Conversations With Strange Men Part Four
I was contacted via a friend, by a man who has been a writing teacher in the US for years. He's a very interesting, deeply spiritual guy, we had coffee, then he read Selfish Jean and loved it, and wanted to meet with the idea of me being part of a sitcom writing team (on spec, no commission). We meet for lunch.
The talk turns to writing partners and goes something like this.
Me: I tried writing a sitcom with a really close friend once and we nearly came to blows over it. Like whose plot was best, best lines, anything. He died unfortunately.
Him: (a little horror struck) Really?
Me: Oh it's OK I didn't kill him. He'd been ill a long time.
Him: Mmmm. Whenever I feel myself getting angry about someone, not only do I try and analyze them, I always like to turn it round and analyze what it is in myself that's reacting to them.
Me: Right....
Him: Now I'm not a judgemental person or I try not to be as much as anyone can be non-judgemental.
Me: Uh-huh..
Him: But with one of the writers it was impossible. There were three things that made me angry. One (he puts out one finger to count on) just his cynicism about everything, and everyone and the whole of his life. I wondered in the end if it was just because he came from the North.
Me: I am from up North.
Him: Well if that's the way things are up there, being really negative, acting like everything is a waste of time anyway.so what's the point. ThHen again maybe it was the fact he had a lot of money that was making me angry. He has houses all over the place, in the US, the North, one in London and doesn't really need to work, so then I had to really try hard and turn it round, really look at myself and see what it is in me that was reacting in the way I did to this person...
Me: Don't be so hard on yourself, there are some people we just don't hit it off with...
Him: I haven't finished yet.
Me: Sorry.
Him: So on to reason two (he counts on his next finger) why this person gets my back up.
Me: I thought we'd done reason two.
Him: No, that was just a subclause of reason one... So reason two...
(I settle back onto the sofa cushions, make myself comfortable)
About 20 mins later....
Him: So all in all, I think what we need is some new input into the script, which is where you could come in. You could send me one of your scripts and I'll send you what we've written of the sitcom so far. It's still in very early stages.
Me: Well a sitcom needs really good dialogue, snappy you know? And of course it needs to be funny.
Him: (unsmiling) Funny?
Me: (smiling brightly) Yes!
The talk turns to writing partners and goes something like this.
Me: I tried writing a sitcom with a really close friend once and we nearly came to blows over it. Like whose plot was best, best lines, anything. He died unfortunately.
Him: (a little horror struck) Really?
Me: Oh it's OK I didn't kill him. He'd been ill a long time.
Him: Mmmm. Whenever I feel myself getting angry about someone, not only do I try and analyze them, I always like to turn it round and analyze what it is in myself that's reacting to them.
Me: Right....
Him: Now I'm not a judgemental person or I try not to be as much as anyone can be non-judgemental.
Me: Uh-huh..
Him: But with one of the writers it was impossible. There were three things that made me angry. One (he puts out one finger to count on) just his cynicism about everything, and everyone and the whole of his life. I wondered in the end if it was just because he came from the North.
Me: I am from up North.
Him: Well if that's the way things are up there, being really negative, acting like everything is a waste of time anyway.so what's the point. ThHen again maybe it was the fact he had a lot of money that was making me angry. He has houses all over the place, in the US, the North, one in London and doesn't really need to work, so then I had to really try hard and turn it round, really look at myself and see what it is in me that was reacting in the way I did to this person...
Me: Don't be so hard on yourself, there are some people we just don't hit it off with...
Him: I haven't finished yet.
Me: Sorry.
Him: So on to reason two (he counts on his next finger) why this person gets my back up.
Me: I thought we'd done reason two.
Him: No, that was just a subclause of reason one... So reason two...
(I settle back onto the sofa cushions, make myself comfortable)
About 20 mins later....
Him: So all in all, I think what we need is some new input into the script, which is where you could come in. You could send me one of your scripts and I'll send you what we've written of the sitcom so far. It's still in very early stages.
Me: Well a sitcom needs really good dialogue, snappy you know? And of course it needs to be funny.
Him: (unsmiling) Funny?
Me: (smiling brightly) Yes!
posted by cate sweeney @ 1:40 PM
3 Comments:
At 7:23 PM,
Shameless said…
Gorgeous, Cate! :) YOu could write that script hands down. Have you read his writing yet? Was it a monologue?
At 3:06 AM,
David Isaak said…
Cate, you seem to be running with a bad crowd lately...
...but one infinitely fertile from a fictioneer's point of view. You've even got a title (Conversations with Strange Men. Though I've known some women who'd claim the term "strange men" is a bit redundant.)
Now you just need to decide if it's a comedy or a murder mystery. Or both.
(If you go down the murder mystery line, will the question be which of these men is the killer...or who has killed all of these men?)
At 10:50 AM,
cate sweeney said…
Hi David & Shamus
Just replying from a cafe in Spain (Get me!) so quick reply and I do have to say this guy is actually a really nice guy. I wonder if that´s what we writers do when we rpeort things and make characters of real people in that we are selective in how we do it for our own ends. And is that really bad of us. Perhaps it is like a cartoonist drawing a charucature, we can recognise the person but...
hope you are both well. I will check out your blogs and update mine soon....with new strange men!
Cate x
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