As 2016 is winding down, I thought I’d do a best-of list, but it won’t be a “best books released in 2016,” since there are too many I have yet to read. Instead, I’ll do a list of the best books I read in 2016, regardless of when it was originally published.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
We’ve completed the original trilogy of social anxiety in Star Wars, but now it’s time to start from the beginning. A time when the Jedi ruled the galaxy… Until there was a disturbance in the Force, and the Dark Side began to rise. Continue reading
Here’s a short comic I created on Pixton.com…
I used to feel bad about being alone. I felt like there was something wrong with me. That I should be hanging out with friends like everyone else. But when I was with people I felt just as bad because I was so uncomfortable. There was no way for me to win. Continue reading
Little Miss Sunshine is about a family who goes on a road trip across the country to bring seven-year-old Olive to compete in a beauty pageant. Included in the group are two characters, Frank and Dwayne, who show signs of social anxiety, though in different ways and for different reasons. Continue reading
Like just about everyone else on the internet, I LOVED the new Netflix series, Stranger Things. It reminded me of some of my favorite movies from the 1980s like The Goonies, Stand By Me, E.T., Alien, Close Encounters of The Third Kind, and more. The show was also heavily influenced by the books of Stephen King. Beyond that, there was another, more recent book that Stranger Things reminded me of: my own. Continue reading
Predestination may be the most mind-bending time travel movie I’ve ever seen…and I’ve seen them all. It’s not the best time travel movie. I still prefer Primer, Looper, and of course Back to the Future. But Predestination is the ultimate exploration of the paradoxes involved in time travel. Continue reading
I recently listened to an episode of the Broken Projector podcast that featured an interview with a Hollywood literary manager. He talked about what he looks for in a prospective screenwriter client and gave some good advice, chief of which is to “write a great script,” but I was a bit disheartened by something else he said. Continue reading
A common question that writers are asked is, “Where do you get your ideas?” Most writers seem to hate the question because they have no clear answer. I can understand that. Sometimes an idea just comes to me, and I’m not quite sure where it came from. But other times, I can trace the source of the idea. I’ll see a great movie or read a great book and get inspired to write something as good. Or I’ll see a bad movie or read a poor book and get inspired to write something better. Or I’ll take one small nugget from a fictional story, or from real life, and expand upon it. But there’s more to it than that. Thinking of ideas requires…well…thinking. Literally devoting time to daydreaming and brainstorming ideas. Continue reading
Ghost World is about two teenage hipsters, Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson), struggling to navigate the real world after their high school graduation. When Enid plays a prank by responding to a personal ad in the newspaper, she and Rebecca meet Seymour (Steve Buscemi), an older man whom they view as a pathetic socially awkward loser. Continue reading
T.Z. Barry 