Writing for Yourself as the Audience

Aesops FablesYou can’t please everyone, so you might as well please yourself. It’s one of Aesop’s Fables and a song by Rick Nelson, but it’s a true thing that I think writers need to keep in mind as well. In a recent post on her blog, Jane Espenson, writer on such shows as MASH and Buffy, discusses the question of if in today’s age of high speed communication, does the audience have a much greater impact on the storylines of shows than ever before.

In a move that made me incredibly happy, Jane discounts that idea completely. The short of it is this: write for yourself as the audience. And from my (extremely) limited experience, I’d say she is 100 percent correct.

The answer I give to this is that I consider myself to be the audience I’m writing for. I write what I would want to see. Continue reading →

The Power of an Idea

Yesterday I saw first hand the power of an idea.

As I posted a few weeks ago, my wife and I are currently on vacation in Orlando, Florida, where we partook in the theme park candy that is the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the new addition to Islands of Adventure. On top of re-creating the likes of Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade and Hogwart’s Castle, I daresay that whoever conjured up this fantastic place also accidentally created time travel, because I immediately felt like a six year old. I was full of wonder, joy and had quite possibly the biggest and stupidest grin on my face for the entire day. Continue reading →

My Superman Obsession

Superman

Another Comic Con has come and gone, and Eddy is left with an empty hole inside of his heart the shape of several thousand cosplay costumes, star-studded panels and epic movie trailers. Add this convention to the list of things I might commit a crime to attend one day, along with E3. Because of this, I’ve been in the superhero mindset as of late, which really doesn’t take too long, seeing as how I’m a bit obsessed, and have been since I was but a wee lad, as they say. Continue reading →

Another Trip Around the Sun

Last Thursday marked the passing of my 27th year on this island Earth, and it went down much like any other annual “congrats for being alive” milestone before it: with general fatitude and revelry. What made this birthday weekend more remarkable than recent years was probably that it coincided with the Web Zeroes wrap party, and my youngest brother Kyle coming in town. It made for one exhausting and fun weekend, particularly as I reminisced on the nerdy shows we’ve made. I’m not sure if it was encouraging or a letdown to consider that I began pursuing my creative endeavors when I was 24, but I’m still on the good side of 30 I suppose, with lots of good writing or basket weaving years left in these bones. Continue reading →

Back to Zero

Mount DoomWell, tomorrow marks the end of a year of hard work for me and two of my best friends: Web Zeroes draws to a close with its final episode. I’ve got some mixed feelings on this, some of which I can share at the moment and a few that will need some time to sort out and file in the appropriate boxes for later use.

I think the thing that I’m feeling most of all is relief. We’ve had a fairly brutal schedule over the last ten months or so, one that is finally letting up and giving us a chance to get our heads out of the production hole. The most analogous thing I can conjure up when it comes to producing a series is that it is like throwing the ring into Mt. Doom at the end of Lord of the Rings, but not as cool or dramatic. Also I don’t really look like a Hobbit, and I hope that nobody shows up to bite my finger off once the show’s over. Continue reading →

Batman Quest

BatmanToday I feel like someone used the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique on each of my limbs, rendering them completely defunct and obsolete. I shout at them to move but they offer me no recourse. I think they are upset at me about last night.

I’ve told myself for years that I’m going to take a self defense class at some point in my life. This has always been known to me as my Batman Quest, because deep down, who doesn’t want to be a crime fighter in a mask? Really, I just thought it would be cool to learn something new, and get in better shape doing it. Continue reading →

Confessions of a Nerd

ConfessionA few weeks back, I wrote a bit for this blog about The Rabbit Hole of Geek. The main premise of this piece of writing is that deep down, everybody’s a dork about something, whether they know it or not.

Originally I was going to tack on a whole other portion — a confessional if you will — of my nerdiest and most awesome exploits, but the post was getting a bit long. These are things that not everybody knows about me, but I feel it’s best to come clean. They say that confession is good for the soul, even if it’s not good for the self image.

So, here it goes: Continue reading →

The Reading Backlog

BooksIf you couldn’t tell, I am a fan of all things writing, which obviously includes reading. However, lately I haven’t really had all that much time to take part in this or any of my favorite activities for that matter. But with a break just around the corner and more free time in my foreseeable future, I’m finally going to get to tackle the stack of books that’s been waiting for me in the corner, lonesome and dusty.

The funny thing is, I used to read books like crazy when I was younger. All through out my childhood and through middle schooler, I was an avid reader, constantly getting my hands on any kind of book I could, wanting to devour its words like some text monster, ravenous and hungry for all the knowledge and stories I could gleam from their pages. Continue reading →

My Former Musical Aspirations

Martin Guitar

Something that a few of you might not know about me is that I used to consider myself a musician of sorts. In college, I fancied myself as the singer/songwriter type, with a heavier emphasis on the latter portion of that. Truth be told, I wasn’t a half bad guitar player or singer, I just gravitated more towards the writing of songs and stories in them. Although I wasn’t especially great at any of those things, I did enjoy it. Continue reading →

Rabbit Hole of Geek

Rabbit HoleFor most of my life, I have been called a geek. And honestly, I can’t even remember when this started. No, it wasn’t when I got those glasses with the rubber handlebars that locked them behind my ears. And no, it wasn’t when I wore my MC Hammer pants to school on a day that was not Halloween. It wasn’t even when my brother and I showed up in matching outfits.

In elementary school, I remember every kid on the street having a Nintendo. It was the normal thing to do. Nobody cared that it was nerdy. Or perhaps nobody had decided that’s what it was called yet. When you’re young, these things are mostly normal, but at some point, everything changes. At some point, a switch is flipped, arbitrary social lines are drawn, and people align themselves where they think they will be happiest. Around this time is when I suppose the whole “geek” thing started for me, even though I wasn’t doing anything differently than I had done it before. Continue reading →

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