Happy Birthday, Go Into The Story!

It’s celebration time as the site begins it’s 10th year of operation.

Way back when, I posted this:

Daily Dialogue — May 16, 2008

“If you just learn a single trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”

— Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck), To Kill A Mockingbird (1962), screenplay by Horton Foote, adapted from the Harper Lee novel “To Kill A Mockingbird”

Thus launched this humble blog. I won’t recount the several reasons which motivated me to start the site as I suspect readers pretty much know that history from previous posts. I do, however, want to share a blog-related anecdote which is both rather humorous and — in its own way — prophetic.

On June 24, 2008, I wrote this piece comparing the wonderful script Wall-E to the equally entertaining script Alien. In the post, I drew a distinction between two drafts of the Alien script which were floating around the internet — an early one by Dan O’Bannon who conceived the story and a later one rewritten by Walter Hill and David Giler. The focus of the post — what was the origin of the so-called ‘haiku style’ of scene description — was incredibly specific and tiny in scope, but completely up my alley as a screenwriter fascinated with such minutia.

In any event, I finished up the post, published it, drove to my office at Trailblazer Studios, and was busy working when my laptop chirped: Incoming email. I glanced at my computer screen. It read:

Daniel O’ Bannon.

Reality check. I’m living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I started a blog a mere 5 weeks ago. I write a post about ‘haiku style’ screenwriting. Click ‘publish’. Then within 6 hours, I get an email from a screenwriter I mention in my article.

In actuality, it is Dan’s wife, Diane. We end up talking on the phone and become acquaintances. Later she even sends me a copy of the book “Dan O’Bannon’s Guide to Screenplay Structure”.

Anyhow that night as I reflect on my O’Bannon intersection, something dawns on me: My little blog has the potential to reach Hollywood.

From 3,000 miles away.

Not that this influenced what I wrote here. Over the years, I have continued to provide daily information and inspiration for writers, put a consistent if low-profile spotlight on screenwriters and screenwriting, and tried my best to create a site which while acknowledging the extreme odds against financial success as a writer in the entertainment business would present grounded, yet hopeful advice based on my many years working in movies and TV.

Cut to today and a shocking truth: The reality is I have never been more connected to the Hollywood film and TV business, even when for 13 years, I lived 2 miles away from 20th Century Fox and 3 miles from Sony Pictures, and wrote 30 projects for every major movie studio and broadcast network (except ABC). Screenwriters. Producers. Managers. Agents. Today I know more of them than ever before, primarily because of Go Into The Story.

I connected with Franklin Leonard and the Black List because of the blog.

I’ve gotten writing gigs because of the blog.

I landed on the radar screen of the DePaul University School of Cinematic Arts because of the blog.

But most meaningful to me: The dozens and dozens of writers who over the years have contacted me to say… well… thanks.

I’m not big on self-promotion, so I’ll just leave it at that.

Anyhow as the blog enters its 10th year of existence and I reflect on what the site should be — as with here and here — I look forward to seeing where this crazy adventure continues.

As always, I welcome your suggestions and ideas.

I end with quotes from two of my guiding lights:

Joseph Campbell: “Follow your bliss.”

Carl Jung: “Become who you are.”

Onward.