal within reach, just a treatment for now. A friend of mine who has film skillz from actual film skool has been working on a plot and script for a horror movie. I told her we really have to finish her movie now so we can make mine next. Or at least so I can pitch this treatment to her or whatever.

2. Casino Royale/Climax Mystery Theater commentary. The guys from Overthinkingit created an audio commentary for Casino Royale (2006). I joked on their blog comments that they should make a commentary for the 1954 made-for-tv version of Casino Royale, starring Barry Nelson as the American agent "Card Sense" Jimmy Bond. The idea stewed for a few months until I decided that this is a gap someone must fill, and I shall be that person. So I read Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, and dug out the handful of Bond movies I have on vhs and dvd, making notes along the way. Luckily the tv movie is less than an hour, but still a lot of time to fill.

Prospects of actually finishing it: I'm pretty serious about finishing this, but if I come up with only enough material to talk for 30 minutes, I'm not sure how I'll find or work up another 25 minutes of content worth recording.

3. Little Heist in the Big Woods. A short story I've been working on since July. I watched a few heist movies to research this, plus the first season of the tv show, the pilot episode, a later Christmas special, then read five of the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, skimmed a few biographies, and read the full biography of the probable ghost writer of the books, Rose Wilder Lane. The Ghost in the Little House: A Life of Rose Wilder Lane by William Holtz. Good stuff. Rose was a real globe-trotting journalist, but turned into a libertarian late in life, and lied all along about her mom's books being purely true stories, and her part in reshaping and fictionalizing many scenes. She was such a mirror image of Ayn Rand that they both repulsed each other when they met.

The story shows Pa's perspective on unseen events in the first book of the series. Remember the sugar snow, and how they went to Grandpa's to help collect maple syrup, and they had a big square dance at Grandpa's that night? Perfect distraction for Pa and his crew to dig up and carry away Grandpa's gold.

Prospects of actually finishing it: solid. Just a matter of time.

4. Brazen Hearts, Fresh, On Sticks, Season Two. Got lots of notes on this. a sketchy short story about the beef between Aunt Sadie and her rival sorceress. Stakes get raised hugely. Twists and turns. I've even taken all my notes with me on some of my longer vacations over the years, but it's still been on hiatus since 2008. The plan is to write and record six more chapters for the podcast, then revise all 18 chapters into a novel.

Prospects of actually finishing it: disheartening to have a gap of this many years, but I think it's good stuff and would like to wrap it all up in a bloody bow some day.

5. Collections. The Little Heist and Lord Jimi stories seem to fit together nicely. I thought they could lead off a fiction collection called "Little Heist in the Big Woods and Other Revisionist Atrocities." Might fit well with some past non-fiction writings about movies or comics or fiction. Or I might try to bundle some of my non-fiction and blog posts into a separate ebook.

Prospects of actually finishing: far on the backburner.