Mr. Muddle's Befuddled Universe

Harry & Olive: Stuff to Come

Getting Harry & Olive organized

A place for everything. Everything in it's place.
(I think Sean Connery said that.)

Been thinking; thinking is dangerous!

Been thinking about how to organize the Harry & Olive adventures, when they go online. It'll be awhile yet, but it pays to plan ahead, right?

Ok, here goes!

Page Shock

When I publish Harry & Olive online, I want to avoid what I have decided to call ``page shock"; that is, a reader finds a web page so completely repulsive, s/he immediately leaves.

Page shock is a common reaction, among some people when they accidentally stumble upon porn. I think we have all experienced a sense of rage when web pages engulf our screen with incomprehensible words and images, doing unexpected things; grossly offending our sensibilities. When this happens, we just want to close the window, move on; get away!

I had this experience recently. The other evening I was sent links to three examples of online fiction. Much to my surprise, each example of online fiction suffered from some form of page shock.

• The first example was a very short humorous paragraph. Now this short paragraph was totally lost amongst all the ads cluttered all about. It took me a fair amount of time even to find what I was supposed to read, as I had to scroll down the page even to find the paragraph. If I hadn't felt a certain obligation to read the paragraph, I would definitely have skipped it. On this page, the fiction gets a C-, and the Page Shock gets a B+.
• I think the story on this page was supposed to be science-fiction satire. Whatever it was, it was very, very esoteric. Actually, it was more than esoteric, it was cryptic; in a bureaucratic string-cheese theory sort of way. At the end of the story, there were about 20 comments. I concluded those were the only 20 people on Earth who could understand this story. On this page, the fiction gets a WHAA???, and the Page Shock gets a B.
• On the last page I visited, the page shock was so great, I ran for my life. The person seemed to think the equivalent of a novel had to fit on a single sheet of paper. When I clicked on the link, up came a page full of words squished together so tightly, I couldn't read them (they were all a blurr). There was no space. Gosh, give me white space! On this page, the fiction gets a I didn't read it, FOOL!!!; and the Page Shock gets a Please return my Chonies!!!
  

(My apologies to the people I reviewed. Should you happen upon this posting, and believe you recognize yourself, I hope you will review me, when my time comes due. ;)

I thank the folks who sent the links to the pages above, although they initially caused a near endless amount of flusterbustering.

I digress, I guess: Back to H&O

Here are some features I'm considering for Harry & Olive. They are arranged in no particular order. Please, let me know what you think. Your comments, emails, etc are always welcome. Understand that everything is in flux, and therefore subject to massive amounts of change!!!!! :)

Pitch Page

As I've said before, H&O is designed to be flexible. H&O could be adapted to books, graphic novels, TV, radio, short film, movies, whatever. Folks looking for info on making a deal could go straight to the Pitch Page.

Character Chart

This would most likely be a listing of character biographies, vital statistics, and major events. Keeping this listing up-to-date could be a major, major contribute for H&O fans.(Anyone? Anyone?)

Oh, and ``Character Chart" is a sucko title, don't you think? There must be bunches of people out there with better ideas!

Epi Log

The ``Epi Log" title is an abbreviation for ``episode catalog". My thought is to have the Epi Log function very much like a Table of Contents for  the H&O series. I'm thinking the Epi Log would include episode and Scene information plus links to all episodes and scenes. That way, if readers should ever lose the link to the scene they want to read, or they should want to reread a scene, or whatever, they can just go to the Epi Log, and find the link to the correct episode and scene that interests them.

Later, Later

Meet you at the meeting. Save me a seat with a door.

Harry & Olive: Revisions started

Empty Nest Adventure

Episode revisions restarted in earnest!

Well, I've gotten back to working on Harry & Olive in earnest. Revising the Empty Nest Adventure; the first Harry & Olive episode. There will be much to talk about later, but I made one change today I wanted to mention right away.

In the past I've divided episodes up into installments. Installments included one or more scenes, and they were designed to be between 1,200–2,000 words long.

I decided to divide episodes up by scenes. (So each scene is in effect an installment.) This way I can add, delete, or rearrange scenes, without screwing up the flow of the action.

Oh, and Jimmy's no longer dead, but someone else has croaked. To learn more about this, and other news, stay tuned! :)

Harry & Olive: Deleted Installment #1

Jimmy's Big Disaster

Deleted Installment #1

As promised, I'm delivering. Here's the deleted first installment to the first draft of the first episode of Harry & Olive. As you read, remember what Ernest Hemingway said, ``The first draft of anything is shit." I've skimmed this, because I couldn't really stomach to reread it. I think it pretty well lives up to Ernest Hemingway's expectations.

Download HarryOlive-DeletedBeginning

Notes on what's ahead.

1. In the rewrite:
   
   • The the neighborhood friends grow up in Kalamazoo, Michigan, not Akron, Ohio. 
   • Jimmy is younger than Frog, rather than the older brother.
   • Olive rather than being Frog's best friend, Olive becomes part of the Jones' family, and she's a sister to Frog and Jimmy.
   • This family will also have an older brother named Bennie.
   • The core neighborhood group from Kalamazoo will be Harry, Lewd Dick, Olive, Frog, Jimmy, and Bennie; but others will come into play as the need arises.     
2. The business about Hansel and Gretel seems rather dumb in retrospect. At the time the Star Trek Enterprise TV series was doing a lot of flashbacks, and it totally annoyed me.
3. There will be lots of other surprises! Watch for updates here: Tim's Befuddled Universe

Harry & Olive: A Mulligan

Harry & Olive: What's it all about, Alfie?

What is it?: Harry & Olive will initially be an online episodic fictional series.

Catch phrase: The American Dream turns into a nightmare.

Basic premise: Close high school friends are reunited late in life. They are now much different people, and these differences become the source of humor, conflict, and ultimately personal growth.

Working theme: Sometimes people need a candle to see in the dark.

First episode title: The Empty Nest.

Basic premise of the first episode Olive wants a house full of grandchildren, but she ends up alone.

Start at the Beginning:
You can't get there from here!

Sometimes people need a candle to see in the dark, and I'm hoping I've found mine. After I did my initial Harry & Olive webcast, I received a number of comments offering encouragement and helpful suggestions. All the comments and suggestions were received with the greatest gratitude. Thanks!

One particular comment helped bring my universe into focus. This comment suggested I needed to be more ``befuddled". I believe the commentator meant I needed to relax, and be myself. Personally, I wondered why I had ``wasted" time on an installment that would be deleted? And why did I spend time talking about a character (Little Jimmy) that wouldn't be in the series? Those questions got me to doubting everything I had done in the Harry & Olive blog up to that point. I even began to doubt Harry & Olive, momentarily.

(my commentary will continue after I take some time to mediate...)

Max Shulman, Gratuitous Boobage, and Unpropitious Progress

I suppose it was inevitable that Little Jimmy had to be removed, because he closely represented me. Little Jimmy was me back in high school study hall reading (among other things)``On Campus with Max Shulman"; a column that ran in college newspapers. (If I had done homework in study hall I might have been an ``accomplished" student. Instead I drifted along without purpose or direction, getting B's and the occasional C.)

But having a miniature me in the Harry & Olive series wasn't really a problem. The problem would be doing things in a phony way. In Harry & Olive there will be numerous situations where an older generation speaks to a younger generation, and vice versa. Sometimes it's parents talking to children or children talking to parents. Sometimes it's the characters recollecting their past, and their past is speaking to them. Occasionally the past will speak to them in constructive ways, other times in more dysfunctional ways.

Originally, I was going to use the dialog between Big Jimmy and Little Jimmy as the device by which readers were made aware of much of this history; that is, character backstory, etc.

I decided this Little/Big Jimmy device was contrived, and I've come up with better literary devices. (Or, so I believe. Stay tuned)

Why is Home Room Always First Period?

I'll be posting the deleted Installment 1 for your enjoyment (I hope), then I'll be taking some time off from blogging to do some Harry & Olive writing. :)

Happy Thanksgiving

One of my all time fav girl groups. The Kut! Enjoy!

Have a great Turkey Day!!! :)))

HarY ^ Olibe

I'm writing a new posting on the importance of mucking things up royally!

Harry & Olive Webcat #1: The Deleted Installament

Harry & Olive: Their True Adventures

When Big Jimmy Meets Little Jimmy; the deleted installment.

My first Harry & Olive webcast! Enjoy!!! :)))

NOTE: 1) In the webcast I read ``worms and angels". The correct line is, ``Death should be worms or angels." 2) I attempted to re-shoot the video, because folks said the audio was bad. See video below. I ran over the 10 minute limit, so some of it got cut off. Sorry. :)

Harry & Olive: Webcast???

Where's the ``Any" key?

One foot in the grave...

When we last met, we were talking about the notorious deleted installment of Harry & Olive where Big Jimmy meets Little Jimmy.

Well, I was thunking I would read it to you.  You see I got a webcam on my new laptop. But the thing is I've never used a webcam before. (I mean I've watched webcam video before, but I better not get into that here... just thinking about it is giving me the bumpies.)

So, I did make some progress with this webcam business. I took a snapshot of meself.

Handsome???

Harry & Olive: 101 Continued

Harry & Olive: More Early Years

Getting back on track

So it was the spring of 2007. I had started the first episode of Harry & Olive; finished the first installment of H&O. But, you may recall from my last posting, things quickly got off track. The first installment was all about a character named, Jimmy, with nary a mention about Harry and Olive. What to do?

Well, I put the installment in the drawer, and stewed for a long time, but we're not gonna be doing that today. We got stuff to talk about.

The idea behind H&O was to have neighborhood friends reconnect later in life. Put them in a steam-boiler situation, and see how they react to each other. Do their friendships grow stronger, or do they tear apart?

Originally, the H&O friends were going to be from Akron, Ohio. (I've since changed that to my hometown of Kalamazoo, Michigan, because I'm familiar with Kalamazoo.)

The original core group of H&O friends included, but weren't limited to, the following five people: Harry, Lewis, Olive, Frog, and Jimmy. A little bit about them: Harry was good student and an athlete in high school, and took Olive to the junior and senior proms. Lewis was Harry's best friend in high school. (Lewis went on to become the leader of the rock group Lewd Dick and The Flameballs. Lewd Dick and The Flameballs had one Top Ten hit, ``Bounce My Balls".) Two more of the original core friends were Olive and her best friend Francine. (Francine was better known as ``Frog". Frog was short, chubby, black, and gay. She covered all the minorities nicely. Please don't pre-judge her, readers who have met Frog, are rather fond of her.) Jimmy was Frog's younger brother.

In the original first installment, Jimmy heads off to a Lewd Dick concert. On the way, Jimmy runs into a truck, and gets himself killed. Afterward, Jimmy narrates the H&O adventures as a ghost. (PUKE!!!)

Meet me next time outside the old outhouse! ;)

Harry & Olive: 101

Harry & Olive: The Early Years

Getting Off Track...

Where was I when we last talked about Harry & Olive? Oh yes, it was the spring of 2007, and I had just abandoned my GDO novel idea. I had decided the outline of GDO read like a bad Disney comedy, rather than a good Neil Simon play. I took my favorite three characters from GDO (Harry, Olive; Lewd Dick), rethunk the thing, and H&O was born (perhaps, stillborn).

My plan was to make H&O an online episodic fictional series. I'd have about 5-8 installments per episode, and each installment would be about 1,000-1,500 words. The idea was to crank out a ``non-final" installment every few weeks until each episode was finished. My thoughts and plans regarding these details has changed somewhat. I'll discuss it, when I talk about my future plans in a later posting. (I also had a ``business model" to go with this, but I won't get into that at this time.)

In the spring of 2007, I sat at the computer and wrote the first H&O installment. I revised the Hell out of it. I thought it was pretty darn good, but honestly it didn't quite ``feel" right. Harry and Olive were no where to be found. The installment was almost entirely about a character called Jimmy. Now isn't that disturbing? Well, actually it didn't hit me at first that I shouldn't be writing about Jimmy, when I was supposed to be writing about about Harry and Olive. The realization slowly came over me like the flu.

Oh my, I got off track in a hurry!!!