Fiction: Shifting Stars

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Owen Ludlow began, “if you’ve seen this morning’s news, you know the grave problem we face.”

Around the table, heads nodded wearily. A few people looked grimly at the poster for Carpenter Shop Studios’ forthcoming motion picture release, The Tempter’s Snare. It featured a likeness of Jillee, the hottest young star the Christian movie studio had; she was 22 but looked like she was going on seventeen. On one shoulder was a smaller likeness of her as an angel, and on the other shoulder a small image of her as a devil. The art department hadn’t gone out of its way to do anything other than get as many pictures of Jillee as it could on one poster.

But then, that was all that was needed to sell one of her movies.

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Pen to Paper: Really Listening to ‘High Fidelity’

I’m not a big fan of the cinema, but occasionally I’ll latch onto a movie and not turn it loose until I’ve wrung it dry of its secrets. I have to know why I like it so much; I want to know what makes it tick.

One such movie is High Fidelity, directed by Stephen Frears from Nick Hornby’s wonderful book and  starring John Cusack in a world-class performance.  I’ve studied that movie and learned some valuable things about plotting.  One of the keys to this story is the use of surprise. This is where I learned how crucial surprise can be in fiction.

Hideous, terrible spoilers begin here for those who haven’t viewed the movie. Do as you like, but you’ve been warned.

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