Just like a Reese's Cup

I hate the title of my current script. Jacking? Really, Emily? That sounds lame as hell.

So the other day I was driving home and thinking about how much I hate my title and how I wish I could come up with a cooler title. And then I thought about how I had this great title that I liked a lot - Fear of Clowns - and how I wished I could have used it but the story I had to go with it didn't work and got scrapped.

And then it was like that whole thing with the chocolate and peanut butter as my brain ran into itself and went HAY! That could be the title of THIS story!

Because one of the things my kids like to draw is clowns. I sit in class while they draw these terrifying little pictures and pretend I'm not scared shitless. I usually nag them about paying attention as a cover for my fear so they'll put the drawing away, but clowns are one of the most common things they draw. I think it's a gang thing or something. So since my story is about my kids and gangs and white ladies it was really easy to stick in a scene where the white lady talks about how clowns scare her.

And you know why clowns scare me and her and a lot of other people? Because you can't see their true faces. The fake smile covers the true face of the person who wears it, so it fucks up your perception and you can't tell what you're truly looking at. And those of us with coulrophobia get freaked out by that feeling.

The idea of a man whose true face is hidden behind a false smile is a perfect theme to add into a story about a kid who's trying to avoid gang life. The people who try to steer him toward a life of crime pretend to be his friends, hiding their true faces from him until it's too late.

Besides, Fear of Clowns has always sounded like either a scary horror movie or a deep emotional drama. This script just happens to be a deep emotional drama. With guns.