JMS SPEAKS 2

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: Re: JMS "fan favorite"
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

<font color=red>Of course, we don't know the *exact* dates of the Teep War (hell, it could
start on December 31st 2264 and end on January 1st 2265), nor do we know *exactly* when the "Rangers" (I refuse to abbreviate it as "LotR" <g>) pilot takes place. Probably somewhere in 2265. Do, depending on exactly what JMS does, the new project could start just *after* the Teep War or it could overlap it just for the pilot, or it may be going on all or part of the way through season one.</font>

See, you know what's the most fun for me in all this?

That people can actually have enough information to be able to discuss a sequence of events two hundred years in the future, *to within a few weeks one way or another* in a fictional universe.

That's just boss....

jms

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: Re: Attn JMS: Shooting in HDTV
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

I don't think the quality of what you can get for broadcast TV HDTV is yet where it needs to be for an SF show heavy with EFX.

jms

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: Re: Attn JMS: Inspiration Supervision
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

<font color=red>With all these projects on the go and having a job that requires a fair deal of inspiration. How do you stop thinking about one project whilst you are writing another ? </font>

I don't.

<font color=red>Say if you're halfway through (English spelling theres at least 5 redundant letters in there !!) writing a Rising Stars issue and have a great idea for
Midnight Nation how do you get it out of your head and carry on with what youre doing ? </font>

I don't...for what it's worth, I kinda multitask. While I'm working on A, my brain is chugging away in the background on B, C and D. At various points along the way, there'll be this little *ding!* in the back of my head, like a toaster going off, and something will have been worked out with B, C or D. It pops up, I register it, and if it's something I can retain, I shove it back into my head and keep working on A. If it's a big scene, or something fairly complex, I shrink A, open the file for B, write it in, then go back to A (assuming A is on deadline; otherwise I'll stick with B until C, D or A ding at me).

It's all kind of going on simultaneously; I don't look to closely at the process, having fully understood the story of the centipede asked which foot he moves first....

jms

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Wordstar, staying focused, being Trouble
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

<font color=red>I was wondering: do you still use WordStar? I recall reading a post of yours some time ago in which you indicated your fondness for it.</font>

Would have, but it wasn't Y2K compliant and I had to dump it because it would start corrupting files.

<font color=red> o I surf the Net for a while to take my mind off the anxiety, and I end up wasting precious time procrastinating. When you were starting out, did you deal with anxiety like that? If so, how did you work past it? </font>

This is gonna sound really awful, but...I've never had a problem with the writing, so it's not something I've had to deal with. I just write. I don't worry about it. As somebody else once pointed out...on the dance floor, you've got two guys...one guy is running the moves through his head; he's *trying to dance*. At the other end of the dance floor is Fred Astaire. He's just *dancing*.

I don't *try* to write. I just *write*.

jms

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: Re: Attn jms: Tweaking your writing...
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

<font color=red>Knowing from your previous posts that you have what you write fairly firmly in mind when you do so, but realizing what is gained by writing via computer, I wonder how often you come up with a better idea, line, or (gasp) correction on something you wrote mere pages ago, and end up going back to tweak it. (Your latest multitasking post brings up the possibility.) If this does occur, for smaller stuff, do you do wait to
finish the draft, and leave such changes for the next one? </font>

I cannot imagine anything more boring for anyone else than a prolonged discussion of How I Write, but....

When I sit down to write, I go over and revise the previous day's work. This lets me catch up mentally with where I left off, and condenses the revision period so that by the time I'm done...I'm done. So I'm constantly tweaking, trimming, revising, and otherwise mucking with the words. Once it's done, it's
pretty much done. This is especially vital in TV which doesn't leave much time for going back and revising; you finish it, slit your wrists, and go on to the next script.

jms

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Your Vision For the Next B5 Stories
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

<font color=red>This is meant in no way as disrespect - I like everyone else here am drooling at new TV B5 content. My question is - how has your vision changed over the intervening years? </font>

You only get pertinent information by asking impertinent questions, so don't worry about it.

There are a couple of factors in the questions you ask. First and foremost, my comments about getting the heck out came at a time when I was emotionally, physically and psychologically exhausted by the demands of telling this particular story. People who know me, know what it did to me.

(Emblematic of the toll it was taking...it's pro forma to insure actors at the beginning of each season so that if they are injured or killed or otherwise incapacitated, the show is insured against that loss. Production staff -- writers, producers, others -- are almost never similarly insured. But after season 2, seeing what it was costing to get this show made, the powers that be insisted that I be insured, so that if I collapsed or dropped dead the show would be insured. I'm always reticent to talk about that kind of thing, because it seems really indulgent, but that's the truth of it.)

I've had a bit of time to catch my breath since then -- though none of my hair has grown back -- so I think I'm in the biz for a bit longer. I figure I've got another couple of shows in me...but I can't let any of them be as dramatic an effect on my life again, it's just too debilitating.

The other factor in all this is that, in doing 5 years of B5 and one of Crusade, I became very attached to this universe. I like visiting it. Even when I'm not working in it, the characters are there, in my head. So there's the lure of kind of going home again.


jms

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: Re: Attn JMS: The go to series?
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

<font color=red>Just curious about what criteria SFC will use to determine whether "The Legend of the Rangers" goes to series. Being mostly ignorant of the way these matters are handled, I was not sure whether it will be ratings or how much the folks at SFC like the pilot. </font>

It's possible they could wait for the ratings, and it's equally possible that they could give the go based on the rough cut of the movie. We've been told that it can go either way.

jms

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: What about the city of dreams ?
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

<font color=red>On the site it is said that city of dreams is now on hiatus. What is the problem ? Are by chance your new projects (which I am waiting impatiently) keeping you from your current ones ? With the three new series (Jeremiah, the Ranger series, and the other SF one) coming up, I guess you don't have much time left. </font>

I actually don't know...they have 3 scripts that they haven't produced yet, and I only have 2 left to write (which admittedly have gotten shoved back a bit due to other stuff). There's certainly nothing to impede them going ahead, since they love the scripts. I've heard there are some organizational/budget things going on over there, but don't have any details.

jms

[Wizz]

<font face="Verdana">

<font color="red">With all the new work on B5 TV will we see any B5 related books beyond the current Technomage trilogy?</font>
There's nothing currently in the works.

jms</p></font>

[Wizz]

<font face ="Verdana">

<font color="red">I was wondering if you play any multi-player online games, like Ultima Online, Asheron's Call or EverQuest.</font>

Who has time...?<font color="red">

And on a related subject, what do you think of the idea of an online B5 game?</font>

See above.

jms</p></font>