Shouts From Down Under

The Great Gatsby? The Pretenders? We are a confused bunch..

Are we holding onto a dream, clutching at our past, a memory, a hope that's impossible to achieve?



Are we different now than we were when we started out?

As writers we are the greatest pretenders, the most multi tasking actors.



We have to be pirates, lovers, murderers, detectives, super-people, soldiers, politicians, secret agents, policemen, psychopaths, drill salesmen, plumbers, nurses, paper deliverers, bankers, protesters, bakers, farmers, scientists, bandits, space monkeys, newsreaders, and OK, you get the point.

We have to be everything to everybody. We have to LIVE our characters, even if they are the least important fleeting supportive Mr or Ms Nobody in a shadowy shopping trolley collector scene.

No wonder we get confused. No wonder we forget that we already said that in our blog title.

Have you ever been a cannibal? What about a trauma victim? Ever stood as a mourner at the funeral of your best friend, who you accidentally killed while drink driving?

To write convincingly, we have to be all these things and more. We must sit in their chair, wear their clothes, eat their food, think their thoughts.

Ever consider that if you become a famous writer, one day someone, an actor, is going to play you. PLAY YOU. They will want to BE YOU.
Their film maker / movie fact checker will pay buckets of money to research every detail about you, so as to get every little bit of your life exactly right?

Well, we can only hope.
This link has much thought fodder for your cerebral banquet, and brings to a close another blog where I had no idea what to write about, but this seemed to fall out of my head like tokens / coins from a one armed bandit (poker machine).

http://theweek.com/article/index/254224/based-on-a-true-story-fact-checking-6-os...

Here's a pic of a stereotypical mechanic / electrician / techy dude who you can see plays the part to a tee. Definitely a hard working mining / construction / hydraulic fixer uperer.



And I ought to know, because he's not some actor, he's me.

Sparky