The Rough Draft

Well it’s been an interesting last few months. I’d like to say it’s been a period of personal growth and getting a ton of writing done but I’d be lying through my teeth.

Since the middle of November my life has been in a sort of freefall and due to certain month to month contractual issues, that just became a motnhly roller coaster where it became impossible to plan anything. Which of course spilled over into my writing. Bringing the whole shebang to pretty much a grinding halt. Couple this with mixed signals from my agent and it all becomes a recipe for fast setting career concrete.

But then two things happened.

I’ve always been a bit of a bike nut, motorbikes that is. I’ve been riding in one form or another for the last seventeen years or so. My first bike was a 1985 Yamaha DT175. It was a nimble and responsive, a good starter bike, that pretty much solidified my love of dual sport motorcycles. Of course I was young and CC’itis took over my fevered brain for a bit and I bought a 1981 Kawasaki KH400. Like my DT it was also a two stroke, unlike my DT it was not nimble but it was responsive, once the Tach was past ten thousand RPM. I can see where the engineers at Kawasaki were going when they designed the KH and not too many bikes could hold with me off the line. Unfortunately, Kawasaki had pitched the pistons forward on the bike at about a twenty five degree angle. So you had these three pistons aimed just above the front wheel. The centrifical force was so great that the bike would take off like a missile in a straight line but it was very hard to lean into a corner short of getting off and pushing it over. It was also a gas pig and even in the eighties, I just couldn’t afford to feed it. It’s still living in a friend’s garage. One day we’ll pull it out and restore it, by then it’ll be an antique. But I digress. My next bike was a good old 1990 Yamaha XT600. Yep back to the Dual Sports but this time I went for a four stroke. The power band is fun but the constant jerking as it kicks in gets to me. I rode that XT for the next twelve years. It got regular oil changes and a few replacement parts along the way but it never let me down.

When I moved to Toronto, I felt that the XT would be at a disadvantage on the highways out here. Had I known then what I know now, I’d have kept the bike but I didn’t so I sold it. It’s now having a very nice second life as a race bike. The sale however left me without a bike for the last three years.

I picked up an old 1975 CB360T but could just never get the thing to work well for me. Which of course leads to frustration and eventually a sold motorbike. And yes, me bikeless again.

But a friend of mine had been tinkering with a 1982 Yamaha Seca 550 all winter and had gotten it running pretty well. He, thanks to the ridiculous insurance laws of Ontario can’t really afford to insure the bike. He was also in need of freeing up some space. I had the cash… It was all good.

And the bike is now mine.

But what has all of this got to do with writing, your life, and all of that other crap you’ve been going on about?

I’m glad you asked.

I’m just in the midst of reading, “The Long Way Round.” By Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman. It’s about an around the world trip they took through a good chunk of the former Soviet Republics. No I’m not going off of the track again… In the book Ewan talks about what it feels like to ride a bike. The anonymity of being behind the helmet. The need for absolute focus to avoid being killed by people in their cars doing stupid shit. In a time of not being able to focus on anything, it was a real wake up call.

And man was it freeing. For a change, you’re not thinking about any of that other shit and gives you the break you need.

So I’m starting slow, with a polish on a script my agent thinks has some promise. Next is to finish off a rough draft on a spec I’ve been working on. There’s a couple of other things after that. I’ll let you know.

Right now I’m just working the throttle.

I don’t mean to go off on a rant here but I’m sick to death of every producer and director want to be playing, “Let’s rip off the writer.”

I check out the various job boards just because you never know, something may catch my fancy. Ninety nine point nine percent of the time I see a job posting (and I use the word loosely here) that goes like…

Young upcoming director building his reel. I can’t pay you but I’ll give you a credit in the film and I’ll be entering it in every festival I can.

(Which really translates into; I, having no real narrative talent of my own, would like you to write me something to shoot, so I can use a bunch of terminology I learned in film school but never really grasped the meaning of, to take your written work and film it in such a clueless and soulless way as to render it unwatcheable by everybody, except dead people)

Or

Producer looking for the next big film, we can’t pay you but the writer will have to take our idea and make it into something really great. We’ll give you a credit but no cash.

(Which translates into; I fancy myself a bit of a writer but can’t seem to fit the actually writing bit into my busy schedule of trying to get people to invest money in my cliche ridden and derivative film ideas. I’d like you to chip in a free script and rewrites so I can make money off the back of your labors)

Now of course these are exagerations but not by much and sure we’ve all written stuff on spec and not been paid for it to build our own reels but the difference for me at least was, I knew the projects were getting made and I also knew where they were going. If you must work on a deferred project make sure you have it in writing that you will be paid after principal costs have been recovered. Producers and directors who want the oscar winning script for free are usually a bunch of fucking hacks who will not be able to bring any part of your script to life in any way. In short, they will butcher it beyond recognition and you won’t be so hot to get that credit up there with your name on it either.

Now I of course don’t want to cast any sort of dim light on producers and directors who build active teams out there. People like that, though tend to stick to their own circles and will only bring somebody in when everybody can vouch for everybody else. They are also usually offering money when a budget is confirmed. So yes it’s deffered but only until they budget is there.

Now I know, some of you will succumb to the reel builders and the false producers, all I ask is that you keep your ears and eyes open and give nothing away in writing unless it’s to your advantage to do so. One trick i used to use was they could own the story (if it was their idea) but I owned script. That way nobody could move without the other. Sad that that’s what it comes to sometimes.

I’m Steve Abbott and I’m waiting to sell out.