S.O.B.

I didn't really give you the whole idea I was working on, just got carried away with Lost. Lost, the series doesn't really have anything similar to my idea. S.O.B. So why did I watch Lost?

First of all, the full title of my pilot is: S.O.B. - South Of The Boulevard.

And you thought it meant something else.

The term South of the boulevard comes from real estate people who sell properties in Sherman Oaks and Studio City, both are now very expensive. But the salespeople often say it's better south of the boulevard.

This refers to Ventura Boulevard (remembered in Tom Petty's song, Free Falling "All the vampires walking through the valley move west down Ventura Boulevard."

I always wanted to use that term in a story but didn't have anything I liked, except for a small private Investigator office in an alley, now gone. I had a clip the office used to advertise in the LA Times every Friday I think.

Then I reconnected with my ex-wife, Brenda after 26 years, we never really disliked each other and I just lost track of where she was. That happened when her niece found me on FB. Since then my ex and and I email and I visited her twice, all very good.

Then my writer's mind took over.

I had lived with another woman,Carole, and we split up also. And we kept in touch and still do.

Then I wondered what would happen if both women met? Would it be friendly, or quiet or a dozen different things neither of us would even think of.

Then I upped the relationship with some imagination. From here, it's all made up.

What if the husband divorced his first wife, both of them in their 50's. And he remarried a mellennial aged 22. 

Now we have conflict. Right?

But what happens when the husband dies in a hit and run accident?

And then both women are called to read his will. Naturally they don't like each other and the age thing doesn't help. 

But they learn that the husband left his private detective office to them. Would they want it?

What if he had some wacky kind of insurance policy?

The kind that offers $1 million to the two women if they stay with the office for a full year?

There. That's how I created the story,  it all began with that little notice in the LA Times and reconnecting with my first ex. Only took me 20 years. Well, only the P.I. ad. The plot and story took me about 4 months. 

What about Lost?

I watched the episodes, but was more interested in how the writers kept moving it forward although it felt a little desperate. What I got out of it, was how to move a story forward, not that I didn't know it already, but a refresher was due.

And living "off Ventura" gives me all the information I can get, it's all around me.

Now all I have to do is sell it. That might take 20 years.
Or not.