Screenwriting on a friggin typewriter
blanketsin is a creative writing blog showcasing calligraphy, pinhole photography and illustrations, aside from scriptwriting
About Bierde Stone
The Devil's advocate is a Cicero typewriter
Early in the computer revolution, I heeded the warnings about identity theft and created most of my social media accounts under zany names. Over time, the appeal of anonymity permeated into the idea of publishing under a pseudonym. Bier de Stone seemed like a catchy, easy to remember name and I felt that the monkish beverage would appeal
Early in the computer revolution, I heeded the warnings about identity theft and created most of my social media accounts under zany names. Over time, the appeal of anonymity permeated into the idea of publishing under a pseudonym. Bier de Stone seemed like a catchy, easy to remember name and I felt that the monkish beverage would appeal to my readers. How has that been working out for me? It is what it is.
I love dismantling theories, ideas, conspiracies in general. Like the name Alan Smithee, the meaning behind a name significantly affects the work. Early computers didn’t have the bells and whistles they have now. One day, in an effort to create a yearly calendar, I discovered that computers are all programmed to have a core algorithm enabling them to create accurate calendars, and that is when I learned of the transition from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian calendar.
It seems, a 28 year cycle repeats itself in such a way that a calendar for the year 1982 could effectively be reused in the year 2010. So I used an old manual typewriter to create a table for when the first Saturday of each month fell on in any given year. However, it isn’t full proof and because millennium years not divisable by 4 will skip leap year, this system becomes dubious.
TMTWNGM acronym for branding
tmtwngm (an acronym for The Movie That Will Never Get Made) seemed like a fun way to portray the essence of my writing. Technically meant to go viral as a hashtag, it is the user name for a livejournal community of screenwriting enthusiasts. The genre of screenwriting is still popular with many blogs and websites catering to writers inter
tmtwngm (an acronym for The Movie That Will Never Get Made) seemed like a fun way to portray the essence of my writing. Technically meant to go viral as a hashtag, it is the user name for a livejournal community of screenwriting enthusiasts. The genre of screenwriting is still popular with many blogs and websites catering to writers interested in learning the craft.
I try to inspire writers to reduce their screen time in front of a computer and focus more on their hard copy manuscripts. Many of the writing forums on the Internet reveal members attempting to share their writing ineffectively because of formatting setbacks. In other words, formatting a facebook entry with scriptlike indentions for character and dialog is near impossible. Fortunately, scanning a formatted script was the easy solution.
In the early stages of the blog, my scripted entries were comprised of typical blog entries reviewing other websites, movies, books, etc. all in the format of a screenplay. While the formatting issue was solved this way (scanning jpeg files), the next issue was how to share links to interesting websites the way regular html hyperlink formatted text can designate. This was the extent of my html code learning process. Although it showed no relevance to what an actual full length feature film script encompasses, it did wonders for organizing my writing technique. I’ll often use my shared scripts as bookmarks for plotting and organizing my stories.
How’s that working out for you? Not too bad. The other day I was completely mesmerized when I stumbled onto a scene in a movie that resembled very much something I had written and shared on the blog. I accepted the advice for struggling writers that, if one day you find that your original writing was used elsewhere, it only means you’re on the right track.
The rotary cuckoo gesture of research
The rotary cuckoo gesture of research
This is my typewriter Molly. I don’t know why I named her that as the keyboard for this particular typewriter has got a dead key for the tilde & acute accent mark, typical accents for Spanish. I learned to type on this machine before owning a computer. I even took a typing class in college where they used IBM selectric typewriters. The ke
This is my typewriter Molly. I don’t know why I named her that as the keyboard for this particular typewriter has got a dead key for the tilde & acute accent mark, typical accents for Spanish. I learned to type on this machine before owning a computer. I even took a typing class in college where they used IBM selectric typewriters. The keyboards were only slightly different on the electric typewriters, and it did not hinder my typing speed.
After buying my first computer, I remember researching ways to reconfigure the QWERTY board for the computer to match my Cicero typewriter Molly but that venture never took hold. Subsequent computers to the Apple Performa claimed to be easier to reconfigure the keyboard, but even then, the technical aspects of it were beyond my scope of knowledge. When smart phones began to appear, I disconnected my LAN line. The old black phone I had gotten from my father’s work had been gifted to him by his boss. He had worked in a clothing store with a tailor whom, adopted as his father figure, experienced the holocaust first hand.
When I got my first place, family values went out the window and I converted the dining room into an office space. I have a drafting table for drawing and illustrations, my computer desk, a small typing table with an IBM Selectric 3, printer, scanner, etc. A cork board covers the wall with index cards describing plot points, act structure, character arcs, scene breakdowns and more. All printed in black letter with calligraphy pens and waterproof ink.
