Just Write #1

Ever since I started blogging again, I've been looking for a way to incorporate my writing hobby on my blog. Finally, I've figured out a way to do it. I've started a feature called Just Write, in which I share some of my writing/writing ideas. I'd love feedback, and it would be super cool if y'all wanted to share some of your writing/ideas with me! You can either do your own Just Write post and link it up in the comments, or you can put it right there in the comments. I'm super excited about this, so don't be shy when it comes to interacting. I want to hear anything you have to say!

As some of you may know from some of my previous posts, I am currently taking a Screenwriting class in college. I think it's really cool, and I'm really loving learning how to write a movie. One of our first assignments was to write a pitch for the movie and read it to the class (let me tell you, that part was terrifying). I figured I'd share my pitch with you all and see what you think of the story!

Run and Go

One of the most basic human instincts is fight or flight, and the heroine of this contemporary drama, 17-year-old Riley Quinn, has a history of choosing flight. In ninth grade, when her father re-married and her boyfriend became her step-brother, she changed her name and booked a flight from Faber, her small Arkansas hometown, to L.A to live with her famous lawyer mother. She didn't offer an explanation or a good bye to her father and lifelong friends.


Now, three years later, her mother finds Riley and her new (and newly-orphaned) best friend Lexie hiding out in a motel in Rhode Island. To Riley, the punishment they receive feels more like torture—Riley and Lexie have to move back to Faber and live with Riley's dad and his new family.


Of course, her first reaction upon their arrival is to flee once again. However, Riley discovers her father's health is declining and realizes she cannot leave again. She realizes she must stay and fight. Nobody in Faber lets her off easy, though. Riley's father is hurt and confused. Her old friends are cold and unforgiving. Nobody is willing to overlook Riley's betrayal, and they certainly are not willing to accept Lexie, the only person Riley seems to care about anymore.


Riley's ex-best friend, Mia, has taken Riley's friends, first love, and has now taken it upon herself to make sure Riley and Lexie know they are not welcome in Faber. Riley has devoted the last three years to protecting thoughtful, fragile Lexie, but now she is is preoccupied, focusing her attention on convincing the town she is not as heartless as they think she is, stifling old feelings for the boy sleeping just down the hall, and wishing desperately to make up the time she lost with her father. Lexie feels overwhelmed and cast aside, especially as she realizes all the truths about Riley's life in Faber that she kept hidden.


Riley struggles to reconcile who she was when she lived in Faber with the life she forged for herself in L.A. She finally admits—to herself and to the rest of Faber—why she left so abruptly. Right when she believes she may be able to balance what she wanted then and what she wants now, when she believes she may be able to balance her newfound loyalty to Lexie with her old ties to Faber, the two worlds collide together and shatter Riley's life into countless shards of jagged glass, and she is left to decide which pieces she wants to pick up—Lexie's or her father's. Either way, Riley cannot run from this problem.  

Any questions, comments? I'd love to hear your thoughts or tell you more about the storyline. What do you think about this new feature? Also, I would definitely love to see some of your writing!