Donald L. Vasicek

Tag: zen

  • The Secret to Effective Writing

    The Secret to Effective Writing

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    A favorite Zen story in which three men are
    observing a flag fluttering in the breeze: One
    man says, The flag is moving. The second
    man says, The wind is moving. The third
    man says, You are both wrong, it is your
    mind that is moving.

    If you look inside of yourself, you will see
    the information you need to be successful.
    This information contains everything you
    need to be successful. The secret to
    tapping into this information is contained
    in The Zen of Writing.

    How so, you ask?

    Look inside of yourself and you will see
    the answer. This is the secret to successful
    writing and/or filmmaking. Look inside
    of yourself and you will see the secret.

    Why is it that Steven Spielberg is a
    successful filmmaker? He has the ability
    to look inside of himself and see the secret.

    Why is Stephen King a successful novelist?
    He has the ability to look inside of himself
    and see the secret.

    What do you seek when you write a letter,
    or make a corporate video? Do you look
    outside or inside of your mind and heart?
    When you look inside of your mind and
    heart you enhance your ability to see the
    secret to being successful in your undertaking.
    When you look outside of your mind and heart,
    you have no ability to see the secret to being
    successful.

    What rings true in each one of us is our
    ability to think and feel. When we tap
    into those senses to write a screenplay
    or make a film, we look inside of ourselves.
    We see the secret to successfully writing the
    screenplay or making a film successful.

    You might ask, but I do that and I see
    nothing. The reason you see nothing is
    because you allow yourself to avoid seeing
    the secret. You allow yourself to avoid seeing
    the secret because you do not know how to
    see the secret.

    With The Zen of Writing, you will see the secret.
    You need simply to contact me to learn how to
    tap into that secret.

    Peace, Light and Love,
    The Zen of Writing

  • “How to Get Script Readers to Like Your Screenplay”

    First, be very careful “directing” when you write. Any direction you do write, should move the story forward, otherwise, don’t use it. The “directions” you write are going to be rewritten any way, by you, or by another writer once your screenplay is optioned/purchased. They will be rewritten because the director will collaborate with the writer on writing the shooting script, which is considerably different than the spec script. Although it’s acceptable, do not break dialogue from one page to the next, for any reason. The reason for this is that those who read your screenplay usually have several screenplays setting on their desk and/or nightstand, in line to be read. Readers must move fast. Many readers skim and don’t read every word. Many readers also look for certain elements in the screenplay without reading the entire script. To have a break in dialogue from one page to the next causes the reader to slow down. It is like hitting a bump in the road with your bicycle. It can jar you and throw off your focus. Always strive to make your screenplays reader friendly. Strive to leave more white on each page than black. If you do this, you enhance your chances of pleasing a reader, and getting your script sent to the next level.

    Donald L. Vasicek Olympus Films+, LLC
    The Zen of Writing and Filmmaking
    http://www.donvasicek
    dvasicek@earthlink.net

  • “Write, Writing, Short Stories, Zen”

    Til Death Do Us Part
    by Don Vasicek

    Vermillion Capulet’s hit with a hammer eyes jerked. The pain, evident in the crimson edges and disbelief, catapulted as she bungled the ring in her hand. The metallic noise struck the dead cement floor. It cracked the noiselessness like a car horn blown in her ear. She gripped her head tightly. Her picket fence teeth stood like a barrier behind her cherry red lips. If you looked closely, you could see an edge of blood in the left corner of her mouth.
    Recent, ruby and scintillating against the churlish light, it shoved itself at her animated skin as though it had a deadline to meet.
    Vermillion urged her tongue. From somewhere not out of the mystical abyss inside her mouth, she flickered over the blood. Near at hand, a coffee-maker perked.
    The Dutch chocolate coffee odor bit at her gaze like an intrusion into the Vatican. The coffee spewed over the lidless glass pot. She watched it splatter on the floor. Enough so that she guarded it’s spitting dark splurges on a human hand.
    She inspected her hand. A pane of mirror coffee pot lid plopped blood. A droplet at a time.
    Vermillion’s stare chased them. One. Two. Three and so on. They began to suffocate the ring which had come to rest on the outstretched palm of the hand proximal to a matching one on the ring finger which would experience rigor mortis promptly. Suddenly, a telephone rang.
    One of those presumptuous sounds, like an ultimatum.
    “The Capulet’s, this is Vermillion,” Vermillion stammered.
    “A thousand and one are waiting, Vermillion.”
    Vermillion pressed at her side. Blood, almost black, saw the world around her side. Not caught up by the snow-white dress, the splotch continued to spread like black death seeping on every side of a meat dealer’s knife.
    “Seems Harvester had his lascivious eye on another, Boris,” Vermillion uttered.
    “Obsequies to remarriage?”
    “You might say I lost my ring somewhere in the vital fluid of life.” Vermillion slumped to the floor.
    The phone followed her. It clumped on the hand of blood. The ring there, jumped like a bean, and landed on Vermillion’s heart, just above her laid open rib cage.

    Donald L. Vasicek
    Olympus Films+, LLC
    http://michaelc.nextmp.net/wordpress
    dvasicek@earthlink.net