Writing Internet drama

January 7, 2008

When the lady from RTE called to congratulate me I wasn’t sure what she was on about. It’s not that I’d forgotten about our Storyland submission, in fact I’d already checked the RTE website, www.rte.ie/storyland several times that day along with the forum on http://www.filmakersnetwork.ie/ .
It’s just that at first I couldn’t figure out what I’d won. I even caught myself wondering if I’d bought a Winning Streak ticket, got three stars and posted it in to RTE with no recollection of having done so? I must have sounded a right Lula when I exclaimed: “Oh you’re from Storyland! That’s wonderful. It’s my birthday!” She wished me a Happy Birthday and said that we were invited to pitch on January 16th and that they would contact us with the details. A quick jump to my laptop confirmed it. We made the short list. Not only that- we were top of the list. As they weren’t in alphabetical order I assume that MUST mean something. Writers like that sort of thing. We also like big shiny gold stars.

Fast forward three weeks:
Christmas is done and dusted. Kids are back to school. Life returns to normal. Not a peep from RTE since the phone call on December 15th. I hadn’t really thought about it much what with having a house full of people over the last fortnight. David and I meet up at O’Donovan’s Hotel in Clonakilty to discuss the pitch. I am delighted at his enthusiasm for the project. He’s had a good think and has come up with some really cool ideas based on the original short story. Erase and Rewind was rattling around in the back-back drawer of my mind for about ten years. And yes, it was inspired by the Cardigans’ song. What if you could erase and rewind your life? What sort of story could I write based on that idea? I’d only think about it from time to time, which is why it took me so long to write. When you are a professional writer who has to make a living, short stories are only indulged in while on holiday or when attending a literary festival. I didn’t write a word. I just kept transferring a blank document labelled Erase & Rewind (in my Short Story Ideas folder) as I went from one computer to the next over a decade or so. Then in July 2007, after attending the West Cork Literary Festival http://www.westcorkliteraryfestival.ie/ , I sat down and wrote it over one weekend. A couple of drafts later it was transferred to the Finished SS folder where it has sat since. When David suggested working together on a submission to RTE’s Storyland, Erase and Rewind immediately popped into my head. I’ve been thinking about writing for the Internet for yonks, but haven’t really got my teeth into it yet. This seemed like the perfect opportunity.

At our meeting we decided that the website must go up ASAP. We also decided that I should have a blog.
24hrs later and http://www.eraseandrewind.org/ is up and I’m writing this.
I think that deserves a big shiny gold star.(Note to David: Please attach a big shiny gold star. Thanks.)

Friday January 9th

I lost a day. I should have seen it coming when I got the date on my first blog wrong. I was writing on Wednesday night, but I dated it Tuesday January 6th. It was a sign that all was not well in my brain. Thursday morning I dragged myself out of my bed and drove my daughter to the airport feeling like death. I managed somehow to navigate back home and went straight to bed and died. I didn’t emerge for six hours. I only came back to life because I had to write my regular column for the West Cork People http://www.westcorkpeople.ie/ . A paying deadline is the one thing a freelance writer can only ignore if they are in a coma or have met the ultimate deadline. I put everything else on hold including the list of stuff I was going to do for ERASE & REWIND. David and I were meant to meet up to film a teaser to add to the website. We have to reschedule. I didn’t feel much better this morning, but was instantly cheered up when I checked the Internet. http://www.storygas.com/ put a link up to our site and it has seeded to a full page if you google Erase and Rewind Storyland. We even got lg15today
http://lg15today.blogspot.com/2009/01/rte-storyland-show-erase-and-rewind.html .

I’m going to spend the weekend spreading the word. But first I have to stop feeling like shit…



Sunday January 11th

I managed to achieve the latter. I’m not all better, but I don’t feel like death warmed over anymore. I’ve spent most of the weekend curled up with Russell T. Davies. Not literally, what with him being gay and all, but rather with his excellent book “The Writer’s Tale” ( http://www.thewriterstale.com/ ), which my daughter Amelia gave me for Christmas. (Incidentally, Amelia stars in the 30-second pitch for ERASE & REWIND.) It’s the best book on writing since Stephen King’s “On Writing”. I’ve been using King’s book in creative writing classes for a few years now and I think I’m going to use RTD’s in a new scriptwriting class that I’m starting to teach this term. Both books are focused on the hard slog of writing rather than any lofty theories about dramatic arcs and plot points. It’s all about the storytelling. They are both like magic writing beans for me: I read them and I want to write.

I also spent much of the weekend thinking about writing for the Internet (Why does my spell check insist on capitalising the Internet? It feels like typing God.). It’s something I’ve been musing over ever since I first discovered the magic of web links.

My thinking goes something along the lines of this:

-The novel did not exist before the invention of the printing press. The feature film did not exist until the invention of the cinema. In other words, each new medium has given rise to a new art form-or form of entertainment. It took years for writers to figure out what to do with these new mediums and even longer for standard forms and methodologies to emerge. The Internet is on the cusp of developing its own art form –or new form of entertainment-and we are still working out what that is.

-The first films all looked like they set up a camera in front of a stage and simply filmed a play (which is pretty much what they did). It took many creative advances to develop the close-ups, ellipses, panning shots etc that are a part of anything committed to film or video today. Similarly, the first webcast films were simply a film uploaded on a website. Most still are. You click. It plays. Terrific. But it’s still fundamentally the same experience as watching something on the telly. The Internet opens up far more interesting experiences.

Here are some ideas about what makes viewing on the Internet different:

-Immediacy and intimacy. Watching something on your laptop is both a more immediate and more intimate experience than watching the telly. That’s the beauty of virtual reality.

-Interactivity. After centuries, nay millennia, of passive entertainment, the Internet allows the viewer to interact. From WOW, to Second Life, from shopping to blogging, YOU are a part of the experience- if only by clicking the play button.

The three Is :Immediacy, Intimacy and Interactivity- sum up the Internet experience (there’s probably more, but it’ll do for now. Anyway it has a nice ring to it.).

-It’s all about I. This is a radical change of POV. It’s about writing in the second person-YOU. Last summer I did a “writing audition” for the Choose Your own Adventure Books ( http://www.cyoa.com/ ), which are all written in the second person. It was a great experience though I didn’t get the gig because they preferred someone living in the US. It opened up a whole new way of writing.
Film scripts are often written in the third person: WE see John run up to the door. The door opens and WE discover a large hall.
Writing for the Internet should read: YOU see a door. YOU open it and enter a large hall.

That’s all for now. Time to get dinner and start thinking about next week’s work….

Tuesday January 13th

. . . and multi-layered narratives. I forgot to put that in.

Internet drama = Immediacy, Intimacy, and Interactivity written in the second person with a multi-layered narrative.

I’ll explain what I mean by a multi-layered narrative (and expand on the other stuff) later. I still haven’t really got the hang of this blogging caper. I think it’s probably more a case of a little often, rather then a lot once in a blue moon. It’s all about the traffic innit?

We’re finally shooting our “teaser” this evening. I’ll try and remember to take some pics and post them. In the meantime I have to go to meet some lovely ladies who want to write rural memoirs.