Hamburger Helper.

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I collect exemplary scenes from stories and film as tutorials for how to write. I examine them to learn how they 'work' so well, then apply what I learn to my writing.

From MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW circa 1975 or so: Ted Baxter is forced to ad-lib a commercial cuz the intern didnt load the commerical tape into the machine. Ted fucked it up royally, as the viewer expects he would.

Lou Grant see's the cluster fuck and explodes from his office to chastise the intern. The viewer expects Lou to go ballistic.

The intern is Murray's daughter. While Lou chews out her ass she nonchalantly pops her gum and blows bubbles. Mary Richards sits at her desk smiling but mute. The viewer expects Mary to intervene but she doesnt.

Lou advises the intern to be more like Mary, and he stomps off.

Murray then hops up and berates Mary for not intervening. Murray is a wuss, which the viewer already knows. He coulda defended his kid without Mary's help. Mary hears him out, says nothing, and blows a gum bubble ending the scene.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

In CALL FOR THE DEAD by John LeCarre, George Smiley parked his car and arrives home about the time a burglar leaves the premises. Smiley hails the man and hands him a package of laundry, with a request that he give it to George Smiley, please. The man takes the package inside, Smiley walks back to his car, and gets the tag number of the burglar's car when it passes by.

 

[estragon]

Gabriel and Gretta Conroy in the last scene of James Joyce's The Dead. If you want to write an erotic scene with an overlay of disappointment, frustration and love twice rejected, take a look at that and find something else to write about, you won't do better.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

CLASS by Paul Fussell is a detailed autopsy of American social status. The info is so thorough writers can use it for characterization and setting in their stories.

For example: The social bottom-feeders dont have driveways or flower planters, and their abode almost always has wheels and is connected to utilities by hoses and extension cords, if at all. Their clothing almost always has vulgar writing or depictions printed on it. Like: Trailer trash teeny-boppers wear tee shirts with arrows pointing to their breasts and crotch, one says A WORK IN PROGRESS, the other says GOOD TO GO.