Cod Psychology

True story:

Boy meets Girl. Boy falls in love with Girl but Girl is with someone else.

Heartbroken, Boy writes script in which a boy meets a girl and falls in love with her, but girl is with someone else.

A couple of years later, Boy and Girl get back in touch. Boy, because he is stupid, tells Girl about script. Girl reads script and, because she's smarter than Boy, realises that it is a 100 page love letter to her.

Boy and Girl now expecting third child.

The End.

That's a condensed version of how the Better Half and I got together. So, even before I've got my first Oscar, writing has changed my life in the most profound way.

Or, to put it another way, writing can get you laid, guys.

I was recounting this episode of my life to a friend. After he'd stopped retching, he said something quite interesting. "You seem to live your life vicariously through your writing."

I think he might have a point. I wrote that first proper script to create the happy ending that didn't exist in my life at that point. For all our sound and fury about "wanting to say something" or "making the world a better place", is it just about the control that writing gives us?

Just a thought. I have them from time to time.