Creative To-Do List

This started as a personal tool for me to lay out what I have ‘on the go’ creatively (aside from the whole productivesmog business which will come into its own because it has to because it’s on a timeline). But I feel that somehow making this public will put more pressure on me to actually follow some of this through. A lot of these things are on the site in various forms..

WRITING

Shut Up I Am Dreaming of Places Where Lovers Have Wings (play) – An office worker is challenged by an old friend to break the mediocrity of his day-to-day drone. He doesn’t. Then he thinks maybe he should have. Adventure and self-actualization ensue. Adaptation meets Heart of Darkness. (potential to combine elements of ForceSuntoRise into it, since they are very similar thematically)

Force the Sun to Rise, again (short story) – expand and improve original in order to actually convey intended message. Am a bit into this.. started last year.

Pale Gaze (novel) – A wealthy civil servant meets a strange young woman living in a house that is slated for destruction to make way for a townhouse development. He becomes intrigued, perhaps obsessed by her, and tried to determine how she came to be where and who she is. Her upbringing was largely devoid of outside human contact, so her perceptions of the world are almost alien and call into question the role of society in making us who and how we are. This could be the big one. I really think this has loads of potential. I’m just being extremely careful with it (to the point of not working on it) so I don’t fuck it up.

Faraway Trains (short story) – Maria, a 16 year old girl, travels against her mother’s will to spend christmas with her estranged father. Her mother has done her utmost to keep her from seeing him. Maria has met him twice: once over a decade ago when he was introduced as her uncle, and more recently and awkwardly when they met briefly in his hometown. She is determined that whatever either of her parents say, she will get back the father she lacked growing up.

A Song Sung and A Book Writ Through Gritted Teeth and Clenched Fist (novel/short story?) – A young fellow travels abroad, to a room in rural Britain, with high hopes for writing his great novel. He awkwardly tries to fit in, and his starry-eyed idealistic view of the place is gradually stripped away. Crime thriller? Not sure yet.

Why Dream in Technicolor (play) – A despondent young man (on one stage) imagines (on stage two) how things might be if only he could get his head out of his ass and be more like people tell him to be. Had this idea in first year and have written a few pages. Has potential, I think.

Northenden (comic) – comic series based on my GURPS campaign. This would be totally cool, and the best medium to tell this story I think. I would just need to find an artist. It can’t be me.. I just don’t have that talent.

Busf#cker!!! (comic) – based on monologue; on hold due to mostly lost interest.

VISUAL ART
‘laptop to the head’ (photography) – Someone lying in a field, wrapped up by all sorts of cords and wires, a gash in their head and a laptop nearby

OTHER
Post Apocalypse (installation) – There is no one left on earth to tell their story. Instead we learn of their lives through their detritus, fragments of things left over: answering machine messages, TVs left running, letters (get it?.. post!), etc. Neat device to tell a story, just don’t know what the story should be. Also need to consider that if this is the world of the present or future, computers will affect what will be left running/open. Could have a computer terminal with certain things open, but that sort of goes against the tangibility i would really want to be a part of this.

RPG CAMPAIGN IDEAS (also potential for fictive endeavors)

Northenden – It will never die! And will likely occupy much of my creative thought process for years to come. I’ve seriously grown quite close to this bastard. In fact, I think I love Lord Osark! (who I’ve decided looks exactly like Jeff Tweedy)

No One’s Land - the last survivor(s) of an apocalypse wake up in an abandonned landscape; try to survive and determine whether he/she/they are alone

The Dustbowl – In the depression era US, an orphaned young woman whose big city life has fallen apart inherits an inn from her uncle and moves to the middle of nowhere to try starting fresh; things get interesting. Started this (barely) as a solo GURPS game with Val. I still am quite attached to it, just never felt I had the time to focus on it because Northenden was taking all my brainpower in the summer (seriously).

VAGUE IDEAS
-A story told in fragments, different characters in different settings and genres, but they all relate to each other and form a cohesive whole. Again, interesting device.. need a story.
-Short film script about… something. Russ said I should write something that he could shoot. So I should. I mean this guy has mad skillz. Opportunity!
-Should paint something again…
-More songofthedays. those are good for stretching the writing muscles.