Spoiler alert.

Denis indicated that he is covering the screenplay, "Johnny Blood," in an article. 
He needs quotes.
Denis and I had talked about his favorite Packer player, John Victor McNally, II, Johnny Blood.

He gave me permission to work on a screenplay adapting his book, The Vagabond Halfback:  The Life and Times of Johnny Blood McNally.
I didn't know that screenplay adaptations are the most difficult to write.
Denis noted what he would like to see happen in the play on twenty post its.

I wrote word after word.  In lists.  From the dictionary.  From old books. 
Signed up for a online class with Gotham Writing site.  Was told, "Come in late and leave early." 
Okay, that would be year "1929."  Green Bay's first NFL championship.

So now I need to do some research.  Microfich.  The Green Bay Press Gazette play by plays from Arthur Bystrom.  And the New York game by George "Cal" Calhoun.
Three Bears games.  The Polo Grounds, Wrigley Field, early football, the officials, the team standings, Chicago, Manhattan, Green Bay at forty thousand people, the players, the coaches, the owners, the game, and the size of the ball.  Mary Herber finds "soda shops" on Main Street in Green Bay from business directories of the year.

Before I had started this project, I had taken another play to Los Angeles.  Jonathan from "Larger than Life Productions," or something like that told me that my character didn't have an arc.  Johnny Blood's character is not unlike Forrest Gump.  Johnny inspires the best with his joie de vivre.

The story felt like it was close.  I sent it to David Trottier--he gave me six out of ten on it.
I had to find the story (it still looked like a list of games).

I worked for another year and had Arthur McClenaghan's favorite screenplay analyst look over the first fifteen pages for five hundred dollars--the guy's name is Robert Flaxman.  His comment was that there was nothing outstanding about the character.  I figured I had some more work to do.

I figured it would be a good idea to look at a number of "story books" and "tip books:"  Syd Field, McKee, Truby, Schetcher, Xander Bennet, Michael Hauge, William Akers.  I read the titles Your Screenplay Sucks!, Screenwriting Tips, You Hack, Writer's Compass, Foundations in Screenwriting, 20 Master Plots, and My Story Can Beat Up Your Story, among others.


Denis asked me, "Do you think at some point that you need to question the questioners."
I know he is right.
To me its always been about working harder than the smart people.
But this is what I know.  That when the story is fun for me to read, when it answers all my questions and makes me cry, then I will be done. 
It's not quite done.
   

My students think that I am dumb.  Denis is smart, he knows senators of Vermont who say nice things.  And Damon doesn't care for award winning books.  They suck as far as he is concerned. 
And fetal alcohol is a condition by which a person suffers the effects of alcohol while sitting in utero.  And the detachment.  The blank stares are about turning off.  Or not having the knowledge of how to turn on.
I remember when I was dating a man who said that his first wife would say things that were so loud emotionally, the words would seer past all his filters and jolt him to "awake." 
Perhaps Damon need words that will jolt him awake.  I would like to see this young man experience awakefulness.  Presently he experiences a sense of unhappiness because a beautiful young woman, a high school student is able to brave a boundary with him.  What a concept.  A boundary.  What a turn on.  That someone would have the balls to say, "Sorry, you took the last of my blood.  Now, I am going to take care of myself.  I am not going to spill blood on your account."  Wow. 
My students challenge me daily. 

Two more books.  "Writer's Guide to Character Traits" by Edelstein (1999) and "Developing Minds" by Costa (1991). 
I like Edelstein because she did such a nice job documenting where all her stuff came from (pp 318-331 of references).  Costa's book looks a little old, and I think when it comes to developing minds, methods have been around for a while.  William Shakespeare, I would think, did not have his teachers reading about how to develop his mind.  Einstein was thought to be "cognitively disabled" before he was seven ("cognitively disabled" is the respectful term replacing the mean sounding terms).
I work with a disabled adolescent who can draw better than most regular education students and better than some gifted art students.  Her metaphors for undertstanding science are based on SpongeBob and CatDog.  I would like to employ her to develop video claymation.  Any takers want to help on that?

Sean's coming!

Yes, my son, Sean, will be traversing our nation to come see his grandpa (and mom, sisters, brothers, niece and nephew--and friends).  I need to call him to find out if he wants to go the Ram's game 10-16-11. 

Preparation

My brother, Mark, has been reading these blogs.
I said I wanted to write.  He said, "Okay, then where is your writing?"
Much of my time is spent in bed going over what the *screenplay will evolve into.
I look up words, read books that promote various structures, listen to Jon Stewart (yes this is a **distraction), listen to the screenplay read through the computer voice, think, think, imagine scenes.
Syd Field indicated that if he has a problem with a screenplay he will tell his dream world about it and ask for help. 
I like Syd Field.  He gets the harrowing, confusing, scary ennui that happens in the process of writing.  He's not afraid to say the dumb things that happened to him, or tell the dumb mistakes he's made.
Syd Field indicates that if there is problem in the play, then there is a solution.
I believe that things happen for a reason.  The reason may not be pretty, however, these "things" evolve into elegant solutions.
I was posting status (I think that's the way to put it) on Seattle's Jon Stewart's "Return to Sanity" site on facebook.  I can't recall what the seed article was that created a line of posting by individuals on facebook.  What I do remember is that there is a lot of hating on GOP (grand old party) by lefters and hating on Democrats by the GOP.  What I know about hate is that it gets my blood curdling.  I love to hate.  It makes me feel powerful.  My images are fun.  I feel like the little kid that writes so hard on paper that it tears.  I can turn that paper upside down and feel the hate on the bumps of the the pencil lines.
What I am clear on is that once the paper is turned over, that I can act.
When Denis Gullickson is angry at students, he is quiet.  He acknowledges the student.  The students will be past the hard lines of the pencil drawing.  Denis invites the seething student into his cubicle.  In psych terms he de-escalates the student. 
What I know is that hate is fun and it can turn into a holocaust.  Or it can turn into a screenplay.
Anger is good.  Kindness honors anger. 
I love you, Mark.

*screenplay   "Johnny Blood" (summer 2012)
**distractions can be good

Write Lynn

Write Lynn, please write.
I have read all my books (well, some of them).
Write.
But I have written before I had a script and now it's three years later.
Gotta write. Write. You have the script. A little trust here. Write.
I am afraid of looking stupid.
You can look stupid. Einstein looked stupid until he turned seven.
I feel stupid.
Go ahead, feel stupid. And write. Your hormones are for input, not direction. Your head and heart have that job. Write.
Okay.

School

Starting school is pristine.
The students come to school looking for whatever a fifteen year old looks for.
I am glad and proud to be here.
I am an imperfect teacher.
I can only see the things I did wrong.
What I get are all the beautiful children who are becoming the planet's voice.
A grand and kind sigh.
My mother told me that she was at best the shoulder that I can stand on to see what she cannot.
I can see the children moving past my stupidity and stubborness.
You are better than I am.
My shoulders are happy to have you.

The Plan

School is starting again.
I fear all the politics of the job.
I fear forgetting stuff like documentation that was to be submitted.
I made copies of work that students needed in lieu of writing down that I did. So the board sees that I didn't hand in the safe and drug free form that proves that I am safe.
Documentation is good. It is insurance and provides comfort.
At some point I will be able to do my job without the onus of documentation.
Until then I am feeling "the plan."
Contact Lee Stranahan, Chris Powless, and Cynthia Thomas to complete the "Old Oneida" project at ONHS.
Contact Kickstarter to raise funds to bring my niece, Katelan Hessel, to Oneida.
And have a dinner (invite Dean and Margi Thomas) to organize a timeline for Wisconsin Humanities Council (my timeline stunk last year). Have Mary White cater great healthy food.
Write the timeline that works.
It's a plan.

Mary Lynn Immel

Mary Lynn Immel has completed her boards for her Licenced Practical Nursing degree. She studied and studied. Every time I came to her living room she was going over the questions in her book, on the computer. She said that "I am worried about not passing."
She was worried and she studied and studied.
She woke up in the hotel room and studied by the light of the bathroom.
She woke up and went to her testing room at 355585 in Milwaukee.
She went in early with the woman that looked like she came out of a cartoon,
She listened as thirty year old women talked about surgical terms she didn't know.
They used their jargon to impress themselves and feel good about going into their test.
I love you, Mary Lynn. You are brave and good. And the work you do is the work of the god that loves your gramma Polly.

Play

I met a young man (36) on Bolo Road in Upper Michigan. Damian is his name. Damian's play was optioned in Salt Lake City, or some place south of Ontonagon. I told him, if the play is put on, I would like to see it. I will go to see it.
Damian said that he prefers to avoid re-writes. Well I figure, Damian must be a genius if he can get his play optioned without having had to re-write any of his play.
I re-write everything.
I am unable to post a tweet without the tweet publisher's air message reading: "Over 140 characters, be short and clever."
The good news is that the brain is stimulated in the re-writes. That the dreams come to solve problems in the story. That everything cut from the screenplay is saved and can be resurrected as needed.
I will come to see your play, Damian.

2010 Taxes in the bag.

Done.
Pat on the back.
That works.
I tend to punish myself in lieu of celebrating, because that what Irish Catholics are good at.
And I did buy the book by Jeff Alan Schetcher who indicates that I can write and make a living on writing, but not by thinking that I can sell a spec screenplay. I was thinking that I could put an amalgam of screenplay structures together for a presentation for aspiring screenwriters.
In one of the online classes I took at Gotham Writer's Workshop, I would get bogged down with reading scripts that I felt inept at critiquing.
One man was writing about the man who started the Red Cross. It felt like the author was writing a memoir (typically the first screenplay a person writes is autobiographical). I don't have words for some writing that I read, I only have a visceral response. I felt uncomfortable reading his work.
Another woman wrote extensively about a mother and the small complications of running the "mother show." I told her she needed to continue to write.
Writing is a higher form of thinking. It allows the rudiments of grammar and vocabulary to parlay into the most profound of thoughts. It sure takes me for a cerebral ride!

Taxes.
I put them off.
And then I get into the flow.
Take me through these muddy waters to clear sailing!

Zinc Street, Ontonagon, Michigan. Population--seven hundred. Help is wanted at the "Holiday" gasmart. On Bolo Road, you can find Dave taking medical marijuana for arthritis, Scotty with six or more vehicles parked for need of repair, and Dorothy (60) and Toto checking out Damian (36, professor turned playwright).

And the excitement never ends.

It must be in "Pure Michigan!"

I find I am in dog heaven.

My father told me when I asked him if my dog would go to heaven, he told me. "Yes, Lynn, your dog will be in heaven just as you say."

I love my dad!

"What is one man's colon is another man's comma." --Mark Twain
I can imagine Jon Stewart finding a response to that:
"What is one man's colon is another man's middle colic artery."
Or
"What is one man's colon is another man's Rupert Murdock."

Taxes

I get to finish my taxes. Just found out from the person who is attempting to refinance my house that I have two thousand unrequited dollars spent on the students at ONHS. That the Federal Goverment is only interested in paying for two hundred and fifty dollars for per classroom across the nation. And a lobbiest can write off two three hundred and fifty dollar bottles of wine at dinner with a senator. I am not a "job creator."
I think this is why Jonathan Stewart makes me laugh. I would rather laugh.
I will do my taxes.
It's done.
Best news this summer!

Screenwriting

My goal is to research "story." In doing that I have been reading the following:
Syd Field's The Screenwriter's Workbook (2006) / Screenplay: foundation of Screenwriting: A Step-by-Step Guide from Concept to Finished Script (1994) / Four Screenplays: Studies in the American Screenplay: An analysis of four groundbreaking contemporary classics: Thelma & Louise; Terminator 2; The Silence of the Lambs; Dances with Wolves (1994) / The Screenwriter's Problem Solver: How to Recognize, Identify, and Define Screenwriting Problems (1998)
I have also been looking at Jeffry Schechter's website and downloading some of his writing aids: http://www.mscbuys.com/guide
I have been reading http://www.dailyscripts : Aaron Sorkin's "Social Network" and am reading Tony Gilroy's "The Bourne Supremacy."
Do I feel any better about taking too long to pull together what I feel is a camera ready story? Yes, I do.
What I am clear on is that I require a vast amount of back up to quell the doubts:
"No one is taking you seriously anymore, Lynn."
"You will not finish this play--it will not sell."
"You are not smart enough to complete this project."
All those things said, what I feel is that I am so happy that somewhere inside of all the doubts is the promise of a finished, powerful story. It feels to me like someone four years old is speaking plainly to adults that would like to hope.
She's a powerful little four year old.

I am looking at the photograph of myself at age two, as I sit on the lap of Maime Barta Lawler. She made bread. I watched her kneed the dough. I smelled the yeast.
I am not alone when I smell yeast anywhere on this planet. The yeast is my connection with Maime Lawler. The woman who sat in a courtroom in her housedress and explained why she did not want the restaurant owner to take her front yard for a parking lot. She hobbled before the court record taker and said, "I would like to smell the roses from my garden."
Maime made her way back to her seat and sat down.
The court records show that the land that was to be redistricted as commercial, "is residential."
The woman who took records on the hearing was heard to say,
"Maime's rose garden takes precedence over the restaurant's parking lot plans."
Perhaps loving nine children and rose petals are bigger than convenience.
I miss my grandmother. And I miss my mother.

Brain Class

My Brain Class teacher indicated that the amygdala responds to "humiliation" as a threat in a handout from her class.

When a child has been humiliated, learning does not take place. The child goes to a dark place and gathers himself/herself to lick the unsightly gash.

I am responsible to provide the Brain Class teacher with feedback on a form that I am to mail out across the road from the classroom site. The question requests that one dot be filled in under "Strongly agree," "Agree," "Somewhat agree," "Don't agree," "doesn't apply." The question reads, "The teacher provided a safe learning environment." Does that mean before the student enters the dark place, during, or after, I wonder?

I know that she was attempting to make it up. She used my name, "Lynn," and it is always important for the brain to hear the individual's name. She asked me to help her set up her visual set-up.

I am Bob Hessel. He told me that his teacher painted shoe polish on his lips because he was licking his lips.

He was not interested in being humiliated because he licked his lips. I am no better than the teacher who humiliated my father, and the teacher who humiliated me in my graduate class on brain learning. The amygdala is the first response. I strive to be better than that. I strive to be better than the alligator that responds with fight and flight.

Brain and Newport

I just lost my post after working from 9am to 1:21pm to find it; 20 minutes to pull it together.

So here's the skinny:

The brain needs water, it runs on empty. Drink water. I am.

NOTE: My brain teacher, Helen Schaal indicated that I need to speak highly of myself thus the following is the redacted note:

There are two kinds of people, those who take responsibility, and those who don't. I take responsibiliy.

Newport is magic.

Thank you, Mark, for setting this blog up for me and challenging me to take the responsibility of disabandoning this site.

Thank you, Sean, for making life worth living.

Thank you, Katelan for writing--I have got some ideas on the characters--should we blog them for input?

And Mary Lynn's birthday is tomorrow--June 18, 1983; 28 years old. BABY!

Meghan is moving to UPPER MICHIGAN, Silver City.

I'm in. I'm back.

Happy Easter

A year ago, I walked into emergency to find my smiling mother. I told her I cancelled Easter to come to visit her. She asked why. I told her, "Because you are my mom."

I miss you, Mom.

I like to tell the story of when we rode in the turqoise blue Volkswagen. "Just imagine, Lynn. What it would be like if your sister could me normal."

Paula is anything but normal. She is enthusiastic. She is in love with every cute boy. She has perfect pitch. Paula is forever young. And Paula cried whenever we left in Room 16 at St. Colletta School for Exceptional Children.

She got her enthusiasm from Mom.

I love you and I miss you, Mom.