Re: A Radical Idea

Note: Some discussion of this post took place on iChat. I believe most of the points and issues will be restated here; if not, I'm sure Burley can help me out.

First, I'm glad you liked the last bio. I thought that what you wrote about Jones in the Jake bio gave us a good enough idea of Jones' physical circumstances, that focusing entirely on what I call his "interiority" seemed like a better tactic. I didn't expect the whole thing to be his dream though; that just kinda happened.

Next: As I told Burley in an email, this was The Right Post at the Right Time. I, too, felt very strongly about both story ideas, and wouldn't know which one to vote for. Well, I'd probably go with Time to Die, since I'm kinda conservative and always choose the one that seems "further along", whatever that might mean at the time. But the idea of losing Rasputin, especially when it seemed like it was on the right track, was pretty disheartening. So: what to do?

(Oh, wait. One more aside. This:)

Brought to you by: Shower--a contained, temperature controlled indoor rain, promoting clarity of thought, cleanliness of body, and consumption of odiferous creams, jellies, soaps and scrubs. Shower--it's repetitive beating on your head will stimulate deep thought. Shower--have one every morning.

(... is so fucking true it aint even funny. Except that it was. Great job!)

Anyway... What to do? I'm going to go through Burley's last post step by step, and pretend to be a little slower than I really am, since this is a pretty important decision regarding this blog and our communication should be crystal clear.

Even though it's taken us four months to get to this point, at some future date we're going to start writing, and then at some future date months or years away we'll have a screenplay written that we have blessed as our as-good-as-we-can-make-it version (or, knowing us, as-good-as-we-can-make-it-until-we-undertake-a-massive-rewrite-and-totally-complicate-the-plot), what then? Does this blog just sit fallow?

So we're talking, "What is Spitball! about once the experiment is over and we've written our script via blog". It's a good question -- and I'll admit I've been concentrating more on the trees lately than the forest.

Here's what I propose: we move through all the heats in the in the current round, doing our bios. We discuss as much as we want the pros and cons of each story as if we were going to vote on them, but then we vote on whether or not each idea is really a viable idea for a script. If we both vote no, off it goes, if we vote yes that idea moves forward. If we vote yes on both, then they both move forward, and we move on to the next round. If one votes yes, and the other votes no, the idea is shelved for later. When we are through with all of the heats, we list all the ideas that made it through, and each of us orders, from one to whatever, our favorite ideas.

We take those numbers, and average our scores, which will give us a list or ranked ideas that we both liked and feel can be made into a doable script--and a string of scripts to write, should we actually get that far. Now, here's the rub--since an idea might end up on top that we both are a little unhappy about, it would be silly to force us to write it. So, we always have the option of voting again until we get the order that we both want.

So, to recap, to the best of my understanding (them's some nice Needlessly Complex Rules, btw):

1. We do bios, one apiece for each story, for a total of 2 bios for each story and a total of four overall, for:

    a. Little Black Stray and Terminal Connection
    b. La Commune Planet and The Scabs

2. When ALL the bios are done, we THEN discuss the pros and cons of each story. But: we are no longer pitting them head-to-head anymore, but simply looking at each one individually and deciding if they are worthy of being turned into a screenplay.

3. Each story is voted upon. If "No", then that story is relegated to the dustbin of Spitball! history. If "Yes", then that story moves onto the next and final round. If there's a split vote, that story is "Shelved", which means it isn't "in play", but has the potential to come back into play. (More on that in a moment.)

4. Final Round: We take the winners and rank them favorite (#1) to least favorite (#whatever).

5. Each story gets an average based on our ratings and are then ranked again (The "Ranked Winners".) This new ranking gives us the winner (the story with the average closest to 1.0) and a list of runner-ups for use once the initial winner gets a script written about it. If this final list is unsatisfactory, however, we may revote on it until we get one we like.

5a. This last rule is a good one; in my experience, "winner based on average" more often than not gives a winner that's least objectionable, but often has the last amount of passion attached to it.

Also, if any shelved ideas are gnawing at us, the party that voted yes on it can try to expand on the idea to sell the other on his vision of it. Of course, this continues our fine tradition of needlessly complex™ rules, and will eliminate the dread I feel when it comes to not working on some of these ideas.

6. So, an idea that got Shelved can be resurrected by the Yes Voter, and put into the Ranked Winners category if the No Voter acquiesces. I understand that, but I'm not sure if I know where exactly this step occurs. (After the Ranked Winners are determined? Before?)

How'd I do? Correct me where necessary.

One more thing: During the iChat, Burley and I were concerned about how this will play with one of the elements of our Mission Statement: that the scripts developed here are released into the public domain. Do we really want to commit our best ideas to that? (It was one thing when it was only one idea, one script; it feels different when it might be more like three or four.) It's true that we feel like we can come up with ideas at the drop of a hat, and that it's about execution and not ideas. Yet, a few of these ideas seem, to me at least, very commercial, and it's not like we plan to make a living putting screenplays into the public domain (if we even knew how!); in fact, we'd like to, you know, get paid one of these days. I had the idea of voting to "Vault" certain ideas -- meaning, removing them from the Spitball! Tourney of Story Ideas, but keeping them for ourselves for later development.

But that's about as far as we got, since we knew we'd have to hash this out on the blog. And now that I've made some hash, I'm slinging it Burley's way. What say you, Grymz?