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10/22/2006: Not Buying the Farm


Well, I'm back from my trip! Las Vegas says "Hi." And also "Hey, Sailor."

Get this, gentle readers. I own a lovely big "Once More With Feeling" poster that I had reframed recently. (OMWF is the musical Buffy episode.) When I went to pick up the finished poster, someone had attached a note to it! I guess it was sitting in the store, looking all... mine (my name is on it because I had Joss sign it to me). And someone left me poster-mail! How cool is that?

So thanks to Jason Lee for the great note -- I wonder, people, do you suppose that's Jason Lee, the star of My Name is Earl? I think it would be very strange and wonderful if famous people were leaving notes for me in poster shops. Thank you, Jason, however famous you are or are not!

In other news, I just watched the latest episode of The Office. In this particular episode, one of the story threads was a bit surreal. For those who saw it, I'm referring to the "Dwight takes Ryan on a sales call" story line. It was right on the edge, for me, of being not realistic enough for the show. (Did you buy the thing where he took him to the farm?) However, it was largely redeemed, for me, because the ABOUT was working. It was about Dwight trying to make Ryan into the friend/acolyte that Jim could never be -- and because that rings true, the rest of it is saved, or at least mitigated. It's amazing how much you can get away with if you have some real human emotion underlying it.

Conversely, even a very grounded, totally realistic story can feel wrong if the emotional underpinnings are false. So take a step back from the events of your spec and look one more time at the emotional arc. Does it work? Is the progression logical and believable for your characters? Then you're probably on good solid ground, no matter what crazy events you might be dealing with.

Lunch: two chicken soft tacos and a cherry coke from Del Taco. Get the Del Scorcho sauce.