Huge lesson today. And I should have known better.
Here it is: Don’t let friends or family read your screenplay.
There. And don’t forget it.
I have been very private with this screenplay. Actually, I am private with all my writing, now that I think about it. I guess the difference is that with all of my other writing, I KNEW when I had something good. I didn’t need to go to anyone for their opinion or feedback. I was pretty good at giving myself my own feedback.
I can’t explain it. Soon after adopting Captain, I saw him as a character in an animated movie. And one day, I knew the title of the movie: Captain and the Greyhound. I had no idea what the story would be, but I liked how that sounded. The reason I picked a greyhound was because this dog liked to RUN. Boy, did he like to rn.
I will never forget the first time he escaped from our house. I can’t tell you how he got out, but I do know that we watched him do it. He raced out the front door, to our horror, and ran so fast that he was just a white blur.
In 2010, my son finally convinced me to get him a dog. This was no easy feat. I had said no for years, assuming that the last thing I needed as a single mom was yet another “baby” to raise. Wasn’t I busy enough??
So instead, we adopted nearly every kind of pet possible in an effort to placate my son (and daughter): cat, cockatiel, bunny rabbits, tortoise, snake, bearded dragon lizards, blue belly lizards that the cat brought in (at one point we had nine in an aquarium at one time), Pacman frogs, random frogs caught in the backyard, and countless fish. None of them helped in slowing down the request for a dog.
But they finally wore me down. I had two rules: we had to get a dog from the pound, and we were not going to get a puppy. That’s when we found Captain, a white scruffy terrier mix who shelter workers guessed to be about 2 years old. And our lives forever changed.
The Writing Life 