8 1/2

Inspiration comes from all sorts of places, and I got mine, yesterday, by watching "8 1/2" by Federico Fellini. It's about a movie director having a crisis of faith in his ability to make films, and how he tries to work his way through it.  It starts out with an amazing dream sequence and gets wilder and crazier from there, with the story jumping in and out of reality and back and forth in time.

This film is so complex, it's almost like writing a novel on celluloid. And it got me to look closer at what I'm trying to do with "The Vanishing of Owen Taylor".

I've got what is, ostensibly, a mystery about why a man disappeared...and the story molds itself to that, nicely enough. It's a good excuse to explore. But, and this is a biggie, it's also about shifts in society and the battles that come from that as well as the shifts in Jake's and Antony's relationship, and the battle within Jake about that.

I guess the basis of the story is -- change begets conflict begets change, and with that change comes destruction...and creation. Hmm...I need to phrase that better.

I did find I was pushing too hard, in a couple of moments. They hadn't been earned, yet. I'm also missing the first real interaction between Antony and Dion. I have them barely introduced before the story continues. That's got to change, because they both play a strong role in Jake's inner conflict.

A lot has to change...but I'm slowly...slowly zeroing in.