🫵 #179 - Credit & Blame
They don't deserve it, but they're taking it anyway.
Normally actions have consequences for the people responsible, but what happens when a character steps up to steal the credit, or bear the blame?
Lucas Hilderbrand explores The Good Place, a show built on the initial premise of self-proclaimed Arizona trashbag Eleanor Shellstrop ending up in Heaven under false pretenses, but keeping up the lie so she can learn to be a better person and avoid being ejected into Hell.
Alex Welch sings the praises of Galaxy Quest, a film where a group of actors are confused by real aliens for being the brave starship crew they portrayed on television. Though the “Captain” initially plays this off as a fun bit of validation, every one of the actors puts in the work to live up to their fictional counterpart and save the day.
Matt Hanson looks at the moral ambiguity of the choices in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, where a man publicly takes credit for a killing he wasn’t responsible for in order to fulfill his political ambitions.
These moments aren’t always the main focus of the plot, but sometimes help fill in the details of a character’s personality. In The Squid and the Whale, Walt performs a song by Pink Floyd, claiming it as an original, and not everyone is fooled:
Emily St. James investigates the rumor that The Simpsons episode “Flaming Moe’s” is a thinly-veiled jab about one of the original creators of the series not getting the credit he deserved.
Brian Silliman gives an overview of the Star Trek: TNG narrative thread about Worf’s Discommendation and why it’s important. In a move to avert a civil war on the Klingon homeworld, Worf takes the blame for an act of treason and allows himself to be exiled. It’s a choice that reverberated with the rest of the character’s stories throughout the rest of the series (and into Star Trek: Deep Space Nine).
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⏱️ Take Credit for your Write Sprint!
Each week we post a comment thread for writers to meet up, cheer each other on, and put some words on the page with a Write Sprint.
What’s a Write Sprint?
John wrote up an explanation, but here’s the short version: Set a timer for 60 minutes, close down all distractions, and do nothing but write until that timer goes off.
Sometimes that’s all it takes to get some momentum going with your writing: You set aside this time for writing and nothing else, so you’d better use it!
Shout out to Ian Heath, Elyse Moretti Forbes, and Chitra Soundar for sprinting with us last week!
🎴 In case of present emergencies
Just in time for the holidays, the Writer Emergency Pack is on sale!
Both the original deck and the new XL deck make great gifts for your favorite writer. Either one can fit conveniently in a stocking, or hidden in the center of the bottom ring of your kransekake.
Find out more about the Writer Emergency Packs and how they can help stories get unstuck!
Previously on Inneresting…
In case you missed it, in last issue’s most clicked link James Melton explains techniques for improving as a jazz soloist which can apply to writing dialogue and managing traffic within scenes. It’s all about phrasing and leaving space for the other elements.
What else is inneresting?
The Truth Was Out There - H/T to Jessica Quiroga for sending in the wholesome story of how the internet tracked down an un-Shazam-able song from an episode of The X-Files.
Why not blog again? - Neil Gaiman speaks on Icelandic television about the virtues of blogging for building community.
When do you ask for help? - Dan Cullum suggests setting a stuck threshold for when you will admit you cannot solve a problem without help or advice.
And that’s what’s inneresting this week!
Inneresting is edited by Chris Csont, with contributions from readers like you and the entire Quote-Unquote team.
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