Perfect Writing Children

I've had something of a perfect day today. The weather has helped a lot, enticing me to just walk around all day. Unfortunately, in some ways, I've got plenty to do and have plenty of motivation. I wonder if the weather helps.

Everything combined, though, I feel quite relaxed and happy about accomplishing the things that I have today.

On something of a random note, though, I love that Heroes has finally come together and the super powered characters have finally met. The characters flopping around, discovering their powers and finding a use for their powers, does a good job at establishing the characters. It ran the risk of flopping around and not compelling anyone to watch it.

Like Denis McGrath commented about the first half of Charlie Jade not having a "template" making it hard to compel people to watch (I liked it but also, thankfully, the show picked up a "template" to help people get into the flow of the show), I think Heroes has started to pick up its "template."

My question, though: What's a good rule of thumb to know how much of a TV show to watch before deciding whether to keep watching or not?

DIFFICULTIES OF A FIRST-TIME WRITER

So while reading Denis McGrath's Dead Things on Sticks, I've got thinking a lot about my own craft, the business and how well I fit into both. Denis writes about the Canadian TV production/writing/development business, but he also does a good job addressing the craft of narrative, too. He doesn't necessarily touch directly onto the types of things that I need to concern myself, but it provides some good ideas and inspiration.

Anyway, after reading it for a week or two now, I've realized the extent of postmodernity and difficulty in the writing of this novel. More to the point: one or two of the point of views. I won't get too deep into it, but it gets rather interesting when writing different point of views that require different narrative styles to match the mindsets of the different characters and also their location in and out of a primitive virtual reality without a "realistic" user interface. You'll have to wait and see on that one.

But, right, writing this stuff as a first-time novel writer. With more perspective, I can see that I didn't necessarily have the greatest idea of how to put together this kind of huge, interactive project. If I did, I can't necessarily say that I would have taken on the whole project.

I, at the same time, however, am reflecting on the facts after writing about the situation. Maybe if I knew about the challenge of these big projects, I might not have started in the first place. Does an artist need to have a little lack of perspective and foolhardiness to accomplish greatness? I don't want to project any sense of arrogant hubris to say that I'm a great artist or anything, but this experience of mine could provide a glimpse into the artistic mind.

But, yeah, I guess if I want greatness early (or at the least, break out into the business with a chance at success), I'll figure out how this challenge and how to finish it well.