Confessions of a Know-it-All

By Cate Masters

The brain can be a funny thing. Sometimes images get stuck in your head, sometimes they mash together and eventually, our mind simply accepts it as fact. Later, if we reference that “fact” our brain says, “Hey, it’s cool, you got this. No need to check!”

Ha! Very funny, brain.

I am here to warn you all. Don’t fall for it. My brain recently put one over on me. A whopper.

I had a picture in my head of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall as a couple. Who hasn’t heard of the Bogie and Bacall relationship? They were the Brangelina of their day. Inseparable – in my head. So when I was writing The Ex Factor, I put them together in the movie Casablanca. I even “saw” Bacall in that role, even though I’d seen this clip many times:

Guess I should have taken a cue from the “here’s looking at you, kid” dialogue.

I went ahead with some other details I’d collected for the story – a five-year-old Drew Barrymore in E.T. growing up to produce the movie Charlie’s Angels. James Cameron developing Avatar over ten years, even creating a special camera to shoot the movie with, plus a unique language. Such cool stuff!

My brain waved me past the Casablanca reference. “No need to check,” my brain said, chanting “Bogie and Bacall!” as it transposed the two females, knowing the similarities between the blonde starlets would fool me:

And I, the gullible writer, fell for it. Where was my strict inner critic when I most needed her? MIA, of course, though I wouldn’t be surprised to learn my brain had enticed her away with a few mojitos, then locked her in a soundproof chamber.

My apologies to any die-hard Casablanca fans I may have offended by omitting Ingrid Bergman. And my apologies to readers who hadn’t known, but now the error will bother them.

Writers, don’t let the same happen to you. Double-check all details, even those your brain insists (as it stomps its tiny foot) are fact.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading The Ex Factor despite the fact that my brain is an evil trickster. It really is a fun story about two people finding each other though they were right under each other’s noses all the time:



#casablanca, #catemasters, #1NS, #onenightstand, #1nightstand, #MadameEve, #decadentpub