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Reflections of a writer director

Lee Hall Leave a comment

I write this current blog entry after what has been a pretty damn disheartening week for me. Before I spend words moaning at life being hard and all I would like to say that this piece isn’t directed at anyone personally other than myself.
Although it would be easy to use social media as a vessel for sending subliminal messages I am very much an adult and won’t do such things. More over I would rather use this blog page as a way of just venting my current feelings and mood towards things.
First off let me just talk about my writing situation, this is a blog so nobody can interrupt, basically shut up and listen.

Since November I switched departments at work in order to chase better opportunities and more money.  Doing so meant that I no longer work Monday to Friday with weekends off. My work pattern is rather sporadic at best and gives no real stable routine. Something which my writing thrives under, or used to anyway. Gone are the days where I could come home and begin writing at six all the way through to half ten at night. Those times where I really learnt my craft and I look back on them as one great lesson in penning words.
Now my time is way more valuable, not only for me to write but to spend time with my nearest and dearest and of course to actually sleep. Saying that my writing in the past five months has reached a rather diabolically slow pace. If I am completely honest the current book I am trying to draft is a complete and utter shambles. Some of you are probably saying really is it that bad? My angle is that I don’t want to sell a shitty book, which is what it currently is.

Maybe I have just taken it a bridge too far especially after the last book I drafted literally flowed like water and in a matter of months it was done. Foolishly I thought maybe I could repeat that again by just going with a few loose plot points and deciding the take it from there. Perhaps an arrogant approach from me.

There seems to be a complete lack of inspiration for me right now which is holding my creativity down below the surface of rather stormy waters. Maybe in the books I have previously written I was just lucky to have the story already there, but with this project is just a brick wall. It’s frustrating as hell because I want this so damn much and there is some awesome points that this story could shine with.

Only if I can unlock the links between these few great moments is becoming an ever such a hard task.
More than once have I almost walked away from this project, but a very deep need to succeed and get it done is holding me onto it. Somewhere my inspiration lies, but where I still haven’t found out.  I don’t watch much tv these days which is one of my many vessels of inspiration for ideas, lets face it, UK Netflix sucks a big dong.

It’s been over a week since I even looked at the book I am trying to write and as that time increases it fills me with zero remorse for walking away. We’ll see.
To add to my already frustration and lack of writing inspiration for the new book, this week I was forced to make a decision which has caused my conscience to remain a little unsettled. Being a first time writer director of a play so far has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever done in life but saying that, this week I had to make a rather difficult decision. Maybe it has even cut a friendship from my life, I do hope that isn’t the case.

Things were pushed a little too far in my mind and action had to be taken, deep down I feel a little remorse but the in the long run if I want something to be successful sometimes a small sacrifice is worth the reward. I will do anything to ensure my writing isn’t put at jeopardy and the fantastic cast I have, my team which I cannot let down. Making this decision truly is best for business, but where do friends come in business. Only time will take its course for me to know that.

Until then I will try to throw myself back into writing a book which my heart really isn’t in. Maybe that’s a subliminal method approach seeing as it’s about vampires.

Batman Vs Superman: Review

Lee Hall 1 Comment

The world’s journalists have spoken and you would think they themselves had been injured due to Superman saving the world, because all I have heard over the past week is just bad things about Batman VS Superman : Dawn of Justice.

Screw what they think, its time for me to tell you as it is! (gee I wish someone could do this for the whole EU stay or go debate) so sit down and shut up.

Firstly before going into the cinema we know that it should have been Christian Bale as Batman. Considering the last three films were him, it makes perfect sense for them to do that. Nope, The Dark Knight trilogy are not super hero films. They are not the same frequency shall we say as Man of steel was. Nolan did a fantastic job and they were great, as a stand alone but that is not the Batman who should face off with the Superman we have now been introduced to.

That ladies and gentlemen is why DC comics feel they have to compete with Marvel by bringing or rushing out their version of the Avengers. Batman has spent most of Marvel’s rise in the hands of Nolan and a separate entity. Batman is also the signature hero in all of this.

showdown

On to the actual film.

As this is a new Batman, we are straight away introduced by way of flashbacks to the Wayne family funeral and that fateful night outside of a theater in downtown Gotham. Our new Bruce Wayne discovers the bat cave and then we see him as an adult in the form of Ben Affleck.

This is a Bruce Wayne after the Gotham years, his time as the caped crusader and kicking ass has dwindled slightly and the film currently sits after the Joker and other friends presumably. (One would also presume Suicide Squad is based some time in the twenty years of him being Batman and the man of Steel arriving, there is an Easter egg in the bat cave)

From the beginning, Affleck is the right choice. He looks the part as a brooding now older man and gives the caped crusader a more rugged appeal. Even though the directors choice to throw a few odd nightmare style sequences in, our Batman seems solid. As we come to the modern day, the perspective is of the people caught up in the final battle from Man of Steel. Bruce Wayne witnesses the destruction of a financial building he owns and a lot of people die.

The theme quickly evolves into society not really being sure whether or not to have someone like superman, perceived as a God, seemingly doing what he wants, but mainly saving people like Lois Lane. There’s a political edge to the debate and it leaves room for the argument of whether us people should have something to defend ourselves against him or ‘others’ like him.

Que the green stuff, of kryptonite if your technical about these things.

As always in these films and in America, big business and Politics seem to merge. Introducing Lex Corp and of course it’s unhinged mildly autistic owner Lex Luthor. Jessie Eisenberg stole the show for me in this film. He played to the unhinged and oddity of his character ever so well. Even though he is a weakling compared to most super heroes, he holds all the power in just his demeanor alone.

Lex Luthor, as the story goes, wants to get him some of the green stuff and tries to weaponise it. Of course, that’s what all modern big businesses want to do these days, the likes of google, Facebook and you tube, why should Lex corp be no different?  The government kinda see through his plans and then things start to get a little messy.

Paraphrasing here, as it is a long film. Much of the time spent introducing an adequate Batman to face off the existing Superman in which Henry Cavill is just as solid. Lex Luthor entices or maybe manipulates things so Batman and Superman have an ultimate showdown, which was everything I could possibly imagine as a fight.

As all true heroes realize neither of them are the enemy and the true enemy is Lex and the now abomination monster type thing he has unleashed (watch the film to save me from explaining this bit). Together along with Wonder woman, who played a relatively sizable part throughout the film, dropping in here and there, joined the party.

In conclusion the film as a whole was a daring and somewhat successful attempt to trump Marvel. In all senses it did. I would pay to see less comic book films if they were more like this. The humor was sharp and less obvious, things were a little darker and felt more real. There is a hell of a lot to take in for one film as there is at least five different story arcs happening and they are all intertwined. The introduction of other Justice League heroes came with a slight subtlety and looks like the direction this film franchise will go.

 Unlike many films, you’ve seen it once and that’s it. I can see myself watching this again for sure. 

Every named and known character from both franchises was played well and up to the expectation of me anyway. The ending seemed a little weird, but overall I thought the whole thing was enjoyable, watchable and coherent as a story.

Finally the two most well known heroes have faced off, and it wasn’t too bad. Definitely not as bad as some idiot journalist or even worse professional film critics were saying. Either way they wont ruin the experience as it took over 400 million worldwide!

Trust my Own Words

Lee Hall Leave a comment

Much of a writer’s life is spent in solitude without anything really newsworthy happening. I say this because this year has been a productivity struggle in terms of new material, and my fortitude and faith in writing has been truly tested.

Without going too far into a back story (which seems to be a habit of mine in writing), last year I took a heart heavy decision to drop a series that failed to find any sort of publication via the search for the ‘traditional’ way to be published. Writing a series without having the first book out there became like playing a broken record. Inside me there was still a burning desire to have the world read my work and maybe they’ll read that one day, but I had to start fresh and look within for another story, a new story.

Some time ago as a teen I had begun a story inspired by my school life and a dream that I had. Over ten years later Open Evening was born. A book that seemed incredibly easy for me to write as it was all there in my head, I just had to decipher it onto page. So I did and after some organisation, it will be published this September.

I chose to make this book so I can officially arrive as an author without ‘throwing’ away my original series books if it be a failure. At the same time I can build a following so the series can one day have a readership base. Having done all I can with Open Evening for now, I took the decision to try an put together another story.

Drafting began in late December and as of today it sits at 30,000 words. Somehow I have got this far. But why so slow you ask? A combination of things ultimately have led to this. One is work. I’m a shift worker now so a structure which writing thrives on is out of the window.

Secondly is the decision I have made to tell this story. Most of which I don’t really know. Yes very much of it is being made up on the spot. Previously with Open Evening and the series I knew exactly what was going to happen. This time I don’t.

The genre sits tidily between young adult and another, which I won’t say just yet. But its a proven formula for book sales and of course the originality of an idea which ultimately twists the genre into my own. Something which you will see in Open Evening. There are some really cool original concepts intertwined with the familiar.

All of the stories in the world have already been told. How you tell them is what makes them original in this age.

So slowly I have reached a sort of halfway point. One very important concept in this book is what I am hanging onto and thus built the rest around. My drive to finish this thing has never been higher. As previously said I have to go after this if I want it. I’ve just got to find my faith in writing again and more importantly. Trust my own words.

When I get closer to a finish of drafting, hopefully before the summer. I will announce the title and basic premise this book. Until then I shall disappear back into my words with hope they will turn into something more.