I’ve always been a big movie fan

I just love the “view”.

Not so much the screen showing clothes, or pretty women or so-called “glamour” but the look into a different world than the one I inhabited. The look into the world of war (seldom depicted as ugly as it is) or a story about the experience of escaping from war. (“Oh, it’s all about great songs and harmony singing?” Sure it is.) Perhaps it's a chance to use deduction to solve the crime before the writers reveal the solution. It was entertainment from a different place and it can show the viewers how to make entertainment in their own world.

    As said in a line from a Jim Stafford song, "take a trip and never leave the farm".

     

Then I began to study the writing, acting and directing. Is it a good story? Could it be a better story? Do you believe the way he delivered that line? The character he created? Why did they jump from New York to Arizona?

          Then there was a period where several movies were released that I had and still have no interest in. Yes, I saw a few and thought, “I could have written something more interesting than that” or perhaps, “A few plot twists might have made it interesting.” Not funny, not informative or enlightening, not glamorous, predictable --- just not “there”.

          But apparently they were “the velly height of awetistic expression, don’t you know,” since someone kept writing and someone kept producing them.

          “Well, if you don’t like what is available, tell your own story!”

          As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been around more than just a few days. I am relatively comfortable with my past despite having made several mistakes both embarrassing and serious. Therefore I have some experiences I can document and stories I’ve heard upon which I can expand. I’ve even managed an understanding of my own motivation and am able to make a good guess at others.

          So I started putting some of those stories in print. I found that I very much enjoyed the writing. When I later received comments about those stories I found I enjoyed that as well.

          There is another great benefit to writing.

1. 

          I’ve mention some of my favorite story tellers in previous writing. They include (and are not limited to) Michael Connolly, David Baldacci, Lee Child, Louis L’Amour, Tom Clancey and William W. Johnston. But after a while I find that I’ve read what is offered and I try someone new. If it is a story that I have to “fight my way” through then I sit down and write my own story. Usually, when I have completed this “new” story I can say, “There, that’s better.”

          But there is more to just the writing than the creating of enjoyment for the reader which, I tell myself, is what I am doing. When I am in “that place”, the world where the story takes place, I have “just taken a trip and didn’t leave the farm” and Jim Stafford’s Wildwood Weed had nothing to do with it.

Who is on your Christmas list?

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