Friday, February 15, 2008

Secondary Characters and Survivor*

I just caught part of a wonderful movie, Return to Me, staring David Duchovny and Minnie Driver. I wasn't a fan of the X-Files, so I wasn't much of a DD fan, but I must say that DD's depiction of grief in this film? Heart-wrenching.

However, what really takes this movie a leap ahead of other romantic comedies is the secondary characters. I love 'em. In fact, I adore Carroll O'Connor in this film, and the scene where he's in the hospital chapel praying? Oh, man! I tear up just thinking about it! If you ever want an example of how to use secondary characters in a romance, watch this!

I wandered over to the Armitage Army fan site to look at more screencaps from Season Two of Robin Hood. And oh, be still my heart! In Episode 8, has Marion finally seen the light, because lo and behold, she's pulling Sir Guy back for a kiss -- and what a kiss! But no, as Daughter discerned, it looks like it's just a distraction and afterward, Sir Guy has figured it out.

Poor Sir Guy! His desire for Marion used against him. It's enough to make a fella turn into a villain....

And now it's time to go work on my own story. I've decided I need to up the tension and suspense, so I'm going to add a time limit and a chase.

* D'oh! So I forget to mention Survivor. I'm having tons o' fun imagining the "favorites" as folks who work in an office with me. Ozzy can be the delivery boy (heh), I would love to hear Jonathan's meeting post-mortems and gab around the water cooler with Cirie. Parvati would be the gal who thinks she's going to flirt her way to the top (good luck with that, 'cause aging is going to hit you like a ton o' bricks), and Kathy the co-worker who plans all the office parties and "team-building" exercises. Yau-Man is the wise mentor/father-figure who's been with the company since Day One and knows more about the product than the CEO ever will.

What can I say? I work alone and yes, there are days I wish I worked in an office with other people. Until I remember how much I hated group work in school.

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