The movie made me want to play my guitar (and I did), but it also verified to me that I will never, ever be a revolutionary musician. I'm an amateur musician, I always will be, and I'm okay with that. This is not really news to me; there was a time in my life I dreamed of musical innovation but I came to terms with it not happening years ago.
Hang with me, there's a point to all of this.
I had a few short minutes the other evening before bed, and I wanted to read something. I'd finished the novel I was reading (The Thirteenth Tale) earlier that day and wasn't ready to dive into something brand new, so I wanted something short and satisfying. I picked up Trouble is My Business, a collection of short stories by Raymond Chandler, one of my favorite novelists. Chandler is one of the most highly regarded mystery writers in the English language and wrote some of the most innovative novels in the past 150 years. Additionally, he was an accomplished magazine/short story writer and Hollywood script-writer (movies Double Indemnity, The Blue Dahlia, and Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train). Anyways, I decided to read the introduction he had written for the collection.
Every once in awhile, you come across something that completely changes the way you think. Chandler, talking specifically about detective and noir fiction of the 20s-40s (although applicable to all genres and styles of mystery stories) said,
"The technical basis of the Black Mask type of story on the other hand was that the scene outranked the plot, in the sense that a good plot was one which made good scenes. The ideal mystery was one you would read if the ending was missing. We who tried to write it had the same point of view as the film makers. When I first went to work in Hollywood a very intelligent producer told me that you couldn't make a successful motion picture from a mystery story, because the whole point was a disclosure that took a few seconds of screen time while the audience was reaching for its hat."I was sold. Stopped in my tracks. It may not have the same effect for you, but it is profound to me. I will never view a mystery story in the same light again, much less compose one. It planted the seed for my third literary project.
As you probably know, I'm currently writing my first novel. It's an ambitious project involving linking three different plots, genres, and styles into one cohesive story. I already have a great deal of preliminary work done for my second project, which I will not officially begin until I've completed the first one. it is even more ambitious and potentially ground-breaking than the first one. I have in my head a movie that I would someday like to screenwrite and see produced, and I don't believe anyone has tried anything like it in cinematic history (though I'm hardly a definitive source).
I am not satisfied with what is currently being done in literature. We can't keep painting with these same paints in these same frames; it's time explore where we can push the format next. I've spent the past many years diving into the history, the experts. I've looked for those who have pushed the boundaries a bit, like David Eggers autobiography A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. I've analyzed and studied the elements of plots and structure. I'm learning the nuances and tricks of editing. There is still much to be learned, and I'm definitely not done.
But I have it. What Jimmy Page, the Edge, and Jack White were all talking about, the traits that brought them to where they are. Does that mean that i will become a renowned and famous writer? Not necessarily, but at least I'm on the path.
