A documentation about writing the ultimate heist novel.
Get the full ‘Hollywood Heist’ Series here: charleskunken.com/hollywoodheist
I’m reading Robert Rodriguez’s ‘Rebel Without A Crew’ which is basically his blog-style account of how he made is first film, El Mariachi for $7,000 when he was in film school. Short story long is it ended getting bought by Hollywood and officially put him on the map.
He kept notes in real time as he went about making it, starting from how he offered his body up to medical experiments to fund the whole thing.
I think it’s so cool hearing him talk about being in the trenches with no money and absolutely dedicating himself all in to his art without having any clue it would turn out to be thing it did.
So I’m doing my own version as I go about figuring out how to write my first novel. The working title right now is Hollywood Heist. I just came up with that today.
I’m not saying I think anything big is going to come out of this. All I know is I’m just compelled to make this thing. I have to, I have no choice.
Alright I gotta go write my thousand words now. I’m on the manuscript stage. I write 1,000 words every morning and 1,000 words every afternoon. 2,000 a day. I’m at about 26,500. I think the first draft should be like 40,000 words. It’s sort of arbitrary but I threw that number at it to force myself to write a first draft of every type of scene I would need.
It’s god awful at this point but I’m not judging it. I’ve studied enough masters to know that this is what you’re supposed to do with a first draft. Get a hunk of clay onto the table. Then worry about molding it later.
It would be easy to get scared about how bad it is, but I’ve just read so many accounts of the first draft process that I don’t have any fear of that feeling.
Anyway, now I’m burning words. Gotta go.
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.