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I wrote nothing else about the vacation because it wasn’t that kind of diary...
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Kevin also mentions he read “Like Magic.” It’s more or less an Abbott & Costello movie with wizards and magic. Basically he liked it. Some problems: feel the lead characters relationship isn’t as clearly defined (for him). I write: “Can be fixed with Benny making an entrance” (I have no idea what that means). Doesn’t like the name Chaz (can be fixed with search & replace). Doesn’t like the ending (well, now he’s a jerk). Too much like “Ghostbusters,” he says. Apparently I’m the only one who can’t rip off other movies. They can feed me the plot of “Santa Claus: The Movie” but I can’t (unconsciously) borrow from “Ghostbusters?” And besides, it’s nothing at all like “Ghostbusters.”
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Four days later. Just having begun the rewrite, Kevin calls. Kimberly has the notes. He says it didn’t sound promising. During a follow-up call, it turns out Kimberly has problems with the Anti-Claus stuff. (Apparently some kind of throw-away thing I had in the outline. She got hung up on it). Wants the lumberjack camp back. Needs it as a “red herring.” The camp is next to the North Pole, which, of course, is known for its forests. The lumberjacks covet Santa’s Christmas Tree farm (what???). Make sure there’s a Tweedle/Trinket payoff (okay, I had forgotten about the elven couple in the outline). Something about Trinket being Santa’s secretary. Fibber the elf is a cliché. Trinket knows about Shifty the elf. She’s bothered by the stolen sleigh thing. This is all stuff lost to my memory now. But I write: “I’d go off and write my own script but frankly I’m afraid to. These people are nuts.”
It never did get easier.