Rage Against The Page

Characters must struggle then suffer as a result. Update 1: (27 February, 2006) Perhaps better written as: Characters must struggle, suffer, and finally change . _____ The 'signpost' entries are meant to be mercifully short -- it's not a fault with your browser leaving stuff out! These occasional and brief posts will be a welcome relief for those who, er, struggle through my customary long-winded posts and, um, suffer because of it.

Seriously, right now, stop work on that screenplay until you answer this question: Why are you writing this? Money? That better be your Number Two reason, buckeroo. I'll give you a pass if your Numero Uno reason is in order. Is it? (Return to the top of this post and start again.) New Year's Resolution? It's February already. Let it go. Everybody else already did. Nobody cares if you stick to your promise to finally finish your killer screenplay. I'm one of those people. There are a lot of us. So slide your twenty pages back into the bottom drawer. You can dust it off again next January 1. To win back your girl? Move along. This one's taken. Ahem. Guilt? Yeah, funny how that 'paint yourself into a corner' philosophy thing works. You know, you go around telling everybody you'll write a screenplay and make it big time. That way you set up a tangible motivation to achieve your goal. There is real risk and real reward. You've already told everybody ...

This is a new blog. So I really should save this topic for later. I don't want to 'jump the shark' this early in the game. I feel like I'm about to act out the money shot before the cameras are up to speed. Ah well. Once we are done, here in this post, you may not want to return. Ever . Some will run screaming because of the two brief but stenchiferous sentences I am about to utter. Yes, I had to invent a whole new word to describe how disgusted these folk will be a few short paragraphs from now. Others won't return because they will soon have an essential piece ( the essential piece) of the storytelling puzzle they didn't have before. They'll walk away from this post bearing a firebrand that will spark heat and light and life into their stories. Once you have that, the rest is a technicality. A third group will read what follows and curse me for being the masked magician who gives away the mechanism behind the mystery. But, know what? I don't give ...