Ian Doescher: If flurries be the food of quests, snow on.

- Be thou not technical with me,/Or else thine input valve may swift receive/a hearty helping of my golden foot.

Ian Doescher

input feet may

[Luke, holding stormtrooper helmet.] Alas, poor stormtrooper, I knew ye not,/ yet have I taken both uniform and life/ From thee. What manner of a man wert thou?/ A man of inf'nite jest or cruelty?/ A man with helpmate and with children too?/ A man who hath his Empire serv'd with pride?/ A man, perhaps, who wish'd for perfect peace?/ What'er thou wert, goodman, thy pardon grant/ Unto the one who took thy place: e'en me.

Ian Doescher

pride taken children

This Force, by troth, I'll never comprehend! It doth control and also doth obey? And 'tis within and yet it is beyond, 'Tis both inside and yet outside one's self? What paradox! What fickle-natur'd pow'r! Aye: frailty, thy name-- belike--is Force.

Ian Doescher

fickle self names

Trying to write while I'm distracted definitely doesn't work for me. I'm also a compulsive saver of my files, so every writing session ends with me emailing what I've written to myself, just in case.

Ian Doescher

ends writing trying

O help/ Me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, help. Thou art/ Mine only hope. -Leia Organa

Ian Doescher

obi-wan-kenobi helping art

True it is,/ That these are not the droids for which thou search'st. -Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi

Ian Doescher

I pray thee, sir, forgive me for the mess/And whether I shot first, I'll not confess. - Han Solo

Ian Doescher

forgive-me forgiving firsts

I do think any modern storyteller is influenced by the stories we all grow up with and become familiar with, our shared cultural narratives.

Ian Doescher

growing-up stories thinking

I watched the Star Wars trilogy with some good friends of mine for the first time in a few years, I read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies-one of those first mashup books-and then I went to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival with my family.

Ian Doescher

stars war book

Mostly, I hope that by having some fun with Shakespeare's style I'll encourage young people who are intimidated by Shakespeare to give him a try.

Ian Doescher

fun giving people

My favorite play is Hamlet. It was my first love when it comes to Shakespeare, and I've read it and seen it performed more than just about every other Shakespeare play. I've had the "To be or not to be" monologue memorized since I was 15, and it's just really close to my heart.

Ian Doescher

first-love play heart

I do a lot of writing in my capacity as the creative director for a marketing agency. These days, though, I'm trying to write a little bit most evenings just to keep the creative juices flowing.

Ian Doescher

creative-juices agency writing

Visually speaking, nothing calls Shakespeare to mind like Hamlet holding Yorick's skull.

Ian Doescher

skull nothing like mind

The Ewoks were definitely a challenge of writing 'The Jedi Doth Return.' After having done so many things with characters who don't speak English, how was I going to make them stand out? Jedi is also rich with emotional material, particularly Darth Vader's transformation from the dark side back to the good.

Ian Doescher

challenge good rich dark

The hardest part of writing 'William Shakespeare's Star Wars' was probably the sheer amount of iambic pentameter and tiptoeing around certain scenes I knew would be hot-button issues for 'Star Wars' fans.

Ian Doescher

star hardest fans writing

I had great English teachers in high school who first piqued my interest in Shakespeare. Each year, we read a different play - 'Othello,' 'Julius Caesar,' 'Macbeth,' 'Hamlet' - and I was the nerd in class who would memorize soliloquies just for the fun of it.

Ian Doescher

teachers great fun school

I've spent so much time with iambic pentameter that I can now recognize it when I hear it in conversation or a movie - it's like a weird, useless superpower.

Ian Doescher

weird i-can time conversation

I always wanted Han Solo's confidence and swagger. My personality is way more C-3PO, but Han was always who I wanted to be.

Ian Doescher

always confidence personality way

I grew up with the 'Star Wars' movies since before I have many memories. We had them on VHS back in the day, so they were part of the fabric of growing up in my family.

Ian Doescher

movies day family memories

People ask me whether I see 'Star Wars' as a comedy or a tragedy, but it's really neither - it's partly a history, like 'Henry V,' and partly a fantasy, like 'The Tempest.'

Ian Doescher

me comedy history people