{"id":17,"date":"2014-04-25T16:56:08","date_gmt":"2014-04-25T16:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/biz141.inmotionhosting.com\/~akweko6\/sacollins.com\/wp\/?p=17"},"modified":"2014-04-25T19:07:56","modified_gmt":"2014-04-25T19:07:56","slug":"writing-that-tugs-the-good-then-the-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=17","title":{"rendered":"Writing that tugs…the GOOD then the BAD"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author’s Note<\/strong>: This is a converted blog post from a previous blog software I was using. It originally was published on 04.16.14 @ 6:36PM Pacific.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Okay, so I can definitely say that there is quite a bit of good writing out there. I mean, I\u2019m easily inspired when I see it. So many artists are great muses as well. Though they often don\u2019t know it. Jay Brannan is one such muse of mine. I happened upon him back when I was relocating from San Diego to the SF Bay Area (for me it was a move back to SF – second time around) as my daughter was going to SFSU and she needed family support for our then five year old granddaughter.<\/p>\n

\"jay_brannan_new_album\"<\/a>

Jay Brannan’s new album – arriving July 2014.<\/p><\/div>\n

Anyway, I found Jay Brannan\u2019s album\/recordings from a site that was promoting up and coming gay artists. I bought the album without hearing a single song. I later found a YouTube channel for him and it was music love at first sight (hearing). Jay\u2019s a master with words – a modern day bard. His first full length album \u201cgoddamned\u201d was an impressive collection of words and music that, though it had been many years since I had to wrestle with what he was singing about, it did bring me back to those feelings the moment he began to sing\/play. The truth of his words cut though the years behind me like blowing on a dusty photo album and rediscovering old friends, lovers and acquaintances. Brilliant textures and a crystal clear voice that I found haunting as it was lyrical.<\/p>\n

[embedplusvideo height=”294″ width=”474″ editlink=”http:\/\/bit.ly\/1ilkTuS” standard=”http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/EaMixtNVO8M?fs=1&vq=hd720″ vars=”ytid=EaMixtNVO8M&width=474&height=294&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=1&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=&notes=” id=”ep1159″ \/]<\/p>\n

So I\u2019ve been listening to him ever since. His latest album, \u201cRob Me Blind\u201d served as the emotive core for one of the main character\u2019s in the Angel\u2019s of Mercy series. So much so, that I had him be a fan of Jay\u2019s work in the book. Those lyrics were tantamount to why Elliot did and thought the things he did while Marco overwhelmed and consumed every aspect of his little artistic geeky boy life.<\/p>\n

\"Jay_Brannan_Rob_Me_Blind_Cover_Art\"<\/a>

The album that inspired me to write Angels of Mercy.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Marco is a god to Elliot. Towering, confident (though never cocky), and most of all – steadfastly devoted to Elliot. Elliot doesn\u2019t understand this. Can\u2019t fathom how the star quarterback of his varsity high school football team would even notice him let alone being totally in love with him. It\u2019s heady stuff for Elliot. And for a while, he keeps waiting for the other shoe to fall. For Marco to wake up and realize what a colossal mistake he\u2019s made in dating Elliot – the out gay geeky nobody at Mercy High.<\/p>\n

I worked really hard at Marco\u2019s and Elliot\u2019s backstory before I ever put a single bit or byte to electronic paper. I had to know them so thoroughly that writing them would just flow. And for the most part it does.<\/p>\n

Now we come to one of my biggest gripes about dramatic writing – especially on TV or in the movies, is that it\u2019s gotten way to soap opera-y on us all.<\/p>\n

\"Resurrection_ABC_New_Fall_Shows_97130965_thumbnail\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Take for example the recently aired episode of Resurrection<\/a> from ABC. I don\u2019t know if you follow it or not, but there was a moment in last week\u2019s Ep where a busy body old cow (played brilliantly by one of the Cartwright sisters) got up and railed against probably one of the nicest\/most balanced characters on that show and said some hurtful things that stretched the truth of the matter in front of his entire congregation (oh yeah, I should mention he\u2019s the town preacher). Evidently Bessie the old cow, wasn\u2019t happy with chewing the cud on her part of the pews and decided to rail against the preacher because of something that happened in his past (that the TV audience was completely aware of how he had been duped by the recently returned (un)dead girlfriend (this is where the title of the show comes in).\u00a0 There was simply no way he could\u2019ve anticipated what came out in the wash (that his girlfriend from 12 years ago had killed herself and was pregnant with his child when she took a long drive off a short pier). But all of that is fine… EXCEPT for what came next: the preacher said none of this in his defense. Leaving everyone in his congregation to assume what Bessie had been mooing over from her part of the pew farm was the absolute truth.<\/p>\n

Now… you and I both know that if it\u2019d been us and we were wrongly accused of something we had no knowledge of we\u2019d defend it. Not stand there like some poor brainless schmuck who appeared to have wandered from the Walking Dead onto the wrong show. And don\u2019t give me the whole: but he\u2019s a preacher crap, either. Preacher men are men of words. Not always the right one\u2019s. I\u2019ll grant you, but of words nonetheless. They are \u2018paid\u2019 to think on their feet. So if there was ANYone who would\u2019ve said something it woulda been him. But nada, zilch. Just stood there like a government employee (and I was a government employee once so I can say that with some authority – that last, by the way was a nod to the writers of Greater Tuna). That\u2019s not how it happens in real life – I know, I know, it\u2019s a televised drama – keyword: drama.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a way to make it far more believable, isn\u2019t there? Preacher man – no matter how balanced and good, should be able to handle Bessie the cow and put her back out to pasture to chew the cud with other bovine gossipers of her ilk.<\/p>\n

Anywho, I\u2019ll get off my soap opera box now. I\u2019m just getting tired of screenplay writers who take the easy way out to create drama. The whole Duh, dah, dah moments are so 1960. I know Mad Men is still all the rage, but hey, at least they get the heightened drama right.<\/p>\n

Am I right?<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author’s Note: This is a converted blog post from a previous blog software I was using. It originally was published on 04.16.14 @ 6:36PM Pacific. Okay, so I can definitely say that there is quite a bit of good writing out there. I mean, I\u2019m easily inspired when I see it. So many artists are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,7,22,3],"tags":[26,29,25,27,23,24,28],"class_list":["post-17","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mm-lovefest","category-my-what-the-fuck-on-the-media","category-music-that-inspires","category-novel-writing","tag-artist-as-muse","tag-cleverness","tag-inspirations","tag-jay-brannan","tag-media","tag-music","tag-wordsmithing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75tPU-h","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":584,"url":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=584","url_meta":{"origin":17,"position":0},"title":"We can all use a little expert advice…","author":"S A Collins","date":"July 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"31 Days of Brannan - Day 24 \u00a0 [embedplusvideo height=\"329\" width=\"400\" editlink=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/1mLCvT6\" standard=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/elq1vCh1cno?fs=1&vq=hd720\" vars=\"ytid=elq1vCh1cno&width=400&height=329&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=1&autoplay=0&react=0&chapters=¬es=\" id=\"ep9189\" \/] \u00a0 Today's Playlist -\u00a0 Relax your neck (and breathe through your nose) \u00a0 I've always wanted to play this video. I am a big Margaret Cho fan. So the idea of Brannan and Cho\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Giving Back"","block_context":{"text":"Giving Back","link":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?cat=48"},"img":{"alt_text":"Jay's Website - jaybrannan.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biz141.inmotionhosting.com\/~akweko6\/sacollins.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/JBbanner-300x249.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":590,"url":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=590","url_meta":{"origin":17,"position":1},"title":"80 Days of Jay","author":"S A Collins","date":"July 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"31 Days of Brannan - Day 26 \u00a0 [embedplusvideo height=\"329\" width=\"400\" editlink=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/1nJqq5B\" standard=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/0KeeczV_1Q4?fs=1&vq=hd720\" vars=\"ytid=0KeeczV_1Q4&width=400&height=329&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=1&autoplay=0&react=0&chapters=¬es=\" id=\"ep4101\" \/] \u00a0 Today's Playlist - Twee Vaders \u00a0- \u00a0in Dutch, no less... \u00a0 I like that Jay takes the time to find a way to connect with his international audiences. He may flub things up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Giving Back"","block_context":{"text":"Giving Back","link":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?cat=48"},"img":{"alt_text":"Jay's Website - jaybrannan.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biz141.inmotionhosting.com\/~akweko6\/sacollins.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/JBbanner-300x249.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":533,"url":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=533","url_meta":{"origin":17,"position":2},"title":"A gift that keeps on giving… thoughts on writing","author":"S A Collins","date":"July 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"31 Days of Brannan - Day 17 \u00a0 [embedplusvideo height=\"329\" width=\"400\" editlink=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/1mZRPjd\" standard=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/VrTWJtibG9s?fs=1&vq=hd720\" vars=\"ytid=VrTWJtibG9s&width=400&height=329&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=1&autoplay=0&react=0&chapters=¬es=\" id=\"ep4081\" \/] \u00a0 Today's Playlist - \u00a0Desert Rose \u00a0(work in progress) \u00a0 I think I am fond of this entry for two reasons. 1) It's a work in progress - writing my own series of novels\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Giving Back"","block_context":{"text":"Giving Back","link":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?cat=48"},"img":{"alt_text":"Jay's Website - jaybrannan.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biz141.inmotionhosting.com\/~akweko6\/sacollins.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/JBbanner-300x249.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":527,"url":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=527","url_meta":{"origin":17,"position":3},"title":"Leaving on a jet plane…","author":"S A Collins","date":"July 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"31 Days of Brannan - Day 16 \u00a0 [embedplusvideo height=\"255\" width=\"400\" editlink=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/UdocAe\" standard=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/6jjfG2ROjzU?fs=1&vq=hd720\" vars=\"ytid=6jjfG2ROjzU&width=400&height=255&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=1&autoplay=0&react=0&chapters=¬es=\" id=\"ep4437\" \/] \u00a0 Today's Playlist - Leaving On A Jet Plane As Jay embarks on his tour this week... I was drawn to this one more than any other from his youtube channel. I never heard\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Media Musings"","block_context":{"text":"Media Musings","link":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"Jay's Website - jaybrannan.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biz141.inmotionhosting.com\/~akweko6\/sacollins.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/JBbanner-300x249.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":587,"url":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=587","url_meta":{"origin":17,"position":4},"title":"Introducing (well better late than never) Celine Jayon!","author":"S A Collins","date":"July 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"31 Days of Brannan - Day 25 \u00a0 Author's Note: I lost my internet as I was writing this one up last night and didn't get it back until the middle of the following day (like, today) when the damned cable guy showed up to fix it! Don'tcha just LOVE\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "imitation as Flattery"","block_context":{"text":"imitation as Flattery","link":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?cat=229"},"img":{"alt_text":"Jay's Website - jaybrannan.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biz141.inmotionhosting.com\/~akweko6\/sacollins.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/JBbanner-300x249.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":619,"url":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=619","url_meta":{"origin":17,"position":5},"title":"IT’S TIME TO PAR-TAY!","author":"S A Collins","date":"July 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"IT'S TIME TO PAR-TAY! \u00a0 31 Days of Brannan - Day 30 \u00a0 (The EVE of Jay's San Francisco Concert @ Bottom of the Hill!!!) \u00a0 [embedplusvideo height=\"329\" width=\"400\" editlink=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/1u2fGR1\" standard=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/avH3npumyHA?fs=1&vq=hd720\" vars=\"ytid=avH3npumyHA&width=400&height=329&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=1&autoplay=0&react=0&chapters=¬es=\" id=\"ep4409\" \/] \u00a0 TODAY'S PLAYLIST: \u00a0Jay's VERY BEST MOVES! \u00a0 So I was going to find something deep\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Giving Back"","block_context":{"text":"Giving Back","link":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?cat=48"},"img":{"alt_text":"Jay's Website - jaybrannan.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biz141.inmotionhosting.com\/~akweko6\/sacollins.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/JBbanner-300x249.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74,"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions\/74"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}