The premise

Told you I was crap. I've been meaning to write another post for a while but haven't been inspired. Although, saying that, I have a draft post with topics that I'd like to write about, but most of those are rather lengthy and I've not had time to cover any of them.

I'm writing this today with no real aim in mind, so I guess I'll just see where it goes. I have a problem with writing, which is to say I really enjoy it, but I think the part I really enjoy is thinking of ideas. Musing on topics, deciding where I stand, generally mulling things over. I love coming up with the premise for things, kind of "Hey! What if we had two characters like this and they did that and then THIS happened to them? That would be so cool!" That's the bit I like.

The actual act of writing kind of scares me, at least until I do it. Maybe 'scares' is the wrong word. I have this problem with doing things, in that I procrastinate wildly at the mere thought of getting things done and I'm not 100% sure why. It's like when I learned the piano as a kid - I loved playing the piano, but the thought of doing lessons or practising put me instantly into this wierd frame of mind that I get into and I would rather do anything but play the piano, even homework. Once I got there of course I loved it. (I later gave up after not very long for extremely stupid and childish reasons, but I was a kid after all.) It's like I get a kind of mental block. You know how some people rebel against any kind of authority? I'm kind of like that. I loathe being told what to do and will often do the exact opposite, even to my own detriment and just to spite the person, rather than comply. If someone ASKS me to do something, that's fine and 99.9% of the time I will be happy to do as they ask, but if they tell me - well my rebellion gland kicks in. It's incredibly stupid and something I'm working on changing about myself because I can see how self defeating it can be. I'm doing better, but I'm not quite 'there' yet.

In my head I'm extremely prolific - at the moment alone I have 3 unfinished songs, several very short animation tests worked out, a short animated film of about 3 minutes, 2 short stories, one novel (a big novel too and pretty complicated plot-wise so I've been told,), a screenplay for a horror film, 2 comic strips and one graphic novel, a bunch of material for a stand up routine and a rough outline of a sitcom and possibly other stuff that I'm forgetting right at the moment.

The short stories have both been basically begun, the animation stuff has a 3d character just waiting to be completed in order to actually start animating, the comic strips have had a few ideas and sketches jotted down, the novel I actually worked on last night for the first time in months...
It's all been started but after a while I falter. I come up with (what I think is,) a great idea for something, get really excited about it, think about it a lot, work stuff out, talk to friends about it and start it, only to get bogged down or otherwise sidetracked and end up putting it to one side, to 'come back to it later.' John Lennon once said, "Life is what happens while you're making other plans." and it's my favourite quote because it's so true and well observed.

I sometimes wonder if I had the time and money to sit down and complete these projects, would I? If I couldn't blame lack of time from having to go to work and I had enough money to do it would I actually sit down and get some of this stuff finished or would I just get bored again and end up watching DVD's and surfing the net?

What would be just perfect would be if I could find a job where I just had to come up with ideas for things - books, films, comics, whatever. Just give them the premise of it - along with a rough plot, some character descriptions and maybe a few pages of dialogue, (I like writing dialogue,) so they could gain more of an insight into the characters and how they interact. Then they would pay me a large sum of money and I would act as a consultant on the project, watching over other artists, writers etc, going "no, see they have a bigger head than that," or "no, that's more a line for THIS character, see?" and other helpful comments. No one would mind because I was the guy who came up with the idea in the first place.

So if any film companies/animation studios/publishers need an 'ideas guy', then don't hesitate to get in touch. Really. Post a comment with contact details and I'll be in touch.

*sigh*

While I'm wishing, I'd like a better car too...

Well, at least I got a post written.