Thursday, November 19, 2009

You Lost Today, Kid. But That Doesn't Mean you Have to Like it.




Greetings fellow web lurkers! Hey, don't you have anything better and/or more important to do right now?

Hang on...

[if ANSWER = "YES" then REPLY = "So do I, but I can't help it, I like my blog."]

[if ANSWER = "NO" then REPLY = "Me neither. So let's tell fart jokes. You go first."]

There, now I'm ready for you to answer the question. Go ahead...

I feel bad (badly?) about misleading y'all yesterday... I had no "story" to tell you yesterday. That's what is called, in my business, a "MacGuffin," i.e. "A plot element that catches the viewer's attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction." Often, the MacGuffin is not important, in and of itself, or is vague or undefined - the sole purpose of it is to drive the plot. Both the term "MacGuffin" and the technique were actually popularized by Alfred Hitchcock in the late thirties.

Examples of MacGuffins would be the Indiana Jones stories... the Ark in the first, the Sankara Stones in the second, the Holy Grail in the third and the crystal skull in the fourth. Also, the statuette that gives The Maltese Falcon its title, the dead man's chest in the second Pirate's film, the Allspark in Transformers, and the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, the contents of which were never revealed.In and of themselves, the macguffins aren't important - they serve to move the story along.

So, yeah, the "cool story" was yesterday's macguffin...

There, now you can't say I never taught you anything!

Uh oh, Funny Picture break...




That would also make a great T-shirt, methinks.

I was writing last night, and I came out with a scene that had me laughing so hard as I wrote it, my stomach hurt. I'd post it in here, but you all know that the only thing that can make me laugh that hard is gas-related, so, if you'll pardon the pun, I'm going to pass on posting it here. Besides, I don't know that it will end up in the final draft. Just because I laughed like a madman at 2am writing it (and again this morning as I re-read it), doesn't mean anyone else shares my warped sense of humor...

I'll be writing a scene tonight that has existed in my head in some form from the very beginning of my contemplations of the story, a year or more ago. It is a key scene, really, and I'm a little nervous about it. But I keep telling myself that it isn't important to get it right the first time, but to get the secene down in any form. Just get it down on paper, and worry about polishing the heck out of it later.

Hmm... I better post a funny Star Wars-themed picture...




There, that should make Logan happy...

In case you missed this video, which Abbie posted in a comment on yesterday's blog post, it is quite impressive... sort of a blending of ballet and acrobatics....





Give it about a minute or so to get awesome. One of those clips you just kind of watch with your eyes wide and mouth hanging open. I'd watch ballet more often, but normally, I just don't get the "point"....

BUAHAHAHAH!!!

O_o

I had the most amazing Scrabble endgame yesterday against Mike Dillinger... He was winning up till the end, when he left me the perfect hook to drop a bingo on him and go about 70 points ahead, basically sealing the win. Afterward, I had one letter left, so Mike had his last play. He actually dropped a bingo as well, across the bottom of the board, for 110 points and won.

In fact, lemme go grab a screenie, hang on...





See, I hooked WRITING on the end of NAIVE for an 81 point play. Game over, right? 70 point lead, no tiles left? Boom! Mike drops DUALIZED across the bottom for 110 points, and the win. Game over. I was amazed. So cool...

Anyway, that's the end of tonight's post. Gonna go hunker down and write The Scene. Wish me luck. Of course, by the time most of you read this, I'll be done writing it (hopefully)...

Until tomorrow, remember, Germany has declared war on the Jones boys...

7 comments:

Bob said...

Could you give me some more info on this Scrabble game you were playing with this Mike character? Looks interesting :D I might want to challenge my other non-english-native speakers :DD

Thanx...

Bob said...

Oh, i see it now... it's a FB application!

Bob said...

Btw, LOVED the Star Wars pic.. .i laughed my ass off :DD

Have a great, peaceful and productive weekend everyone!!

logankstewart said...

What a crazy random happenstance. An octopus played a part in todays White Ninja comic. That would be an awesome shirt. I agree.

I saw that STAR WARS picture a few weeks back and thought it was brilliant. I still do.

Belated good luck with the writing.

Crystal said...

Haha! Don't taunt the octopus!! That's good advise!!

The ballet/acrobatics was impressive.

Scrabble on Facebook?!? I'll have to look into that. Looks like fun and a good way to kill some time.

Abbie said...

dave, that looks like it was an awesome scrabble game!! glad you are getting some good competition! This holiday season mom and I should have time to beat ya ;P lol...
Good luck writing your scene! thanks for teaching us about the macguffins :)
I liked both funny pics too, and the top picture, of course!
see you tonight, i think... or sunday :)

Paula Titus said...

Hoping all went smoothly with the scene writing last night.
Great top photo. :)