Confession time.
When I wrote out my last blog I thought I had a great line. After the "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" mention, I would include a nod to my home state of North Carolina by adding, "Cue the skydiving Andy Griffith's."
I loved the line. A funny reference: Vegas/Skydiving Elvis, Carolina/Skydiving Andy. With five words it compared two beloved icons from separate ends of the entertainment spectrum. A wonderful juxtaposition.
Only one problem.
The skydiving Elvis's are from a different movie, "Honeymoon in Vegas". Right city, wrong movie reference.
So, unless I changed the entire beginning of the blog or somehow alluded to Nicolas Cage, that line had to go.
That's a hard writing lesson to learn. When do you fight for your beloved line and when do you step away? When do you bend over backward, change setups, or rearrange timelines, just to include that clever idea?
Sometimes the decisions are easy (like when IMDB confirms you stink at movie references) but sometimes you stare at the computer screen for an eternity with a finger hovering over the delete button.
I've had to learn to trust my instincts. Be true to the story. Avoid forcing what I think is a great idea into a bad situation. Maybe the perfect setup waits within another chapter or the next novel. Don't be afraid to copy/paste that potentially prize winning line into a document solely dedicated to discarded ideas.
Treat them like refugees from the Island of Misfit Toys in that great Christmas TV special, "Frosty the Snowman" (or was it "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"? Crap, did I do it again?)
C.L. Blanton
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