Sketching a storyboard is one step in planning the plot of any film. But much like life, every main character needs a friend to get through twists and turns.
"Now everything in her life is in turmoil, and she has nobody she can talk to and nobody she can turn to. She remembers Drop Dead Fred. So she goes and takes the tape off the box, and out pops Drop Dead Fred, her imaginary friend!" says filmmaker Curtis Collins.
Curtis will teach that in his creative writing class at Fort Myers Alliance for the Arts.
It's a story Curtis learned to be true during his darkest time.
It was in cell 3217 of the Hendry Correctional Institute, a maximum security prison in Immokalee, that Curtis spent one year in solitary confinement and wrote to his own imaginary Fred to survive.
"This one is 2005, and I wrote there; I hate this," he says.
During his time in prison, Curtis wrote religiously.
"When I ran out of that [notepads], I was like, well, you got your little notepads. I see you guys taking notes, so give me those! They gave me those, and I just kept writing," says Curtis.
We asked Curtis if he would rewrite anything about his past if he had the chance. He said, "Nothing. You've got to learn it. I wouldn't want to give him any inside information because he might miss the lesson."
That lesson inspires him to now teach others with paper and pen.
It made me realize that I'm a good person. I can be a good person. I have something positive to offer the world," says Curtis.
It's not rewriting but re-inventing that Curtis believes moves one's story in film and life forward.
"You have to correct your mistake. You can't keep making the same mistake and keep asking for forgiveness. You eventually have to correct that mistake and keep moving forward," Curtis says.
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