In some heists the floor is hot lava. In others you can scamper right across the lobby. Here are 5 misc. things I’ve learned thus far on the genre and the process of writing.
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Tom Cruise, Mission Impossible (1996)
Image: Paramount Pictures
from: https://www.esquireme.com/content/29113-tom-cruises-most-dangerous-mission-impossible-stunts
On Heists:
If you watch a lot of heist movies you’ll notice that the key to the script is picking the one most interesting entry problem for the crew to solve. Pick a few if you’d like, then treat the rest like old hat. For example, in some heists touching the floor is hot lava (Top. Kapi, Mission Impossible). In others they scamper right across the lobby but have to dance through a laser field (Entrapment, Ocean’s 12). There is no wrong choice as to which obstacles you make hard or easy as long as you set it up.
On Writing:
2. For someone not coming from any type of professional writing experience, it would have been more realistic to think of tackling this first book as if enrolling in an undergraduate degree (that I would actually study for). And viewing my first publication like getting a summer internship. I originally thought this would be more like a one-year crash course, after which I would become the CEO of Goldman Sachs. I guess that’s why it’s called a career.
3. Naiveté is a good thing. It really helps to think what you’re working on will make you a million bucks (I still do). That is great fuel. Premium grade. It’s for the love too, I swear. It can be both.
Vincent Cassel, Ocean's 12 (2004)
Image: Warner Bros. Pictures
4. (I’ve said this one before) I simultaneously believe I will sell a million copies of this book and fifty copies. Both scenarios. This of course is impossible but it's healthy to believe. The only way to bridge where I will actually land on the spectrum is to publish and then assess why. Then try again.
5. For my skill level, it is a good return on life investment to spend an hour or two (or whatever I can) really early in the morning or really late at night working on this. Every extra hour beyond the 1 or 2 has rapidly diminishing returns. Said differently, it wouldn’t help if I could work all day on the novel. It’s more like going to the gym.
Here's 2 more:
Sean Connery, Entrapment (1999); Laser training scene for Catherine Zeta Jones
Image: 20th Century Fox
From: https://www.themoviescene.co.uk/reviews/entrapment/entrapment.html
6. It is actually a bad return on investment to work too much because it comes at the expense of other things, like family and friends.
7. Sometimes I eat crumbs I find on the counter and its almost always food.
That's what I got this week my friends. Happy Friday,
Charlie
--
Hollywood Heist Tracker (expected pub: Late 2021)
(you can checkout the Hollywood Heist backlot here)
You can see I've nearly fallen into a pattern on this 5th (6th) revision of Act 1 since January: 1-2 chapters per week. I wonder sometimes if the quality of this latest revision is what a decent writer might produce on his/her first draft?
Maybe I should say what a 'more seasoned' writer could produce, that way I can aspire to this.
I will go through Act 1 one more time after this. Now that all the logic is finally in place it will be (I hope) more of a read-through than a re-write. I did notice that some of my jokes were better when I reverted the lines back to what I originally had in the first place. This leads me to believe that some editing is probably pointless.
“Be not afraid of going slowly. Be afraid only of standing still.” – Chinese proverb
The ~84K Manuscript (Ch's 1-64)
8/12/2021: Chapters 12,13
8/5/2021: Chapter 11
7/29/2021: Chapters 9,10
7/22/2021: Chapter 8
7/15/2021: Chapter 8
7/8/2021: Chapter 7
7/1/2021: Chapter 6
6/24/2021: Chapter 5
6/17/2021: Chapters 3,4
6/10/2021: Chapter 2c
6/3/2021: Chapters 2a, 2b
5/27/2021: Chapters 13, 14, 15 Line Edits
5/20/2021: Chapters 10, 11, 11b, 12 Line Edits - making sure the scenes turn
5/13/2021: Chapters 3,4,5,6,7,8,9 Line Edits - scrubbing the act for psychic distance
5/6/2021: Chapter 14, 15, 2a, 2b, 2c Line Edits - Meet the team & back to the opening
4/29/2021: Chapter 10, 11, 12, 13 Line Edits - the Jeff meeting
4/22/2021: Chapter 8, 9 Line Edits - Jenny at Home, back at work
4/16/2021: Chapter 7 Line Edits - Jenny at the Cabaret
4/8/2021: up to 24,233 (Ch’s 1-15) - Act I - working on line edits
4/1/2021: up to 24,233 (Ch’s 1-15) - Act I - Finally have the structure of the opening chapters down.
3/25/2021: up to 24,233 (Ch’s 1-15) - Act I
3/18/2021: up to 24,233 (Ch’s 1-15) - research, short bursts of edits, and relocating office
3/11/2021: up to 24,233 (Ch’s 1-15) - Big research week mining Blockbusters by Anita Elberse
3/4/2021; up to ~24,000 (Ch’s 1-15)
2/25/2021 up to 21,725 (Ch's 1-14)
2/18/2021: up to 17,703 (Ch's 1-11b)
2/11/2021: up to 13,384 (Ch's 1-10)
2/4/2021: up to 11,702 (Ch's 1-8)
1/28/2021: up to 6,414 (Ch's 1-6)
---[Editing Phase]---
1/21/2021: 83,613 Manuscript Complete
1/14/2021: 82,934
1/7/2021: 80,206
12/31/2020: 76,555
12/24/2020: 72,120
12/17/2020: 69,067
12/10/2020: 65,514
12/3/2020: 61,790
11/26/2020: 58,864
11/19/2020: 54,252
11/12/2020: 50,756
11/6/2020: 47,695
10/29/20: 42,097 (-250 in editing)
10/22/2020: 40,488 (-900 in editing)
10/15/2020: 38,327 (-887 in editing)
10/8/2020: 34,458
10/1/2020: 28.099
9/24/2020: 24,397
9/17/2020 19,167
9/10/2020 12,112
9/3/2020: 9,093
8/27/2020: 7,206
8/20/2020: 6.074
8/13/2020: 3,157
--reset, re-starting on draft 4---
8/7/2020: 0...
7/31/2020: forget the word tracker for now, alright?
7/24/2020: 11,373
7/17/2020: 11,373
7/10/2020: 11,373
7/3/2020: 7,955 words
Have some thoughts? Feel free to drop a comment or hit me up: charlie@charleskunken.com
Other Posts In The Hollywood Heist Series
Please judge.