Ever have someone or something that doesn't even know you exist just turn around and CHANGE things, casting all your lovely plans into chaos? Or at least make them really impossible to follow through?
Case in point:
I got hooked late on SyFy's new series, Warehouse 13. Think of the closing scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark, where the Ark is crated up and basically vanishes into a behemoth warehouse full of similar crates.
Warehouse 13 is that place ... but there ain't no crates, honey, and the artifacts are ... well, some of them certainly seem to be alive, want to get out, and aren't too happy about being locked up until the end of time.
The "A" story of each episode deals with 2 government agents who have the bizarre task of tracking down and capturing these artifacts before they can do more harm, and bringing them where they'll be safely confined.
The "B" story usually deals with their mentor, Artie, and something going on with the Warehouse and resident artifacts or ... other problems.
So anyway ...............
I'm writing a Warehouse 13 script for a TV screenwriting competition.
The season finale totally TRASHED my B story.
*sigh*
*whimper*
*snarl*
*mega-doses of chocolate*
What do you do when your storyline gets ripped out from underneath you -- or plans you made for your life get changed without your consent or approval?
REVISE!
Take the shreds of what's left, weave them together, take a new road, find new toys to play with.
DON'T let the bozos (who probably messed you over without knowing what they did -- and if they did it on purpose, don't give them the pleasure of knowing they even made you stumble or pause for a second) stop you. So what if you have to take a detour?
Or in my case, go back to the beginning and revise those scenes and take a chance that your favorite character isn't dead after all, and some Warehouse-style miracle pulled his bacon out of the fire -- literally!
Someone compared life to the Green Room in a theater -- where the actors wait once they're ready to go on stage, where they rehearse their lines and pay attention to what's happening on stage. Meaning this life is just a brief pause before Eternity opens up before us, and what we do here impacts what's ahead of us. True, in many ways.
We're preparing for the Ultimate Reality -- this world is just the Shadowlands, to borrow from C.S. Lewis and his novel, The Great Divorce -- but we're not stuck with one script.
When I was more actively involved with theater work, I had actors and the director revising my precious scripts all the time. And sometimes revising once they got on stage, because they couldn't remember their lines or their marks...
That's what we have to do -- our life scripts are a work-in-progress. Nothing is set in stone until the lights go up, the orchestra finishes rehearsing, the curtain rises and the Great Director says: Action!
So keep revising. Use the shreds of yesterday to make today better. And be encouraged that tomorrow, you'll use pieces of today to make things even better.
And cross your fingers I finish my script and get it to the competition and win, okay?
