Modern Day Slacker

I’ve been home for quite awhile now, trying to work out a few ideas for some stories I have. One I can’t figure out if it would be simpler to do as a screenplay or a book. The other one I don’t really know how to piece it together (I’ll explain another time). I have really been having trouble with all of this, focusing on the mechanics of writing and outlining and details. It’s been a big pain n the ass.

So, last nite I was perusing the On Demand selections (my life is very exciting), and I came across a Turner Classic Movie documentary about, of all people, Ron Howard. It was late and I love documentaries so I gave it a go. It followed his career from when he was three and started acting kind of by accident, and followed him thru his transition from sitcom actor to film director, with Howard himself doing all the narration and exposition.

As he went from stage to stage in his life, he kept talking about developing story, and how it really all boils down to if you can tell a good one. Even his films that didn’t have great box office results (like, say, The Paper), were still interesting to watch and told you a solid story. They were entertaining and almost always gave you something of which to relate.

It dawned on me that while the stuff I have been focusing on is important, I just need to sit down and tell the damn story. Get it out onto paper (or macbook screen as the case may be) and then deal with it. Writing, after all, is rewriting, and any one who tells you different is a liar or an accountant.

It’s so easy to get wrapped up in technical stuff, to lose sight of what it is exactly that you want to do. Maybe I was tired and my defenses were down. Perhaps that led me to actually entertain a new idea.

Who knows.

What I do know is that it’s changed the way I’m doing things and I am hoping to make serious progress today and in the days to come.