The stories you need to find are right out there
You can brainstorm. You can do ‘what if’. You can generate as many story ideas as possible. But sometimes the stories you need to find are right out there.
Yesterday @AmosPosner tweeted me this news article:
BERKS COUNTY, Pa. — Deputy Sheriff Kyle D. Pagerly’s K-9, Jynx, tried to save the mortally wounded officer and likely did save the lives of other officers searching for Matthew M. Connor in the woods near his family home in Albany Township, officials said Thursday.
Connor, 25, took cover in a sniper’s nest at the top of a steep hill in the woods Wednesday night when the fugitive task force of federal, state and local officers team went to the property on Pine Swamp Road with a warrant for his arrest, according to state police.
Jynx alerted Pagerly to Connor, who was in full camouflage, troopers said. Moments later, Connor stood up and refused an order to drop his semiautomatic rifle, investigators said. Pagerly and Connor were both fatally wounded in the shootout that ensued.
“Jynx was a hero because he alerted on this guy,” an investigator said after a press conference Thursday in the state police station on Kenhorst Boulevard. “There could’ve been more people killed or injured if it were not for that.”
And District Attorney John T. Adams said that after Pagerly was shot, Jynx grabbed his partner’s pants leg and tried to pull him to safety.
This story is uncanny in that it is so similar but different to the real life story that inspired K-9. A local K-9 police officer and his canine partner were out on patrol. They interrupted a robbery in progress. The dog jumped in the way of a bullet intended for the human cop — and ended up dying. In the story above, the dynamic is reversed: The dog tries to save the human, but the human dies.
Both remarkable stories. What makes them both special and what attracted me to it in the first place is something the article notes:
According to a former K-9 officer, the bond between a police dog and its handler is so strong that the officer’s death can end the animal’s working life.
As part of the research for writing the script K-9, we met with the cop who had lost his canine partner. Big strapping guy. Brought photos of the dog. At some point, he broke down into tears. “He wasn’t just my partner. He was my best friend.”
And that is what gave me the passion to write that script.
Stories are everywhere. Everywhere! I’m reminded of that Biblical verse: “He who has eyes to see, let him see!” You have to train yourself to be aware of what’s out there. Always have your eyes and ears open. Never pass by any story — web, newspaper, magazine, radio, TV, friends — without thinking, “Is that a movie? What if I did it in this genre? What if I switched the gender of the main character? What if I went at the story from a different narrative perspective? What if I switched Protagonists?”
Remember: The stories you need to find are right out there.
HT to @AmosPosner for the link.
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