June 14, 2021

Started Brent Forrester's online half-hour comedy class yesterday. He talks really fast and is an engaging teacher. It's a six-week course that was only $90. You don't get access to him beyond these webinars, but we're encouraged to connect with the other people in the class. The majority of folks seem to be living in LA, which is encouraging. Means that a lot of the people are serious enough to move out here. One classmate set up a google drive folder, and I added a spreadsheet where people can add information about themselves. A little introduction. Depending on how things go, maybe I'll see if people want to meet up for a happy hour. I've been feeling like an RA, lately. Okay, folks! Let's do this activity. 

I have to brainstorm an idea for a pilot this week. The approach Brent recommends is to start with your main character. Make him or her complex, give them comedic irony, and then create your secondary characters around them -- give them whatever traits will trigger your main character's flaws. He cited Mr. Bean as proof that you can create a whole franchise on the strength of one character. Another thing I was surprised about was that he said that the pilot script only has to have an A storyline. That simplifies things a lot. The job of the pilot is to introduce the characters and set up the A story. So far so good. 

Oh! He also said the shortest amount of time you can write a good episode of TV, or in my case a good spec, is 3 weeks. I wouldn't need to push myself to write one in the shortest possible time. But I do think I should challenge myself to do it in about 5 weeks. Next year, I'd like to apply for the WB TV Writing fellowship, which needs a spec script (and then a pilot for the second round). I should plan on giving myself 5 weeks -- Feb/March maybe -- to write it, get notes, and then take another pass in April/May before submitting. That's if I can get the pilot finished this year. Which I should. 

The first idea that came to mind is a spin-off of the Rockbone concept. A person who's elevated in the arts who actually has no idea what they're doing. A woman who steps into the life of a famous contemporary artist. She's this artist's doppleganger, and the woman dies. The supporting characters would be the protagonist's old friends -- who know she's a fraud -- and the elite folks who think she's a famous artist. I don't know if it's a great idea. But it's something! I could also re-try any of the ideas I worked on with my former writing partner, but maybe if I did well he'd come back in and try to take credit? He probably would. Better to start fresh. I suppose I could also do a science-lab comedy. I have some direct experience with that... Maybe I'll do the character sheets for both ideas and see which one I prefer. 

Blog Time! 

Johnson, Micaiah – THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS

Published: 2020

Read: 6/2021

Cara-Lee is a traverser, someone who travels to other worlds. She’s on heavier rotation than anyone else because in order to visit a world, the you in that world has to be dead. She’s dead on most of the reachable worlds. She also isn’t who people think she is. Caramenta traveled to her world and was crushed because Cara-Lee was still alive. Cara-Lee assumed Caramenta’s identity and traveled to World 0, the only world with traversing. She’s from Ash Town, the desert outside the rich city of Wiley. There’s Del, her watcher, who Cara’s in love with but who doesn’t seem to return her affections. There’s Nick-nick, the emperor of Ash. The Runners are enforcement in Ash. There’s Adam Bosh, the man who invented traversing. Cara finds out that Adam is actually the older brother of Nick Nick, presumed to be dead. Adam is also killing himself on all other worlds so that he can hold a monopoly on the technology. To make more money, he’s taking civilians on the trip – not telling them that he’ll need to kill there dops on whichever other world. Cara takes a stand against Adam. She solicits Nick Nick’s help. She takes down Adam and gets together with Del. Ever ambitious, she lets go of her desire to become a citizen of Wiley City and is happy to return to Ash. 

I really liked this take on the multiple-universes idea. We keep coming back to the same set of characters, meeting them again and again in different worlds. It sort of asks what people are capable of and what they’re like under different conditions. It looks at racism, classism, privilege, ambition. It questions if there’s really such thing as a bad class of people, if gang leaders, dictators, CEOs are really so different from one another. The big bad being a Jeff Bezos type guy is nice. I liked Cara-Lee. She often describes herself as prey, and yet she’s very active. A woman who’s been in abusive relationships all over many worlds, but is self-possessed, a protagonist. I found the book to be nuanced and compassionate. Cara notes that even though Adam Bosh is evil, when he dies the world will lose something special. A solid read! 

Rating: ★★★