While avoiding other work, I was looking for something to read. I came across this.

Full disclosure: I was one of the 30-odd people who got coverage from Emily this year. I`d never met her, but the coverage for a good cause idea was something I wanted to get behind. (She did it for puppies, people! Puppies!)

Her coverage was incredible. The absolute best that I got from anywhere, and I paid A TON of monies to A TON of people for coverage (I`m assuming most people did not help puppies with my monies. Just guessing). I agreed with pretty much everything she said. I wrung a great rewrite out of her notes that got the script in question into the hands of some interested producer-folk. I hope I thanked her profusely enough (…but I doubt that I did. I feel like I should at least add her to my xmas card list. Or send her cookies. Or something.)

Her post is a couple of months old now, but I found myself thinking back and wondering if I (because the world revolves around me, obviously) was one of the people who did the thing with the characters that she referenced that a LOT of writers did. I definitely didn`t do it consciously, but I really wanted to write a very male script with that story- very much a one-hander. Though the female characters are important to the plot (and not bimbos in any sense), the lead male was the most important thing in the universe to me as I wrote it. And maybe that comes through in the work. Maybe I was sloppy and am now making excuses for myself. I dunno.

I haven`t looked at that script in a while, with my head buried in other things, but I hope I didn`t do the thing that I`m always railing on people not to do. But maybe I did. Maybe this whole blog is just a really long apology…

But the one thing I really wanted to say that stood out about Emily`s notes was that she was one of the few people who didn`t question the veracity of the female supporting characters in the narrative. I got a lot of notes questioning why these women were so alpha or a-type or strong or, maybe, even one reader might have used the word bitch or bitchy… I don`t recall specifically (I got A LOT of coverage on that script, no joke). But there was a lot of whys in my head about that question reoccurring.

I just kept thinking well, why can`t women fight for their families without being called names or branded with labels? When a family member is threatened, do all women just need to just cry and go to bed? (Yes, movie that shall remain nameless, I`m looking with disappointment at you.)

But Emily had none of that. She totally got it. And I`ll forever be grateful. In short, Emily Blake rocks. You can read more of her blog-a-liciousness at bambookillers.com.