This morning I woke up and realized I am the character Philip in my latest screenplay. He's the manifestation of my deepest fear of not being good enough. The entire story Philip struggles to prove his worth to his father, his family, his peers, and most importantly to himself. I've been struggling with re-writing Storybook, unable to grasp the story, and I think what's been happening is I've been avoiding going along for the ride with Philip. The story scares me because it mirrors my own internal world too closely. Philip's my tour guide through my personal hell, and that hell's not going away until I walk through it arm-in-arm with Philip and finish this story together.

It may seem odd to talk about a character from a book as if they're real, but that's how my characters are. They don't just exist inside my head, but they seem to take up residence, make themselves at home, develop their own dreams, comment on my life, and generally become a pleasant nuisance. Does that mean my head's constantly teeming with chatter from various characters? Usually. The more closely I've been working on their story the more vocal they become, and I find their presence comforting. And if you're wondering, yes, I often have two-way conversations with them. If I'm going to have illusory squatters dwelling on my cerebellum I should make their acquaintance.

Today I'll be pitching a new, high-concept story toying around with the concept of 'God'. Having been raised in a church with a literal interpretation of the bible, I developed a rather active imagination. Whenever you see or read things that make you wonder, "Who comes up with this stuff?" It's probably a poor, recovering evangelical who, at the age of 5, was trying to paint a mental picture of talking serpents, men parting oceans in half, and a celestial war involving winged creatures with human heads and scorpion stingers. That will make anyone's head spin.