Derry, Northern Ireland

Derry, Northern Ireland
A book I'm working on is set in this town.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

The Travels of Sullivan

The next couple of weeks are going to be fun. I'm off to NYC in the morning and probably coming back Wednesday, if the job goes as I think it will, then it's driving down to DC to oversee a huge private library move...and I think I'm repeating myself. I should start rereading my previous entries just to see if I've already talked about what I'm talking about.

Isn't that a sign of old age? Telling the same story over and over, again? Well...I'm feeling it.

I watched "Sullivan's Travels" on TCM as I ironed. It's a movie with Joel McCrae and Veronica Lake that was written and directed by Preston Sturges in 1941. It's a sort of dramedy, where slapstick comedy mingles with the stark reality of the times and is about a director of comedies who wants to make the world's greatest tragedy so slips out to mingle with the common people and gets into a world of trouble. It reminded me that there's nothing more important than making a person laugh. Sometimes that's all they have left.

I can get way too serious about my WORK and have to admit, since pushing deeper into the comedy aspects of "Find Ray Tarkovsky" -- oops, "Find Ray T" -- it's made the script even stronger, in my eyes. I'm still not comfortable writing comedy, but maybe that's a good thing. Keeps me from getting as complacent as I was about my "real" characters.

Y'know, when I compare the book version of LD to the screenplay, I can't believe I had the nerve to send that script out, it's so shallow and dumb. Giving Daniel and Ace free rein made the story a hundred times better...and funnier, because the tragedy I hint at in Daniel's life is the perfect counterpoint. My hope is, it all makes the romance that much more meaningful.

I'm actually thinking about doing something I swore I'd never do -- rewrite "Bobby Carapisi" and add more humor to it. One reviewer even suggested it would have been a much more meaningful story if I'd done that...and again, I'm repeating myself in my commentaries.

Dammit, I'm too young to be this old!

To end this diatribe, I think half the reason Dion appeared was to loosen OT up. And he's having a blast doing it. As am I. But today...today's writing took a serious turn, with Jake having to slam into Jake-mode and kick some ass, figuratively speaking, in order to protect a friend. And another character has appeared -- Preston Hardwick, half in honor of Preston Sturges and half because a FaceBook friend named Preston has Hermit tattooed on his right bicep and was first runner up for Adorkable of the Year in 2008.

Hell, I can't pass that up.

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