Mental Sewer Trap

I don't care what your creative outlet is: writing, painting, macrame or carving soap...ideas come from everywhere when you least expect it. Last week I was swapping emails with a client. We were both getting somewhat punchy from both the ridiculous amount of work that we'd been doing, and the ridiculous amount of work that we will be doing over the next two months. One of the emails I sent combined the titles of shows that were coming up (it's a performing arts center).

This is what came out: I was thinking more along the lines of Fred Garbo's Inflatable Carrot Top Killer that Stands By Your Late Nite Lucci.

Now... allow me to decipher. There's a show called Fred Garbo's Inflatable Circus. Carrot Top. Stand by Your Man. Late Nite Catechism. And Susan Lucci. All of these performers/shows are coming to their theatre. The "killer"...well that was me, what can I tell you.

Anyway, the idea of an "inflatable killer" stuck in the sewer trap of my mind and by noon the following day I had the first draft done. There's a competition coming up at the end of March for Short Short Scripts. Maximum amount it can be is 4 pages, so depending on who directs it, you're looking at anywhere from three and a half to maybe seven minutes or so of screentime. It may not sound like it, but it's a bit of a challenge to slice a story down to four pages. My first draft was almost eight pages and cutting the content became akin to cutting fingers off.

I left it alone for a few days and came back with a fresh eye to edit again, and the final result of "Pumping Hilda" is at:

www.whutta.com/fiction/

And it's outta here.

Back to Lower Levels, which, incidentally, is going very well and should be in first complete draft by the end of March at the latest.

-keep your toe tags on