Inside the Brain of E.C. Henry

Do You Prefer to Build or Play?

This is the sight I woke up to every morning while I was on St. Croix island in the USVI

I learned a lot about myself on my most recent vacation.  This vacation was the biggest, most expensive, and exotic vacation that I have ever done in my life.  This vacation that I took in April of 2007 took me from Seattle, Washington to Charoltte Amalie on St. Thomas island in the U.S. Virgin Islands to Christansted on St. Croix island to Key West 150 miles south of Miami then back to Seattle, Washington again.  Yeah, I went BIG, by my own standards.  Though I saw a lot of interesting on my vacation, I learned a few key truths about myself: 

I prefer to build rather that to play

I am a builder at heart, and relaxation does not come easy for me

I am driven

O-kay so I got that off my chest.  Now lemme explain.

Going into this trip I was predispostioned for it to go a certain way.  I wanted to see what I had preconcieved to be all these pristine, white sand beaches.  I thought that the aqua blue water indicated an extended shallow area in bays.  After actually going to these beach and going out into the water I can honestly say, that doesn't exist.  The beaches in the Caribean slope into deeper waters as normally as they do in other places.  YES, the water is a little warmer and easier to swim in, but its not as pristine as I thought it would be.  Not even in Trunk Bay on St. John's island.  Yeah at Trunk Bay at a couple others there was sand so soft it was like pillows on your feet, but even in the most lauded beaches it wasn't as awe inspiring as I went in thinking it would be.  Don't get me wrong, the tropical beaches I saw in the U.S. Virgin Islands were cool, but there was something lacking...

For starters lemme get of my chest that the roads in the U.S. Virgin Islands--especially on St. Thomas--are a JOKE!  I think a lot of this has to do with the history of place, and the fact that may of these road have been in existence since the 1600s.  But this 2017, folks, time to mature, time to evolve.  Even in the middle of town in the capital city of Charolette Amalie I was going up steep grades, doing immediate switchbacks and finding fissure trenches a foot a half deep--in the middle of the road!  Not good.

I would have to say the piss-poor quality of the roads all over the U.S. Virgin Islands was the biggest eye-opener for me.  And if you saw the local's cars your jaw would drop.  Dents on nearly every bumper.  Peeling paint on the hoods.  Just a travesty.   Here you are in a tropical paradise of sorts and the traveling environment is like Nazi Germany--during the Allied bombing runs of World War II!  I'm not kidding, it's bad, real bad.  So bad that if you ever go there you better opt in to get the rental car insurance.  Because not only roads bad, but you're always driving on the left side of the road and the locals all drive like a band of maniacs on cocaine!  I got passed a lot of times by people who were driving 15-25 miles above the suggested speed limit, all on hairpin turns where the neighboring guard rails were all dented and pushed over.  

O, btw, the roads there lack cross streets too.  Most destination driving is done by pre-knowing what landmark to turn at.  The featured attraction on St. Thomas is Coral World, but guess what, it's off an unmarked, pothole ridden dirt road.  Me and my mom drove past it the first time and never knew it was there.  The whole island is like that.  Wanna drive in a rental car?  Good luck.  Even the locals purposely give you misleading information, so you ending finding places by trial and error.

If I sound a little down on the U.S. Virigin Islands it's because I am.  Though I did see some beautiful sights, I cannot forgive the locals attitude and upkeep of that area.  There is garbage everywhere, and people lounging around everywhere.  Where is the work ethic?  Paradise doesn't maintain itself on its own.  Besides there there a premium made on booze.  It's everywhere, and people are drinking everywhere: most locals locals are just as complicit as the tourists.  

E.C. on the deck of a room at Bluebeard's castle hotel which overlooks the bay in Charolette Amalie

As me and my mom went from place to place, I did a lot of writing in my down time.  I found myself more interested in writing than relaxing.  Sorry, but that's the way I'm wired.  Even when I got home, though it took me like three days to reacclimate because for the week I was gone I never slept more that 4 hours a night, and one night at Bluebeard's castle in Charlotte Amalie after a dirt bike and two black youths sat in front of my rental car and stared at it for over five minutes I slept about 1 hour. 

Now when we arrived at St. Croix, I made sure we had GPS with us, but even there that didn't help. Heck when I put in the address of the hotel were staying at it led us out into an upper-crust neighborhood up in the hills where no one was home, about 4 miles from our hotel which was on the ocean.  One of the locals then informed us that the GPS don't work so well on the island, presumably because its not fully mapped yet.  Sigh.  Sometimes you can't win for losing.  

E.C. at the place he stayed on St. Croix.  Fun in the sun, though it was usually quite windy there

I liked St. Croix MUCH, MUCH more that St. Thomas.  While on St. Croix we stayed at the Tamarind Reef Resort, and it was awesome!  It had a nicely laid out reclining section of hammocks amidst the coconut palm trees.  There was very little beach, it was more of a rustic reef: lots of shells in konces in progress of formation.  A konce is a sea horn, the kind where you hold your ear up to and listen to the sound of sea.  Sure the Buccaneer Resort which is the next resort down the road was nicer, but it more touristy than the Tamarind.  If I ever go back to St. Croix, I'd stay at the Taramind Reef Resort again.  I loved that place!

Like I said, and is the crux of this post.  I learned a lot about myself on this vacation.  First and foremost, I'm more a worker than a party animal.  Even if I was totally rich I would not live out on a beach and be lazy for an extended period of time.  Sure, there's a time and place to recharge your batteries and relax, I just don't wanna ever get in the practice of making that my life-long ambition.  On this trip I ran into people who left the U.S. in favor of the U.S. Virgin Islands.  Most of these people were from the East Coast.  Most of the tourists we ran across were from the East Coast as well.  But as for me, I don't wanna live on the islands.  And I don't want that LAZY mentality that I saw in some of these people to ever take hold of me.  I'm a worker at heart.

I would rather work on my novel than visit another tropical location. If I never make it back to the tropics, I'm cool with that.  I now have a taste of it, and wasn't overly impressed by it.  I love writing.  I love creating.  I love building.  Love it more that the tropics.  Love it more than relaxing on beach sipping a Corona or a pina colada.  I gave the tropics a fair shake and found they need to shape up and starting living up to their beautiful surroundings.  It's like a third world country over there, seriously.  The U.S. Virigin Islands needs someone like Donald Trump to go over there and start cracking some skull.  Those people need to get out of the 16th century and modernize their slice of paradise.  Sorry, I don't have rosier things to say about the U.S. Virgin Islands.  I did meet some people who had good hearts and were trying, but many of them are lazy and need to work on their work ethic.

As for me, post-trip, I feel more grounded.   More confident in what my core character is: I'm a writer and a hard worker who prefers to create rather than act like a beach bum.

 

The IdeaI Romantic Comedy; Exploring Issues in Rom-Com Movies: Volume 43

If you were to design the ideal romantic comedy what would it look like?  What would it's feel be?

 Lemme just begin by stating the heart of this post.  After a long time of bemoaning the sad, state of the movie genre I loved the most, the creative in me started saying, "Enough of that what would you like the romantic genre to be?"  You see I don't like being a movie critic.  Bashing movies isn't my thing, creating new and innovative movies is my thing.  I love writing.  I'm a writer not a critic.

And since you've visited my blog, and are reading this post, you're going on this journey with me!  Sick of an anemic genre?  If so, good, me too.  Let's remake the genre in the image that we want it to be in.

The ideal rom-com movie celebrates the female heroine in it.   Her character arc matters, and great painstaking effort needs to be made to make the female heroine interesting.  So where does that leave a male-weighted rom-com?  Do they just fall by the wayside never to be made again.  Heck no!  I LOVE a good male-weighted rom-com.  BUT you need to realize something, that's NOT the heart of the genre.  The woman is.  

The ideal rom-com puts more emphasis on the comedy aspect of the movie, than the actual romance.  Comedy is king in a rom-com.  I believe WHOEVER is making a romantic comedy really needs to look at this hard fact: are their enough laughs in this movie.  Comedy trumps romance.  It is FAR BETTER for a movie to be regarded as funny, than being romantic.  And as far as the actually comedy goes, I wanna see more than just verbal barbs, I want an active camera where what is revealed vs. what is not revealed, and the call-out of shot leads to a comedic punchline.  I believe in a multi-pronged approach to comedy: farce, exaggeration, verbal barbs, reversals, mis-direction, verbal barbs, running gags, actor/actresses ability to make funny faces in a given set-up.  All of it.  An ideal rom-com implores a variety of comedic techniques.

A hottie/eye candy to follow.  That's right, you want romance, don't give us some Broomhilga and expect us to follow and root for them.  HUGE fan of Meg Ryan and Katherine Heigl.  HUGE fan of woman with long hair.  Dude wise, just don't go whiny or all Hugh Grant on me and I'm okay with that.  Sorry, I know a lot of women DO like Hugh Grant but find his appeal and excessive, British blabbering, annoying.  Thus all Hugh Grant types stay out of my ideal rom-coms.

Interesting mix of supporting characters.  The ideal romantic comedy realizes that it's not all about the two leads.  Sometimes an interesting supporting character actuall MAKES the movie, like Kevin James' "Albert" in "Hitch".  Remember "Hitch"?  That was a movie who's leads were Will Smith and Eva Mendes, but guess what I liked Albert's pursuit of Alegra Cole, the girl he likes WAAAY more than the ego-com romance between Will Smith's character and Eva Mendes.  And back in "27 Dresses" Marlene Ackerman was FAR MORE interesting than Katherine Heigl's character.  The "magic point" of any given movie, even a rom-com, IS NOT limited to it's leads.  There are many way for a given movie to work/be enjoyable.  The supporting cast is a VITAL member of a given movie's success so don't neglect that.  Manage to sign Matthew McConghuey or Katherine Heigl?  Great.  That's a great place to start.  But filling out a rom-com movie is more than just the leads, you need a great supporting cast.  Cast members versed in comedy and drama.

The idea romantic comedy prizes great set pieces over being relevant with today's culture or having a razzle-dazzle plot.  The ideal rom-com will have audience members talking about what happens in a scene after the movie's over.  Parroting the realities of today is not what romantic comedies are about.  The ideal rom-com uses its set pieces to inspire audiece members.  A good "happy ending" is not the be-all end-all of the ideal romantic comedy, but I highly encourage it.  Why?  Because the ideal romantic comedy makes the woman watching it happy.  It meets her needs.  Her needs and curiosity of how romance can be.  

Here's my favorite rom-coms based on plot:

1. "The 40-Year-Old Virgin".  The plot and high concept of this movie is simply genious, and for my $$ not enough laud has been bestowed on this gem of a movie.  Take a shy, department store worker who's getting up there in age, and mix him with friends who help satisfy his core need--yet in doing so open up a whole new range of destructive tendencies that threaten to ruin him.  Ever thought of "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" like that?  Well, I have and on a strickly plot level I give Judd Apatow and Steve Carrell an A+, best plot of a rom-com EVER!
2. "Definately, Maybe".  Ryan Reynolds leads his daughter on an odyssey tale of his own romance with 3 different women.  I really like the plot this rom-com.  Always saw it as kink of a choose-your-own-adventure style rom-com.
3. "Sleepless in Seattle".  Can you have a rom-com where the leads don't offically have their "cute meet" until the last scene in the movie?  Well this movie has just that.  And if you think about it there's a lot of creative storytelling here, which makes you rethink the paradigm of what a romantic comedy movie's structre can be.
4. "500 (Days of Summer)".  This sour note rom jumps all over the place as the protagonist, Tom, laments the loss of what he feas is the great love of his life.
5. "Ted".  Love the special accent, the teddy bear that came alive, and the complications Ted makes in the romance between John Bennett and Mila Kunis' character.  
6. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind".  Same as "500 (Days of Summer)" a relationship that turned south lamented by the male protagonist.  

Where were some of my all-time favorites: "13 Going on 30", "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days", "Dan in Real Life", and "While You Were Sleeping"?  Great rom-coms, but a great, innovative plot is not what makes them memorable.  The characters in memorable set-pieces are what push those movies to greatness.  Again, plot isn't the end-all when it comes to crafting a great, ideal romantic comedy.  Rom-coms aren't sci-fi and the grading criteria is different.  

As I wrap this post up, lemme just say we may have differing opinions what makes or brakes a "good" romantic comedy.  I only hope to stimulate your thinking, NOT insist on a given way of think.  So if you have a difference of opinion, feel free to shake them in the comment section.  Otherwise, till we speak again, ado.  And let us all agree that the rom-com genre should never die.  Rather Hollywood should continue to make them, only make them better and with an eye on making more masterpieces!  More good, rom-com movies?  Yeah, you can count me in, buddy.  I'm all for that!!

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

A Writer's Work is Never Done

JUST finished the latest draft of my latest teen comedy spec. script.

Scoreboard:

Current draft's page count: 112 pages

Separate file with "cuts": 200 pages

Previous draft of the script: 227 pages

Okay, so you just did the math, and shit didn't add up.  112 + 200 = 312 -- not 227!  But what this equation does not figure in, is the fact that along the way of the current draft I did considerable rewriting, and adding in of new details. 

A writer NEVER goes from draft-to-draft without incorporating new stuff into the mix.  Even on final polishes, I add stuff.  It's just the way writing is done.  And the most changes come from 1st draft to 2nd draft.

So what comes next?  Well, I hafta start gearing up for my one week vacation to Southern California next week.  So, I'm going to stop writing on the the latest spec and tend to some necessary details as pertains to the Sherwood Oaks trip.  Namely: updating my one-sheets, and getting a CD soundtrack for my latest spec.  I also want to buy a new Seahawks hat, leather gloves and tennis shoes.  Am also going to register the latest spec with the WGAw and copyright office, as this is the prudent thing to do, BEFORE discussing the story's merits with perspective buyers and people who might me interest in actually doing this movie. 

When I get back from Sherwood Oaks post-registration work with recommence on the script with the goal being getting this script ready to for the February 22 deadline for the Pacific Northwest Writer's competition in the screenwriting sub-category.  YES, the script will have already been registered, but that doesn't mean I can work it and make it even better. 

A writer's work is never done.  And right now it feels like I'm slogging my way to the finish line.  As up here in (the state of ) Washington it's been in the 20's to low 40s for the past three weeks.  And now to make matters worse it's starting to rain too.  Big shock, eh?  Rain in Washington, who knew!  Joke: this state is known to be the gloom capital of the U.S. September through March at it can literally rain for 7 months straight.  So my trip to sunny California couldn't come at better time, eh?  California BETTER be sunny right now.  God knows I need to see the sun again. 

Anywho, I'm kinda sick right now.  On the threshold of the flu.  Headaches, upset stomach, bogger-filled nose, on-and-off again bouts of the chills.  Lotta "not good" happening inside my body right now.  Still, I soldier on, the Sherwood Oaks 4-day event is upcoming and I've got to suck it up.  Put myself in the best possible place for success.

Does that mean I plan on coming back from L.A. with an offer to buy in my back pocket?  I'm not THAT naive.  I used to be that naive, but not anymore.  Had my heart broken by disappoint so many times that I expect now is failure.  So, I just wanna go down to sunny California, have some fun with Gary Shusett and crew, and just chill.  Time to have some fun, make a fool out of myself, which comes quite easy for me as you probably already know.  

I feel I'm ready to break in and make a script sale, but it takes two to tango. 

So I soldier on...  I hope all is going well in your world, and as always welcome your comments should so you care to make them.

P.S. I started writing this post a couple days ago, and now as I wrap this post up I've got some exciting developments to share.  Namely, I've submitted my latest spec. script to the WGAw, AND filed it with the U.S. copyright office.  Still don't have the script EXACTLY where I want it, but it's close enough.  I don't see any major, plot logic changes being made. 

So what's the script about?

Well-p, I have updated my script logline page.  And you're welcome to check it out.  Mabye I'll talk about that more AFTER I get back from L.A. next Saturday.  But for now, here's a visual I cooked up from my latest spec. script which is entitled, "Bubblehead Saves the Day":