The meeting, not the collaborating. We’re meeting Thursday instead. Which is fine. I just have to be be sure I’m out of there in time for my evening meeting with Bry* and Sara* about the manga.

The three of us are supposed to discuss deadlines and publishers and costume design (?). I’m looking forward to it because it’s been a few weeks since our last meet up and I cannot wait to see what they’ve come up with. While I haven’t done any work on it because I don;t know what are plans are. Are we still going to be published in the anthology? Or are we not and instead going for a publishing house?

Guess I’ll find out Thursday.

*names have been altered needlessly since no one reads this anyway.

For instance, after much debating on what our goals were for the manga (basically, which publisher we are aiming for), we decided on a page count. At the current count for the script I had written, we were going to need more to progress the story than we could actually use. So I tossed an idea out there, Sara* bounced one back, and Bry* just sat there, just staring at the table. He then came up with this brilliant idea that will help us hit our page target. Things like this, make me excited.

Things like the script adaptation do not. Earlier today I read over the script, version 6 apparently (or so the writer thinks), and again, things were put in that we agreed didn’t work. Parts that I had written were taken out. This destroys one’s fun. The excitement is gone for me from this project. I am really hoping that at this week’s production meeting the writer says he doesn’t like what I am going to put in so I can step down from this and move on. Nothing saps the creative feeling more than having hours of work disregarded when you’re the one they asked to edit in the first place.

On a side note, I’ve been so psyched about the manga thing that I finally sent my brother-in-law the descriptions for the characters for the graphic novel he wants to work on with me. The story is one I’ve been meaning to get down on paper, mostly in novel form, but for whatever reason just haven’t gotten around to it. Hopefully he won’t dally about too long with the sketches.

Also, I’m thinking of telling a story through twitter. This isn’t a new concept. I’m sure tons of people are doing it. @CharlieHuston has been doing it since February 2nd. I think the challenge of telling a story 140 characters at a time will be good for the creative process. Just like this blog is supposed to be. I have noticed an increase in my writing output since I started this. Coincidence??? Yep.

I just need to work out some details of what story I’m going to tell. Maybe I’ll dig out one of my short stories that came from the creative writing class I took in college. I think I may be able to do something with it.

I’ll post the twitter link when I start the story.

*names have been altered to protect me from possible lawsuits.

Besides that, I spoke to the director of the play I’ve been working on and we both kinda’ decided that if the writer doesn’t give us more leeway on this, we’re both out. We don’t want our names on something that isn’t up to our standards. The writer doesn’t seem to want to listen to us so we’re both like ‘screw it’, why waste our time.

Sent out résumés to a couple of places hoping I get a bite. Fingers are crossed.

Now off to tackle the dishes….

In a nutshell, an independent publisher releases these manga anthologies to sell at the comic cons around the country. So she asked if my friend wanted in, he said yes and enlisted Sara to ink for him. They however needed a writer. That’s where I come in. Bry knew I was working on some writing projects, asked if I was interested and if so if we could meet up. I said sure.

The three of us went to a local diner and brainstormed for a couple of hours and came up with this really exciting idea. Not going to give anything away just yet, but we were really enjoying talking about it and very eager to get started. So eager, in fact, that Bryan was sketching up one of the figures while we were still there.

My job right now is to come up with brief synopsis of the story and treatments of the characters (more or less) and let them see it this weekend.

Also, I’ve noticed that my language and grammar seems a bit, well, proper. Forced. So starting now, I’m going to write somewhat looser. A more comfortable style, as it were.

*names have been altered to protect the innocent.

This could be a whole new venue. Not too long ago, my brother-in-law told me he was interested in creating a comic book/graphic novel and asked if I’d be willing to come up with a story for it. I said sure and we agreed that this was something that was going to take time because we each have other things going on at the moment. But I’m supposed to send him some character descriptions soon so he can start sketching out ideas. But that was a few weeks ago.

Comic book writing is something I have thought about, but I’m not sure if I have the ability to keep writing an ongoing story. Graphic novels or manga comics may well be the way for me to go if this is an avenue I’m interested in.