My acting past is coming back to haunt me. I found the following advice about screenwriting on a new website.

Hal Ackerman:
Bob, the most important thing to think about in scene writing (and incidentally my book, Write Screenplays That Sell: The Ackerman Way, is broken down into 2 sections, The Big Picture, which is about the telling of the story and The Small Picture, which is about scene writing) is that there is one purpose for every scene that we write, and that purpose is not what you think it is -
it's not for the characters to say stuff that you want them to say.
It is to create an arena for the character or character to do everything
that they can to get what they want in that moment.
I call it the WADOOGEE:
And it means:
- WHAT do the characters want?
- What do they DO?
- To GET it?

I call this the character objective, and when the 2 characters in the scene have opposing objectives, then what is created is the life blood of every scene, which is conflict. Think about 2 coyotes and one bone.

This is right out of my actor training, when I could I hear my director who used to teach at ACT screaming at me "what does your character want and what are they prepared to do to get it?" It's like neo-marxism all over again, thinking every damn scene in a play is about the conflict between one person wanting one thing and the other person wanting the exact opposite thing.

And I don't I ever got this concept in acting because the whole time I kept thinking, why does life always have to be about conflict? Why can't two characters want the same thing? And why can't they agree to disagree if they don't?

So I’m kind of mad at my boss right now. We sent a big mailing out to our clients verifying some data and telling them they had until September 2 to notify us if our records were incorrect. My boss’ name was on the letter as the contact, but then she decides on Monday that she’s going take vacation starting today September 1.

I mean, did she not even think our clients wouldn’t find it a little weird that the main contact person on the letter is out of the office two days before the deadline? But I guess my boss had it all figured out because she called me this morning and said I’m not calling all these people on my vacation, and I want you to respond to them.

Who looks kind of unprofessional here, me or her?

I'm listening to John McCain's speech. You gotta hand it to the republicans. The demos make you feel darn guilty you're an american, like it really is all your fault. Such thinking is really a simplistic view of the world and politics. The GOP makes you feel proud to be an american, which can feel good. But like the Demos, another childlike and simplistic view of world and politics. Neither side is right.

The truth as always is somewhere in the middle, and neither side owns it. Yes, America does bad things, but so do a ton of other countries, and I don't doubt that if other countries were in our position, they would be acting probably the same way. History is replete with non-American countries trying to take over the world. The Brits tried it, the Spanish tried to, the russians, any country that was dominant in their time tried to spread their influence. It's not just an american trait, it's a human trait. And surprise, surprise, Americans are human just like everyone else.

Since the GOP convention is going to be on TV this week, a friend of mine pointed out some personal good news to me. "At least the red-haired marina frat boy is a registered democrat ... it's about time you dated someone from your own political party...wink, wink, nudge, nudge."

I don't know, but this comment makes me chuckle.