I’m working on a new script, and for the first time in as long as I can remember, I don’t have a title. I’m usually really good with titles; they come early in the process, and I know when they’re right.
This time, though, that hasn’t happened. I’ve done my usual homework, going through quotation dictionaries and concordances, keying off certain thematic words, looking for ideas. I’ve scanned related literature, looking for appropriately allusive phrases.
I know I could ask colleagues, other writers, to see if they might offer any suggestions, or if they’ve got any extra titles laying around they’d be willing to part with. I could also have someone go through the prodcos’ title registration list; maybe some aspiring producer came up with a good hook, but has no story or script. I haven’t done these yet, but they’re still there as alternatives.
Then I remembered the good old SDMB, and I thought, hey, what the hell. There are some literate, creative people wandering the boards, so why not take a flyer and see what people come up with?
However, I’m not going to just post up a plot summary. Here’s why:
There would be a major risk in making this story public in this forum. Writers jealously guard their ideas, especially screenwriters. A really good idea is gold in Hollywood, because they come around so infrequently. Not that I think my idea is that brilliant, but still, if I were to post a plot recap, some unscrupulous blackguard could come along and hijack my hard work. I know the majority of SDMBers wouldn’t resort to that, but unfortunately no place is ever entirely safe from these types. I do, of course, carefully register all of my material, and I vehemently and resolutely protect my copyright. I was involved once with a theft of intellectual property, and I was extremely aggressive in asserting my ownership and rights; it took almost no time at all for me to prevail. Still, I’d like to avoid the hassle, if I can.
So, to that end, if you’d like to help me with this, send me an e-mail separately at cervaise<at>homestead.com and I’ll reply with a story recap, plus a discussion of themes and setting. (I’m trying to protect that address from spam; hence, I swapped out the @, so automated spam spiders trolling the boards hopefully won’t recognize it.) After you get the message, feel free to reply to this post with title ideas so others can see them, or send them back to my e-mail, whichever works best for you. If you do post here, please respect my wish not to indiscriminately share story details with the entire world.
In general, the tone of the story is small-scale character drama, centered on a woman and her twenty-something son. If you were interested in this because you hoped it would be an action flick (or a porno movie), I’m sorry to disappoint you. I have written those types of scripts (um, not porn); this just isn’t one of them.
Thanks in advance. Looking forward to some great suggestions!
