Sinjin Chronicles 2

At night I can hear the wind talking to the hills. At least that is the sound that looms largest in my mind’s eye. I don’t know why the howl and the hiss and the faint undulation that sounds so very much like someone speaking should swell with darkfall, the wind gauges and tech installations report no significant change in wind speed and direction after dark, and yet I’d swear to you that the sound increases. It thickens, intensifies, forming a great dark mass that churns and undulates somewhere deep in my limbic brain. Layers and layers of sounds and shifting rhythms that fool the brain into thinking that it hears voices imbedded within the maelstrom. But it doesn’t, not really. As much as your brain tries to pull some sense of language it can’t so you are left with the aching and pervasive and unsettling feeling that something of cosmic importance is being said just outside your ability to comprehend.

Sinjin Chronicles - Day 1

It is only natural that they should have forgotten me by now. I mean come on, it has been nearly ten years earth solar time that I’ve been out-bound, and seven years, five months and twelve e-solar days since I landed in this hell-hole. The time passage alone  is enough to forget, and on top of that, why would you want to remember the daughter/sister/aunt that besmirched the fine old family name by landing herself on the United Systems most notorious prison planet? That the charges are treason and murder must make it all that more excruciating. One wonders how they can possibly carry on. And yet by all reports they do, and well if the latest gossip of the Sur-ply Ships carries any shred of truth.


Now, all that being said, the name is the thing and I still have one, Sinjin is still me and I am still she. Not that I much resemble myself these days with hair bleached white as bone and skin burnt the deep red-brown of a Nicoben nut. Gone is the fresh-faced, by the numbers, star recruit, plucked from the ranks and onto the Republican Star Guard by virtue of a fine family name and a pretty face - though I like to think being top of my class in hand to hand combat and adaptive intelligence had something to do with it. But that’s probably just pride speaking. Ever my downfall.


Hey, I still have all my teeth and most of my fingers, which is more than most of my fellow prisoners can say. And believe you me, the end of my right pinkie finger chewed off by the Red Beast in a quad fight three months into my 15 to 20 stint was a very small price to pay for the rep that came from pounding his well-larded ass into the salt pan of the yard.

I'm finding pieces of...

I’m finding pieces of my broken heart strewn all over the place this week, sometimes in the most unlikely of places. Today I found one amongst some random gravel under the postbox when I mailed a sympathy card to a friend who has just lost her Dad. Even though it was dirty and mostly covered with a rime of frost, it threw a glint of light up to my eye and I stooped down to pry it from the bit of frozen dirt and dead dandelion in which it was lodged. The deep ruby red of it even shimmered a bit in the gloom of the January day. Likely a trick of the light. A chance capturing of the beam of a headlight of a passing car, maybe. But I like to think it’s more than that. That maybe, just maybe there is still some fiery spark deep within. Someday, when I’ve gathered together all the shards I’m ever likely to find maybe this one will spark its fellows into a conflagration and my heart will throb with love and purpose once again. 

6-minute writing prompt from Deb Norton at www.partwild.com 

Before we were here...

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Before we were here we must have been somewhere else. No one knows for sure, or I should say, some think they know for sure- - but they have belief not data. Unless you wish to quantify the preponderance of myth and religious belief that describes such a place and call that “data”. In some traditions it is called purgatory, in some a piece of heaven known as “the guff” where souls wait to be born, or, in yet other traditions, re-born. Many insist the data shows that we are simply evolved primates, but though part of our bodies certainly does seem to indicate we are first cousin to the chimpanzee, so many other things are vastly different. Personally I think there is some truth hidden within religious tradition and myth. I like to think we are human alien hybrids of some sort, set here to supplant the great lizards of eons gone by. Sometimes I even wonder if the disappearance of the dinosaurs was, as science currently hypothesizes, the result of a cosmic catastrophe or a planned and well executed genocide clearing our ideally terraformed plant for new experimentation in lifeform genetic engineering.

6-minute writing prompt courtesy of Deb Norton at www.partwild.com 

The Tenors TFFs CBC Radio Play Challenge: Part One: Put Your Mouth Where Your Heart Is!

The Tenors TFFs CBC Radio Play Challenge: Part One: Put Your Mouth Where Your Heart Is!

Okay my fellow crazy-for-the-tenors-fans here is my challenge to you all to show our guys how much we really love them by getting their new album, Lead With Your Heart some serious time on the radio. This is totally a volunteer deal, sharing the Tenor love and leading with our hearts. We’ll start with Canada, then the US, then, break it wide open internationally!

·       To get us started what follows is some national contact info for CBC Radio shows and hosts. I’ll follow-up with a list of commercial Canadian FM contact info by regions in a few days!

·       TFFs in US border markets like Detroit can join in this first push if you get CBC on your FM dial!

·       All you US fans should also be able to get CBC radio via the internet www.cbc.ca/radio CBC Radio 2 is what you are looking for please check it out and let me know if I’m right,

·       US fans feel free to help me compile regional US info by messaging me or commenting and we’ll time a push for the US launch

·       Do we have a Francophone TFF who can tackle that market? My French is way too crummy!

Remember, the bigger market penetration in your local area the more often the guys will be able to come to town in person!

Guidelines

·       The Tenors prefer their genre described as “pop meets classical” or “contemporary classical” over the term “popera”

·       Keep the request simple and polite

·       Focus on the suggested songs for now, we’ll talk Juno/Grammy nomination for the whole disc later ;)

·       “Like” or “follow” the radio station accounts, they’ll take our requests more seriously

·       Find other Facebook page and/or Twitter account of your local area FM adult contemporary, classical and Christian radio stations, message me the info and I’ll compile it

·       Post/tweet requests to the station(s) to play either “Forever Young” “World Stand Still” , “Lead With Your Heart” or “Nessun Dorma”(classical) or “Amazing Grace” (Christian stations) or “Journee d’innocence” (francophone stations)

·       If you are suggesting “Forever Young” include a link to the You Tube studio video http://youtu.be/9E6-AYce-_M

·       View Tenors videos on YouTube as often as you can get away with it! Media outlets pay attention to # of views

·       Repeat your requests once a week until we achieve radio wave domination!

This and upcoming info will also be posted on my personal blog http://carolynneciceri.blogspot.ca

Songs to suggest

 “Lead With Your Heart” (album title track), “Forever Young” (cover of a Neil Young song) “World Stand Still” (original Tenors composition) or “Nessun Dorma” (new arrangement of an iconic tenor aria) or “Amazing Grace” (Christian stations)

CBC Radio One

–       Twitter @cbcradio

CBC Radio Two The Signal – Host Laurie Brown

–       Twitter @CBCthesignal

–       FB www.facebook.com/groups/8110659709/

CBC Radio Two

CBC Radio Two Morning – Host Tom Power (contemporary)

–       FB www.facebook.com/cbcr2morning

–       Twitter @CBCR2Morning

“Lead With Your Heart” “Forever Young” or “World Stand Still”

CBC Radio Two Tempo – Host Julie Nesrallah (classical)

–       Twitter @CBCtempo

–       FB www.facebook.com/CBCRadio2Tempo

“Nessun Dorma”

CBC Radio Two Shift – Host Tom Allen

–       Twitter @cbcr2shift

–       FB www.facebook.com/CBCr2shift

All songs – Tom’s show is very genre defying so any suggestion is good!

“Lead With Your Heart” (album title track), “Forever Young” (cover of a Neil Young song) “World Stand Still” (original Tenors composition) or “Nessun Dorma” (new arrangement of an iconic tenor aria)

CBC Radio Two The Signal – Host Laurie Brown

–       Twitter @CBCthesignal

FB www.facebook.com/groups/8110659709/

All songs – another cross  genre show!

“Lead With Your Heart” (album title track), “Forever Young” (cover of a Neil Young song) “World Stand Still” (original Tenors composition) or “Nessun Dorma” (new arrangement of an iconic tenor aria)

CBC Radio Two In Tune – Host Katherine Duncan (classical)

Twitter @CBCInTune

No FB page

All songs – here I suggest using the “contemporary classical” or “neo-classical” terms!

“Lead With Your Heart” (album title track), “Forever Young” (cover of a Neil Young song) “World Stand Still” (original Tenors composition) or “Nessun Dorma” (new arrangement of an iconic tenor aria)

The Point.

"What's the point…?" It is really too easy just to finish that question with "...of it all?” The cowards way out perhaps to choose something so cliche. I always read that phrase with a Gallic shrug in mind. One of those full body shrugs that involves shoulders and eyebrows and lips and cheeks and a bend of the head and a finishing flick of the hands, palms skyward with a soft grunting“meh to finish it all off. A complete 3-course meal of a shrug if you will. 

When I was younger I used to the think the point of things was the finishing of things for the sale of them or the showing off of them or the pay cheque of them. Now I'm not so sure.

More and more I think of the point of the thing as being the process behind achieving the thing or making the thing or acquiring the thing. Maybe that is the wisdom of age or the long and lonely journeyman years of being a writer or the new and unpredictable apprenticeship of the guitar, or even the quite reflection of spending time with an aging parent, listening to their stories one more time, fixing the TV one more time, sharing yet another of thousands upon thousands of good meals and good bye hugs.  

Yes, there is my answer anyway. The point of the thing is the doing of the thing.



 

The One Night Stand of Screenwriting

Hi Kids!
As this was one of my earliest posts as CSSC Writer Laureate -  I figure about 5 people read it, so here it is again with a promise of fresh material later this week!

First off I want to know how it happens to be Wednesday again? Time is truly a fascinating thing, isn’t it? Especially since in some real science way it doesn’t exist. Those of you not inclined to think esoteric thoughts about space time, or question whether or not stars have souls, are likely skipping ahead right now wondering how far I’m going to wander down this time tangent. You tuned in after all to get the answer to that big icky question left outstanding last week – How do you know your idea is a movie? Of course the short answer, and the cheap pop psych answer is, that if you truly see it and believe in it as a movie, then of course it is!

But that’s not the way it works in my head aka the Cocoverse, so leaving that with you as an answer is likely the coward’s way out. Not that I’m against that completely, sometimes the coward’s way is best, but it’s only Blog the 4th so I want to put off any overt displays of creative cowardice on my part for at least a few more weeks.
I’ll try and give you a bit more to work with. Then back to my time ruminations (that’s your word for the week).
First off, when the character chatter gets going in my head and I have to decide whether the story idea is best expressed as a novel, short story, song, poem, play, short film, feature, TV series, webisode, game, etc. It’s kinda like a Broadway audition. Except that instead of yelling “Singers who can Dance stage left and Dancers who can Sing stage right!” I yell “Doers who can Talk in the green room and Talkers who can Do wait out in the house.” Hmmm, that last is going to be pretty cryptic to those of you who know nothing about theatre. If that is you, your homework for the week is to see a play, doesn’t matter what it is, or even if it’s any good. If you want to want to write for the screen you have to know not only what that is, but what it is not.

All that to say that if my characters are exploring ideas and the expression of those ideas through language, I start to frame the story as a play. On stage the play of language takes the place of a sweeping landscape shot or a close up of a cherry blossom falling. So the chatty Cathy’s who want to wallow in hyperbole get the stage.
If the conflict plays out in a place, or places, I start thinking film or TV. If the place is big enough and complex and important enough to the play of the story that it becomes a character in and of itself then I’m thinking feature. Whenever big sky or weather or rocky shoreline or acres of cracked concrete are key to making the story work, it’s a feature. But also to be a feature it has to meet a couple other criteria. Is the plot all of a piece? There needs to be a certain unity of story to make me believe in it, in that I have to at least sense the shape of the beginning, middle and end. As well, it had better be wildly interesting to me if I’m going to invest myself for months and months in the story landscape. For me too, a feature has to have a complexity of plot and action that exceeds the budget of a TV show. Features have scope, even low budget ones.

TV for me is more about complexity of character. Characters that tangle and untangle and re-tangle themselves around each other. As well, TV ideas for me don’t have crisp endings, being so character driven, a good ending of one TV episode is just a good beginning for the next. Feature endings need to come down more, to a place of greater quiet and rest. Maybe because the up part has to be of such scope and intensity that the great exhale at the ending needs to be longer and deeper. And in terms of investment? For a writer a TV series is a marriage while a feature is a fling, so if you don’t want to be married, careful about heading down the TV development road.

Do I really think about all this stuff before I start writing? Yah, sorta. Sometimes I’ll sketch out a few scenes and just ask myself what it feels like. If I produce an inciting incident and a lot of internal dialogue, I start thinking short story, if a new world or a series of events jumps in, I’ll start thinking novel.

Short films come to me quickly, within a space of hours I have a beginning, middle and end sorted out. Writing one is like planning a big party. I know the time commitment won’t be that great but it still needs to be one hell of a good time, so I try to make sure that I give it a tight container to fit in. I like my shorts to have a unity of time, place and/or action. I find setting limits or story parameters keeps it from spinning out of control. Whether it is limiting character number or location or theme, I limit something about the structure in order to stay focused. In the Cocoverse the short film is the one night stand of screenwriting, so I try and have fun and not take it too seriously.

Honestly though, here we are at the end and in truth, back at the beginning because I’m going to leave you with the thought that your story idea is a play, song, painting, graphic novel, short script, feature film, TV series – indeed all of the above. Your idea is all of these things and none of them until you choose. I think the only way you can choose is to actually have some knowledge about the different storytelling techniques that come into play with each format. That means read. Read short scripts, plays, novels, features, teleplays, novels and cereal boxes, and oh, yah, blogs. If you are a screenwriter writer you read every day. Sorry, but it is a non-negotiable. Watching short films on the web, your favorite TV show or a movie marathon, is negotiable. Reading is not. Best of all is to get a hold of the screenplay and a DVD of the film, read, watch, repeat, read, watch, repeat.

Time for me to go do all that right now. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, always has a slot in my space-time continuum.
-Carolynne