Inside the Brain of E.C. Henry

The Advantages of Being a Fair-weather Fan

As you may or may not know I am a DIE-HARD, adament, fan of the Seattle Seahawks.  LOVED that team since I first started getting into watching NFL football back in the early 80s.  BUT the longer I watch football and get a broader perspective on things the more I'm starting to see the advantages of being a less ardent fan.  Of just enjoing things when the going is good, then jumping off the bandwaggon and doing something else when the sledding gets tough.  You can do that when you're a casuall fan and not emotionally invested in a team.  But oftentimes following your favorite team can make you feel like this...

On one level it is real foolery to get emotionally invested in an organizaiont of people who are doing something comletely independent of yourself.  And that's exactly what every football team does.  Fans aren't on the team, yet so many of them think that they matter to the sucess of the team.  Alas, they do not.  Whether or not your team shows up and plays well or doesn't not play well on a given day is not influenced by me or you, their fans.  

What I'm getting at is that getting all caught up in a football game is really foolish.  This is not real life.  It is a form of entertainment.  Like going to the circus, or going to the movies.  ONLY caveat is the male testosternone, athletic bragioso angle; most men like to compete an athletic and get a false sense of security based on how good or bad they are at it.  

There are so many better things you can do with your time than watch NFL football.  Everytime you watch a complete game that's like 2-3 hours out of your life.  And for what?!  Either your team wins or it loses.  

This year my beloved Seattle Seahawks have been doing a lot of losing.  Thanks a lot to the plays guys like Greg Olsen made against my beloved boys in blue and green when the Carolina Panthers came into Century Link and beat my Seattle Seahawks earlier this season.  More losing than the spoiled fanbase of the Seattle Seahwaks is used to seeing.  The 12th man is real.  The fans of the Seattle Seahakws are passionate bunch, but are oftentimes dillusional, and think their team is better than they really are.  Trust me, I see this EVERY DAY at work.  I talk "Seahawks" with a lot of 12s and most of them don't have a realistic expectation for the team's prospects.  They want to hear that their team is going to win, and don't take well to the voice of reason which I normally try to introduce that says that there are compelling factors of why the Seahawks might loose a given game.  

It is easy to get caught up in the "hype" for your team in listening to their announcers.  I'm finding most local sports talk radio tends to lean on the side of the negative, but the broadcasters of the team are overly positive, giving off the impression that the teams player are better than they really are.  That said:

Richard Sherman IS the best Seattle Seahawk right now.  I just LA-OVE that guy.  He is so much more than the brash, trash-talker who yelled up a storm into Erin Andrews ear after he tipped away a pass intended for Michael Crabtree of the 49ers in the NFC championship game in the 2013 regular season/2014 playoff season.  It is so cool to hear Richard speak to reporters.  He is smart.  He is articulte.  He knows how to cut up and have some fun.  And he's growing a man right in front of everyone's eyes.  I know this year Richard Sherman doesn't have the interception totals.  Nor is the Seattle Seahawk pass deffense, the "Legion of Boom" what it used to be.  But it's players like Richard Sherman that make me want to be more than just a casual fan.  It's not Russell Wilson or Marshawn Lynch, it's Richard Sherman.  Trust me, 10 years from now after the Seahawk run is over and you're looking back over this team, HE is the guy who is going to stand out, and for all the right reasons.  Richard Sherman is the best Seattle Seahawk player on the team.  The epitome of a team player.  A guy who has worked is tail off to get where he is now, and is wothy of taking a look into getting to know him, and being more than just a casual fan of the game. 

So why bother writing this post, if I'm so in love with a player like Richard Sherman?  Well-p, because overall I just don't believe in the 2015 Seattle Seahawks with the same fervancy as I have the past 3-5 years.  The magic is misising.  Russell Wilson doesn't feel like he's capbable of directing a crucial 4th quarter comeback like he has in past years.  Kam Chancellor is off his game.  Sure there was that GREAT play against Megatron on Monday Night Football back in October, but besides that play where has Kam been?  Does't seem like he's hitting with the same ferocity that made a name for himself.  As for Marshawn Lynch, he's out with an ingury now, and just have the sneaking suspion this is the end for him.

The 2015 Seattle Seahawks now 6-5 after a GREAT win over Pittsburgh that I watched earlier this afternoon with my dad.  Now, teniously we are the 6th seed in the NFC playoff race, BUT their is still a lot of football to be played, and they haven't wrapped anything up yet.  And lately the injury bug has been starting to catch up with this team: Marshawn Lynch is out with a sports hyrnea, and Jimmy Graham is out for the season with a torn petella tendon.  Can they recapture their mojo and make a run at possible being a partipant in the 3rd straight Super Bowl appearance?  That's not out of the realm of possibitly, so many guys on this team are gritty: Richard Sherman and Doug Baldwin especially; but something about the chemistry with this team if off.  Probably a money thing, guys looking arround being jealous of what other guys are making and holding a grudge.  To me this one of the most silly thinks in the world.  They all cut their own deal--and our rich!!  Even if they got injured and can't play another down in the NFL ALL of these guys have already earned enough money to live comfortably for the rest of their lives.

Given that reality, if I was an NFL player, I would play my ass off on every play.  Why?  Because of something called your legacy.  What do you want to be remembered as?  A great player who did amazing things, or a guy who held back because he was afraid of getting ingured and had already been played?

These are the concerns I have about ONE Seahawk player, Cam Chancellor.  This guy made a name for himself putting on hard hits.  Sooo good was Cam Chancellor that I think the whole "Legion of Boom" thing is all him.  Yes, when he's on, he's that good.  Even this year with diminished overall play from Cam OCCASIONALLY we 12's get a taste of what this super-human is capable.  Like in week 4 when Cam saved the day but punching out the ball from Calvin Johnson of the Detroit Lions when he was diving toward the endzone for what would have been the go ahead score late in the 4th quarter:

Unfortunately we haven't seen consistent play from Cam all year. Our deffence is giving up lots of yard, lots of points, and lots of 4th quarter leads.  This leaves me with a pit in my stomache that warns that this might not be our year.  We've already been beaten by: Green Bay, Cincinatti, St. Louis, and Arizona and Carolina--at home!  Unheard of!!  And we almoast lost to Pittsburgh at home just today!  The play of the 2015 Seattle Seahawks make me wonder if your run of good luck has run out.  And if that's the case MAYBE their is a case for being a fair-weather fan, just a causual in-and-out fan that watches an occasional game but NEVER gets emotionally invested in a team.  

Unfortunately for me, I'm just now wired that way.  I am a ravenous, Seatte fan.  I desperately want this team to win out, steal yet another divsion crown away from the Arizona Cardinals, win the NFC playoffs--AND go to AND win another Super Bowl.  Is that too much to ask for!!  I think not!!  Just kidding.  See, I'm working myself up into a frenzy again.  Gotta stop doing that over something that I have no contol over the outcome of.  Now as for my novel...  Can't afford to a fair-weather fan there.  Will always be a dilligent fan and worker there.  And hey, its ulitimate success or demise is TOTALLY in my control.

Wriing trumps watching NFL football.  I can say it, but can I put that to the test and set aside the remote and dedicate myself more to what I can conroll, rather than foolheartedly give myself over to something that I don't.

- E.C. Henry who asks the hard-hitting questions in Bonney Lake, WA

To Whom are Your "Thanks" Given to This Thanksgiving

My "thanks" all have a direction--and that's the Lord!  Bang!  I love the Lord and when I 'give thanks' the One I'm trying to honor is God.

This year ole E.C. Henry has a lot of things to be thankful for.  So I'd like to direct these thanks to Jesus, the Holy Father and Holy Spirit:

1. 
   Thanks for my health.  For a middle-aged dude (I'm 46 right now), I'm in pretty good heath.  In such good health that I'm planning on going on my traditional Thanksgiving day run with our family dog: Sam, who is a golden lab.  
2. Thanks for my job.  Been living on borrowed time for the longest time, but as of Thursday, 11-26-2016 I'm still employed!  Don't know for how much longer, but I have a good paying "day job" for now.  The LORD has always been good to me and provided for my needs.  I have no complaints in the money department.  Sure I wish I was richer, but I've never been really lacking if you know what I mean.  And that's because my God is the God of all resource, and as I've found through first hand experience, He is good.
3. Thanks for giving me this GREAT story to work on.  The story in the novel I'm writing right now truely is something special.  YES, the initial spark for this story is over 20 years old now, BUT I'm still adding and making the characters, and scenes stronger daily.  No, the story hasn't changed but the depth is getting better.  Anywo, creatively I'm at a good place right now, and for that I'm very thankful.  Thank you, Jesus for creativity.  Would have la-oved to have been there with Him in Bethlehem and seen what items the Master craftsmen made when He was woodworker with HIs father according to the flesth, Joseph.
4. Thanks for my aunt Dennie's improving health and overcoming cancer.  Dennie is on the tail end of her chemo sessions, and her nagging rough cough is starting to lessen.  She's been through the ringer since August.  Looking for a complete return to health for Dennie.
5. Thanks for my 2015 Subaru Impreza.  I am enjoying the fuck out of his car right now--especially the heated seat now that the Mercury is dropping below 30 degrees Farenheit on a daily basis.
6. Thanks that the wait for me to see "Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens" is now less than a month.  Can't wait to see this movie.  The trailers are AWESOME!!
7. Thanks for this evolving blog.  I hope it's still fun for my fans out there in the cyber world to drop in and read what I have to say.  My interests have switiched considerablely since I began, hope I haven't bored you.  It's fun to laugh at jackasses like me, right?
8. Thanks for $$ to give to others.  It's Thanksgiving time and once again I'm going to convert my loose change into hard bills and give that as a gift to help a blind aquintence of mine in a neighboring town.  Not to toot my own horn, but I've done this for 10+ years I think, and doing it just feels right.  When you're blessed, you should bless someone else, and that's what I'm trying to do here.  
9. Thanks for my brother's health.  If he was to pass on, my life would change A LOT.  I would be forced to take on a greater influence in the lives of his two sons: Brycen (7) and Riley (3).
10. Thanks for my parents support.  I live with them, and my mom STILL cooks a lot of meals that I eat, and washes my clothes.  If I didn't have their support a lot more of my time would have to occupied with mundane, everyday living kind of things.  No man is an island.  If I ever make it, I gotta do something very special to honor them.

Hope y'all have a very happy Thanksgiving.  Talk to you again soon.  May God bless.

Love, 

E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

Consider this Hunger Lost; The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 SUCKS!

Went to the movies and saw "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2: staring Jennifer Lawrence, directed by Francis Lawrence", and was disappointed by what I saw.  Not EVERTHING was bad, but enough was bad enough that I can't reccomend this movie to anyone.  Let's start out with a list of where this movie goes wrong.

Things that are bad about this movie, "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2":

• One note characters.  Gale, Katnis' male friend from District 12, is a one note character.  He seems to exist only to come to the realiziion that Katnis loves Peta and not him.  Worse yet, Peta, is a one note character.  He is suffering from delayed stress from whatever the evil scientists at the Capital did to him and he's a lose cannon that can go off UNLESS Katnis' love can save him.  Katis Everdeen is a one note character.  All she wants to do is kill president Snow and end the war.  How novel, and to think no one else in the Rebel Allignance thought of that...
• This movie his mishmash scenery vibes.  Some of the dining room sets and family pictures make this movie look like it's set in the year 1894, and YET their are these Capital "gamers" who are putting in these ISIS/Taliban-esque bobbie traps all over town.  Don't get me wrong some of the long shots of the scenery looks cool, but this movie suffer from a clash of high-tech and upscale old west that for my money doesn't mesh very well.  
• The action scene with the canibals in the catacombs felt very false, misleading and frivlious.  Bad plot point choice here by the screenwriters of this movie.  WHAT.  THE.  FUCK.  Were they thinking?  The introducing of subturrianian canibals in this disopian world felt very off to me.  
• When the rebels win, their collection of high-end voters didn't feel realistic but rather a convient contrapion to give some of Katnis' fellow "gamers" some more air time in the film.  
• Underdevelopled bad guys.  Of all the Hunger Game movie this one spends the least amount of time with the bad guys.  Sure there's a FEW shots of Donald Southerland, but this movie really suffers from a good, moving, bad guy to root against.  Rahter, we the audiece are lead to BLINDLY give our allegiance to Katnis and take her desire as our own. Heavy handed--and doesn't work.
• Homage to "Saving Private Ryan" wasn't a bad place to go, but the screenwriters didn't maximsise the potential here.  This section of the movie needed stronger scenes.  

What "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2" did right:

• Good cinenatic eye as shown by Francis Lawrence in showing us what Panem look like.  The snow, worked.  The shots of the forest, worked.

Well, that's it.  This movie pretty much sucks.  If you like it, good for you, I think less of you as an intellectual person.  Why?  Because the biggest crime of this movie is how it panders to the video game mindset, and undermines character devolpment and building to emotional moments that actually mater.  

By the end of the movie, do you give a fuck about Gale or Peta?  No you don't.  You have spent 2 hours of your life following Katnis one lone desire to kill president Snow, leader at the Capitol.  And once she gets the chance to shoot her arrow and kill him, she turns her shot on newly self-appointed president Coin, and kills her instead.  Whoopie, YES it was an unexpected twist, but really by the end of the movie do you even care about president Coin, and then the people turn and rush to kill Snow anyway.  

So much of this movie is plot point forgetable.  This really is a video game movie at heart much like the equally crappy "Divergent" series.  

I really like the first "Hunger Games" movie.  I thought it was different, but with each succeeding movie I felt like the story as whole had lost it's intial steam and was really gasping at corny daytime soap oprah style romance to keep the drama afloat.  

And isn't it like totally wierd that a movie entitled, "The Hunger Games" is coming out at a time when America is at period of feasting during the Thanksgiving holiday?  The irony doesn't escape me.  But the dire scenery of this movie does fit this time of year in November doesn't it?

I also can't believe that this movie has source material behind it.  This paper thin world really feels as though it was made up on fly, and wasn't a movie story based on a book.  Maybe that's an indightment against the young adult genre; it's story weak.

Now just so you know, I am a story writer and a screenwriter myself having previously written 18 spec. scripts (all of which that I'm actively trying to sell, fyi) I am not a destructive person, but rather a constructive one.  As such, what COULD I have done to make this movie beter?  Well, what about replacing a weak scene with a powerhouse scene that would be remember and ewww and awwwed by fans.  Remember that scene in the movie where a disgraced stylist takes in Katnis and her friends when they're closing in on Snow's mansion.  Almoast NO tension there.  But say you replace that scene with one where Katnis and her friends stumble into the Ceaser Flickerman's personal living area and get to see him any his family when the camera is off.  Say they're gripping over their lives--and then Katnis makes her presence known and Ceasar pulls out a gun to defend his family and a shootout at Ceasar's mansion ensues.  This medlay ends when the gun shot trigger one of the gammer's bodytraps and this active bobbie trap ends up being the thing that kills Ceasar Flickeman.  A kind of dramatic irony: the man who host the games now dies by some of those gammer's devices.  

In closing, "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2" isn't all bad, just mostly.  This movie NEVER should have been made into a series of movies.  One movie, yes.  Mutliple, no.  The mind candy interesing stuff was all used up by the end of the first movie, and ever since then the fans of the Hunger Games were only left to eat, reheats.  Not good.  May your Thanksgiving be filled with someting that tastes beter and is more satisfying for you to eat than cold and stale, previously used up ideas.

Hey, two posts in two day.  Told ya I was gunna post more during this Thanksgiving week!

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

The Inchworm Novelist

Hello all!  E.C. Henry here, your offical, "inchworm" novelist.  Moving with progress as slow as a turtle.  In a way I sooo wish I was further along with editing the epic fantasy novel that I've been hard at work on for the last two years.  My problem is that I'm a perfectionist.  I expect EVERYTHING I write to be seamless and perfect, and have a hard time accepting when it isn't.  And truly its that inner drive to be good that's causing me so much anguish in making such minimalist progress in getting my novel edited to my satisfaction.  

Why bother being "perfect"?  I'll tell you exactly why.  Because it's MY story, and when it's all done it's going to have MY name associated with it FOR-EVER!!

Fuck you, inchworm!  Fuck you.

O-kay, so MAYBE I'm slow, but I'm trying to be good doesn't count for something?  Well, in my book it does.  I care very deeply about what I'm writing right now, and when it goes out into the world I wan't it to be the best I can make it.  How good is that going to be?  I don't know, fool; I'm not done yet!  

What I can tell you is that I'm trying.  I am putting in AT LEAST an hour everyday behind the keyboard going over the prolog and chapter 1 material...  

Sigh...  Now I'm getting advice from turtles!!  The end just feels so far away...

Thankfully, along comes the Thanksgiving weekend.  One in which I hope to be spending a lot of time behind the keyboard primarily working on chapter 16.  Whoa, going from the Prolog and chapter 1 ALLLLL the way to chapter 16?  You bet!  Chapter 16 needs a lot of heavy lifting, I've been doing the prep, now I just need a day behind the keyboard making those changes and hopefully making this chapter exponentally beter than it is right now.  

So sorry folks, I don't have more accolades in my written and ready to sell ledger.  Someday, I'll have this novel finished--if the Lord grants me enough time and life to finish it.  And sorry again folks that I didn't post this earlier.  I actually went to the movies last night (Sunday when I usually post something) and it was just too late at night when I came home from seeing the last installment of "The Hunger Games."  So how was it?  Big thumbs down.  WOW, gotta a lot to say about this movie.  Will do a seperate, very grating post later over the Thanksgiving Weekend.  

Got the whole four days off.  Planning on doing a lot of writing, and a lot of posting so stay tuned!

Till then, stay well.

Love, your benevolent, but slow host of this blogsite,

EC. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA 

Tips on Developing a Stronger Protagonist: Volume I

Hello again, gang!  E.C. here and since I'm in editing a epic fantasy novel, and have previously stated that one of my weaknesses as a writer IS writing protagonists (which are the leads in stories that authors and screenwriters PURPOUSLY design as the main focal character, a.k.a. "good guy" for audience to follow and root for) I got to thinking about it and came to the concensus thought that this subject matter meritted some broacing.  Thus, I tentatively starting a new series, entintled: "Tips on Developing a Stonger Protagoninst".  

Thought I'd kick this series off by looking at some protagonists that I thought were excecptionally stong as evidence by the fact that I placed them in my "Best Heros in the History of Cinema" post that I did WAYYY back in March of 2014.  See what makes the quote, unqote "great" at lest in my mind.  

Mad Max.  Ranked # 2 on my list all-time.  So what made him a "great" protagonist, at least one I identified with"

1. He looked cool.  Okay, so if shit goes completley wrong in this world and Macy's and J.C. Pennies go on a permintent vaccation.  How do look like a bad-ass and stay cool.  Dude, be like Mad Max.  Reinforse your leather jacket with athletic shoulderpad, and start toting around a sawed-offf, double barrell shotgun as your weapon of choice.  Here the guys is living in a post-apaocalypic world, and he looks A-MAZAVING... which transtions nicely into point # 2:
2. Be good looking.  Back in 1981 when "The Road Warrior" came out, Mel Gibson was young, fresh and totally hot!  Hey, I'm a totally heterosexual man, BUT even I readily admit, Mel Gibson was "the bomb" back in the day.
3. Have at least one line of iconic dilaog.  "If it's all the same to you, I''ll drive that tanka."  First get everyone's attention with a whistle, then deliver; the post-apocalypic equivallent to great one-liners from movies in the 40s and 50s.

Regan Thompson from "Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance".  How is he a GREAT protagonsist.  Well let's see what dipshit has in store for y'all now:

1. Be relateable, but do heroic and outlandishing things that we as the audience would never do.  Case and point, Regan Thompson, the focal character in this movie, takes it upon himself to try to take out an actor that he thinks is underperforming in one of the open scenes of the movie--and this is the focal character of the movie!  Do you not see the GENIOUS in this choise?  Regan is willing to go to such extreames in his vain persuit of greatness that he will even try to kill off an under-performing actor in his play.
2. Have a dark side.  Regan Thompson is hautned be the personna that he helped create in the "Birdman" movies.  So much so that this personna tries to influence his recactons to things going on in his life.
3. Have a complex backstory.  Regan Thompson still has a deep love for his ex-wife, and now laments the fact that he cheated on her which resulted in such guilt that he tried to downed himself in the ocean before the stinging of jellyfish broke him out of that mindset.  

Tony Stark/Iron Man as played by Robert Downey Jr.

1. Be smarter than everyone else.  In the "Iron Man" movies Tony Stark IS smarter than everyone else, and his mindset is always up to the task of outsmarting any "villian" that strands in his way, and Robert Downey Jr.'s characer does in a murder-mystery kind of way.  
2. 
   Have a megga hottie like Gwentth Paltrow at your side lending assistance to your efforts.  You may not know this about me but at one point in my life I was actually writing a love letter to Gweneth Paltrow expressing my suitablility as a potential mate for her--that was BEFORE I read that she was hot-n-heavy with Chris Martin at which time I ceased and desited with all such ovatures.  

So how do ANY of these three illustrations of lead protagonists in highly sucessful movies relate to the one I'm in process of editing and building up in my epic fantasy novel help me?  

Very little actually...  Because my main protagonist is the story I'm working on is quite different from all these lead characters.  My protagonist is a high school senior who starts out in the spring of 1987.  He does not face the appocyapse, BUT he does face the immendinate demise of his estranged best friend--if he does not take action to help him.  My protagonist isn't overly smart, BUT his is introspective--and in NO WAY would he ever take action like Reggan Thompson would to take someone out who was in his way.

Okay, then what does make my protagonist worthy.  

1. His a good person.  My protagonist cares not only for what he wants, but is also considerate of the needs of others.  My protagonist IS willing to go into harm's way IF that gives someone else in his life a greater chance of surviving.  
2. My protagonist is unfilled and need something.  In a way he's the anti-Matthew McConahuey.  My protagist is welll aware his unfufilled needs and is hopefull that his future remains remains bright, and is still capable of meeting that need.  

Good time to stop right there. Why?  Because this dip shit just stumbled on something worth perusuing, need.   One of the best tips I can give is to express that every great protagonist has a great need.  Riggan Thompson needs artistic excellence to justify himself, Mad Max needs the greater preservation a group of people over the scrablings of  one indvidual out in the wasteland, Tony Starks needs the love of Pepper Pots.

Great loves, ahhh... that delcicous thouhght.  Hope y'all out there in the cyber-world have your own "Pepper Potts" but it now know you're not alone.  I don't have my own "Pepper Potts" and fuck, I'm 46 years old and counting...  But that's the cool thing about following a protagonist through a story you get to see them win the girl over AND do whole lotta heroic shit besides.  

So as I wrap this post up, what's the takeaway I wanna leave with you as a tip to buiding a stonger protagonist?  Easy, make them human.   Make them relatable.  Sure, they can do outlanish things such as Regan Thompson, Max Max, or Tony Stark do, but at the end of the day you want your audience to identify with them, that if they were in their shoes PERHAPS they would do something like they would do.  Take on the plight of bunch of trapped surviors as Mad Max did in "The Road Warrior".  Always slant the table to win the girl that won your heart as Tony Starks CONSTATLY does in "Iron Man".  Or strive for your precieved greater legacy as Riggan Thompson does in "Birdman".

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

P.S. Today was "pictures" day at the home of E.C. Henry.  So please feel free and check-out some of the additions I made to the E.C@home side-bar.  

Do you Prefer Hollywood on the Outside or in the Inside?

I love the movies.  I grew up in a golden era of movies, the 80s.  I sooo feel for this generation whom Hollywood has for the most part let down.  What do I mean?

Every week it seams like their is at least three new movies opening up.  And yet it has been since mid-July since there was a movie opening up that I was actually excited to see.  That movie being that great Amy Schumer/Judd Apatow movie, "Trainwreck".  Now NEXT month the new Star Wars movie is coming out, and that looks AWESOME!  But what happened between "Trainwreck" and "Star Wars 7?"  Snooze city.  By in large Hollywood has failed in its primary function, which is to entertain America, then the rest of the world.  What, dare I say America first the rest of the world second?  FUCK!  YEAH!!  I am SOOO sick of movies being dumbed down to appease the fuckin' dipshits occupying space outside of our borders.  I say, make great movie and make the rest of the world catch-up.  

It's such a head scratcher, how Hollywood can be so filled with hyper-tallented people and yet so many of the high dollar studio releases are unspired pieces of shit.  Filler.  McDonalds movies; occupies space, but isn't a meal worth of savoring.  

So what's the answer for a guy with a creative bend like me?  

Easy.  Be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Become a great artist and write the best movies and stories I'm capable of creating.  I don't want to make movies like MOST of what's being released today.  I want to be held to  a much higher standard.  And I'm not going to be politcally correct.  Rather, I'm going to have some flavor, and I'm going to themes that make people think in my stories.  E.C. Henry is NOT a tofu writer.  

Nor is E.C. Henry a basher.  I just wish I felt a compelling reason to go to the movies.  FUCK, last weekend I sooo wanted to go to the movies, but NOTHING out there was good enough to get me to want to go to the movies.  Gesh, not ANOTHER James Bond movie, c'mon, dude that shit is old!  I'm so sick of James Bond there are no words.  

For me Hollywood burns bright on my inside.  I wanna get Hollywood to be a beacon again.  Hollywood should be "the beacon" that world looks for thought-provoking movies that entertain and inspire.  Hollywood should not be a "cash grab" where pre-existing properties are rehashed over-and-over-and-over again.  Perhaps the lone exception to this is Christopher Nolan's Batman series of movies that didn't feel like rehash to me, but really were inspired pieces of art, especially "The Dark Knight", the one with Heath Ledger's "Joker".  

I love Hollywood.  Why?  Because I love the movies, and that's where high quality movies can be made.  One of my biggest fears is that if Hollywood keeps churning out the uninspired offerings they have, somewhere else will pick up the torch and surplant Hollywood as the premire movie-maker in the world.  I don't wan't that to ever happen.  I want America to continue in its dominance.  And someday I wanna place at that table, but not at the price of losing myself as an artist. 

I am not going to comprimise.  And that sprit of stregth is going be reaffirmed here and now.  I am going to put God in my stories, and I am NOT going to take Him out for ANYBODY.  I don't give a fuck if your Steven Speilberg!  I'm not going to budge on this EVER--even if it costs me a sale, even if it cost me a career.  There's a reason I say this, and its because I soft sold myself for YEARS living in the fear that my faith in Chirst would insult the powers that be.  Now, yes I do care about insulting other people, I really don't wanna do that.  But at some point you have to be willing to take a stand and defend your beliefs.  Especially when those beliefs bring life and a greater for of art as compared to what you can create without God's blessing.  

I want God's blessing on my artwork.  Want that more than an endorsement from Steven Speilberg or anyone else in a high postion of autortity.

My Hollywood on the inside easily trumps the lackluster and uninspred Hollywood that exists in the world today.  Don't believe me?  Read my loglines for the scirpts I've already writen off my sidebar.  I am one of the hopes for better Hollywood in the years to come.  Hopefully someday my Hollywood on the inside will get to shine and brighten lives of other people.  

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

The Choose-Your-Own Protagoninst Bias

Key to proving that you have a good story?  Ability to hold the kids' attention!

Writing a good protagonist is NOT my strong suit as a writer.  I think I do some things well, but crafting a good, solid, well-thought-out movie-helming good guy that an audience will revere as iconic, and actors and actresses will be dying to play, is not my strongest suit.  

Over the years I've recognized this weakness of my, and tried to take steps to overcome this dificeny.  My problem, I believe, is rooted in a bias I have.  A form of stinking thinking that tries to guide me to let the protagonist be unformed so the audience can slip into their shoes more easily and feel like their the ones on the rollercoaster ride.  This is an action/adventure movie or story way of thinking.  But the more I think about that, even that logic seams riddled with hole.  Consider the expample of the ultimate action/adventure star of all-time, Indiana Jones.  Indiana had a personallity.  He was smart and macho.  Had some weaknesses, snakes.  

What am I getting at?  Well, sometimes in my writing I think about what I'm the worst at, and try to come up with some rededies to make up for such lackings.  As I re-write chapter 1, of that pesky epic fantasy novel I'm editing, it's all about my main character and how the story really gets going by getting him started.  THUS, in chapter 1, I get to lay out a lot of what this guy is all about.  And I need get beyond a surface level and dig deep.  Make this character unique and interesting.  Can't be run-of-the-mill, can't be dimissable.  Gotta make people care and root for him.  Can't make him so vanilla that he feels replacable.  

Thankfully, even dipshits like me, get better over time.  The more time I spend with this guy, the more unique and less vanilla he becomes.  My problem is my main protagonist IS NOT even close my favorite character in this story.  Shit, five to six villians in this story are more interesting to me than my main character.  I don't really see that as a problem so long as I can still transcend my main focal character up into the realm of being interesting. 

That's the end-all for me: is the chararacter interesting.  

When I was a young teenager I went through a phase were I read a couple "choose your own adventure" stories.  These stories went through some action then reached a decision point where the reader was allowed to make a choice for the protagonist, then based off that choice you skipped to another page where the story continued now based off the descion you made on your protagonist's behalf.  Usually in these stories there was three descion points for the reader to make.  

So how does this odd-ball form of story-telling relate to my novel writing?  It's about reader partisipation and engaging THEIR mind.  Think that matters to a stupid fuck like me?  YES, I think about it, ALL, THE, TIME!  You want people to be emotionally invested in your story.  To care.  To give a fuck.  All of it.  You want it.  When someone reads your story you want them to care about, you want them engaged.  

This earest and good desire inside of me to actually wants people to see themselves as the protagonist and go on the ride that I've crafted.  My current dillema, however, is that I'm slowly coming arround to the realization that you don't have to succomb to this limited mentality.  People can still "enjoy the ride" even if you have a dynamic protagonist.  Right off top of my head the movie, "Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance" comes to mind.  Reggan Thompson is farrr from the choose-your-own protagonist type.  At the start of the movie Reggan takes action to take out an actor in his upcoming play that he thinks will doom it, later Reggan sees himsefl following traffic from a flying postion above, and in one of my favoite charachter choice scenes of all time: Reggan pretends his right hand is pistol when he's in his underwear performing after he accidentily locked himself out of the theater.  This character-driven movie is not audience choose-your-own protagonist varriety.  The choises Reggan Thomspon makes are his own, not yours.  They don't even feel like choices I'd make if I was in his place; rahter, they're exclusive to the type of person that Reggan Thompson is.  Who is Reggan Thompson?  Easy.  He's a aging actor who wants to prove that he is capable of making something that is artistically excellent and proves he can act and change his perception.  Totally admirable, YET distinctive and something that does not lend itself to rollercoaster ride of one's one choosing.  Rather in this movie you are FORCED to see things the way Reggan Thompson does, and that's okay...

I have a lot of biases and biggotries in me.  Of that I truely say.  But this thing with creating and trusting protagonists is something that I still struggle with.  I guess every writer has their strengths and weaknesses.  One of my weaknesses is writing main story, central, protagonists.  I have a bias that always seams to want to push that to side and focus on other things: the comic relief, the action, the scenery, just about everything else than creating a complelling protagoinst that Indiana Jones and Reggan Thompson clearly are. 

My epic fantasy story is what I would consider expansive.  Kinda like "Star Wars", "Avatar", "The Lord of the Rings", and "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe".  In the analog of chose your own protagonist perhaps no movie lends itself to that more than "Star Wars".  Why do I say that?  Look at how many people dress up as "Star Wars" characters.  Do you think they do that becuase they are well-crafted and deep?  Fuck no!  Their colorful and capture people's attention.  

My seven-year-old nephew is a choose-your-own adveture kind of little boy.  Eveytime he comes over he's some "Star Wars" character who's on an adventure and he wants me to come along with him.  Brycen's only caveat; he has to be one of "Star Wars" characters who has a gun!  You into gun control?  If you are, stay clear of my seven-year-old newphew--he wants no part of that.  For Halloween, Brycen dressed up a Kylo Ren: the Sith bad-guy in the upcoming Episode VII that's due out in December.  He was in seven-heaven, weilding that tri-bladed red light saber about.  Had no idea who he was immitating, didn't matter to Brycen he chose his own adventure in that costume.

The secret of "Star Wars'" success is in its VAST collection of collorful characters that attract a wide-range of people.  Even some of its 3rd tier characters like Boba Fett have drawn a vast following.  

The "Star Wars" example really feeds my bias--and I can't let it.  No, I gotta push past the surface level character and make MY characters more destinctive.  HUGE fan of George Lucas AND J.J. Abrams, AND any other writer or creative who helped contrbute to the "Star Wars" universe and vast collections of characters.  I mean them no disrespect, but rahter marvel at what they've all mangaged to do, but I still have to do better than that.  My character in the epic fantasy novel I'm in process of re-writing HAVE to be more interesting than those in the "Star Wars" universe.  And they will.  I have some very unique stories that my characters are living through.  And it won't be all protagonist led, as "Avatar" was with Jake Skully.  I'm going to have about 10 characters that have some pretty cool stories that they are working though.  YES, the protagonist's greater outer story will unite and bind all these stories toghether.  But I have a complexity of character that in all honest "Star Wars' cant' touch, nor does it even try to do so.  MOST of the "Star Wars" characters are of the "choose-your-own" adventure variety--if you asked me.  They readly make themself available to people who are outwardly attracted to them, and want to insert themselves into them.  

But as for me, I'm more of a "Birdman" kind of guy.  LOVE characters who are unique and do things that I would never do.  It leads to attraction of sorts.  Same kind of attraction that gets people to watch exposes on people in the news.  We want to know and understand what makes other people do the the things that they do.  The thing about me as a writer is that I can deliver on that interterst at a mass level.  NOT just a single complelling unique character, but many.  All drawn together by a greater outter story that unites them all.

Chose-your-own protagonist...  Shhhesh!  Gotta do better than that, and I will.  My main character does have a grownth arch.  Just need to hammer that home better, and give hime more time to shine in the story.  My problem is, is that I have a lot of other characters in this story whom I love more.  Can a writer have favorite characters?  Bet your ass, Holmes!  My favorite character is not the lead character in this story, but rather his mentor who goes through his own perils as a result of my main character achieving his ulitmate destiny.  

Sound complelling.  Hope so.  My epic fantasy novel is FAR from a choose-your-own adventure.  But if you wanna go somewhere cool, where a lot of intersting chararactes hang-out, and there's a lot going on, E.C. Henry is the guy upon whose door you can come a knockin' on for such intreaging adventure.  

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA