peel away the layers
Sunday. Curtains still closed, but the light pouring in brightly. The hum of the dryer echoing from the kitchen. Clean house, free of furballs. Steam rising from a coffee mug decorated with red holly branches and cardinals...
Strangely, I just realized all the states I've lived in have the cardinal as the state bird. I've been paying a lot closer attention to detail recently (if one could get more anal about detail) and am enjoying finding so many connections among things. A few months ago I realized most of the characters in 11:11 have double letters in their names. Maggie, Savannah, Lynn, Amanda Galliger, Vivian McAllister, Mark Elliott, Lloyd... the last few even have double ll s which look like 11 s. I didn't do this intentionally when I began writing this story in 2002, yet feel as if the my mind has been given me subliminal messages all along. Like I've had this story in my head my entire life. I've extended the double letter concept, which feels a bit like cheating, but I like the way it adds an extra connection among the characters.
Bridges, maps and transportation have become a recent affection of mine as well...connecting people to places everywhere. There are so many roads one will never travel and so many places you will never see. Even in your own town there are hidden pockets left untouched. I've been thinking about how many people I know from my hometown living in Wilmington. Yet I never run into them here. Some even work downtown where I live and we never cross paths. That fascinates me. We could have missed each other by mere moments without even realizing. Life is all about timing.
I've been delving deeper into this concept of true selves, the people we are behind closed doors. There are so many tiny secrets we hide, even from those who know us better than we know ourselves. A quote from 80 Windows, "people only allow you to see what they want you to see". I know there are many things I'd be mortified about if it was public knowledge, however those who would place judgement likely have done the exact same thing. Funny how hypocracy works. All of the characters in 11:11 have some sort of addiction or habit, most shared by at least one other. Simply connecting two characters by their smoking the same brand of cigarettes or driving as a means of escapism, just adds another layer of detail.
I feel like I'm exhausting a lot of my energy on the fine tuned details, like birthdays and timelines, when I need to be focused on the updated scenes. It's as if I am complicating the complicated. My script is like an onion growing layer by layer... and you have to peel some of them back to get to the best part. Sometimes it will make you cry and sometimes there will be blood, but without the details, the story has no flavor. I'm not about making a movie you only want to watch once. There are too many thoughts compressed into 111 minutes to be digested in one sitting. Just make sure when the onion is ripe...bring a big box of tissues!
Strangely, I just realized all the states I've lived in have the cardinal as the state bird. I've been paying a lot closer attention to detail recently (if one could get more anal about detail) and am enjoying finding so many connections among things. A few months ago I realized most of the characters in 11:11 have double letters in their names. Maggie, Savannah, Lynn, Amanda Galliger, Vivian McAllister, Mark Elliott, Lloyd... the last few even have double ll s which look like 11 s. I didn't do this intentionally when I began writing this story in 2002, yet feel as if the my mind has been given me subliminal messages all along. Like I've had this story in my head my entire life. I've extended the double letter concept, which feels a bit like cheating, but I like the way it adds an extra connection among the characters.
Bridges, maps and transportation have become a recent affection of mine as well...connecting people to places everywhere. There are so many roads one will never travel and so many places you will never see. Even in your own town there are hidden pockets left untouched. I've been thinking about how many people I know from my hometown living in Wilmington. Yet I never run into them here. Some even work downtown where I live and we never cross paths. That fascinates me. We could have missed each other by mere moments without even realizing. Life is all about timing.
I've been delving deeper into this concept of true selves, the people we are behind closed doors. There are so many tiny secrets we hide, even from those who know us better than we know ourselves. A quote from 80 Windows, "people only allow you to see what they want you to see". I know there are many things I'd be mortified about if it was public knowledge, however those who would place judgement likely have done the exact same thing. Funny how hypocracy works. All of the characters in 11:11 have some sort of addiction or habit, most shared by at least one other. Simply connecting two characters by their smoking the same brand of cigarettes or driving as a means of escapism, just adds another layer of detail.
I feel like I'm exhausting a lot of my energy on the fine tuned details, like birthdays and timelines, when I need to be focused on the updated scenes. It's as if I am complicating the complicated. My script is like an onion growing layer by layer... and you have to peel some of them back to get to the best part. Sometimes it will make you cry and sometimes there will be blood, but without the details, the story has no flavor. I'm not about making a movie you only want to watch once. There are too many thoughts compressed into 111 minutes to be digested in one sitting. Just make sure when the onion is ripe...bring a big box of tissues!
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