Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Sorry about the mess.

What inspires me to write?

It probably goes without saying that I love “Star Wars: A New Hope”.  It’s not just that spaceships, blasters, andlaser swords are being tossed about (though they help).  It’s also not that I saw the movie in the theater when I was three and it forever changed my life (although it did).  It is actually a story well-told.

Even if you haven’t seen it, you likely know theplot (though you should wear the cone of shame).  Local boy meets a wise stranger and finds his destiny to save the galaxy.  You see.  Elegant in its simplicity.  It’s a fantasy that every kid who ever had to do yard work or take out the trash can relate to.  You’re not just an average teen in an average life.  You were meant to carry a sword instead of a shovel.  You were meant for greatness.

But that’s not the whole of s what makes “Star Wars” a wonderful tale.  It’s the characters.  It’s Han Solo.  It’s Princess Leia.  Tough-as-nails, take-no-prisoners, shoot-the-Greedo-first characters.  Lucas didn’t know it at the time (though he later claimed he did), but he had tapped into some pretty standard archetypes and (clunky exposition aside) and lucked into some great one-liners.

It’s that kind of stuff that really inspires me to write.

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