Category: Storytelling
-
Nostalgia
Yesterday, I decided to take a trip down Memory Lane. I drove through the neighborhood where I grew up, where I went to school from kindergarten through third grade. The house where my family lived during this time is still there. Here’s what it looks like now, almost 50 years later. If you look behind…
-
Clarissa Pinkola Estés
It’s been many years since I read Women Who Run with Wolves. I’m tempted to read it again. While I remember how much I loved it, I don’t remember some of the specifics. It has a lot to do with what makes us human. “Within every woman there is a wild and natural creature, a…
-
Casablanca
One of my favorite movies of all time is Casablanca. I decided to watch it again to celebrate Father’s Day. Of course, we’ve only been making movies since about 1874, or maybe 1888. I can hardly believe we’ve only been making movies for about 136 years! Here are a few of the reasons why I…
-
Last Night’s Dream
Last night, I dreamt of going back to college. As I wandered around a campus that may have been CU, I walked through the bookstore. But it only had trinkets and decorative books for sale. I assumed all the textbooks must be in a digital format now. I looked for the physical place where I…
-
Myself as a Character?
Michael was getting tired. This was not unusual for him in the mid-afternoon. He got up, stepped away from his computer, and decided it would be a good time for a walk. To avoid getting a sunburn on his balding head, he put on an old baseball cap from Breckenridge, Colorado. Then, he stepped out…
-
Jim Henson
Today, I started watching Jim Henson: Idea Man. How could I not take the opportunity to learn more about one of my heroes? Jim Henson had so many ideas that he felt like he didn’t have enough time to realize them all. So, he worked on multiple ideas at once. He grew up in rural…
-
May the 4th…
People do not have the same priorities. This is a good thing. Today, early in the morning, I got a text from my son reminding me to celebrate Star Wars Day. This meant the world to me! May the 4th be with you! Later in the day, I took my daughter to visit other family…
-
Subtext
When I re-read a partial draft of a screenplay I worked on a few years ago, I was struck by several scenes that lacked subtext. Of course, I also noticed that most scenes were more wordy than I would like. Part of making characters believable is to prevent them from saying what they mean. Real…
-
Screenwriting
I’ve decided that my next project is going to be working on another script. I’m not sure why I’m so interested in writing screenplays at the moment, but I’m not going to question it. If writing screenplays can fuel my creative life these days, I’m fine with that. Storytelling has always been important to me.…
-
Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Carlos Ruiz Zafon is one of my heroes. I’ve read almost everything he’s written that I’ve been able to find. There is a part of me that loves exotic Gothic and cinematic noir storytelling. Zafon’s books read like movies I would desperately like to see, even knowing they would never do justice to his books.…