#8 WGA Strike

So... Writer's Guild of America strike. It's an easy opt out to say it doesn't involve me, it's not even in my country, why bother about it?

But the fact is that Hollywood and LA remain the centre of the entertainment world, at least for the US and Europe. Many of the films and TV shows I watch originate there. And besides that, if people can get away with not paying thier writers in Hollywood, maybe other similar places like Bollywood will be tempted to follow suit.

You may not have heard much about this. You should think very carefully about who owns the majority of the papers and the news.

Anyway, lots of people who know more than I do and who say it better have been busy blogging about why they support the strike. Two of the best posts I've seen are from Doris Egan, who currently works on House and Joss Whedon of Buffy and Firefly fame. Diane Duane, a sci-fi and fantasy author has a rather good video posted on her blog.

There have been various videos... (Blogger sadly seems to have some objection to me embedding them)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_ydTaPQw-c

Is quite a good one (another one Diane Duane found)

Ken Levine has written a lovely Simpson's scene on the subject.

If I haven't persuaded you to follow any of these links, a simple summary is this. Writers would like to be paid for the work they've done. In exchange for taking the issue of DVDs off the table (current rate: 4 cents per DVD is what I've heard, though not sure how accurate that is), they were promised a discussion of new media, of the internet (Current rate: 0 cents for anything.). Turns out, the various people who run these companies think that they might not make money from the internet. So... you know, why pay writers? The promised discussion never really took place.

I would like to think that most people are now aware that actors don't make up their own lines. I would like to think most people would acknowledge that writers make their favourite movie or whatever the way it is. More people are following writers these days, as a guide to TV programmes that they'll like, Joss Whedon's following being an example of that (or Aaron Sorkin for that matter). Although they are less visible and it's harder for them to do, say, what the cast of Friends did and threaten to walk away if they weren't paid more, I hope that people would notice if the writing quality of something suddenly nose dived, just as they would notice if Jennifer Aniston and co were suddenly not in Friends.

Ok, things you can do. Supporters are welcome on the picket lines, should you happen to be in the US and near one of these things. And you know, wouldn't it be pretty cool to hang out with these people, even if it wasn't for a good cause? The WGA digest gives you news and fans4writers have a list of things to do, including donating to their fund to keep the picket lines well fed. while I'm not a fan of petitions, there's one to sign.

They aren't asking for a tropical island somewhere or a private jet. They want enough to feed their kids. Think of your favourite movie, your favourite line. Somebody wrote that. Chances are, they were a WGA member. Chances are they were paid a pittance for it. How much do you think that line is worth? Now there are lots of things that contribute to a good movie, or TV show. But words are what make it. If you don't have those and you don't value those, then you have nothing but a room full of lights and people, waiting for something to happen. If the industry can't learn to value words then we have a lot of crappy TV to look forward to.

#7 Why I hate my story

This is my story so far. I'm more or less on target as far as the word count goes.

But I hate it. I keep trying to make myself like it, and there are bits that are ok, but... no. I'm bored of it. I don't feel there's anything exciting to look forward to, so I can't even make myself just get through the next bit because... there's only a lot more like it to come. Argh.

Anyway, I am going to keep writing it. I'm going to hit 50K, though the story is planned out to 80K, so it won't actually be finished then. Maybe I'll abandon that planning scheme to try and make it more exciting. *yawn*

But so far as the discipline of actually sitting down and writing nearly 2K every day goes... I've done pretty good. Way better than last year. Last year it took me most of my evening to get my writing done. This year, I sit down and do it in a couple of hours and get the rest of the day to myself.

I'm planning post-NaNo things to keep me going. This is not so much a blog post as me trying to encourage myself to open the thing up and do some more writing...