I wan’ my Obi-Wan

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Hello, Universe? I don’t mean to intrude on your eternity and vastness, but if you could see your way to sending me a mentor, I’d really appreciate it.

I’ve spent most of my life training for the next thing, taking classes, meeting other students, learning from teachers and text books, but now I want to try things a little differently. I want my Obi-Wan Kenobi.

To totally nerd out, I probably want a Yoda, because Obi-Wans tend to go off on some damn fool mission at the drop of a hat.

And I don’t mean mentor like some man or woman in the corner office who has an “open-door” policy and wants me to check in every now and again.

I mean a mentor who will kick my ass when I slack off; who will challenge me to do more, no matter how much I succeed; at whom I will stand and scream that he or she is being a real hard-ass. Because that’s what I think I need to get better at my writing.

Now, I can get any number of people who will do all those things, but what makes a mentor different is that I will respond to the mentor’s demands whereas I would just tell everyone else to piss off. The mentor is the one to whom I stand in awe for his or her understanding and accomplishments in the universe in which I am trying to excel .

The mentor is the one who will open windows and doors I do not yet know exist. Who will help me find facets and capabilities in me I do not know I possess. Who will rip apart my views of the universe and help me rebuild them in a manner that will let me achieve more than I even now conceive as possible.

A pretty heady task for any individual. A lot of me to ask.

But until I made the request, I was not yet ready to take the next step.

I am asking.

Snorkeling in Costa Rica – Isla Tortuga

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I love to snorkel and am constantly amazed at the variations in colour and texture found in the ocean. Unfortunately, I’ve never managed to get my act together sufficiently to capture any of these visuals. Until my recent trip to Costa Rica.

Determined to come home with snorkeling photos, I bought myself a small camera that if I lost it, would not represent a great financial loss, but if it took decent photos would be a nice addition to the family.

I opted for a Kodak Sport model, which although not technically an underwater camera, was water resistant to 3 metres…I was going to test the limits of “resistant”. (mine is not the model in the link, which is much nicer, but you get the idea)

A brave fish that gets out of your way, but doesn’t rush, so you typically have time to take its picture.

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Shifting currents were a bit of an issue, and I often found myself twisting in the “breeze” while trying to take a photo.

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I’d seen the larger fish below in Hawaii, as well, and was amazed both by the vividness of its colours and that it could maneuver at all with those tiny fins.

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I am near sighted and the camera viewer was hard to see underwater and through my mask, so the fact that any of the photos were on target and focused is amazing.

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Thank goodness for schools of fish…it dramatically increased the likelihood of me getting something in the shot.

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As someone who burns easily, I normally avoid the sun…thank goodness it showed up today.

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Those little blue guys are everywhere, but they are extremely skittish…I don’t know that I ever managed a clear shot of one.

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This was like swimming through a cloud of liquid silver…this was a huge school and shimmered so much that I swear they generated light.

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Unfortunately, the strong currents tended to cloud the water, so the photos aren’t as pristine as I would have liked. (I cut myself some slack, however, as this was my first time.)

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Feels like a double exposure of one fish.

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These photos were taken off Isla Tortuga in the Gulfo de Nicoya near Putarenas.

If you get the chance, GO! It is magnificent.

 

Story before structure

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Over the last couple decades, I have taken classes at a variety of post-secondary centres teaching everything from magazine writing to sketch writing to screenwriting, and one thing has always amazed and frustrated me about the majority of my classmates: They all think they are going to finish the class with a template for success.

For some reason, they believe that there is an inherent structure for a successful story that they can just drape story elements over. If I can just map out the three-act structure, I will win that Academy Award.

When in your lives have you ever walked out of a class with a structure for success? Ever! Ever!

Even the alphabet was merely a building block to communication. Please let me know who has gotten a job and achieved a pinnacle of success through the strict application of the alphabet as taught in pre-K or kindergarten. The alphabet is useless unless you rearrange and duplicate some of the letters, and even then there is more to it.

Don’t ask the instructor on what page the Act I turning point should come because not all screenplays are 110 pages and not all stories have their Act I turning point at the 25% point of the screenplay. (If you want your head to explode, try figuring out the Act I turning point of the movie Memento.)

Write the story that demands to be written, regardless of the canonical film, novel or sketch structure. Let the story and its characters tell you when things should happen. Luckily, because few of us still spit charcoal onto our hands against rock walls, we can easily move the elements of our story around later.

You can have the strongest architecture in the world, but if your story sucks, your screenplay sucks. If your characters aren’t truthful to themselves and your story, no one will believe them. Much as a roadmap doesn’t a vacation make, neither does a story structure a story make.

We learn these elements, the points in our writing, as guiding principles for our own thoughts, not as immovable stone markers for what must be.

When used correctly, this information can enhance a beautiful story, but when used as a crutch, it destroys creativity; we focus too much on the next point and not enough on the journey.

Write your play. Write your novel. Write your screenplay. Write your poem. Write your story.

Once you’ve done that, then check the beams and girders of your construction to make sure everything is exactly where it needs to be for the sake of that story.

Loathe to sloth

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I have to be the only person I know for whom the mammal sloth and the deadly sin sloth are seemingly unrelated.

As I traveled Costa Rica recently, my eagle-eyed brother spotted an amorphous blotch in the tree tops at the side of the highway, so we stopped.

After a few clouds parted, the blotch slowly unwound and took the form of a sloth…a very active sloth, in fact…wait, two very active sloths.

The following photos were taken between Volcan Arenal and La Fortuna.

Man, who woke me up? I took lots of photos of a bundle of mossy fur, only to suddenly have her unfurl and make a move up the tree.

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Mom, why is it suddenly so bright? We were astounded when we realized it wasn’t just one sloth but a family.

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Hey you, with the camera, bugger off! Look at that face…for an animal that usually looks dead, this one is pretty animated. Wondering if baby has something to do with it.

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Who you yelling at, mom? I can only imagine how large the baby’s claws are and what they would do to mom if she didn’t have that thick shag.

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Snack time.

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The great thing about photographing sloths is once you have a good angle, you have all day to click away. They move, but not very quickly, and given their roost about 50 feet off the ground, they don’t really have to.

Now I’m her-o

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It may sound incredibly self-centred, but I am the hero of my personal journey through life, and by that, I don’t mean a literal Hercules or Aeneas so much as the protagonist. Everything in my life is interpreted through my eyes in how it impacts me.

Sure, if I try, I can step outside of my ego and try to consider life and specific events through others’ eyes, but even here, if I am to be completely honest, I am still tempering those reflections through my own life experiences and biases.

And now to the controversial aspect of this vignette.

When creating characters for a story—a novel, screenplay, poem, excuse for lateness—each character in that story is the hero of the story, if only in their own eyes. The events you record as a writer are witnessed by the characters in your story from their own perspectives and their responses and reactions to events and other characters will be based on their individual experiences and biases.

Sure, the story you are trying to tell may only have a main protagonist, perhaps a secondary protagonist and an antagonist. Everyone else is just there for colour or to help your main characters rationalize their worlds and world views. But you have to be honest to those other characters if we, as readers, listeners and viewers, are to believe them.

When I read screenplays, I often get quite attached to the main characters, whether positively or negatively. More often, unfortunately, I end up watching minor characters for whom I have no opinion if for no other reason than I cannot believe they exist.

They are placeholders to keep me from watching 95 minutes of nothing other than antagonist and protagonist in earnest conflict. To call them two-dimensional would be a slight to some finely crafted animated characters I’ve watched in well written cartoons.

Even if a character has one line or is silent, I want to know in my gut, if not my head, that the character has a reason to exist, not for the sake of your plot, but for the sake of his or her universe.

I’m not asking for 37 stories for 37 characters. I’m asking for one story for 37 characters that matter.

A lot of people tell me that this over-complicates things—you may be thinking this right now. I obviously disagree, believing that a Who is a Who, no matter how small.

That character’s reality doesn’t have to be on the page, but it better be in your head, because the reader will know if it’s not. The character won’t pop, if it isn’t.

If it helps, think of this as another way of telling a story that’s been told a thousand times before. Rather than tell the story from the perspective of the protagonist everyone knows, tell it from the perspective of the character few people ever remember. The 100 bajillion Christmas stories are perfect examples of this.

The Little Drummer Boy was the story of the birth of Christ and yet it wasn’t.

What if you retold the story from Pretty Woman but from the perspective of the hotel manager?

Make every character in your story believe he or she is the hero of his or her universe, and they will live on beyond their few lines of dialogue.

In their eyes – Toronto Zoo

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I don’t know if we have souls. But if we do, I have trouble believing only humans have souls.

There is depth and understanding in the eyes of other creatures, whether I put it there or a higher power did.

I spent some time at the local zoo last year and these are some photos that felt particularly powerful to me. Feel free to provide your own insights on what they are thinking, feeling.

She lay there next to her sleeping mother, curious about the animals beyond the cage and ignoring the odd one through the plexiglas.

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This was the most troublesome photo of the day for me. I found his stare disturbing.

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I’m not sure if it’s the eyes or the curve of the mouth, but there is a bored sadness about him for all his inherent beauty and serenity.

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Something is going to happen…he just hasn’t figured out what, yet.

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This was definitely a Taxi Driver moment. Total De Niro.

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Wish I could have gotten a better angle on her, but she wasn’t going to just give it to me.

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Really? That’s what she chose to wear to the zoo, today?Image

A medical writer for too long

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I’m sitting at the Ricoh Coliseum waiting for a Toronto Marlies hockey game to start. As people move to their seats, they’ll stand at the railing to watch the warm up. As people join them and start to converse, they slow others trying to get to their seats.
Where others might see an annoying crowd, my mind strays to atherosclerosis, arterial plaque build up. If the lights suddenly go down at the Ricoh, the arena’s had a stroke.
I have seriously been in medical writing too long!

(Teddy Bear Toss game at the Ricoh back in November. Hooray charitable people)

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The 12 Steps of Improvisational Screenplay Writing

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Step 1. Write “FADE IN”

Step 2. Write a location, starting with “INT.” or “EXT.”

Step 3. Write a time of day after your location

Step 4. In two lines, write a description of that location as you see it in your mind’s eye

Step 5. Write down the name of a character.

Step 6. In a line, write a description of that character.

Step 7. In a line or two, write a description of what that character is doing at the location.

Step 8. Write the name of something with which that character is interacting, be it a person, object or something more ephemeral.

Step 9. In a line, write a description of that thing with which the character is interacting.

Step 10. In the middle of the page, write the name of your first character.

Step 11. Below that name, write an emotionally charged statement that this character says about the thing with which he or she is interacting, the nature of the interaction, or a total non-sequitur to confuse the hell out of people.

Step 12. In writing, rationalize these choices for the next 95 pages.

(I never said I’d help you make a movie, just a screenplay)

BC creep crawlies – Chilliwack area

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As you’ll eventually learn, I have a special place in my heart for critters and particularly creepy crawlies, photographing them every chance I get. Again, going to have to learn how to use a macro lens.

The photos that follow are from a couple days with family in the Chilliwack area of British Columbia, which much like Volcan Arenal has been amazingly dormant for years.

The contrasting textures were too much to pass on when I saw this little guy in my mother’s back yard.

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Sequestered in the bottom of a terrace lamp, this scary looking guy would descend in the evening to catch prey attracted to the light (or anyone foolish enough to bump into him).

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It wasn’t until I started playing with the image that I saw the ant and decided he had to be included in the cropping.

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Yes, I believe they are doing what you think they’re doing. What really attracted me though–aside from insect porn–was the way the light shone through their wings, colouring the rocks below.

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I was so happy that one of these frames was actually usable as I must have taken a dozen shots of this guy.

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This one and the next one were taken in a park and the biggest challenge I faced was the wind blowing the spider in and out of focus. I’m never quite organized enough to set up a wind break.

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Regardless of what you may personally think about spiders, you have to admit his colours are amazing (or you don’t).

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Butterflies and moths fascinate me. They always look like they will disintegrate into a fine powder on the next strong breeze.

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Birds of Costa Rica – Volcan Arenal

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On a recent trip to Costa Rica, I had the pleasure of spending time with some avian friends who seemed quite relaxed about having their photos taken. The results make me crave a decent telephoto lens.

The photos that follow were from a couple of days in the area of Volcan Arenal, which had annoying gone dormant a year before my arrival.

This little guy seemed a bit distracted, so I had more time to take his picture.

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Every time this fellow tried to make any headway at a feeding station, he was chased off by the whack-jobs known as the Montezuma Oropendula.

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Patience is a virtue and he was extremely patient with me.

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The whack jobs themselves. I am still working on capturing movement.

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Vultures are everywhere down there. I liked the contrast against the cloud. There’s something both ominous and majestic to me about these birds.

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I wish I’d gotten a better shot of this fellow–his plummage was gorgeous–but he was not very patient, spent a lot of time moving through branches, and I was losing my light.

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