Snippet 2
Circa 2002
Writers are a strange breed of human. They are so diverse and varied. What they write about, how they write it, how they come up with the idea in the first place. Personally, I get ideas from one phrase or line in a song, from a particular picture... like the fifteen year old picture of a bass player I have sitting next to Sonny as I type this. I have a story brewing in my head at this moment based on that picture, but I like to wait until it solidifies a bit before I start typing. I don't know how it is going to begin but I have a good idea of where it will go and how it will end. And, no, it isn't what you think! I think of him as more than just a body to be used in a story. He is a warm, living human being who has a life somewhere in Ireland, I think. He will never see my story, I am pretty sure. But he is the inspiration for it. I want it to be something he would be pleased to read.
Fan-fiction. Wonderful venue for the writer. Brain bubblegum. Take a movie, story, tv series, whatever and write your own ending, your own version, your own episodes. Which one of us has never done that in their head? Even create your own characters. Put yourself in the action? Star Trek actually used episodes written by fans for their series. How very kind of them to do so. I sincerely mean that, no sarcasm here.
Unfortunately, except for the Star Trek episodes, you can not possibly hope to sell fan-fiction unless you get the written permission of the original author, the movie people, the actor/actress, and anyone else that may hold any obscure rights to the story, character, etc., that you chose to write about. That can be very difficult, or more likely, impossible. But in my opinion, there is a lot of money being lost by the prohibiting of fan-fiction in the market. I have read a great deal of it. Some is really terrific and some is really bad. There is a lot of talent out there that is going to waste.
You can take a character or even an actor/actress and write a part for them, the one part that you absolutely know they would be perfect for, that you would love to see them do and you know that between you two, you could make it happen. Once you got past the Screen Actors Guild.
Then there is always the possibility that the part that you wrote strictly for Kiefer Sutherland ends up in the hands of Sean Penn. Eeeww. Not that I have anything against Sean. He just isn't the romantic figure that Kiefer is, in my opinion. He might be the man of your dreams but, um, not in my romance. I am sure that Sean will be crushed to know that.
Right. Moving on...
So, here we go with my ideas. We are all going to start out together and if any of you get lost, we'll all meet back in my kitchen, which is my favorite place to be. No, not for the food. That is where my desk and the coffee maker are. Trust me on this one. It is far enough from the bedrooms so that my typing at night doesn't wake anyone up.
OKAY Roll Opening Credits...
MY COLUMN
WRITTEN BY um…ME
ONGOING MATERIAL USED IN THIS COLUMN BY... THIS UNFORTUNATE WRITER THAT NEEDS A PLACE TO GET HER WORKS NOTICED BECAUSE SO MUCH WONDERFUL WORK IS BEING IGNORED BECAUSE I'D HAVE TO BE PUBLISHED TO GET PUBLISHED IN THIS WORLD, WHICH IS A CATCH-22, WHICH WAS A GOOD MOVIE...
Ahem...
Sorry...
