“I’VE GOT A BIG IDEA!”
An article by John Noel Hampton, author of
I have two terriers, a Scottie and a Westie, which I confess I hold occasional conversations with when no one else is around, unless I forget that there is someone else around. It can happen. These two boys are full of big ideas on a regular basis which usually have to do with walks or cookies or forcing me to go to bed when we’re up past what they believe is my bedtime. And now when I say, “Have you got a big idea?” They race to the door, wagging tails, ready to walk. Being terriers, you can imagine the noise level.
When it comes to writing a novel or screenplay, they say y
ou should really have a “big idea” before you begin, but it seldom happens that way with me. That’s why I’m always jealous of my dogs… always a “Big Idea.” So, bear with me as I explain just how I came to write The Wrong Bus.
I was doing a consulting job for a bank in downtown Los Angeles, tedious work but I do have bills to pay, and I know banking or knew it before all the recent changes. One late afternoon, I was travelling home along Wilshire Boulevard in hideous traffic, doing a stop-and-go dance alongside a large rapid transit bus, albeit not so rapid. As we seesawed along, I noticed a rather grand looking elderly woman sitting on the bus with her head bobbing slowly as she fought off a much needed nap. She raised her right hand to the side of her head and rested both against the window in an effort to find a comfortable position to doze off. The gleam of a large diamond ring on her hand suddenly flashed at me.
We travelled along Wilshire in much the same fashion for a good twenty minutes with the mystery woman continuing to sleep and my car and I continuing to stalk the bus. The bus made a usual stop to let off passengers and then turned South on Normandie Avenue leaving me to continue my travels home. Noting unusual, nothing that a normal person would think twice about. However and you may have guessed it, I cannot claim to have a normal mind. Too many murder mysteries perhaps, but I always wonder, “What if?”
Now, “What If” is a writer’s best friend, at least this writer’s best friend. And so, I sized up the situation. We have an elderly woman who looks very out of place on a public bus, wearing a very expensive piece to jewelry which is a big no-no in a troubled city. She’s fallen asleep and is now headed South on Normandie. Now for those of you who may not recall it, during the famous riots in South Central L.A in 1992. when everything was burned and looted, it all began on the corner of Florence and Normandie.
So, I started wondering what if she really lived further along Wilshire in the wealthy neighborhood of Hancock Park and meant to transfer at the last stop on Wilshire to the correct bus and continue her trip home. And, what if she didn’t wake up until several miles later and find herself on the corner of Florence and Normandie as the night set in. Talk about a fish out of water. I pictured here with two large shopping bags full of Christmas presents sitting on a bus bench waiting for another bus to take her back to Wilshire Boulevard.
Voila! Oh, I know what you’re thinking. This is
not a “Big Idea” you idiot and you’d be right. What we have here is a premise or a setup, and “Where’s the beef?”
In screenwriting which I also do, we call this getting your protagonist up a tree. And you’d follow that with throwing rocks at him or her. And then, you’d figure out how to get the protagonist down from the tree safely. But if I told you all of that, you’d have no need to read the book. Would you? So, here we have our protagonist in not so nice neighborhood as the sun sets, a “Smallish Idea” that will grow much, much bigger.
I know that my dogs have bigger ideas than I have, but I do pay for the cookies.
A PITCH FOR THE BOOK HERE!
The Wrong Bus, an Urban Christmas Story is not your normal “Hallmark Card” kind of tale. It involves an elderly white woman who refuses to believe that her Missing In Action son from the Vietnam War era will not be coming home despite the 40 years that have passed and her chance encounter with a young African-American college student who comes to her rescue when she is violently attacked and robbed while doing her Christmas shopping a few weeks before the big day. It’s a story about relationships, acceptance, trust, understanding, taking chances, pride and moving on set in a big city. And it’s about polar opposites learning from each other.
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