Tuesday, May 28, 2013

THE STORY SO FAR: PART 269: TUESDAY

I HAVE ALREADY SQUEEZED THE LEMON—NOW I’M SQUEEZING IT AGAIN

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By now I should have sent this screenplay away—but I’m still wrestling with the damn thing. It would be easier if I wasn’t finding anything. That would be clear-cut. Instead, better ways of doing things are still emerging after every read. Most, to be fair, are minor, but every small improvement helps.

Your work should always be as good as you can make it is very much my mantra But, let me tell you, it’s exhausting. I feel terribly tempted to throw in the towel—and yet, after every fresh read, I see items that can be improved.

Hola! My squirrel has returned. What a beautiful sight.

I picked up the expression “Hola!” (as in “Hola, Sir Knight!) from an Arthur Conan Doyle historical novel, SIR NIGEL—one of my favorite such books, but much less known than his Sherlock Holmes books. More is the pity. The first one, set in that period, is THE WHITE COMPANY which is set during the Hundred Years War—a period during which a summer vacation meant marauding in France for a couple of months. Given the superiority of their archers, the British were hard to stop—though crossbowmen tried their best.

Tourism tended towards the aggressive in those days. If others rose early and grabbed all the sun-loungers positioned around the pool (Germans are notorious in this regard) you just killed them.

Great books!

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