Happy Friday!

Yesterday ended up being too big of a whirlwind to finish this. Everything is wild and crazy!?! Haha!

But in all seriousness… I’m super excited because I’ve connected a few friends for them to help each other. They have similar missions. And I plan to spotlight each of them in the coming months.

AND THERE’S MORE!?! Huh, Holly? Yes. Richard and I will be on the Film Threat Livestream today at 11 AM Pacific Time. Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1DCp9Rp7EY

I also want to take a minute to explain a bit of my writing journey. See… I’ve been storytelling since I was little. We used to have a tape recorder where I would record Star Wars stories with me playacting every voice. And I later went on to write out my stories until one day: I embraced my dream of being a scriptwriter and a filmmaker.

What drives me? Giving voice to those without one. But this isn’t about putting words in their mouths for I also interview people and spend time around them prior to writing about them. As I’ve been around since dinosaurs roamed the earth, I also have a touch of experiences to draw from. Being goofy. Plus, I have something else to say that is important: I want to “normalize” people just being people regardless of their immutable traits or medical conditions. An example is how in “representation” movies and TV shows, they tend to have big speeches and/or use exhausted tropes.

My thoughts? Please shoot my fancy pants. Why? The big speeches on social issues and overused tropes are well-intentioned except they separate those individuals from the rest of the characters. It’s okay to have some pushback and speak a little longer except characters aren’t complex if the big speech is the only thing that separates a character from the others. Things like self-sabotage are awesome of they are a great source of conflict and humor. Why yes? I’m on a diet and ate an entire cake. I can so relate. How about you?

I’m thinking all this because I’m having meetings with my different actresses and actors for 3 WISHES the movie. We’ve been talking about how to personalize what I wrote for them as well as their thoughts on the story and their characters. I can write more later since holy shit… I’m learning so much.

The ultimate conclusion on “character” for now? I believe it’s more important for characters to be relatable than likable. Think about it? I can’t identify with a perfect girl boss. But I can relate to the one who managed to go to the wrong house and spill coffee all over a script because she was juggling too many things. Yes. This actually happened yesterday. It was pretty silly. I’ll guess that this is a lot more relatable than female characters making it through an entire apocalypse or nuclear war with perfect hair unless it’s in jest.

In the meantime, I’ll have a real column on Thanksgiving since it’s next Thursday.

Have a wonderful weekend! Chat soon!

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