A Friend of the Family, Smile, Writing a Western | KT Blog

A Friend of the Family gives us a new true-crime bingeable limited series, and it sounds like a strange one. I’ve just watched Smile (finally) and yes, I’m aware, almost everyone else has already seen it. And I’m embracing my love of the western and taking a brief break from writing my horror novel. We’ve had a fight. It doesn’t like the direction I’m taking it, and quite honestly we’re just not on speaking terms right now.

A Friend of the Family

A new limited true crime series from Nick Antosca about a seemingly normal man who integrated his way into the lives of another family and consequently abducted their daughter, twice. I think this will be my next series watch. You’ve got Anna Paquin (who you may remember from True Blood) playing the mother, Mary Ann Broberg. Colin Hanks as Bob Broberg. And several actresses playing their daughter Jan at different ages. Jake Lacy (who you may recognise from The White Lotus) playing Robert Berchtold, the kidnapper. This series is said to have several peculiarities that will have you pulling that face you do and saying wtf! At the moment, I believe we can watch it in the UK on NowTV’s entertainment package and probably if you have Sky too.

Smile -Once You See It, It’s Too Late

Given all the marketing for this movie, it wasn’t anything like what I was expecting, but it had a manic feel, sometimes slow moving and quiet and then spliced with chaotic scenes. I feel the need to watch it again to make sense of it, to see what I missed because I’m sure I missed things. It popped up on my NowTV Entertainment and I thought, finally!

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Starring Sosie Bacon (Mare of Easttown, 13 Reasons Why), Jessie Usher (The Boys, Dangerous Lies), Kyle Gallner (Scream, Interrogation), Robin Weigert -the creepiest of smiles! (Deadwood, American Horror Story), Kal Penn (House, Clarice), and Caitlin Stasey (Fantasy Island, I, Frankenstein).

After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, a psychiatrist becomes increasingly convinced she is being threatened by an uncanny entity.

–Smile, IMDb–

Writing a Western

Let’s talk about writing a western. I know I was talking about a neo-western horror script that had a plot generated by AI. But I faltered as soon as I realised the SoCreate beta thing had an end date before you would have to pay, so I sort of stalled. Yes, there are other options and I’ll definitely consider those, but here’s what my problem really is, I have only ever written one western the whole way through. When I was about 14. And any western I’ve tried to write since hasn’t felt good enough. Gritty enough. I love westerns; I grew up reading westerns by preference. Hunting them down in charity shops, I’d bring them home and sprawl on my bed or a blanket in the garden and read all weekend. And I did not know who the authors were or which westerns were based on true stories and which were pulp fiction -written fast with very little editing. I consumed them.

Obviously, westerns weren’t the only thing I read. And when I wasn’t reading, I was watching movies. I love stories. And it’s not like I haven’t written a book (or a script) or two before, but why do I find writing westerns so difficult? First thing I did when I left school was go work with horses -so I know horses. The creak of the saddle leather, the ache in your legs after a particularly difficult ride, the smell of Brasso and horse sweat, soaked hay, and the soft gentle whicker of your favourite horse. I know I’ll always pick jeans with the seam on the outside if I can, and cowboy boots that are barn yard acid resistant. Do I want it too bad? Am I thinking about it too hard?

So here’s the stuff I’ve found to help me write a western:

Key Requirements

  • Unforgiving landscapes
  • A hero
  • A cowboy hat -to signify a person’s readiness to do what needs to be done
  • The Bad Guy(s)
  • A Gunfight -can be metaphorical

Obligatory Scenes

  • An inciting attack by the bad guy
  • High levels of respect between the hero and the bad guy -the hero understands the bad guy’s desire
  • Hero side-steps responsibility to act
  • Hero lashes out when forced out of their status-quo
  • First strategy to outmaneuver the bad guy
  • All is lost (always in every story)
  • The hero’s gift revealed whilst at the mercy of the bad guy
  • A sacrifice is rewarded

So, we need life and death stakes, a hostile environment. We need a hero, a bad guy who is significantly more powerful than the hero and the victim, and a victim. The hero must operate in the grey areas of the law (or ignore it altogether). There should be some sort of countdown to limit the time the hero has to save the day, and the bad guy needs to make the conflict personal to the hero. Oh, and ignore the annoying part of my brain that wants to tone everything down in case someone I know reads it.

And yes, for a while, I’m putting Long Undead aside. I keep getting stuck, which is frustrating as I’ve written loads. Come at it from all different angles and changed points of view. I’ve been working on it for so long and not publishing anything new, which is fine, but I think I need to give it a little room to breathe whilst I attempt another impossible task.

So, I want to write a western -it might be a horror western, it’ll definitely be a neo-western, and it might get finished. But I don’t have a plot, I might be pantsing it a bit, and I don’t have a huge amount of time to write (I have a new side-hustle day job).

Let me know what your favourite neo-westerns are, or modern westerns are -I probably need to see what I’m up against (although, to be honest, I’m mostly writing it for myself).