David Sakmyster's Blog, page 2
February 18, 2010
Finally starting a new project
It's been a month since I wrote "N.D.E" - my first teleplay!
Since then I've: 1) signed with a Hollywood Manager (to shop around my scripts) 2) edited an earlier script 3) proofed The Morpheus Initiative - Book 1 and Book 2 and sent them off to Variance Press 4) got a revised publication date for Morpheus (July, 2010) 5) had to change all my major characters' names after I learned I inadvertently chose the last name of a currently-still-living psychic and remote-viewer named Ingo Swann, one ...
Since then I've: 1) signed with a Hollywood Manager (to shop around my scripts) 2) edited an earlier script 3) proofed The Morpheus Initiative - Book 1 and Book 2 and sent them off to Variance Press 4) got a revised publication date for Morpheus (July, 2010) 5) had to change all my major characters' names after I learned I inadvertently chose the last name of a currently-still-living psychic and remote-viewer named Ingo Swann, one ...
November 22, 2009
Thoughts on 'The Strain', by Guillermo del Toro and Chris Hogan
With all the hype lately for the Stephanie Meyer books and the movie adaptations, it's heartening to see someone return to the good old fashioned blood-curdling, mind-numbing vampires of old.
When I picked up 'The Strain' by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, I was initially concerned, finding myself asking the dreaded question: "Why... are they doing this?" Based on the back cover blurbs, The Strain was geared up to be a mash-up/homage of Salem's Lot and I Am Legend. And I immediately though...
When I picked up 'The Strain' by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, I was initially concerned, finding myself asking the dreaded question: "Why... are they doing this?" Based on the back cover blurbs, The Strain was geared up to be a mash-up/homage of Salem's Lot and I Am Legend. And I immediately though...
October 14, 2009
Why... part 2
This will be a short one because I'm just annoyed.
My new target: Criminal Minds. Two minutes into this week's episode and we've got a home invasion where the woman winds up shrieking "Why are you doing this!?" to the perps (right before they whack her with a crowbar). All right, forget everything I wrote in my first blog about why this line is the most overused, nonsensical and useless phrase writers love to force into every situation, but come on - just last year the very same scenario (an...
My new target: Criminal Minds. Two minutes into this week's episode and we've got a home invasion where the woman winds up shrieking "Why are you doing this!?" to the perps (right before they whack her with a crowbar). All right, forget everything I wrote in my first blog about why this line is the most overused, nonsensical and useless phrase writers love to force into every situation, but come on - just last year the very same scenario (an...
October 13, 2009
The Joy of Entering Writing Contests
Okay, contests are often a big pain, a black of hole of submissions that reward you with a different kind of anguish, a younger sibling to the numb disappointment of the more typical publisher rejections. You submit your work, pay your egregious entry fee (usually around $45) and wait... and wait... and basically forget about it until you get an email announcing... 'quarterfinalists'.
If you're lucky, you find your name on a huge list of hundreds, and you're at least mollified that you made th...
If you're lucky, you find your name on a huge list of hundreds, and you're at least mollified that you made th...
August 6, 2009
'Disastrous' Summer
Did we really need another 'Meteor'?
Didn't we see this movie a couple dozen times already? And, done a hell of a lot better than this one? Armageddon, anyone? A movie with an actual story, believable characters and at least some attempt at realism? How about Deep Impact? And if memory serves, there was even a little movie in 1979 entitled, you guessed it - Meteor, with Sean Connery (and Henry Fonda as the President).
But, NBC in its infinite wisdom, must have felt disaster movies are 'in...
Didn't we see this movie a couple dozen times already? And, done a hell of a lot better than this one? Armageddon, anyone? A movie with an actual story, believable characters and at least some attempt at realism? How about Deep Impact? And if memory serves, there was even a little movie in 1979 entitled, you guessed it - Meteor, with Sean Connery (and Henry Fonda as the President).
But, NBC in its infinite wisdom, must have felt disaster movies are 'in...
July 2, 2009
Why Are They Doing This?
The blatant overuse of the question, "Why are you doing this?" in produced scripts, especially in suspense/thrillers, is reaching epidemic levels. Instead of actually revealing a villain's motivations through dialogue and plot, demonstrating "Why he or she is doing this", it seems that otherwise competent writers are taking this lame shortcut and just having their victims scream in terror and plead, "Why are you doing this!?"
It's the most overused line in - I'd dare say - the past ten years o...
It's the most overused line in - I'd dare say - the past ten years o...
July 1, 2009
Two weeks Until Silver and Gold's release
Counting the days... For my second published book. A lot of preliminary work to do (long after the words have been written, edited and type-set) - such as set up a blog (finally!)
So this is the first test, more to come!
So this is the first test, more to come!
