Wrangler Dani

…I want to know how to write like that.

We just finished watching Juno (I know, we’re so 2007,) and I chuckled through most of it, sighed and was taken up by parts of it, and sobbed my little eyeballs out for the last 10 minutes.

While it doesn’t say it in this Wiki-entry (which if you can’t trust Wikipedia, who can you trust) the way I heard the story of Diablo Cody’s inspiration for Juno was as simple as “hey, I think I want to write a screenplay”.

Pause with me and take that in.

What. The. Crap.

How do you just sit down one day and create a story so compelling and emotional and complete – centered around a rather simple storyline?  I am boggled by my own emotion.  How did seeing this ragged girl fluctuate from lust to indifference to love make me long to be friends with her – and to call my own friends and hug my husband and write a blogpost on amazing writing.

In the few minutes of reflection I’ve had, before jumping on my laptop to collect my thoughts and spew them heedlessly into the World Wide Void, I’ve decided it’s all in the details. It’s in the “This ain’t no Etch-A-Sketch” line, the orange tic-tacs, and a dad who’s protective and passionate about heating and air.  It’s about the broken people who try to be loving but are often not, and say things they don’t mean, or the ones who are not loving and don’t care, and say things so hurtful that they knock the wind out of you, even as a dispassionate observer, evoking memories of your own hurts and joys.

I want to make this kind of magic happen. I believe in the power of story to change lives and paradigms, to heal wounds and shake up worlds and remind us of what matters.  I’m inspired and awoken and challenged and teary-eyed.  All thanks to an imaginary teenage girl with a funny name and an unlikely take on an average story.