Reminiscing
about these shows and when I started watching them, it reminded me that I had
been hoping to write some sample episodes and apply as a writer.
The problem
was that I was more interested in writing for "Grimm" than any other
show, and the strongest ideas I had were for Grimm episodes. That makes total
sense, but wasn't practical. The prevailing wisdom is that you need to send
scripts for other shows.
In the end
it didn't matter. When that was going on I was in the middle of the comic book,
which kept me busy through October, when I started writing Family Blood
(the screenplay, not the book).
That's been
okay. I'm still more interested in writing movies than series, and I feel good
about publishing the books. I really hadn't seen that happening three years
ago. However, I have been thinking about creativity a lot lately, and there is
something kind of interesting about the episodes I had in mind.
One was
going to be centered around something that looked like a vampire attack. The
initial suspicion would fall upon a bat-like Wesen, but it would really be a
lamprey. For the other idea, there would be a Grimm who wasn't aware of his
background so thought he was seeing demons and attacking them. Nick would come
to the aid of one very meek Wesen who was terrified of him, but then by the end
of the episode the victim would tell Nick he was a good man, and it would be a
moment.
Shortly
after I thought of that, we got a bat-like Wesen, the Murciélago.
Halfway into the next season, the lamprey-like Lebensauger appeared. No one got
exsanguinated that time, because Ryan was not comfortable with his abilities,
but that happened later, toward the end of season 3. At that time, we were
getting to know Trubel, a new Grimm who had not been raised with any
information about her heritage, and yes, it had led to some
institutionalization and crime.
Also, Nick has helped plenty of crime victims who have been freaked out
by him by now.
This is in no way to suggest copying was going on. I never wrote
anything on those episodes - I only thought of them. It's like when I was in
high school I had this idea of dinosaurs being loose in the modern world,
because some unhatched eggs were revived. Then, when Crichton's method was DNA
in the blood of mosquitoes trapped in amber, that seemed so brilliant - way
better than my idea. And maybe the point is just to get the dinosaurs there,
but that idea was electrifying. (And the movie was pretty exciting.)
In addition to remembering that, I am able to see it in a different
light after reading Cal Newport's So Good They Can't Ignore You, which
led me to Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
by Steven Johnson.
What they have talked about was "the adjacent possible". There
is the field of existing knowledge, and then all around that is next steps -
things that we have enough information to figure out, but haven't figured out
yet. One metaphor that was used is that for every door you open, there are more
doors beyond that.
Those books were focusing more on inventions and technology, but stories
work like that too. Once you have Wesen as a thing, then you can look at all of
the different types of animals out there and imagine new ones. Once you have
Grimms you can have different levels of adjustment to it.
The Murciélago story had a lot of heart in it. I like what they did with
it. Having one Grimm go nuts and be hauled away to an insane asylum can be one
story, but it can be a better story to have a protégée for Nick, plus then
there's someone to keep Josh alive. Some plot twists eliminate some
possibilities, but they keep opening up more.
That's just been something that's been fun to remember. Every now and
then someone will say that there are really only three stories, or seven, or
thirty-six. Even if you agree that's true on one level, that doesn't begin to
describe the rich variety that can entail.
Creativity is a beautiful thing.
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