Tag: reading

Worlds Finest.

Posted on by CV Whitfield

So, let’s pretend that history was slightly different.

It’s 1990. The world has just experienced Batman as a big budget (and dark) movie masterpiece. Fans are rejoicing and dancing in the streets. We’ve not been this excited since …. well, I don’t know…. but its BIG!

The intelligent minds and businessmen at Warner Brothers green light a sequel. Duh. Who wouldn’t, right? So work begins immediately on the next chapter. They call it Batman Returns. (Not sure why this was the title since its not like he went anywhere. Maybe they could have called it Batman Strikes Back. Nah, what’s he striking back at? It’s not like he lost at the end of the first movie. Maybe, Batman Again! Yeah, we get Batman AGAIN! That’s kinda dumb. It’s the title that doesn’t so much refer to the movie itself but to the audience to tell us, “hey! Batman RETURNS!!! Go buy tickets!”) [back on topic] The movie starts production but there’s one tiny difference….

Batman saves Gotham again. Bruce Wayne finds a stray black cat and he thinks of Catwoman with one life left. We pan up to see the Bat Signal and Catwoman pop her head up. Then the clouds of the signal are broken by something zooming through them. We cut to the credits. After a couple minutes the credits are interrupted – fade in to Wayne Manner. The Batmobile blasts out of the Batcave. A blur of red and blue flies into the frame and block the Batmobile – which slams on the bat brakes! We cut back to the thing blocking Batman’s path – It’s SUPERMAN! Christopher Reeve’s Superman. His blue eyes look down at the Batmobile as the roof slides open to see Batman poking his head out. Wide shot of Superman and Batman. Superman speaks, “Batman – or should I say Bruce Wayne (x-ray vision folks) – I need your help in Metropolis. I’ve got a problem right up your alley. See, there’s this little problem with an old Kryptonian computer….” Cut back to the credits. Fade out.

The style is beyond its time. But don’t discard it. Let’s also move forward on the assumption Superman III never happened in 1983 (or the bad Superman IV: Quest for Peace in 1987). Because the original story plot for Superman III was meant to be a story about Brainiac but due to budget constraints and a studio that demanded Richard Pryor be in a Superman film, we got what we…got. Warner Bros. begins production on the next block buster super-hero movie for release in 1995. The title: WORLD’S FINEST: Superman & Batman. Today, you could have just stuck to World’s Finest, but in the 80/90s you had to put the characters in the title or no one would know it was a Superman and Batman movie.

1995. World’s Finest opens starring Christopher Reeve and Michael Keaton in a double bill, and the fans go crazy. The movie breaks records. It destroys the 1993 record for Jurassic Park. Revolutionary special effects from Industiral Light & Magic creates a marvoulous Brainaic. Batman works to hack into the system and manipulate the ex-Kyptonian computer program. And Superman flies in just at the right moment to fling Brainaic and his ship toward the Sun! It sets up for a new status quo for super-hero films. And the world rejoices!

Oh I wish that were the way things went. Fanboys have always dreamt of a Reeve/Keaton team-up. It would have been stunning….it would have been legendary!

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Life Too Slow

Posted on by CV Whitfield

Our lives move so fast that it’s hard to slow down. There’s nothing wrong with going slow. I think it’s something we’ve lost in the evolution of our society.

We have been spoiled to get things now – right now! Today isn’t fast enough. I need it yesterday.

I realized how this impacted me so greatly while tried to each lunch at Steak n Shake yesterday. I had nothing to todo that day. I was calm and patiently waited to be seated. All was good. Our order was taken and I chatted with the wife and daughter. We were having a good time and hadn’t realized that our food hadn’t arrived and it had been 30 minutes. They were busy but we don’t get Steak n Shake often so we went back to talking. Then another 15 minutes passes. Still no food. This got me to thinking. How long is too long to wait for food? These are hamburgers and shakes not made to order steak and lobster ….

So at the 45 minute mark, we got up and walked out. They may not have noticed we left but oh well. Almost feel sorry for that food arriving to an empty table. We crossed the street and had our burritos within 10 minutes.

Is there a life too slow? I do like being able to wake up and just spend the day with no plan of attack. Wasting time doing the fun things — reading or sitting!

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Research. Read.

Posted on by CV Whitfield

Back in college, I had a writing instructor instill in her students – and me: to be a good writer, the writer must read. This is the key research of a writer – any writer.

So, I’ve taken this lesson and been using it for the last couple decades. I read novels on a regular basis. Sometimes, when working on my own stories, I may just read a few pages of a similar style/story/book. This will trigger the creative juices but it also gives me insight into how other writers produce pacing and structure to their story. Call it a confidence builder too.

While at the local Starbucks this morning, I placed a few pages of three novels in front of my wife. I asked her to read each. My goal was to see if she could see the obvious style differences. And the one instance of a writer that may have not been writing very long vs. an author that has honed their craft. One of the authors was a Nebula and Hugo Award winner, one was a standard popular author and one of them was a self published novel on Amazon. She quickly identified the self-published writer and immediately stopped reading. She knew (as did I) that it was so badly written it was hard to continue. Now, I’m not trying to belittle or insult the self-published author but it was very evident to both my wife and myself that this writer has not done the lesson I described in the first sentence of this blog.

So research isn’t just learning about locations, science, careers or the technicals needed to convenience the reader that you know what you’re writing about. Research can simply be reading other authors. After reading similar stories by other authors, analyze and review why the story worked? What didn’t work? Could it be better if something was done slightly different. What kept you reading? Was the characters or the pacing of the story that hooked you? These components will help you in your own writing. It has helped mine.

So my daily routine: get up, read for an hour, think about what I read and then sit and write for an hour. I’ve been distracted from this routine, but my new goal is 365 days of not deviating. Thus, I will not only produce more this year but advance my own style and art….

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