this is where all my work-in-progress stories go for now. if you're looking for my finished writing, check out stories or my Medium page.
i'm mainly putting this up because some examples of my writing that would be useful for work are unfinished. feedback is welcome as soon as i set up some kind of email inbox with a good spam filter (i know better than to publicize my email address on the internet).
is a business drama written by someone who has never seen a business drama or worked in an office environment (me, Rem). It satirizes office work in a company that does some vague thing involving software development.
- i don't feel like writing a full TV series right now and want to just get this idea down. think of this as a highlight reel of episode clips
-episode 1-
Scene: office building, cubicle entry
Mer is an office worker wearing standard office attire. He sits down at his desk, on which a mid-1990s CRT monitor rests. There is a Post-It™ note on the bottom-left corner reading "upgrade me". He begins emptying his pockets, the camera cutting to the various objects he throws onto the desk (a keyring containing car keys and a RFID tag for the office building, labeled only "work" in clumsy pen writing, $5 cash, two small metal coins with "CREDIT ONE" stamped on them, a computer mouse which he powers on). Cut to PC monitor. Mer clicks through a few directories to launch "Mission Control" program, in which a long list of programming tasks comes up. He picks one and an orchestral fantasy battle soundtrack kicks in as he types in a montage of average-speed typing. The computer monitor shows 3D modeling software acting completely incongruently with his typing, and no attention is called to this otherwise. He completes his task but waits for his task timer to count up to a big round number before submitting it and standing up.
Scene: coffee machine
Standing by the office coffee machine, Mer hears a gruff voice on the intercom asking him to come to "the war room". He does so. Inside the war room (his manager's office) is a map of a city laid out on a short table, marked with the office he is in and rival offices surrounding it. The surrounding offices have rough edges and are obviously hastily assembled cardboard models, while the office he is in stands steady as a high-quality 3D print.
Mer walks past the table to his boss's desk. The nametag on the desk reads "Manager." (including the .)
Mer says "Thank you, Manager" almost instinctively.
Manager details an objective of infiltrating a rival company to gather very specific and important data. Mer is ordered to steal a box of their paperclips and find out what coffee pods they use. Mer agrees.
[things happen here, consider this a timeskip for now]
[during the infiltration] Mer knocks a guard (wearing standard office attire) armed with a taser unconscious with blunt force from two bulk packages of printer paper. He then swaps clothes with the man (trading his standard office attire for standard office attire), stuffs the body in a locker and kicks the body's shins before closing the door.
Mer walks into the main office space. No one recognizes anything out of place, since he's wearing standard office attire. He is able to pocket a box of paperclips from a supply drawer without issue, but has a small internal crisis when he sees that this company has two brands of coffee pod available. After some thought and dramatic music stings, he unsticks a pad of Post-It notes from his back that he keeps for emergencies and borrows a pen from a nearby worker to write down the coffee pod brands. The worker notices what he is writing and presses a button under the table, activating a silent alarm. Mer hears the button's click just as he finishes writing the note and sticks the pad back onto himself, running for the main exit. Security agents clad in standard office attire chase him through the cubicles but stop to salute the manager in the lobby. Mer dashes up to the exit door (a revolving door), stops dead in his tracks to slowly push the revolving door around and as soon as he exits begins running again.
"Let him go," states the manager. "They've only given us a reason to strike back."