Analysis Paralysis and a Super Bowl prediction

It's been exceedingly difficult for me to pick and concentrate on a new project lately.

I've got three projects that are clamoring for my attention but when I start to focus on one of them it grows quiet and bashful and gives me one word answers while the other two have their hands in the air, shouting, "Me! Me! Me!" And then, of course, when I call on one of them the same thing happens.

My basic problem with all three of them is the motivations of the antagonists. This has always been a problem for me--I'm not a fan of the hand-wringing, mustache-twirling baddie who wants to "rule the world!" Mainly, what exactly does that mean? Each and every scenario I come up with to fit that objective makes the end result sound like a monumental pain the ass. I don't understand anybody who really wants that.

So, what could the bad guy want? Money and power are always good, if a bit boring, I guess. Survival--both personal and of a way of life--are even better.

To that end I've decided to let the three projects above continue to clamor for my attention while I work on a fourth project that'll be a B-grade horror movie. My reasoning? Because I understand the motives of the antagonists in this one. I've also got some characters I've been itching to use for a long time who will fit right into it. While the immediate threat in this thing is a group of monsters, the ultimate antagonists are human beings.

I do need to develop the monsters a bit more, though. I've got a basic understanding of how they'll work and what they look like but I need a little more development of their biology, something that'll make them a powerful threat to humanity at large. Their motivation is pretty basic--they want to reproduce and eat, as much as possible. What do they eat? Take a wild guess.

The humans that sort of enable the whole thing are no problem at all--I understand those people all too well.

So, I'm writing a treatment for this one and I'll probably start hammering out a first draft of the screenplay in the next week or so. I'm calling it Misery Creek. I'm stealing from myself a little bit, here, because that's also the title of the first screenplay I ever wrote, but beyond the title this one will have little to do with the earlier one. Which is a good thing, because the first one was pretty bad.

In the mean time I'll be mulling over the other projects, trying to come up with convincing antagonists.

So, that'll be the next few weeks for me, looks like. As always, I'll keep you posted as to my progress.

The Super Bowl is later today, so I'll just leave my prediction here:

Carolina 28, Denver 24