1 post tagged “mfa”
A few years ago, while studying poetry in San Jose State's MFA program, I began writing a collection of short stories titled, "We All Tell Stories Well." The theme of the collection had to do with the "power of lying" and why people tell lies. In writing the stories for this collection (so far I have two) I didn't want to dive too deep in the muddy psychological or philosophical waters of why people lie (childhood trauma, compulsion, called "fat jelly bean" too many times in elementary school). Rather, I wanted to focus on stories where people lie and the great fabrications that people of all ages can come up with when trying to achieve some goal.
After attending the Screenwriting Expo in LA this past weekend, I started thinking more about how lies that characters tell make up the bedrock of so many great conflicts in screenplays. Think about the last movie that you saw, wasn't there some sort of lie involved? Often times we think of a lie as being malicious; a falsehood that people tell to avoid trouble or to crawl their way out of it (outer journey). Still, not all lies have a malicious external impact. Many people tell lies to escape inner pain or heighten the joy snuggled on the inside (inner journey). I would agree with the large number of active screenwriters and Hollywood film consultants in that the inner journey and outer journey must work with each other, further, external lies are not amorphous and usually reflect something deep (a lie) embedded within.
Hopefully, I'll find time to get back to We All Tell Stories Well, but for now, I'm trapped in the tangled web of my screenplay, The Whiskey Runner -- loving every minute of it.
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