Today I posted a story at Sidelineland, telling the fictional story of a homoerotic wrestling confrontation between Aussies Hugh Jackman and Daniel Goddard. It was co-written by me and Shodaime, and we’re awfully pleased with it, if we do say so ourselves.
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| Daniel Goddard was Shodaime’s must-have! |
However, for me the most fascinating piece of the story “Gold Coast” is about the journey to get it written. Shodaime approached me with the nugget of an idea. It was hot and full of potential. He’s a major Daniel Goddard fan, so Daniel’s role was a no-brainer. But I should have known that this was going to be an atypical writing project for me when we were already having to negotiate over who Daniel’s opponent would be. We auditioned several potential hunks, with Shodaime pulling one way and me pushing another. Daniel Goddard probably wouldn’t have been my first choice to star in this scenario, and Hugh Jackman certainly wasn’t Shodaime’s first choice, but we came to an amiable compromise and proceeded.
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| Bard’s boy for any occasion: Hugh Jackman |
I think this project took right around 10 months, on and off, to complete! Much of that duration was spent with a couple of major life transitions for me completely distracting me from the task at hand. Getting a knew job and moving across the country sort of puts a lot of other stuff on the backburner, and Shodaime was totally upstanding and understanding about my part of the long haul to get this piece written.
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| Daniel’s hot bod spends a good deal of time on his back in this match |
But the creative process itself, I have to say, was a marathon wrestling match all on its own! It wasn’t as if Shodaime and I were ever just on totally different pages. If that were the case, we might have just called the project quits and went our separate ways. No, the creative differences were typically shades of gray rather than black or white. There was my tunnel-visioned focus on a particular story arc. There was Shodaime’s (some might say) obsession with selecting just the right visual aids to accompany the text (seriously there are nearly 60 pics embedded in this baby!!!).
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| Hugh makes sure that this is a rip ‘n strip match |
I didn’t tell Shodaime this (until now), but there were a couple of times he sent me back suggested revisions to the storyline that nearly made me call the whole thing off. But again, it wasn’t because his suggestions were so out of left field. It was just that seemingly every step required an arm wrestling match between us to sort out moment by moment what would transpire when you get Daniel Goddard and his Beastmaster-physique into a professional wrestling ring with Hugh Jackman and his Wolverine-physique, piss them both off really royally, and lock the doors.
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| Daniel has some fun with Hugh’s power packed physique and raging ego |
I’m thrilled to report that we finished the project and have both agreed on the precise format and details which I posted to the Sidelineland group this morning. While this is technically “celebrity homoerotic wrestling” and thus might seemingly qualify for the Producer’s Ring group, I was adamant that it didn’t fit the Producer’s Ring universe. Those familiar with the genre will note that never, ever in the Producer’s Ring will you read about a film producer as weak, anxious, or physically out of shape as appears in Gold Coast (hell, my producer’s are always fitness models!).
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| Hugh wipes something sticky off his lower lip |
But as is always the case with co-authoring, this story pushed me to see things differently, to share a vision with another wrestling kink fanatic, and to wrestle this match to the mat. Shodaime, it was without a doubt a pain in the ass working with you… and I’m incredibly glad that we did it!
Sidelineland 