Sullen Tanster

I don't know if what I have is writer's block. I got up to a point in my script, page 33. My characters are established, their world is established etc. Galilea is a pushy narcissist, Zack her boyfriend is haunted by his game box. Galilea was once a teen pop star. Now she can't deal with the fact that no one is interested in her, most importantly her father. She's trying to make a great short so the world will finally recognize her "genius".

I have a fairly strict view of narcissists. (Both of my parents are narcissists.) They are:

selfish
vain
charming
manipulative
lacking in empathy

Anyway, that's the very short list. There are certain areas where narcissists thrive:

parenthood
religion
entertainment
education
charity

Again, a rather short list. I could go on forever about the nature of narcissist behavior. I always felt that if I could understand that kind of heartlessness, I'd understand why my parents were so heartless towards me.

So this is rather tender subject about which I am very emotional.

Where I left off in the script, Galilea feels that her short has "bad karma". I imagine that I'd like to see her initiate various religious rituals. Example: she builts an ancestor worship shrine, she meditates in buddhist robes, she lights a candle at a Catholic church and takes communion, she goes into a field to pick a four leaf clover. Anything. The object is to show that Galilea wants the world to bend to her will. In this way religion can be manipulative and deceiving. I want to show the hypocrisy of some religious sentiment through her.

I've been looking at religion, ritual, karma anything like that on google. I am not adverse to spirituality at all. I'm adverse to bullshit. I do understand that this subject is sensitive. On the net, one woman described her spiritual transformation, more or less like this:

I grew up brahmin caste in India. We worshipped many gods . . . one day I became a Christian . . . I prayed to go to college, He answered my prayers. I prayed to get a husband, he answered my prayers.

So on and so forth. I'm pretty familiar with the fundamentalist Christian outlook. It's not all bad but I felt stifled by it. There are those that see "God" as the divine goodie giver. "I wanted a Lexus and he answered my prayers. Praise the Lord!"

I was at church and a lady praised the Lord for the parking space that she got in front of TJ Maxx. The Lord knew what a rough day she'd had.

This sort of thinking is suspect. And dare I say it? It's a bit narcissistic.

I want to express this aspect of human behavior in a funny way without being more offensive than I have to. I don't have an axe to grind with religion. My problem is with human behavior.

Day after day passes and I can't get how to express this narcissistic hypocrisy of religion. Then I tell myself I'm striving for too much. If I can refrain from impatience maybe I should hang in there until I get how to say what I'm trying to.