Creating 2015—Day 56:   What I meant was…

Screenwriter Cindy and I had a text exchange Monday night about the direction of this quick polish we are doing on The Botox Party script getting it ready for a contact of ours.  It was about whether she should try and implement this note I gave her at our “In-Cync” lunch on Saturday.  I just found out that what we each thought the other meant in their text was the exact opposite of what we each actually meant and she acted accordingly.  In other words, she spent the last two days writing in a direction I thought she wasn’t going in.  I feel so bad!  It’s my entire fault. All I had to do was pick up the phone and clarify that she understood what I was saying and I understood what she was saying.  A reminder that real communication versus cyber communication is key!

Oh shit.  You thought I meant what?

So, during our next text exchange today discovering our miscommunication, when I can’t quite tell what her text tone is—is she laughing as she types “I’m trying!” or is she ready to reach through her smart phone and strangle me?—I pick up my cell and call her. Yes, it was the latter—she was envisioning her hands wrapped around my scrawny little neck. She is frustrated.  And stressed.  I already told our contact I’d email her the script by Friday. That means I need a chunk of time tomorrow to go over what Cindy sends me and that means she’ll have to send it to me tonight or in the morning.  Probably shouldn’t have committed to a time frame until I checked in with my writer.  I’m batting a thousand this week.

I ask her if she loves the new direction and pages.  She says, “I don’t hate them.”  Hmmmm, not overly convincing.  In a panic we are running out of time, we agree it’s probably best to put aside what she’s been working on and go back to the old direction to be safe.  We can always revisit it.  My note was too big to implement in the short amount of time we have—again, my bad for giving it in the first place under the circumstances!  But she wants to send me the new pages to read, just in case.  I agree.  She emails them to me.  From everything she has told me on our phone call, I have low expectations.  I read them.  I can’t stop laughing.  They are hilarious!  No wonder she doesn’t hate them, they totally work!  I start to text her my reaction but think better of it.  I call her instead to tell her I love the new pages and to keep going in the direction she’s going.  She’s dialed in and on a roll.

There you have it.  Our  miscommunication turned out positive when all was mis-said and done!

Until tomorrow, create from what you have…positive miscommunications and great writers.

Kelli Joan Bennett is a filmmaker, actress, writer, entrepreneur, advocate for creative thinking and Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Think Outside The Box Inside The Box Media.

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