There are two movies that had a HUGE impact, and ended up successes despite the predictions of everyone in Hollywood.
Karate Kid.
Willie Wonka.
What did they have in common?
Every man.
Every man wishes they were Daniel-San and Charlie Bucket.
Think of it.
We’ve all been bullied.
We’ve all been without. We’ve all seen how everyone else seems to have something we lacked.
Everyone wishes they had the golden ticket.
Everyone wishes someone out there would recognize they have potential, and all they need to be is trained in something they were born to excel in.
Some of you are singers (and many of you aren’t but wish you were – and some are and probably shouldn’t be!). You just wish Mr, Bigshot with the fat cigar would find you and offer to make you a star.
Or a boxer. The one guy sees you ,and offers to take you under their wing, chase a chicken around, tie one hand behind your back and make you practice. And you go out there and beat the daylights out of the world heavyweight champion.
If I could just get my song heard.
If I could just act in front of the right person.
If I could just find the golden ticket or win the lottery.
If I could have someone find me and give me a light sabre and tell me I’m a Jedi Knight and just didn’t know it…
We all identify with this. It was listening to one of the actors who was an Oompa Loompa admit he identified with Charlie that really showed me this.
In my case, I’d been nearly killed in school twice by bullies – beaten so severely that one of my ribs was broken, thrown in front of a moving school bus, pushed into a pool when I didn’t know how to swim, beaten up on the school bus every day and the bus driver did nothing…
So I went to Karate. Yeah, I definitely identified with Daniel-San. And I found something out – I’m REALLY good at Karate. If I’d had Mr. Miyagi, then yeah… Daniel-San would have been my story. Except he didn’t get anything more serious than a black eye. I almost got killed in school.
These two stories appealed to everyone.
Keep this in mind as you plan out your novels.
