The Naughty List

By Jimmy LaSalle

The Naughty List is a fun Christmas-themed romantic comedy.
This modern-day Christmas story focuses on Jason and Jane who have both been independently helping Santa Claus get individuals off of his "Naughty List".
They both have very different ways of going about doing their work, but now it seems that Santa has set them up to meet each other. For what purpose?

This was written in screenplay format and we share the definitions of a handful of abbreviations that the reader may want to review to better enjoy the story without having to stop and go back. Very simple and is available as a reference as well.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jimmy LaSalle
• Release date: Aug 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9781736686041

Jimmy LaSalle

Unified Marketing Strategy was written to help business owners get a better understanding of the complete marketing picture. A Unified Marketing Strategy connects advertising messages and expectations to your sales team, and customer support. The goal is to choreograph everything and build a powerful system that keeps new customers flowing through your business. Unified Marketing Strategy was written to help business owners build successful systems within their organization. It will help CEOs instruct and follow up with the C level executives on big picture initiatives to further build their organizations. It will also help marketing and advertising professionals further develop their media planning. Unified Marketing Strategy will explain how to bridge all customer experience touchpoints from Advertising to Sales, to Operations and post-sale follow up.

Book preview

The Naughty List

Jimmy LaSalle

Copyright © 2021 James LaSalle / JLaSalle Enterprises L.L.C. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without the prior written consent of the author. Requests can be sent to [e-mail]. Reviewers may quote brief passages in a review.

For general information about on our other products and services, or for technical support, please contact us via email: [e-mail].

Cover Design: JLaSalle Enterprises +

Credits for cover photos:

Printed in The United States of America

Visit our website, JimmyLaSalle.com, to learn about our other writing projects, or to discuss potential speaking engagements.

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2021918126

ISBN: 978-1-7366860-4-1 Paperback

Dedication

For those who want to do something creative and are waiting for the right time to do it, stop waiting, make up your mind that you will do it, and get it done.

About the Author

Jimmy LaSalle is a serial entrepreneur, podcaster, producer, writer. Jimmy's first book is a non-fiction professional book called Unified Marketing Strategy. It is for business owners, CEOs, and marketing professionals. With the processes outlined in Unified Marketing Strategy, he shares the formula that helped make his clients and his businesses successful.

Fiction Writings: Aside from The Naughty List, Jimmy has also written and published Immortals: Revelations.

Jimmy owns and operates Keen Insites Internet Services (KeenInsites.com) along with several other startups. He and his sister Jeananne put out a podcast called US History Repeated. It is available anywhere podcasts can be listened to, or you can find them all at USHistoryRepeated.com. Jimmy also created, produced, and published a video series called Stories of the Ink. It is housed on YouTube and can also be found on Storiesoftheink.com. You can visit him online at www.jimmylasalle.com or on Twitter (@JimmyLaSalle2). Jimmy is available for speaking engagements and also consults as an outsourced Chief Marketing Officer.

Acknowledgments

To the reader: The Naughty List is fun Christmas-themed romantic comedy. We can all use a little magic in our lives. Maybe Santa Clause should be real, and we should be able to help each other get off of The Naughty List should we find ourselves on it! I hope you enjoy the story and find it within you to help those who need it. There are so many ways to help. Start with one person.

I want to thank my wife Laurie for the inspiration for some of the relationships and dialogue in this story. I also appreciate your input and providing feedback here and there. I am keenly aware of the crazy you feel you married with all my little projects. Thank you for your patience with me and taking my extra projects seriously - well somewhat seriously. Thank you for being so cool with my need to do the things I enjoy to maintain a clear mind. If it were not for you, I would not have been able to accomplish all these things. Thank you for everything you do on the homestead and for the children. You are the best Chief Operations Officer any CEO could ask for! I love you.

A special note to Michael Allosso, owner of You On Your Best Day, Inc., whose time and professional feedback helped me complete what we are calling the finished project. Thank you for your honest, positively framed, and specific feedback. It was immensely helpful. You were a great listener and gave thoughtful advice.

To my sister Maribeth, who was accidently my only sibling not referenced in any part in my first book, Unified Marketing Strategy, I apologize, and you get your own acknowledgment here and perhaps in anything else I publish.

Hints for Reading a Screenplay

During the Covid 19 pandemic, I found myself with some extra time on my hands. I keep a notebook next to my bed where I list random ideas and put down notes associated with those ideas. When I am truly bored, I visit the notebook and see what appeals to me. I had no idea how to write a screenplay, so I bought a book and read about the process. As I was reading, I followed the process and learned what needed to be done, common terms, structure, sections of the screenplay, and story structure that makes for good storytelling. As most people have probably not read a screenplay, I thought I would share some information with you, the reader.

First, let's get into the basic structure of what makes up a scene

1 - Headings

Most scene headings start with INT. or EXT. That is to determine the camera location.

There will be a scene location INT. JAYS OFFICE means that the visual would be inside Jay's Office. As another example, you can have EXT. Parking Garage in Jay's Building. This means the camera angle would be outside of the parking garage, but the focus would be on the parking garage

Most Scenes give a time of day. Day, Night, Evening, Morning, etc.

There are all instances where the heading will let you know there is a special thing going on. This is used for Flashbacks, dreams, montages, series of shots, etc.

2 - Narration or Narrative Descriptions - This is to mean the story, or at least what is happening in the scene or rather, setting the scene for the reader. These are written to provide the reader with the action, the scene setting, characters present, perhaps some visuals to be made aware of, or sounds that may be of importance. (i.e., you can hear the sound of cars passing by,  the office was decorated for Christmas, or Phil rushes into the room.)

3 - Dialogue - Dialogue consists of three parts.

The character's name - which is always going to be in CAPS

There can be a parenthetical, or actor's direction under the character name, or anywhere in their lines. (Sarcastically, with enthusiasm, angrily, etc.)

The actual speech, or words to be spoken

Here is an example of a scene section from Immortals: Revelations

EXT. BOARDWALK - EVENING (BILLY’S CAMERA)

Levi hears the scream from where he and Billy are filming. He turns and starts running toward Jay.

LEVI

Oh no! No. NO. NO!

Billy is trying to keep up with Levi and the view is jumping with each stride.

BILLY (O.S.)

(Very concerned)

What? What was that?

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The next thing you will need to know are a handful of abbreviations. I am not going to get into items that are self-explanatory like split screen, slow motion, and others that should be clear.

CONT'D = Continued. This is usually seen in dialogue when a character will continue speaking, but some other action or direction needs to be told between the lines. This can also be seen when a character's lines go from one page to the next, but with this formatting, it was not used in this manner.

CUT TO, FADE IN, FADE OUT, DISSOLVE TO are all examples of scene transitions.

SERIES OF SHOTS - A SERIES OF SHOTS are quick shots that tell a story.

O.S. = Off Screen. The character is talking, is in the scene, but not on camera

V.O. = Voiceover. The character is speaking, providing information, but is not actively in the scene itself

SUPER = Superimpose. To let the reader, director, producer, editor, etc. know that something needs to appear on the screen. Examples can be things like TWO WEEKS LATER, FIVE DAYS EARLIER, or to superimpose a location like Madison Square Garden, New York City, The Planet Jupiter.

**Note to reader: Screenplays do not necessarily have Chapters per se. I did not put chapter breaks in Immortals: Revelations as I did not feel they were appropriate, but I did here in The Naughty List because there were good places to separate. Enjoy!

There you have it. A very quick summary that will help you understand what you are reading!

CHAPTER 1

INT. JASON GREENS CHILDHOOD HOME - MORNING

SUPER - Christmas Morning 25 years ago

An excited YOUNG JASON GREEN runs down the stairs and heads straight for his stocking. He reaches in, and with his tongue sticking out he feels around, reaching, straining, and then he smiles.

He takes his hand out and opens it.

He has a lump of coal in his hand.

YOUNG JASON GREEN

(Angry and disappointed)

What the (bleeping noise)?

JASON GREEN (V.O.)

Yep, that was me, six years old or so. I got that lump of coal for Christmas.

SERIES OF SHOTS

JASON GREEN (V.O.)

I stared at that dirty lump of coal every chance I got. I was mad!

Jason staring at the lump of coal laying in his bed.

Jason staring at the lump of coal on the table while eating.

Jason looking down at the lump of coal while sitting in the back of the family car.

JASON GREEN (V.O.)

I did not get why, I mean, I thought I was a good boy, well at least in my own mind.

The months of the year start flipping on a calendar in the background of the shots.

JASON GREEN (V.O.)

I wanted to sit with Santa and tell him what I thought and ask him why. After all, I figured I had a right to know.

Jason putting down the lump of coal and opening a Valentine’s box of chocolate.

Jason coloring Easter eggs with the lump of coal next to him.

Jason throwing his papers in the air as he leaves school on the last day.

JASON GREEN (V.O.)

I wanted to tell Santa he should let people know they are on the naughty list so they could try to be better.

Jason watching fireworks.

Jason playing in the sand at the beach.