National Novel Writing Month: My Thoughts

This year, I decided that I was crazy enough to take a shot at an annual event held every November called National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo is a writing challenge in which you must write 50,000 words in 30 days. It's a well-meaning scheme, and a good premise for a challenge. The novels are not hosted online, but you update your daily word count as you write, aiming to write an average of 1,667 words a day to stay on target. This isn't always easy when you have a job.

So I decided to go for it, with a Prohibition-era gangster story called 'An Empire from Humble Means'.

It was a slow start, but I managed to pick things up as the month went on. Unfortunately, my ideas began to run flat by the final weekend of November, with 34,000 words and a return to my procrastinating habits. That's why I posted those film reviews.

Trying it has made me see the main issue with the challenge; It favours quantity over quality. I feel that a lot of the content in my story will be seen as padding. To be fair, it's a first draft, and there are 'Revision Months' in January and February to tidy it up.

The other problem I have found is that I've got a rather laconic writing style which is more suited to short stories and novellas rather than a full-length novel. In fact, there are a couple of places in the story where I could end it. Perhaps it would work as a serial.

Am I disappointed that I didn't reach the goal? A little. But I'm still glad that I went for it, and I will revisit what I've written at some point. Right now, I want to go back to writing short stories. As for trying again, I probably won't do so immediately. But I will give it another go later down the line.

The Cornetto Trilogy: Final Thoughts

Looking back at Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's films, I have to say that all three are really good films - yes, even The World's End.

They're all films that you can watch multiple times and will always pick up something new. And that is the mark of excellent writing.

Regardless of the story, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost always provide a great dynamic, and they do their best to give some variety. 

In Shaun of the Dead, Shaun is somewhat mature, but lacks ambition, while Ed is a lot lazier and more vulgar and uncouth. 

In Hot Fuzz, Nicolas Angel is good at police work but is also a socially inept workaholic with no sense of humour, while Danny is more laid back and affable. 

In The World's End, Gary is essentially a perpetually adolescent, blathering screw-up, while Andy is a cynical professional.

In terms of ranking, it's safe to say that Hot Fuzz is the best film in the trilogy, followed by Shaun of the Dead and then The World's End. Despite it's place at the bottom, The World's End is by no means a bad film. I enjoyed it and I can still re-watch it. In fact, it's a much stronger story on the second viewing thanks to the foreshadowing jokes that are used in all three films.

Well, I'd better get back to my writing. I'll see you again soon.

Franchise Reviews: The World's End

Well, 2016 has struck again, and I'm spending it at The World's End with a green Mint Cornetto. This sci-fi comedy is the third and final collaboration between Pegg, Frost, and Wright.

Simon Pegg plays Gary King, the world's oldest adolescent. He seeks to conquer The Golden Mile, an epic 12-stop pub crawl in his former hometown of Newton Haven, and he seeks to conquer it with his childhood friends: Andy Knightley, played by Nick Frost; Steven Prince, played by Paddy Considine; Oliver Chamberlain, played by Martin Freeman; and Peter Page, played by Eddie Marsan.

While his friends are all leading successful adult lives in London, Gary is still the same irresponsible plonker he was at school. They all enjoy seeing each other again, but they grow tired of Gary's antics very quickly (Especially Andy, who wants nothing to do with Gary after an accident 16 years earlier). This changes when they discover that Newton Haven has been invaded by aliens who have replaced the people with androids. Not wanting to arouse suspicion, they decide to carry on with the crawl.

Wait, what?

OK, it's not the best premise. And a lot of people weren't so keen on the role reversal, with Simon Pegg playing the man-child while Nick Frost is more responsible. I suppose it makes a nice change. But then again, Shaun was a man-child character in the first film, but it's different here. And their interactions are still great, along with the other characters. Rosamund Pike appears as Oliver's sister Sam, with whom Gary and Steven competed for affections. Other one-scene wonders include David Bradley as the conspiracy theorist Mad Basil, and Pierce Brosnan as the boys' old schoolmaster Mr Shepherd.

I'd also like to point out that this is certainly the darkest film in the trilogy, with some truly dramatic moments. I can't really say much about that without spoiling it though. Gary tends to blather, but Andy always delivers some snarky comebacks. I guess they wanted to create a different dynamic to avoid becoming formulaic.

Overall, it's not the best film in the series, but it's still worth a couple of viewings.

Franchise Reviews: Hot Fuzz

Well, the police did get involved today. And by that, I mean that I'm taking a look at Pegg, Frost, and Wright's next collaboration; Hot Fuzz. Yesterday's Cornetto was a red strawberry one to represent zombies. Today, we're having a blue classic flavour to represent the police in this buddy cop film.

Simon Pegg plays Nicholas Angel, a high-performing officer in London's Metropolitan Police. In fact, he's so high-performing that he's making everyone else look bad by comparison, so his superiors assign him to a sergeant's position. Unfortunately, this sergeant's position is not in London, but in the village of Sandford in rural Gloucestershire.

Nicholas finds that he isn't accustomed to his surroundings: the local police are lazy, while the Neighbourhood Watch Alliance is more proactive and the village's most wanted criminal is an escaped swan. Inspector Frank Butterman, played by Jim Broadbent, is content to let the NWA run things, and partners Nicholas with his son Danny, played by Nick Frost. Not long afterwards, a serial killer good at staging accidents is on the loose in the village, and Nicholas suspects the charming but sinister supermarket manager Simon Skinner, played by Timothy Dalton.

Once again, Simon and Nick have a great dynamic, but a slightly different one to Shaun of the Dead. Nicholas is a no-nonsense workaholic who can't stop enforcing the law, while Danny more affable but lazy, and is longing for the gunfights and car chases he sees in his favourite action films. Eventually, Nicholas teaches Danny to become a better police officer, while Danny teaches Nicholas to lighten up and relax.

However, there are plenty of other great characters in the film, both in Sandford's police and the Neighbourhood Watch. Timothy Dalton steals the show as Simon Skinner. He says the most sinister and violent things but makes them sound charming. There's also Rafe Spall and Paddy Considine as the 'The Andys', Sandford Police's Criminal Investigation Department. They provide a ton of funny lines, most of which are snarky comments or insults. 

As for Neighbourhood Watch, there seem to be a fair few villains. The vicar is played by Belloq from Raiders of the Lost Ark (Paul Freeman), the hotel keeper is the evil nanny from The Omen (Billie Whitelaw), and the GP is Don Montero from The Mask of Zorro (Stuart Wilson).

There are some really funny scenes, but I don't have time to talk about them all. You just have to see them for yourself. Trust me, it's worth a couple of watches.

That's about it. I'll see you tomorrow for the conclusion. I'm going back to waiting out the apocalypse in the pub. I might do a crawl.

Franchise Reviews: Shaun of the Dead

Right, I'm back. Sorry, there were no Strawberry Cornettos in the shop. No matter, I'm here to discuss the first film in the Cornetto Trilogy: Shaun of the Dead.

Simon Pegg plays Shaun, a man who's almost 30 but has no direction in his life. He's stuck in a dead-end job at an electronics shop, he's distant from his parents, and he doesn't spend enough time with his girlfriend Liz, played by Kate Ashfield. After being dumped, he vows to set things right. Unfortunately, this epiphany happens at the same time as a zombie apocalypse.

Despite this minor setback, Shaun realises that he can prove himself as a responsible man. Accompanied by his vulgar best friend Ed, played by Nick Frost, he aims to rescue his parents and girlfriend and provide them with a sanctuary from the zombies; his local, the Winchester.

Simon and Nick have a great dynamic as Shaun and Ed. Both are lazy and not the brightest, but Shaun is slightly more responsible while Ed is crude and unkempt, spending most of his time playing TimeSplitters 2 (I love that game!) but doing very little in the way of work. Black Books star Dylan Moran and The Office cast member Lucy Davis also appear as Liz's flatmates David and Dianne, while Penelope Wilton and Bill Nighy play Barbara and Phillip, Shaun's mother and stepfather.

The film has a very interesting mix of tones. Taglined as 'A Romantic Comedy. With Zombies', it has plenty of jokes, but the zombies are still wanting to eat your brains and there's plenty of gore. The film even depicts everyday life as zombie-like in the opening, possibly providing a social commentary. The third act especially accentuates the horror element, with most of the laughs uncomfortable at best. It was masterfully done.

The really difficult part is finding which joke was my favourite, whether it involves the scene where they beat the zombie-fied landlord to the tune of 'Don't Stop Me Now', or the morning of the outbreak with a very hungover Shaun oblivious to the desolation around him until he pieces it together through idle channel-surfing. I'll probably say my favourite scene was when they run into Shaun's old friend Yvonne, played by Simon Pegg's former co-star and writer from Spaced, Jessica Hynes. She's leading her own band of survivors played by other sitcom stars.

If not that scene, then Shaun's post-breakup binge with Ed, who's suggested plan of continued drinking for the next day sums up the events of the film. It's one of the many foreshadowing techniques that appears in the whole trilogy.

That's about it. With the state of things this year I'm off to have a nice cold pint and wait for all this to blow over. Hopefully the police won't get involved this time.

At least, not until tomorrow.

Franchise Reviews: The Cornetto Trilogy

It's been a while since I've posted anything on here. I'll say why in due course. But I thought I might decide to do another set of film reviews.

I've done all the Bond films and the original Star Wars trilogy, and this time I've decided to do another favourite series of mine: Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, also known as the Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy.

For those who don't know, this was an informal trilogy of films written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and directed by Edgar wright. The films are not really a series, as they don't follow the same story, but are connected by the production team along with several recurring jokes and themes, most notably the presence of the Cornetto.

The trilogy could be regarded as an offshoot of the crew's previous collaboration, the short-lived Britcom, Spaced. I might as well take the time to discuss that here.

Spaced follows comic artist Tim Bisley and writer Daisy Steiner, played by Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes, who pretend to be a couple in order to rent a flat. The show mainly follows the fake couple's surreal adventures as they try and figure out what to do with their lives while maintaining their facade in front of their drunken landlady Marsha Klein, played by Julia Deakin.

The other main stars include Nick Frost as Tim's best friend Mike Watt, Mark Heap as fellow resident and eccentric conceptual artist Brian Topp, and Katy Carmichael as Daisy's best friend Twist Morgan.

At the time of writing, you can watch both seasons Spaced on Channel 4's website, and I do recommend them for some bizarre laughs. One notable sequence involves Tim staying up late playing Resident Evil while on Speed, which prompts him to start hallucinating about zombies. Why am I bringing this up? Well, because it was how the trilogy was ultimately conceived.

Anyway, I'll post the first review later today.

In the meantime, want anything from the shop?