I Have to Fall in Love First

Then the rest of the story comes.

I just sent off a completed script on my next story for A Gulf Coast Journal, a program on Tampa's PBS affiliate. This one is about the semi-pro football team called the Sarasota Millionaires.

(Previously written about Here and again later here.)

What a relief to get that load off my shoulders.

The load lightened considerably once I got the opening sequence figured out. That's when the affair starts. I don't need to like the topic or the subjects to love the story. I just have to figure out how it's going to start and where it's going to go from there. Then I'm hooked. After that the story sometimes comes in bits and pieces that I have to fit together and sometimes rearrange later but it always comes.

Often I have to do my best writing to cover holes in my interviewing. The story will lead me to a logical point where I can't go because I failed to ask someone about it. It's sometimes a good idea to try to write a story before doing the interviews. If the final script is provides answers, trying to write it will show me the questions.

The danger with this "writing on spec," when I'm able to do it, is becoming too enamored with what I've written. Sometimes the facts get in the way of my well-turned phrases and I have to force myself to dump them.

That wasn't a problem with the previous story about dulcimer players. I didn't know enough about the subject to even guess at how the story would go. That one aired last month and the station has put it online. It's the second story, about 8-and-a-half minutes into the show.