Your Own Montage, Your Own Swine Pandemic. How Will You Escape, What Catalyst Will Set It?

Happy Monday, and Happy Last Week Of April...

Today we're going to focus once again on Character w/r/t narrative, but tie-in, seamlessly a common thread, an omnipresent plot-point: The Turn Upwards.  We could also label this: Dude gets his/her shit together.  If we, to be gloriously ahead of the curve, were to make a film over something as inglorious as the Swine Flu -- The Turn Upwards could be, hypothetically, the time, say 70% through the story, where our Protagonist team of Scientists bands together, flexing their cortical might to once and for all banish this vile villainous virus to bacteria heaven.  But, the proper or better example is in Character-Driven stories where the hero figures it out and works towards the Synthesis of what's missing in his/her life.  Hence: The Montage.  Oh the feeling of Hey! the worst is over and now it's time to kick this Conflict's Ass and realize my potential! is always a joy for the viewer, for the reader, because we ALL in some facet are trekking through the maelstrom of some romantic goal, digging ourselves out of a hole, turning our lurid surroundings into gold.  Even if we aren't there yet, a tiny sect in our consciousness is satiated watching another character, fictional or otherwise, fight the Good Fight.

But, getting all meta-fictional on you, these individualized Mecca's, these compartmentalized Sojourns beg some interesting questions themselves:  At what point do we grow up?  What moves us to buckle down and embrace self-actualization?  Does nepotism or an overtly-coddling family mar, or invigorate one's ability to find such self-success? 

And perhaps the most vexing: When does my Own Little Montage commence?

Why do so many turn the Key only to hear the frightening chortle of the Engine Stall?  Is this happening to you, at this very moment?  Or, unsheathing your sword have you bested this process, felled your psychic enemy to experience the Promise of Your Premise?  While chatting with a friend late last night I was lamenting (in hilarious self-deprecatory fashion) my abjectly abysmal Time Management -- which of course permeates me work, keeps me from things, from Apartment Hunting to other, far greater Screenplays/Projects/Opportunities -- and ultimately this boils down to you.  Because, with my own effete Key igniting my Engine I'm unable to reach out to you, to share the Entertainment/Affirmation I've to offer.  Nobody wins in this situation.  And if you think I'm being self-lauding, patting my future accomplishments on the ole back: this shit Weighs on me.  Which brings to my question: is it really Time Management?  Or, is it something darker, more subversive.  Do we, subconsciously, seek the Damage Energy to light our creative fires?  I can't do this anymore.  I'm refuting all that stands in my way.  Now what?  

Where do you measure success?  Am I making you uncomfortable?

xoxox

-m