Marilyn Horowitz

Screenwriting Classes, Coaching, and Resources

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Webinar/ JOS/ What are we willing to “die” for?

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Happy Friday!

After a peaceful two month stay in Fire Island, Hurricane Isaias threatened Fire Island. We were cautioned to batten down our houses, evacuate, and generally frightened out of our wits. I blame this high level of panic to the general state of the world that’s been created by the pandemic.

There was a bad storm here a year ago, and the same precautions were taken, but the atmosphere was one of “We’ve got this,” not hysteria.

I love storms, but they even had me scared, but I decided to stay and tough it out.

Monday afternoon, fierce winds blew and it rained in sheets. I put on rain gear and walked the block to the ocean. When I got to the steps of the ladder leading down to the beach, a great gust of wind almost blew me down the stairs.  No way to get the phone out to take photos. The water roiled and threw huge white-capped waves on the shore.  I watched as the waves crashed up across the sand almost up to the steps where I stood. The winds were howling, it was pouring – and fun! When I got blown off the stairs onto the sand, it was time to go and get back to writing.

When I went home and back to work, the walls of my office shook from the force of the wind. I dozed off, and but was awakened by the sun blasting in through the windows. It was as if there had never been a storm.
The pandemic has got us afraid of the world around us. We’re scared of molecules in the air, we’re scared of other people, scared for our livelihood and our ability to educate our children. These are all symptoms of the same fear: the fear of death. As long as we have that fear and don’t recognize it for what it is, we can be manipulated into all kinds of things, and let others decide how we’re going to live our lives. This pandemic is less subtle than the various levels of financial debt most of us are in to a greater or lesser degree, but debt is equally terrifying, and we make life decisions based on the consequences. We can’t get rid of the pandemic until it fades away like SARS, and/or we get a vaccine, but we can decide how much of the stuff we’re paying for with our time and blood is really worth it. I have friends who see this time as an opportunity to opt out of debt slavery, and are changing their lives to be free. I also know first responders to whom helping others is more important than their own safety. The point is that as storytellers, our job is to find the metaphors for life experience and share them to reveal larger truths to ourselves and our readers through our stories. The choice of what matters to us has been brought into question, and let’s write stories to help illuminate the pathways that are opening for all of us.

In The 4 Magic Questions of Screenwriting, in Act 2, part 2, the goal is to get our characters in an impossible position where they must make a noble choice and risk death to achieve their goals. Even Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz takes the risk of being killed by the Wicked Witch of the West to save her friends.  Question three in the 4MQS is: “Who or what would my main character “die” for?” The word, “die” is in quotes because it denotes change, not necessarily a literal death.

We’re reaching a “tipping point” in our own lives, and have to ask ourselves hard questions. Is it worth remaining isolated for so many months, if a new statistic shows that the amount of suicides has increased to epidemic proportions? Is the cure worse than the disease?  Do we have clear facts about how lethal the virus is? Is it the same strain in each situation? Do masks really work? Whatever the truth is, we’re being terrified the way I was about the hurricane. We are being tacitly instructed that if we get COVID 19 is its certain death. I had COVID 19 back in January, and it was like a bad flu. As a side note, being sick made me wonder why we don’t take these precautions like hand washing and sanitizing every winter!
There is no denying that this pandemic is a scourge on the whole planet, but the point of life is to live it, not to live in fear of dying from it, and to express our personal freedom. In my upcoming webinar on the 12th, we’ll be talking about writing stories about the pandemic and I hope you’ll join me in this interesting exploration of what really matters in life.
I’m also so excited to share Episode #32 of Jokeonastick.com. Please subscribe and follow us on Instagram.
Here’s to your successful writing,

Professor Marilyn Horowitz