Between 2002 and 2005 I was the editor on a magazine called What DVD. It was a dream job in many respects; not only I could review movies, which had always been one of my great loves, but I could delve deeper into those movies thanks to the DVD revolution. It was during this period that I became obsessed with making-of documentaries. I would go so far as to say I enjoyed (and still enjoy) them as much as the films themselves.
Digital streaming has expanded this love still further. Rather than having to pay $30-$50 for a special edition DVD and take a punt on the quality of the special features, I can now access a great many of them on YouTube or streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime. In recent weeks I have been on a total retrospective documentary binge, from Psycho to The Mist and everything in between.
In the Mist documentary, director Frank Darabont mentions ‘blocking’, which in the film world is the term for how actors move during a scene. A man enters the room, sits down at the kitchen table, for example. Bruce Campbell, of Evil Dead fame, discusses blocking in his autobiography If These Chins Could Talk, which I recommend highly.
I mention this because, in an interview for Andromeda Spaceways last year, Eugen Bacon asked me about my writing process. I explained that rather than plotting or flying by the seat of my pants, I tend to have a list of plots points and descriptive phrases at the bottom of the document that keep me on track. It occurred to me, after watching the Mist documentary, that ‘blocking’ is the perfect description for how I write. The notes are a guide to how the characters get from ‘here to there’ and I fill in that short journey with details. The good thing about blocking is it keeps me from feeling overwhelmed. Rather than thinking, “My God, I’ve got another 90,000 words to go!” my attention is directed to the next mile marker.
So, the next time someone asks me, “Are you a plotter or a pantser?” I can say, “Neither. I’m a blocker.”