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Muse: Hello.
Writer: Mmmph.
Muse: What is on the keyboard for today?
Writer: Mmmph.
Muse: Not happy?
Writer: Not so much unhappy as blah.
Muse: Do tell.
Writer: They want a made-for-tv movie that they can sell to airlines for advertising.
Muse: Airflight can be dramatic. Come From Away. Snakes On A Plane.
Writer: That’s the problem. Nothing can go wrong with the actual flight. No forced landing. No diversion. No snakes. No murders to be solved midflight. Certainly no mention of 9/11.
Muse: So, they want happy, perky flying.
Writer: Exactly. In reality, plane flight is amazing. We are lifted thousands of feet into the air. We are propelled along at 100s of miles an hour. But the lived experience is as unexciting as possible. We want boring. No one wants to be on a dramatic airplane flight.
Muse: Can you talk about the science behind it? There’s a guy who does airplane maintenance videos. (Airplane Facts With Max. Instagram, TikTok, CNN, The PickUp (partial))
Writer: Those are a hoot. But I suspect not. They want people in the air not planes in the hangar. More advertising possibilities. Also, not everyone is happy knowing about the strings that are holding us up.
Muse: So what to people do on happy flying planes where nothing goes wrong?
Writer: They sit.
Muse: Mmmph.
Writer: You begin to see the problem. Ninety minutes of people sitting. The narrative potential is less than huge.
Muse: We can do this. You can do this.
Writer: Mmmph.
Muse: What do people do when they sit?
Writer: Read. Watch movies.
Muse: And what else?
Writer: Sleep.
Muse: Not helpful.
Writer: Eat airplane food?
Muse: I suspect that not going to help with the advertising. What else?
Writer: Talk to their seatmates.
Muse: Do you see any potential there?
Writer: Hmm. Forced proximity. Chance encounters. It has potential, but it’s still people sitting.
Muse: Two words, Sliding Doors.
Writer: So, if the Main Character sits here, X happens. If they sit there, Y happens.
Muse: Have I got something?
Writer: You might rabbit, you might.
Muse: Cute.
Writer: But seriously folks, this might could work. If it’s an airline where you chose your seats, then there could be multiple story lines. Sit here. Site there. Sit over that way. Or maybe an airline with assigned seats but a couple is separated and the MC offers to swap. In one version they sit in a new seat. In the other version they don’t, because … the airline wont let them? No, too negative for the airline. They’d love swap to but they really need an aisle seat for reasons and it leads to a discussion. Sorry, That’s okay, it’s only a few hours, How did you, etc. Or it’s a long international flight where folks can get up and wander about.
Muse: Possibilities?
Writer: Definitely possibilities. If we have them happy sitting and talking, I suspect I can slip in some non-plane screen time here and there. The result of this. The reason for that.
Muse: (silence)
Writer: So what are the plot lines? Romance is obvious, but maybe too obvious. The seatmate is flying home and … owns a restaurant that they invite the MC to come eat at. Tells them what sights to see.
Muse: (Smiles knowingly)
Writer: MC is unhappy about flying and seatmate helps them, or vice versa. Seatmate is coming from a funeral and needs a listening ear. You know this happened to me once. Anyway, would be good if I could get intersecting plotlines rather than just two parallel stories. Sliding Doors collapsed the possibility stream at the end when she met the dude from the alternate version in the elevator. Either way, having plot tension is going to help cover the fact that people are just sitting around talking. Thank you muse.
Muse: My pleasure, as always.
Writer: (types furiously)
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Virtual Brush Box 