(Week 34: August 18 – 24)
Another week, another couple of rewrites. The first one is a story I wrote a couple of years ago, and which changed a fair bit during the writing process. Perhaps because of this, the final story never seemed quite right to me: a case of the journey working, but several of the steps feeling like they needed work. Once I’d finished the story, I parked it; and this week I finally came back to it.
Once again, the first half of the story was already pretty tight, but it was the ending that needed the most work. I’d already attempted two versions of the ending and was never quite satisfied with either. This reread, however, put a few images in my head which helped reshape the story’s conclusion. I also managed to trim down a few scenes (just a hundred words here or there, but every word counts) and generally tighten up a few scenes.
The other story was one that I already think is probably one of the best I’ve ever written (and may ever write). Reassuringly there were hardly any edits needed to this one; in fact, I can only think of a single noteworthy change that I made (to make the gender of the narrator a little more ambiguous). Hopefully this means that the story I as good as I hope it is, and not just that my judgement is blinded in this case.
Watching
It’s been another week of rewatches, some of which are worth a quick note.
On Friday we introduced the Elderbeast to the original Friday The 13th, and he seemed to enjoy the experience. I still find this a fascinating movie. It very much takes what Black Christmas and Halloween have already done and doesn’t particularly add anything original, but it does earn its place in movie history for the role it plays in cementing the slasher movie as a standard horror genre.
It’s also a deceptively well made film. It pushes the tropes of the slasher movie about as far as you can, while still remaining a slasher movie, and has some stunning cinematography at times. It’s only really let down (at times) by the low budget.
Over the weekend, the Kinderbeast was finally able to check out Avengers: Endgame. Having now watched it a third time, I think my opinion has flipped back a little. It is still a little on the long side, and it does still have a couple of missteps, but the plot does its best to get to where it needs to go without too much wastage. I can’t think of much that I would cut out, and the film genuinely makes you feel like you’ve been on a journey: I was somewhat exhausted and overwhelmed (in the emotional sense) following this third viewing. Either way, regardless of any criticisms I might have of Endgame, it’s still all worth it for that last hour.
A casual remark by the Elderbeast during the week prompted me to introduce him to The Big Lebowski. I’m very proud to say that he loved it, and completely connected with the Coens’ oddball sense of humour. One thing I realised during this rewatch (and I feel very late to this party) is that The Big Lebowski is essentially a classic pulp noir thriller—it’s only a few heartbeats away from being a Mickey Spillane tale—but put it through the Coens’ filter and it becomes something unique. Adding to that is the casting, which I think is absolutely perfect. It’s one of those films that I’m already looking for an excuse to watch again.
Reading
This week I finished listening to the very excellent Conception Of Fear, and commenced the very long wait for an announcement of Volume Two. I was also very excited to discover that there’s a bonus episode of the Chernobyl podcast, for which they brought on Jared Harris to discuss his role and reflect on the success of the series. Sadly, there will not a be a second season of Chernobyl (at least, you kinda hope there wouldn’t be) but it was nice to have this little epilogue to enjoy.