Some updates - Tyrants included

This is the penultimate blog post before I turn 34.

Hello.

How has your week been? I guess I should give some brief updates on my life. Maybe this is going to be a regular section of my blogging and then I can dive into whatever blog topic of the week.

OK....Kevin's 5 updates.

1. Day job has now gotten it's first 2 cases of Covid-19. We are now doing regular antigen tests and the office has been split into two shifts. Which means I am working next week from 7am to 1.45pm. Which is quite nice. I'm happy with finishing early. The following week I will work 2pm - 9pm which means some late night screenwriting will occur. I might even jump onto one or two Zoom/Clubhouse/ Twitter Spaces and chat to other writers?

2. Christmas present buying has stalled but I have a few more ideas. I still have to work out some things about one idea that I think would be good for Celine. But could be a waste of money too.

3. I smashed a rewrite of a zombie short. I'm very happy with it. I get it if people are thinking "meh, another zombie story, so what?" but I have gotten really good feedback on this one. Dare I add my voice to the scores of people who say "but my script is original".

4. It's taken a bit of time but I've figured out how to rewrite The Super Hero short. This short was number 5 on the #55Genres list. So far it's definitely a top three in what I've written. It's going well.

5. My pet peeve of the week: Writers who add a character into their script with the same name as themselves. Or a name that is hardly changed just a little but clearly still them. Like me writing about a protagonist "Gavin Rynne" who is a wonderful bounty hunter who women swoon over. Feck off! I'm sorry but why would you need to do that? Write a character that has certain parts of your personality? Sure! Write a character who is you? Nope, nope, sorry, why? I have named a character Kevin once and after typing his name the first time I proceeded to make him the worst, cringiest person possible as an act of self punishment.

Now onto whatever I am gong to talk about

THE TYRANTS IN TRAINING PODCAST

So far it's going great. I've had seven recordings at this stage. I hope to get 2 more done, at least, before I turn 34.

There have been such unique circumstances popping up from the tyranny of my guests. Dreamworks bought the naming rights to an island. The Vatican was nuked. Christmas was cancelled in Australia (briefly) Sheep Shearing warrior monks attacked Denmark. That's only a couple of events my guests have led their countries into.

It turns out some thing are common among rulers. So far:

• Canada has been attacked twice (or targeted for an attack)

• France attacked twice.

• Multiple volcano island nations.

• Bunker residencies for two rulers.

• All tyrants have agreed to have a senate. I guess everyone wants some form of elections for their citizens. Just not too much. Tyrants do want the power to stop senators when they get ambitious.

• Paul the incompetent finance guy has hurt every countries finances, unfortunately. Only once has Paul had his tyrant help him overcome the massive amount of work and stress he has been put under. More often than not Paul has been punished.

• Most tyrants have asked for their home to be situated in the foothills overlooking the capital. Or in a park. Nobody has yet asked for a penthouse or mansion or palace inside in the city. Nature is a big deal to these tyrants.

• Only one person has asked for their own self imposed scandal to include murder. Everyone else has admitted to something embarrassing that doesn't involve taking a life.

I hope to release these episodes every week. A Monday seems nice. So hopefully once I turn 34 I become a podcaster!

If you would like to jump onto the show as a guest then please email, or DM me on Twitter.

(I don't know what picture to add. So Celine, if you're reading his, why aren't we on holidays in Australia?!)

Oh....as an added bit...I browsed twitter to check on any screenwriting drama (which occurs far too often and most of the time nobody is sure what has happened)

So to update you: here is the news.

Mostly quite on the drama front. Someone (who has now set their account to private) seems to have suggested to a working screenwriter that she simply needs to write a killer screenplay if she wants to get employed again. Arrogant person may also have advised her on some new app to use. It's hard to piece the exact details together as I can't find the original tweet. After doing a little more looking into it, it seems the person is the type who comments about !thin skinned dumbasses" a lot. So it is a bit funny to see them now putting their own account on private after being criticized for talking nonsense. Also since they have 2 followers on their profile, they probably have other accounts.

"Waste of time" would be an accurate description of their account.

That's the drama on Screenwriting Twitter. Quite good I would say. For a few weeks there it seemed like it was a constant barrage of tweets lamenting the drama writers were engaging in without ever fully explaining what the drama was. Actually me reporting on any that happens might be a good idea (or horrible idea) for us nosey types who just want to know what was going on.

And that's my blog done! I have dinner to eat. So until next week...

Thanks for reading

Feeling grand Kevin