HUNG creators Colette Burson and Dmitry Lipkin graciously shared their insider insights on screenwriting, series development, and SUCCESSFUL network pitching at a POWER UP workshop. They were profoundly inspiring in their passion for their craft and the joy (and challenge) of bringing their work to an audience.

To be honest, it was startling when they first walked into the room. I thought Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes were making a surprise visit. Seriously, Burson & Lipkin really resemble Winslet & Mendes! Throughout the evening, I kept having the sense that we were seeing the American version of that very creative and powerful British POWER COUPLE.

Burson and Lipkin were originally scheduled to appear at the POWER UP 2Day TV Writer/Producer Intensive workshop in September but were unable to attend. Being the committed, supportive artists that they are, they rescheduled and presented the evening of 22 October at the Production Office of Angela Robinson (D.E.B.S.) and Alex Kondracke (the L word). Their production office was very dramatic — lots of brick, high ceilings, amazing wood accents — trés urban chic. Robinson and Kondracke are previous POWER UP grantees. Being in their space provided additional subtext to an already exciting event. There was a feeling of “great-POWER-UP-connections-equals-great-success” wafting through the autumn air.

Burson and Lipkin spoke about their bumpy road to success. Appropriately, Burson commented that success in the film and TV business is NOT like the male orgasm. “It’s not that you write the perfect script, meet the right person and suddenly your career shoots straight ahead,” said Burson miming something we might see on HUNG. She squinted her eyes slightly and began feeling the area all around her. Then, she grinned and said, “You try this, you write that, you talk to these people, you rewrite again and take another meeting. A career in this business is a lot more like the female orgasm!” Everyone in the room laughed in agreement and understanding.

Russian-born Lipkin was a successful New York playwright who decided to move to LA to launch a career writing for television and film. To get started, he took a class through the UCLA extension to motivate himself to complete a spec script. He shared how he used that script to get an agent at CAA and how that agent got him meetings with producers. After a couple of frustrating YEARS, they asked him to write something original. He did. Happily. Not too long after that, he came up with the idea for THE RICHES. Then, a serendipitous meeting with a new executive at Maverick Studios and a cigarette break with Eddie Izzard led the creation of his first series … which was derailed by the writer’s strike after the first season. See, there it is, the female orgasm. Never a straight shot. (Variety has a nice summary of the path to HUNG for Tennessee Wolf Pack Productions — the Burson/Lipkin brand.) In their downtime during the strike, Burson and Lipkin came up with the idea for HUNG, a half-hour comedy that Lipkin said he was looking particularly excited about because longer shows can become a bit “Balkanized.” So Eastern European, so erudite.

During their presentation, husband and wife shared about the ways they balance their family life (two children) and their work life. Burson also talked about her love of writing about a specific milieu. She gave an example of the changing milieu around the “politics of water.” Burson observed that over the years, the wealthy have begun to acquire all of the land around water … around oceans, lakes, rivers and streams … making it difficult for the average family to have access to water. They used this in the development of HUNG. Burson and Lipkin decided that main character, Ray, would have waterfront property because it had been handed down by his family, but he would be surrounded by McMansions and condescending, surly neighbors. This increased the dramatic tension for Ray and allowed Burson/Lipkin to explore this shifting “water milieu.”

Similarly, Lipkin explored the milieu of the American Gypsy in THE RICHES, a story about a character born into a family of thieves and con artist who wants to go straight. It was fascinating listening the them discuss story creation and character development.

Burson & Lipkin’s Writing Recommendations:

• Life is long and your writing will evolve. You want your writing psyche to be fierce as possible to work in this business.
• Young writers often think they have a writing “style.” This is often just a writing rut. Strengthen your writing by working on new things.
• Always be thinking: What does the character want that they cannot have and what is he/she doing to move toward it?
• Know the Dramatic Question for the series, the Major Character Arcs and the Thematic Question for the individual show. Episodes that connect to all three will be more satisfying for the audience.
• Currency is this town is ideas, we sell ideas, not scripts or shows.

Burson & Lipkin’s Pitching Recommendations:

• Pitching is a tool for you. It helps you find what is dramatic, exciting and engaging as you speak it to others.
• You pitch a series thematically. You pitch the story engine and the structure of the typical episode.
• Practice your pitch. Role play it.
• Be yourself in the pitch room. They want to know you’re sharp, have a wide range of interests, are well-versed in numerous topics AND you are going to be easy to work with.
• One way to begin a pitch is to mention well-known incident related to your story to engage the listener (remember a few years ago when a woman was slapping her child in a parking lot and it was discovered she was a “Traveller” … an American Gypsy?) If they recall, continue with facts to deepen your connection to the story, then reveal your characters and milieu.

Burson & Lipkin’s Networking Recommendations:

• Network, network, network. Luck comes from unexpected avenues from surprising people.
• As relative newcomers, they spoke to the difficulty in breaking into the industry and, while they want to give people an opportunity, it can be difficult because of the inherent risk of an unknown quantity. They praised HBO, (“God Bless HBO,” they intoned over and over again) for their support for HUNG.
• People remember. They told an amusing story about a writer they tracked for over TWELVE YEARS because they liked his work.
• While doing a short film for POWER UP (after she’d already done a feature), Burson joked that there were days she thought it should be called Power Down but went on to say she learned a lot and was grateful for the break.

This completion to the already inspiring POWER UP Workshop was fabulous! I’m looking forward to seeing the couple at the Power Premiere on November 1 … it should be an excellent opportunity to hear more about what they’re up to! Besides, I’m anxious to hear more about their son, Wolfe, a young man with a passion for self-direction already! Couldn’t happen to a nicer couple!

Other posts of interest:
Don’t Read the POWER Up Summaries
Workshop Day Two
Workshop Day One
POWER Up Changed Alec’s Life (and mine, too)

The 501(c)3 non-profit organization POWER UP recently held a 2Day TV Writer/Producer Intensive and, as part of that workshop, participants and other interested screenwriters have been offered the opportunity submit a script for review. The top FIVE screenwriters will get a 30-minute, face-to-face, one-on-one with LOST Executive Producer Elizabeth Sarnoff. Thirty minutes to discuss your writing and your career with a professional writer/producer who has written for NYPD BLUE, DEADWOOD, and LOST.

And, as contests go, the odds on this contest are pretty good. There were only about 50 writers in the workshop. If your script is good, your chances have never been better.

To put these odds into perspective, a record 6,380 scripts are in contention for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 24th annual Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowships in screenwriting competition. They will award FIVE fellowships in November. That’s right, five (5) out of 6,380 will win. Of the thousands who submit to the Sundance Screenwriting Fellowships, four (4) are chosen.

So, if your script is ready … if you are ready … the POWER UP Screenwriting Entry is online. Deadline is 15 October 2009. Submit your PDF online.

Don’t get me wrong, the event was FLIPPIN’ FANTASTIC. I took 21 pages of notes. That’s right, twenty one pages of notes. And I didn’t capture everything but I sure as heck tried. (I wish the event had been recorded but that’s another story). I’ve summarized a lot of the key points in the previous posts but, as you can imagine, it isn’t close to 21 pages of content. I just don’t want to type that long and I don’t think most of you will really read it.

BUT, even if I did write it all, even if I wrote everything I thought I heard or remembered, it wouldn’t be the same as you being there. You just can’t network in abstentia. You have to get into the room. Prior to the workshop, I sent POWER-UP co-founder Stacy Codikow an email asking if this workshop was going to give us “real information AND real access.” She was polite in her reply (I might have ripped me a new one). “You’ll get out of it what you put into it, she said, “It’s up to you.” And she pushed everyone all weekend to get to know not only the presenters but the other people in the room.

Stacy was funny. Half mother hen and half drill sergeant, pushing, prodding, driving us on. She was also the “closed captioning for the new-to-the-industry-impaired.” The presenters would be talking about a pivotal moment in their career and Stacy would point to the important (and often obscure underpinnings) of the interaction. We learned how to handle a general meeting, a pitch meeting and a dinner party (never, ever pitch at a party). She also had the delicate job of pulling a couple of “guard dog” attendees off everyone. There were a few folks that, I swear, attacked any potential connection with such ferocity that they were destroying every chance they might have to succeed. Stacy delicately tried to rein them in, help them succeed in spite of themselves.

I was so delighted to hear Stacy had worked on CAGNEY AND LACEY. I so loved that show and writer Barbara Avedon was one of the first screenwriters to ever read my scripts seriously and help me along. Not only that, when Heather was pregnant with Alec, we were watching Cagney and Lacey when the contractions started. It’s always near and dear to our hearts. And I loved PROFILER and D.E.B.S. (I actually paid $50 for a ticket at Sundance to go to the premiere AND Alec got the final DEBS trading card from director Angela Robinson on a shuttle bus for me.) Weird little touchpoints.

During the course of the seminar, a woman kept standing up to comment on copyright and legal issues. I thought, who is this buzz saw in the back corner? Turns out that POWER-UP co-founder Lisa Thrasher used to work for FOX (as I recall) in the legal department. This chick knows her stuff. Apparently she does a producing workshop that focuses on making sure you get your film made and avoid as many legal pitfalls as possible. I’ll probably go to that and you are sure welcome to read about it but, if you’re smart and committed to your success, you really should get your butt in the chair. I’ll post when I know the dates.

So, now that you’ve probably read THREE blog posts on the POWER-UP event, why am I telling you NOT to do it? Because you’ll get a heck of a lot more out of it if you attend them personally instead.

LAUREN IUNGERICH (pronounced YOU-KNOW-RICK) came in all bouncy with her blonde hair and her luscious vanilla-scented lotion that wafted through the room (did I mention I hadn’t had time for breakfast?) and she set the room on fire! There were the questions about her college years and internships and all that. It got really interesting when she started talking about a spoof movie she had done called SKäNK. The film was about several Scandinavian supermodel lesbians who had become directors. The models-cum-directors were named Inga, Molle, Hanna and Inga 2. They had SKäNK hats made that they distributed, posters they put up and a website … that studio officials were calling after the festival to get more information and hire these supermodels … I mean directors. Funny, irreverent, bawdy, subversive and totally hooked in to what is appealing to the market, Lauren schooled us in how to generate pilot ideas, create powerful tag lines, and how to handle yourself in a pitch meeting. Like the presenters from the previous day, Lauren affirmed that you need to connect with your material on a personal level to make it work.

Of greatest value to me was how Lauren revealed how the process works from beginning to end. First, someone reads your work and appreciates the ORIGINAL VOICE; voice is everything. Then, you’re referred to and invited in for a “General Meeting” … a get to know you soiree where everyone takes a look at what it would be like to work together (because there are long hours in television). If that goes well, a “Pitch Meeting” will follow. If one of your ideas is appealing, you will be PAID for the idea and be asked to write a pilot. Then, most likely, the idea will go no further and you’ll be out pitching another pilot idea. But, hey, you’re getting paid along the way.

Lauren’s list :

• One of the most important elements of the pitch is how you connect with it personally.
• NEVER leave anything behind at a pitch meeting. Your presentation should leave an indelible image in their mind and make them want more.
• When creating your pilot, join the story in motion. Show the audience who the characters are and what they’re struggling with in their current circumstances.
• Never rely on others. Rely on yourself. Work with effective producers.
• In television, they buy your story and they’re buying you, too.

Writer/comedian CAROL LEIFER not only wrote for SEINFELD, we hear she is the inspiration for the character of “Elaine.” While in college, Leifer was dating (then unknown) actor Paul Reiser which brought her into a milieu populated by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. Leifer loved both performing stand-up comedy and comedy writing. She shared that David and Seinfeld thought the funniest things happen in real life. Any Seinfeld story based on real events was preferred. In fact, we discovered that the “Marble Rye” episode had happened to Leifer. She went to a dinner party in which the host forgot to serve the bread and the guests snuck it home with them. Leifer also affirmed that this business is all RELATIONSHIPS, you must be a pleasant person who is easy to work with. And, you must network assiduously. With a deadpan seriousness, Leifer said she still had every phone number she’d ever been given.

Carol’s suggestions :

• You must be your own biggest fan. Always.
• Mine the moments of your life.
• Writers write. No one can stop you. Tell your stories.
• Don’t hide from what you are … when you lie about your age (or whatever) the terrorists win.

I was so excited about the final presenter at the POWER UP event … the executive producer of my favorite show, LOST. The weekend was winding down but our enthusiasm was mounting by the minute. ELIZABETH SARNOFF started her presentation by saying she totally disagreed with what screenwriter Josh Olson had said in The Village Voice about being unwilling to read screenplays. Sarnoff said she loves original work! She said that when hiring writers for a show (like LOST), the skills AND personality of the writer come into play because you have to choose “people you want to spend 9 hours per day with, involved in a steel cage death match.” I think she was kidding. A little. Sarnoff shared a writing exercise she got from David Milch. While working with Milch, she learned to write for no less than 20 minutes, no more than 50 minutes, a scene with two characters and no setting. Just two humans deeply involved in human connection. Then, we were told to put it away for six months, come back later and discover what stories are at our heart and core. I tried the exercise and found it very useful. To be honest, I didn’t last six months. I maybe waited six hours before I read it again. And I liked it.

Liz’s tips :

• Don’t think about writing when you’re not writing. Thinking about writing is totally ego-centric. Writing is like prayer; ego disappears.
• Actors, when stripped of preparation, become generous, adaptive creatures.
• More people crumble under success than failure. Success is complicated.

With POWER UP, success is still complicated but it gets a helping hand.

For more information on this event, you can look at JD Disalvatore’s blog. For more information on POWER UP, visit PowerUpFilms.org.

ELLEN SANDLER, the co-executive producer of EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND was the first speaker of the day. A Jewish woman from Sioux City, Iowa (there’s a sitcom right there), Sandler went to New York to work in the theatre. Working as a READER for the legendary Joe Papp, Sandler learned how to write concise summaries with explanations of her opinion on the particular piece she was reading. After she moved to LA, she wrote a one-act play that starred Rhea Perlman (who was dating a lovely fellow named Danny DeVito who was working on a show called TAXI). Danny brought all of the TAXI folks to Rhea’s play. Afterwards, writer/producer James L. Brooks approached Sandler about writing on his show. And, as they say, the rest is history. POWER UP founder Stacy Codikow made a point that Sandler’s play was one of several that evening but she was the only one who “had the goods” when Brooks was present. She had the combination of a strong piece and the serendipitous good fortune of having Rhea Perlman in her play.

Sandler’s tips :

• Remember that the industry is a FEUDAL SYSTEM and everyone serves the Lord. Forget it and you’ll be unemployed.
• Get your words into the mouths of actors who have friends.
• You’ve got to have some personal connection to the material to make it work.

After lunch, JAN OXENBERG the co-exec producer of COLD CASE, consulting producer on PARENTHOOD, and writer of MY DARK PLACES and LONG ISLAND CONFIDENTIAL, shared her experience entering the industry. She was wearing awesome yellow and white tennis shoes with pale blue and white striped socks. I was lost in her shoes for a while. I’d wanted to meet Jan for a very long time. She’d worked on a lot of shows I really liked and she’d worked with Michael Mann and Ami Caanan Mann. Jan talked about how every episode of COLD CASE was a period piece and also an effort to raise social consciousness. She talked about how it is more common for producers to read an original piece of material (feature script or stage play) to get a sense of your writing ability than a series spec script. Most of all, she said everyone wants something original with a unique point of view and a strong character that just “pops.”

Oxenberg’s advice:

• Many of the most successful TV writers have never had a show produced.
• Television is a writer’s medium. Meredith Stiehm came from the “John Wells” school of filmmaking which means writers are taught to be producers, they have the authority and they are responsible for getting that episode made.
• Being successful is a combination of opportunity, skill and relationship.

Showrunner CLAUDIA LONOW had the challenge of bringing up the end of the day. We were all excited but weary. Claudia came in and she was hysterical. She has an acerbic wit, dry delivery and moderately shocking observations that perked the whole room up quite quickly. I wasn’t surprised to discover that her stepdad owned The Improv and that she’d spent her entire life around comedy and comedians. I was surprised to learn she had been on KNOT’S LANDING in her teen years. After that, she fell out circulation for a while. Years later, she pitched a television series based loosely on her life. RUDE AWAKENINGS was purchased and Lonow returned as a showrunner. Lonow spoke a lot about the resilience necessary to survive in this business. Her new series (for which she is, again, the showrunner [aka top dog]) is ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE and stars Jenna Elfman.

Lonow’s list:

• Get humor in your pitch. Don’t bore them with the story. Give them the premise, the characters, the story line.
• Get Blake Snyder’s book SAVE THE CAT and study it.
• When you’re looking for an agent, make sure you find one that is a FAN of your work and that you know some of the same people.

Tomorrow, I’m really excited that LOST exec producer ELIZABETH SARNOFF will be one of the guest speakers. Also, CAROL LEIFER (the inspiration for ‘Elaine’ on SEINFELD) and someone I’ve never heard of before … LAUREN IUNGERICH, a woman who has sold eight pilots! I can hardly wait.

Former Sundance programmer Roberta Munroe

If you’re thinking about making a short film, RUN (don’t walk) to the nearest bookstore. The book is a bible for short filmmakers. Among the things Roberta covers: how to keep your story fresh, getting your story to the right length, finding and keeping a great producer, finding the money, getting the talent, getting into an A-tier festival and using your film to launch your career. It is simply excellent. There’s even a cliche list of things to avoid. It is painful to find something you wrote on the list but infinitely better than losing a shot at a festival because you didn’t know every lame short has that cliche in it. Get the book. Read the book.

There’s even a better option for short filmmakers. Roberta offers a one-on-one consulting service. She’ll review your script, let you know if it’s worth your time and effort to make and, if it is, offer notes and detailed advice on how to strengthen it for the A-tier film circuit. If you’re working on a feature, she can help you with that as well.

I sent her a short script I’d been loving for a couple of years and the guys were wanting to shoot. Before we committed the time to do it (because we have so many other projects going on), I wanted to get her thoughts on it. She was direct and thorough in her analysis of the characters and the story. She offered concrete suggestions (without rewriting it or making it her story) to bring it up a notch. She cut to the chase and now I’m more enthused than ever about doing it. More importantly, the film will be stronger because of her input.

So, if you’re a short filmmaker, read the book and consider having Roberta read your material. It may make the difference between a tepid response and a rapid rise in the festival circuit.

A bit more than two years ago, I was “in a poetry phase.” I’d recently re-watched SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE and was enamored of the written word. I started messing around with sonnets … again … almost with the same enthusiasm as when I was in college. Soon, the rigor of the form dampened creativity and the sonnet lost its appeal. So I started playing with free verse and, for inspiration, I spent time re-reading my favorite poets. I stumbled back into Emily Dickinson. Her biography was well-known to me. Unmarried, probably agoraphobic, woman dies with only ten (10!) poems published. Following her death, over 1700 (that’s one thousand, seven hundred) poems are discovered in her home in bound books she called “fasicles.” One thousand, seven hundred.

I started writing a poem a day using Dickinson as my standard bearer. I loved her imagery, her cadence, her style.

Her breast is fit for pearls,
But I was not a “Diver”–
Her brow is fit for thrones
But I have not a crest.
Her heart is fit for home–
I–a Sparrow–built there
Sweet of twigs and twine
My perennial nest.

I started noticing the tenderness and longing and eroticism in her writing. So, how does a reputed agoraphobe have these sorts of thoughts? Did she have relationships in her adolescence of which I was unaware? So, I started reading more. More on her biography and more of her poetry.

WILD nights! Wild nights!
Were I with thee,
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!

Futile the winds
To a heart in port,—
Done with the compass,
Done with the chart.

Rowing in Eden!
Ah! the sea!
Might I but moor
To-night in thee!

Who the heck is she mooring in? Wild nights with whom? Whose breasts? Doesn’t sound much like a (male) editor that she’s pining for, does it? And then I find information on Susan Gilbert Dickinson, her sister-in-law. A woman she knew from school, a woman who married her brother, Austin, and lived next door to family home for Emily’s entire adult life. About half of Emily’s correspondence was to Susan and many poems were written TO her or ABOUT her (in spite of efforts by others to obliterate Susan from Emily’s writings.

Scholar Martha Nell Smith’s wonderful books OPEN ME CAREFULLY and ROWING IN EDEN offered a more complete, richer biography of Emily. Using the poetry and correspondence of both Emily and Susan, Professor Smith brought an entirely new understanding of Emily Dickinson and her work.

Tomorrow, more about the mistress of Austin Dickinson and the writings of Susan Dickinson. If you haven’t figured it out, I’m working on a screenplay about the Dickinsons.

Great Mistake 1: The story idea isn’t original.

Great Mistake 2: Writers often use the wrong genre to develop the idea, or they impose the pre-determined genre beats onto the idea instead of finding events that are original to the idea.

Great Mistake 3: They think a hit movie script is all about finding the high concept premise. But they don’t know how to extend the premise, from the two or three scenes suggested by the high concept to a 110-page script.

Great Mistake 4: They don’t know how to hang the story on the seven major story structure steps, so the plot fails to come out of character and the main character does not change.

Great Mistake 5: They think of the hero as a separate individual with a list of superficial character traits instead of as part of a web of characters, each character structurally different from the others.

Great Mistake 6: They try to create their plot using the three-act structure, which doesn’t work and causes a weak middle, instead of using the 22 building blocks of every great story that builds the plot steadily from beginning to end.

Great Mistake 7: They fail to give their hero a moral as well as an emotional weakness at the beginning of the story.

Great Mistake 8: They don’t know how to create the story world or how to connect it to the hero.

Great Mistake 9: They think the story is carried in the dialogue, or they force the dialogue to do the work that structure should do.

Great Mistake 10: They don’t know that rewriting is a set of skills, just like plot and character. So they rewrite in the wrong order, and their second draft is worse than their first.

If you’re a filmmaker and want to improve your films, you should get Truby’s Great Screenwriting: The Foundation Course … even if you DON’T want to write, you will understand the story structure sooooo much better and build a better film. Go check out the website and see what you think. There are some media links you can check out.

Interviews with John Truby about
The Anatomy of Story

	Writer’s Digest Article
	KCUR (NPR station in Kansas City)
	Part 1 and 2, Premise and Seven Steps
	Part 3, Plot
	Part 4, Opposition

In the review session, Alec was talking about how Frances Perkins became the first woman cabinet member. She was FDRs Secretary of Labor for his entire tenure. Of course, I always like when we hear about the “first woman” to whatever.

A few days later, I got to thinking about the big fire in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York in 1911. I had remembered learning about that when I was in high school. I recalled that around 150 women were killed because the factory doors were locked and that the ladders on the horse-drawn fire trucks only reached as high as the sixth floor … but the women were on the eighth floor. Many jumped to their deaths rather than dying in the fire. I recalled that it lead to stricter labor laws and sweeping factory reforms.

On the Cornell University website, there’s an excellent section on U.S. Labor laws and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. While exploring their site I notice Frances Perkins had been a young woman in the city when the fire broke out. She had witnessed the women jumping from the windows and followed the prosecution of the factory owners. Perhaps that is why Perkins helped write legislation and supported such things as Unemployment Compensation, Disability Insurance and Social Security. If is often surprising to watch the ripple of each major event that occurs in history.

Today, we went to THE OLD MEETING HOUSE which is now a museum in central Boston. It is an old Puritan Church, built in 1720. It has the high lecturn and stiff benches. Across the street is the property that formerly belonged to Anne Hutchinson. According to the plaque on the building, a fire in 1711 destroyed their home and a brick building was erected in the same location. We spent a great deal of time at THE BOSTON COMMONS trying to decide where they hanged Mary Dyer. Based on the written accounts, I tend to think it is up near The Old State House (since it is near the end of Court Street). Then we went down to the wharf to feel the brutal breeze off the harbor. Finally, we went to The North End of Boston to check out Paul Revere’s house and The Old North Church. Revere’s house was built in 1680 (just 20 years after they hanged Mary Dyer) but you couldn’t get near the building and you could photograph or video anything in the area. It was quite disappointing. Alec was quite vocal in his frustration.

My birth mother died two weeks ago. It’s been a few weeks of endings. Disconnection. Loss. Disappointment. There have been a whole lot chaotic feelings lately. Sometimes, I feel like I’m walking on Jell-O … take one step and watch the ground shake. Difficult to see a clear path. What’s that thing that people always say, “If God closes a door, he opens a window.” So, I’ve been looking for the open windows and checking out the potential new views.

Independence Day is almost here. I keep reflecting on that in light of everything that has been happening. Humans are such odd creatures. Why is it so hard for us to be free? We encumber ourselves with so many things. We make it impossible to be happy, to live joyfully, to express fully who we are and what we have to offer the world. We go through life like the little pigs, huddled inside our structures, trying to ignore the wolves at the door. What do we do to distract ourselves? We go to Disneyland! At least, that’s what I’m doing. I got an invite to spend the weekend at Disneyland with a friend while she celebrates her 50th birthday. At least I know which t-shirt to buy.

Everything about the war in Iraq seems related to the topic. You’ve got the entrenched intolerance that the Shiite and Sunni have for one another driving the centuries-old civil conflict. That is layered with the right-wing, righteous Christian drive to bring “freedom” to the region and obliterate a dictator. Everyone in the region is claiming the will of God as their inspiration and motivation. Just as the Puritans did when they beat, imprisoned and hanged the Quakers. Just as Joseph Smith and his followers did in their justification for marrying multiple women.

I was raised in the Roman Catholic faith. Whenever I’m talking about these other faiths and their controversial practices, someone invariably mentions the sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests and demands that I justify what they have done. Like my LDS friends, I hastily distance myself from “those” Catholics. There is, however, a big difference between the events. To the best of my knowledge, none of the priests ever claimed to have been commanded by God to commit those acts. None of them ever claimed to be doing God’s will.

The historically-astute may then point to The Crusades, the nearly 200-year conflict between Christian Europe and the Muslim Middle East. Christians claimed that were trying to “liberate” Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Muslims said it was Christian greed that brought them to their lands. The roots of the Iran/Iraq problem with the U.S. were planted about nearly a millennium ago. Maybe that is the problem with doing “God’s work” — the conflict is eternal.

Rowling was quoted as saying that she felt “exploited” by her fan, Steven Vander Ark. RDR Books attorney Lizbeth Hasse said that Rowling is seeking a monopoly over the work, which is not part of copyright law. “It’s a very legitimate literary activity,” she said of the lexicon. “Like a reference book or a guide to literature, it’s a long-recognized genre.”

The thing that I find most interesting and amazing about this whole dispute is that Rowling had no problem exploiting her fans over the years. The proliferation of adoring fansites amounted to millions of internet hits in free marketing and publicity which only increased fan loyalty, boosted book and film interest by current and future readers/viewers. Web marketing is as valuable as word-of-mouth marketing for low cost and high endorsement value. So, while bloggers spent their time, effort and MONEY to run their sites, Rowling built her bank account. Now, the lexicon, (which I have to agree with RDR is a legitimate literary form), may make a little bit of money for a fellow who has given her YEARS of web marketing … and she feels exploited.

So, if someone like Tere Stoufer wrote a book called THE COMPLETE IDIOT’S GUIDE TO HARRY POTTER or someone like Colin Duriez wrote a book called Field Guide to Harry Potter, shouldn’t Rowling being suing them, too? Or, are the publishers just too much larger than little RDR?

Vander Ark’s 400-page HARRY POTTER LEXICON has been blocked from release by the lawsuit filed by Rowling. Vander Ark and publisher RDR have said the book would only promote the sale of Rowling’s work and that Vander Ark’s Web site, used by 25 million visitors, had been called “a great site” by Rowling herself. Isn’t that funny that people unknown to her and other publishing entities can make whatever they want but this fellow is being shut down?

Another screenwriter I know is always worrying that what she writes isn’t “important enough.” Since I’m working on projects with her, I guess that means I’m working on projects that may not be meaningful enough, either. The Bible and the Koran have already been written and Shakespeare was so prolific in the realm of dramatic storytelling, it seems like the whole important, meaningful thing has already been handled. Besides, if Nathaniel Hawthorne is correct, if we do it well, people always find more in our creative work than we originally intended anyway.

I find myself wondering if Hawthorne had any idea of the merit of his writing as he was doing it. Born on July 4, 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts, Nathaniel was the descendant of John Hathorne, one of the prosecutors of the Salem Witch Trials (in 1692 and 1693). Shortly after he graduated from college, Nathaniel added a “W” to his surname. (Why add the “W”? Was it for Witch? Or, perhaps, he just wanted to be different from his family? I’m sure the answer is somewhere but I haven’t found it definitively, yet.) Anyway, back to Hawthorne the writer. THE SCARLET LETTER was published in 1850, just four years before his death. I remember having to read Hawthorne in high school and college. His writing was so dated; it was staid as a Puritan’s collar, more stiff than a Puritan’s prosecutor’s righteousness. I had a difficult time getting through it, much less enjoying it. Now that I know he put historical figures into his work and that his ancestors arrived in Plymouth Colony in 1630, I have more of a commitment to revisit his novels.

A few years back, I went into an Antiquarian Bookstore and saw a FIRST EDITION of THE SCARLET LETTER. It was amazing to look at this book and know it had been printed more than a century and a half earlier. It had a leather cover, ornate and tooled. It had been read and treasured by readers for decades. I started to have a desire to own a first edition of an important work … and what I noticed was NOT that I wanted to own a work that was meaningful or important to the storekeeper or the contemporary literati. I wanted a work that was important and meaningful to me. I ended up getting a first edition “book” by Joyce Carol Oates. She probably doesn’t even remember it, this micro-book, a first edition short story (printed on a laser printer, put in a saddle-stitched printed cover and signed) but it meant the world to me.

So, every day, I just keep writing and hoping, at the end of the day, that someone, somewhere finds what we do to be meaningful and important to them, in their lives, at that moment in time. Even this blog is part of that desire to connect and create access to and for another. What else is there in this life?

“We sometimes congratulate ourselves at the moment of waking from a troubled dream; it may be so the moment after death.” — Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864).