Anonymous once said, “Opinions are like assholes, everybody’s got one.”
And thanks to the internet they’re out there for all to see. Right (very much in the minority), wrong and misinformed. I mean this whole new, “Information based,” economy is working out so well for us right now isn’t it? Cars that don’t stop and accelerate out of control because their software is incorrect. An economy that doesn’t work because the formula everybody was making all that cash over was founded on a misassumption on repayment rates. Celebrities that are reported dead (by hack journalist too busy trying to be first than trying to be right) only to be resurrected a few hours later when they return from the dentist and check their voice mail.
What happened to reality? My Dad might have drank too hard and smoked like a chimney but he could fix damn near anything with his own two hands and he could spot a bullshit artist a mile off. We used to be a society based on quantifiable meritocracy. You gained the respect of your peers by what you did and any legacy you were judged on was based on what you left behind. I’m not so sure that’s the case any more.
The Internet makes it very easy to gather information but the real question is, is that information credible? I have a simple rule for research. I need three corroborating articles from separate sources before I can use that information. Just because one historian or one source is compelling (and sometimes they’re very compelling) you need to back that info up. It keeps me out of trouble and lets me indulge in a research library.
But if you go on any number of the forums out there on writing or the like, the level of information supplied is mostly conjecture and very little fact. Which in my opinion is somewhat self serving to the individuals who post there. After all, if you can’t get read, and you can’t get produced, what better thing than to expound on everything you don’t have a clue about as if you did. It would seem that the internet is more about the loud, than about the right.
But then it all taps right back in to that idea of, “The Secret.” The magic grand unification theory of writing that will get you read and get you sold. A secret of course, that doesn’t exist. If it did, why would the studios need writers? They’d just build a super computer and program it to pump out block buster after block buster. And no matter how much bigger, brighter and louder they make films, it doesn’t look like that’s the case, does it?
The secret as always is:
A good central idea
Character’s you can get behind.
A villain you can hate.
A good ear for dialogue.
A good eye for story.
And bum glue, lots of bum glue.
The Rough Draft 