Where does Reality end and Imagination begin: Writing The Invisible Ray

We Belong Dead the excellent film magazine that has recently been resurrected and features my work has given my writing the kick up the arse that it so dearly needed. Never have I been so driven as to get work researched, written, finalised and offered up. To this end, my output has been (other than what's been published), an informal portrait of Boris Karloff.

This was drafted at the same time as my informal portrait of Bela Lugosi - (Both were in fact written for University - though earlier drafts exist!) 

My Lugosi Informal portrait can be found here. To buy copies please go to this link: http://www.classichorrorcampaign.com/we-belong-dead/

Following the Karloff piece there are my re-examinations of the three Universal Karloff / Lugosi collaborations: The Black Cat, The Raven and finally The Invisible Ray. Both The Black Cat and The Raven are completed, the third piece The Invisible Ray, the first written, is still under construction. This is how I work when writing pieces like this: Firstly I watch the said film and then I take notes etc

In the top picture, to the left there are two notepad pages - this beings my work - taking notes which carry across to the right (Both sides are used on some pages as shown in bottom photograph!) From these notes I create my first draft, highlighting a  note once I've incorporated it. Following this, I then read through first draft, checking A: spelling mistakes, B: That I've included all notes etc and then follow through with going through my film books, adding quotes etc. Then comes the second draft:

The second draft goes through the same process as the first draft, but this time more is added in certain places in the text as you can see by the coloured paper. Once this has been added to the text, quotations have been numbered, I write the third and final draft. All pieces are referenced, sourced and have a bibliography. Some pieces have more than three drafts, others have two and on the odd occasion, the first draft is the final draft. From the start to completion, each piece, I would think takes about a month or two - generally because I'm writing a couple of pieces at the same time. This is just a little and basic insight into how I work :-)

     COMING SOON in WE BELONG DEAD
The Black Cat promo