It came to me the other day why some seven or so years ago I began writing a weekly blog. I came to the conclusion I wanted readers to know more about who this guy was behind the books the screenplays.
What makes him tick (?) was reason enough to start the blog. What's his style? Humor? A touch of it, yet not enough to get in the way of what he was trying to say.
Fact or fiction? That's a difficult question. Writing fiction for me is usually based on facts that give the story its base. This doesn't mean when I write a screenplay set in the 1880s isn't free of facts.
Take 'COWBOY' (working title). I have wrapped it up after countless rewrites to ensure the story gives a feeling of what that time feels like, looks like. And make it no more than 103 pages.
Lots of ideas pop into writers' heads, some consciously, some not so much. I've always loved westerns, books or movies, since I was a kid. Action, guns blazin'; a hero, a heroine. And horses all over the place. Some stories were better than others. What ones I liked best had touches of humor. Breaks from all the mayhem.
Someone said to me how much he enjoyed westerns, especially those that took a different view from the usual ones. What popped into my head a few days later was this:
"A seasoned rodeo rider is dragged back to the 1880s to remedy an oversight in a cowboy's untimely death?
Our guy couldn't shoot worth a damn; at least he was one hell of a roper. He would be conscious of where he came from, worried how he'd get back there.
Author's comment: The screenplay was finished, after God knows how many rewrites . Cutting what cluttered the plot, even if I really enjoyed such a scene.
I find myself in two worlds, much like the main character, though in different ways. It's being in one world all day and another when I hear the happy sound coming from the solarium of my wife Rosanne calling out, "High, love, I'm home."
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