What kind of writer are you? The Screenwriter

The Screenwriter (sometimes called Scriptwriter) -what I describe as a much more difficult occupation than the novelist.  Of course, many screenwriters are either novelists themselves, or they use novels to create their screenplays.

Screenwriting is difficult because of the medium required to produce your work.  In the old days, much of the writing was done for radio, thus the term 'scriptwriter'.  A writer was not able to describe and set scenes for the audience and use special visual effects because this was not possible through a completely audio scenario.  How a scriptwriter made his script more effective was through the use of various sound effects and tonal changes in voices.  Of course, because the characters could not be seen, a person that could use different voices could, in effect, portray numerous characters in a story.

Today, because radio productions are few and far between, most of the scriptwriting is done for movie or television screenplays.  Screenplay s vary in length depending on the length of the production, shorter for most TV programs, but longer for movies.  But they are all consistent in their presentation and follow a standard 'screenplay' format.  There are a couple of different styles, but only one format.

I have just begun a new career as an author of books, but one day I hope to face the challenge of writing either a separate screenplay, or one based on one of my books.  I have started to learn the process of developing characters through the use of both prose and dialogue, but the ability to tell a story primarily with dialogue would definitely be something interesting to tackle.  I think I'll wait a couple of years though.

I am going on vacation for two weeks, and may not be able to get any updates written on this current topic of types of writers, but will definitely have the next one done sometime in early March.

I dream of the day when ALL politicians are held accountable.

Is it just me, or do politicians seem to make big promises, get elected, and then fall somewhat short on those promises or dismiss them altogether?  If I applied for a new position and made promises about my qualifications and abilities to my new employer, then totally disregarded them, I would be FIRED - not later but sooner.

If I made errors on my expense reporting over a period of time, I would not only be FIRED, I would probably be charged with theft and may even serve time in PRISON.

If a friend of mine helped me get my foot in the door and eventually get a new job, and I then changed policies within the company to benefit these friends financially to pay them back for their assistance, my employer would surely FIRE me.

We won't even go into what would happen if, after I was hired, I changed the internal company policies to give myself raises in pay and increased benefits.  What company on earth would allow it's employees to give themselves raises and benefits?  Gee, I think my CPP payments are too low, I'll just give myself a raise - I deserve it.  No, I think I would be FIRED.

And of course the large corporations that fund elections for various politicians are just providing legal contributions;  it really isn't bribery.  But let any common citizen do the same and off to PRISON.  I don't believe it.  It just hit me.  There are two sets of laws in the world.  One for the rich and one for the poor.  Silly me.

I dream of the day when politicians are truly held accountable for their words and actions and a few of them actually go to JAIL.

What kind of writer are you? The Speechwriter

The Speechwriter - now this is a truly noble occupation.  I think if this was my career I would ask someone to please just shoot me in the head.  Not only is the content a pile of bullshit, it is written for the lowest of the lows in most cases - politicians.

Not only do their clients/bosses lie their way into a job, they spend their entire career paying back their financial supporters once they have been elected.  To do this they change whatever laws are necessary to help these manipulators.  Then they leave a few years later with a big fat pension that they didn't earn, but the public has to pay for - forever.

Now, I'm sure some speechwriters truly believe their job is honorable and that the work they produce is valuable, but they obviously don't have the forsight to see the Big Picture.  They are writing for liars and scum, and their finished product (the speech) is a farce.  Maybe one day they will realize this, and make the politicians write their own BS.

My suggestion for speechwriters - firing squad.

Next week - The Screenwriter.

When is a writer's 'marketing' annoying?

I am a fairly new addition to the online writing market.  I think I've done almost everything that everyone else has done to promote my first two books;  like set up a facebook page dedicated to my writing and books and set up a Twitter account and Blog.  I have politely added new friends, trying to ensure that we have interests in common.  I've even gone off the beaten path from time to time and added friends that are musicians, myself being a bass guitar player.

I have noticed, however, that some of my recent 'friends' not only post indiscriminately on my sites, but they seem to have joined every writers group currently registered on the internet.  Not only have they joined these multitude of groups, they appear to have a never-ending supply of daily posts at their fingertips.  One particular 'friend', I have noticed, posts about 20 times a day on these various sites, which are unfortunately sent to my personal pages.

Now, I'm not sure if this 'writer' actually has this much to say, or if they feel that posting absolutely everywhere will market their skills at the same rate of speed as they are posting.  If they are trying to accomplish a fast-track for their book sales, in my opinion, they are just doing the opposite.  I have now had to block a couple of these promoters so that I can actually read posts of some importance.  Not only have they forced me to delete them and their hundreds of posts, I have made a resolve to stay as far away from their writings as possible.

Their attempt of promoting themselves and their works has had the exact opposite effect that they probably desired.  Please, please, stop posting so much - you appear desperate, and are driving sales down, not up.  Just my opinion.