is two guys collaborating to write on writing and collaboration.

Thursday
Mar 02, 2006

Round 7.8 [Rachel, My Dear v. Methane Madness] posted by Martin

So, now I have to figure out how I could change Methane Madness to make it more attractive to me than Rachel, My Dear.

Well, as ironic as it sounds (since I usually start broad and get specific), I actually think we’re too broad with Methane Madness. I realize that much of the information was back story, and not intended for the page, but I still feel the need to get myopic on our character. Let me start here by giving him a bio, and a name.

Dr. Zheng James McNab is a scientist doing research on atmosphere, specifically on a new brand of oxygen tank that is refillable through small fissile reactions with methane. These miniature, contained nuclear reactions take place in a pack the size of a hockey puck and fill 30 air tanks or so. This allows workers to stay in the vacuum of space for long periods of time with renewable oxygen. Same for underwater experiences. Zheng gives a talk in which he claims that this process can work on a large scale, terra forming entire planets. He is warned by his bosses to not attempt such a thing, since it is consider too dangerous. But, he knows great rewards would come to him if he could succeed.

He sets up a lab in his home and gets to work, using improvised equipment and occasionally sneaking research into the better funded lab where he works. He knows that if he can complete this item, he will be famous beyond words.

He works tirelessly, but working nights and days has its toll on him, and he starts becoming delusional. During one such event his carelessness sets off a nuclear reaction that reverses the process and changes all the breathable air for a large radius into methane. Zheng, working in the lab with safety equipment, lived through the event, but thousands die. On trial he is sentenced to life on the prison planet, an orr mine ironically located on a methane atmosphere planet.

So, that’s my background. Important points: his motivation is greed and personal acclaim, and we’re not relying on the old “corporation” saw. It also, really, IS his fault. He is a flawed character. Maybe we even make him a bit more evil. Point is, I think it should be clear that his punishment isn’t unfair, per se. Actually, for a twist, it would be kind of fun to portray the government and corporations as kind of good fatherly figures who tried to help him from hurting himself and others, but they failed. Sure, it’s totally unreal, but hey—this IS a fictional world after all.

To sum: if we had a nearly unredeemable character and then a myopic goal that shuns all else, I could start to wrap my head around it. Then, we need some kick ass sub plots to pick it up and make it interesting. Okay—that’s my first stab at it. Dunno if it changes my mind, but it’s a closer vote this way. What say you?

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What is Spitball!?

Spitball! is two guys collaborating to write about writing and collaboration. We're writing partners who have worked together since 2000, and placed in the top 100 in the last Project Greenlight for our script YELLOW.

Currently, we are both working on multiple screenplay, short story, and novel ideas independently and together, and collaborate on this blog.

What Spitball! used to be

Spitball! started as an attempt to collaborate on a screenplay online in real time. From January 2006 to July 2007 we worked on an interactive process to decide the story we were going to make. A full postmortem is coming, but you can find the find all the posts by looking in the category Original Version.

During this period, we affected the personalities of two of the most famous spitball pitchers from the early 20th Century. Look at our brief bios for more info about this, and so as not to be confused as to who is talking when.

We rebooted the franchise in early 2009 in its current form.


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Kent M. Beeson

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Kent M. Beeson (aka Urban Shockah) is a stay-at-home dad and stay-at-home writer, living in Seattle, WA with his wife, 2 year old daughter and an insane cat. In 2007, he was a contributor to the film blog ScreenGrab, where he presciently suggested Jackie Earle Haley to play Rorschach in the Watchmen movie, and in 2008, he wrote a film column for the comic-book site ComiXology called The Watchman. (He's a big fan of the book, if you couldn't tell.) In 2009, he gave up the thrill of freelance writing to focus on screenplays and novels, although he sometimes posts to his blog This Can't End Well, which a continuation of his first blog, he loved him some movies. He's a Pisces, and his favorite movie of all time is Jaws. Coincidence? I think not.

Martin McClellan

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Martin (aka Burley Grymz) is a designer and writer. He occasionally blogs at his beloved Hellbox, and keeps a longer ostensibly more interesting bio over here at his eponymous website. You can also find him on Twitter.