Tagged and Bagged

Damn. Just when I thought I could go quietly into the night...

Something made me check out Unk's blog tonight. He has been quiet the last few weeks (as have I) so I've been relying on Google reader. But tonight, I just thought I'd hit the site.

Unk never seems to have a dull moment. Always as a story to tell. Don't we all, but he seems to have lived some interested ones. All I can say is treat him nicely on the road.

Okay, so why all this talk about the shadowy agent of screenwriting blogs all of the sudden.

He plainly stated he wants the smack--the lowdown--a little 411 on yours truly. He got tagged and now he's passed the torch. Am I surprised? Damn straight.

So, I guess I have to comply ('cause I got some nasty dirty secrets in my closet...or maybe just some laundry needing to done.)

1. When I was a tiny tot I spent some time in the hospital where the docs were checking out some usual lesions on my scalp. Docs never could figure out what it was. They said I'd probably end up in some medical journal. (Suburban Screenwriter's Syndrome anyone?) Did get a nice pair of cowboy boots from my parents for my trouble. Also remember reading a comic in a room touching my head coming back with blood and proceeding to throw up all over the comic.

2. One of the front teeth is chipped due to being a hot rod when I was around 8 with my best bud Kip. He lived away from town but we would ride our bikes into town. (You could let kids do that back in the 70's.) I didn't have my bike there one time and so I ended up having to use one of his sister's bikes (damn embarrassing I tell ya but I think it was a light blue) Anyway, their driveway is a steep drive so we head down the driveway onto the road and the brakes on bike I ended up with weren't the best and as I proceeded to barrel down the drive I flew across the two lane road into the ditch and crashed into a ditch pipe. And all I got was a chipped tooth.

3. I have been tackled and padded down by Minneapolis Police. All I can say is don't go out late at night at Augsburg College to chill and swing on some swings in the park in the middle of college campus. I wasn't drunk or high (though I wish I had been.) I wasn't packing any heat (someone thought I was which was the nature of the call.) It was a surreal image seeing police move from several positions as I listened to my Walkman and out of the corner of my eye see police guns drawn come and throw me off the swings, rudely pad me down and realize they had just violated some squeaky clean scrawny white kid. The cops were gracious enough to just look at me and say "you know why we had to do it, don't you?" Yeah, right. I had a case with my floppies in it of my writing which I had left in the back seat of the squad car and proceeded to get lost at the cop shop. So, I lost some decent crappy college level writing.

More of this god forsaken trip into memory hell later, folks.

Send my regards to Unk.

Getting the Scene Down

Sometimes your brain or id or muse just wants to do more than what you're ready for. It's got something it needs to say about whatever story you're tapping out and your hand just can't get it all down faster than what you are "hearing."

A playwriting teach of mine back in my college days (so, so long ago and yes I was a theatre major) told our class that sometimes when working on a scene it's best to leave a little left undone. The psychology behind that idea is that once you completely finish something you may tend to forget it and thus may lose some of the steam you had behind the thought of the scene while you just trying to get it all down.

Leaving the scene somewhat undone allows the mystery of the scene to come back and sometimes can allow your mind to also explore different possibilities to what could come about in that scene or beat or act for that matter. The playwriting teach went as far as to say to leave it sometimes mid sentence. Alittle extreme I'd have to say. Maybe that would work for some people. Me, I don't trust my rust trap of a brain enough to remember those kinda details. So, as a rule, I think it's always good to get it out in some fashion. That way it's there to be worked on down the road but the difference being to understand is how it gets on the screen/paper/ napkin/back of your hand (if that's true really time to get some paper.)

The last few stories I have been worked on I've taken on a system of just getting the basic gist of the scene--be it answering a few basic questions or putting in some very simple dialogue. But leaving it simple. John August touched on this superbly in a post here on his website a few months ago.

I have taken his advice to heart and even incorporated with Unk's idea to use Google Notebook to outline a screenplay. Again, another great resource. This should help with uncramping hands as the story gushes forth so and be rest assured the idea is out even if it just a shorthand scribble.