Peaches in a can

I've always been more of a get-to-know-you writer with my short fiction. I don't spend too much time on a character's back story or what they like for breakfast, I like to throw them into an uncomfortable situation and see how they fight their way out of it. Most of my stories are humor-based, even if it is technically horror, so my characters all have smart mouths or are angling for the best way to phrase a joke. But now I'm faced with new challenges in 2015: a screenplay adaptation of a very famous novel and pitching a children's television series based on one of my books that didn't sell (but will be fantastic for this medium), and I'm in a pickle. There's a story I have to write first because one silly woman won't get out of my head. 

Meet Peach. She was a contestant years ago on the Amazing Race, and she's scared. Of everything. I don't think I've ever seen a woman so out of her element, so vocal in her limited abilities to see the world unfolding around her and shy away from it, and who made me a little proud of her to get as far as she did before she and her sister came in last and were sent home. What is it like to be so afraid? Being scared isn't in my nature. I'm cautious, sure. I'm careful for my children and don't do stupid things -- but my motto has always been "how many times can you do this in your life?" and then I forge ahead. Peach represents something I'm not familiar with: a woman who admits she has limits. By the time they were sent home, she had been scared on a bus, a plane, multiple countries, food, and then scared us by buying an uuuugly tank top during a shopping trip. Now the question is, how am I going to scare Peach? 

I'm sure I'll think of something.  ;)

Wish me luck with the screenplays!

1 comment:

  1. This woman seriously goes through life with the name Peach?

    Did it never occur to her that name changing is a very simple legal thing?

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