Epiphany

I had another of those moments.

I've been reading about some writing exercises out in the scribosphere, specifically about taking your characters and putting them in alien situations.

So I did that - with the "Sheep's End" script I keep rewriting to help me avoid some significant emotional issues with the "By the Book" script I keep putting off.

I used these alternate stories as thought experiments - I didn't write them down, but I thought of how my characters would react.

And then, in my mind, one of them died.

It brought a lump into my throat. How horrible that this charismatic little fellow could be rendered so lifeless.

Now, I'm not really too emotional a guy, but I'm not a robot either. It takes something of significance to make me get that lump, but that lump can appear. So this, I thought, was gold.

I rewrote that screenplay, but this time killed off that fun guy. It's shocking. It comes out of the blue - but not without reason. And it ratchets up the emotional stakes of my script by an order of magnitude (I hope). R.I.P., Bren.

And it never would have occurred to me had I restricted my thinking to the box.

Just wanted to share that with you.