The Writing Life: reflections by a working writer. The Writing Life

Reflections of a working writer, a university screenwriting professor, and the editor of Oregon Literary Review.

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Charles Deemer

Editor,
Oregon Literary Review

MFA, Playwriting, University of Oregon

Writing faculty, Portland State University (part-time)

Retired playwright and screenwriter.
Active novelist, librettist and teacher.

Email: cdeemer(at)yahoo(dot)com

The eagle flies!

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Literary archive

The Sextant Press

Personal home page

Electronic screenwriting tutorial

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Finalist, Oregon Book Award

Practical Screenwriting

Love At Ground Zero

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Blogs by (mostly) creative writers:

"Can We Talk About Me For A Change?"
Playwright Debra Neff Nathans

Inkygirl
Debbie Ridpath Ohi, a weblog for writers (resources)

Silliman's Blog
Ron Silliman, contemporary poetry and poetics

Maud Newton
literary links, amusements, politics, rants

Darren Barefoot
Technical and creative writing, theatre, Dublin

Rob's Writing Pains
Journey of a struggling writer.

Mad, Mad World
Cara Swann, fiction writer, journalist, "reflections on humanity, random news & my life."

Writeright
Random musings on a writer's life and times.

Flaskaland
Barbara Flaska's compilation of the best online articles about music and culture.

Write Of Way
Samantha Blackmon's written musings on writing (composition and rhetoric).

Alexander b. Craghead: blog
Writing, photography, and watercolors.

Rodney's Painted Pen
Rodney Bohen's daily commentary "on the wondrous two legged beast we fondly refer to as mankind." His pen runneth over.

Frustrated Writer
This one named Nicole.

scribble, scribble, scribble
Journalist Dale Keiger teaches nonfiction scribbling to undergraduate and graduate students at Johns Hopkins University.

The Unofficial Dave Barry Blog
The very one.

The Hive
The official blog of science fiction / horror author Terence West.

William Gibson Blog
Famed author of Neuromancer and Johnny Mnemonic: The Screenplay.

The Word Foundry
Joe Clifford Faust's "blog of a working writer: tracking writing projects, musings on the creative process, occasional side trips into music, media, politics, religion, etc."

A Writer's Diary
By Cynthia Harrison, who has the good sense to quote Virginia Woolf: "The truth is that writing is the profound pleasure and being read the superficial."

Bow. James Bow.
The journal of James Bow and his writing.

Ravenlike
Michael Montoure's weblog about writing, primarily horror and speculative fiction.

Globemix
By David Henry, "a poet's weblog from Aberdeen, Scotland."

Modem Noise
By Adrian Bedford, a "fledgling Pro SF Writer, living in Perth, Australia."

boynton
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Real Writers Bounce
Holly Lisle's blog, "a novelist's roadmap through the art and ordeal of finding the damned words."

2020 Hindsight
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downWrite creative
Phil Houtz's notes on the writing life.

Vivid: pieces from a writer's notebook
Blog of Canadian poet Erin Noteboom.

The Literary Saloon
The literary weblog at the complete review.

Rabbit Blog
The rabbit writes on popular culture.

This Girl's Calendar
Momoka writes short stories.

Twists & Turns
Musings by writer Michael Gates.

Plays and Musicals -- A Writer's Introspective
A blog by John D. Nugent - Composer, Playwright, and Artistic Director of the Johnson City Independent Theatre Company

The American Sentimentalist
"Never has any people endured its own tragedy with so little sense of the tragic." Essays by Mark W. Anderson.

Screenwriting By Blog
David C. Daniel writes a screenplay online. "I've decided to publish the process as a way to push myself through it. From concept to completion, it'll be here."

SeanAlonzo.com
Official site of occult fiction author Sean-Alonzo, exploring symbolism, alternative history, philosophy, secret societies and other areas of the esoteric tradition.

Crafty Screenwriting
Maunderings of Alex Epstein, tv scribe, about life, politics, and the tv show I'm co-creating.

Letters From The Home Front
The life of a writer, 21, home schooled, rural living.

Venal Scene
The blog of bite-sized plays inspired by the news (by Dan Trujillo).

'Plaint of the Playwright
Rob Matsushita, a playwright from Wisconsin, "whines a lot."

I Pity Da Fool!
Glenn's adventures in screenwriting.

Time In Tel-Aviv
Hebrew modern literature at its best, by Corinna Hasofferett.

Big Window
Robin Reagler's poetry blog.

John Baker's Blog
Author of the Sam Turner and Stone Lewis novels.

The Writing Life With Dorothy Thompson
What goes on during a writer's busy day?

The Rebel Housewife
Not just a housewife!

Barry's Personal Blog
A running commentary on writing and the writing life.

Bonnie Blog
Maintained by Bonnie Burton of grrl.com.

Writer's Blog.
By easywriter. "From the walls of caves to cyberspace."

Flogging the Quill
Pursuing the art and craft of compelling storytelling, by an editor, Ray Rhamey.

Man Bytes Hollywood
Sharing tools, strategies and resources for the screenwriter's journey.

Mad for the smell of paper
A writing journal.

The Writing Life
A blog by Katey Schultz.

It Beats Working 9-5
A screenwriting blog by a young Canadian screenwriter.

Stealing Heaven From The Lips Of God
Writer & Artist, Dee Rimbaud reflects upon politics, religion, art, poetry, the meaning of life, the nature of God and why toast always lands butter side down on carpets.

Robert Peake
Heart and Mind, Fully Engage ... a poet's website.

Sidestepping Real
By Ren Powell, poet, children’s writer, essayist and editor.

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The Writing Life...
"An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's."
J.D. Salinger

"All my best friends are writers and are dead."
A friend over beer, Berkeley, winter, 1959

"And it came to pass that all the stars in the firmament had ceased to shine. But how was anyone to know?"
The Half-Life Conspiracy

After October 31, 2006,
new posts are published at


The Writing Life II

(Posts archived here are from 01/10/03 - 10/31/06)

 
Wednesday, December 24, 2003  
Merry Christmas
At the end of my play Christmas at the Juniper Tavern, after a comic confrontation between the unemployed loggers of the town and Swami Kree, a Zen clown who has started an ashram outside of town, Frank and Stella, who owns the tavern, are alone. Across town, Sheriff Billy is dressed as Santa Claus and beginning his annual Christmas show.

What has baffled the loggers is this episode from the Swami:



SWAMI: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

BILLY: What's the problem here?

REX: What the hell's the matter with you?

SWAMI: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Everything is foolishness!

Everything is pride!

Everything is ego!

Everything is blindness!

The eyes do not see!

The ears do not hear!

The nose does not smell!

The tongue does not taste!

The mouth only is alive with speaking!

Everything is speaking, speaking, speaking!

Speaking and pride and ego and foolishness!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!



(Ma has approached Swami with a glass of water, which she now throws in his face. Swami is immediately silent. He looks around. He slowly gets up. All eyes are fixed on him.)



SWAMI: I feel like the center of attention!

You are asking yourself, What was that all about? I'll be expounding on the significance of what you've just witnessed in my lecture tonight. Usually we charge outsiders two dollars and fifty cents — but all of you can come free. A Christmas present from Swami Kree!



Eventually everyone leaves, and Frank and Stella are alone in the tavern. The action continues:

FRANK: Listen ... you want to dance or something?

STELLA: I'd love to dance.



(LIGHTS FADE TO HALF and RISE on Billy in the neutral area, dressed as Santa Claus.)



BILLY: And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.



(Focus changes.)



FRANK: Ahhhhhhhh!

STELLA: Maybe you should start your own cult and give the Swami a little competition.

FRANK: I'm a lone wolf. I belong in the woods with the rest of the wild animals.



(Focus changes.)



BILLY: And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.



(Focus changes.)



FRANK: But we've already logged the woods out of wild animals and practically out of trees. Who the hell knows where it's gonna end?

STELLA: Sshh — it's Christmas.



(Focus changes.)



BILLY: And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known to us.

And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.



(LIGHTS OFF neutral area, FULL in tavern.)



FRANK: Fred Ross hit it right on the money:



I'm in from the cold where the vine maples grow

And the dogwoods bloom in the spring.

I've been in the woods for thirty years

And I haven't accomplished a thing.



(Billy enters, still in part of his Santa costume. Frank and Stella stop dancing.)



STELLA: How'd the Christmas show go, Billy?

BILLY: Terrible. I kept thinking about that Swami. What the hell makes a guy like that tick?

STELLA: Ask Frank. He's the convert.

FRANK: I'm a lone wolf.

BILLY: Listening to him got me all mixed up. When he started yelling, I felt like yelling back at him.

FRANK: Like this? Ahhhhh!

BILLY: Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

FRANK & BILLY: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

STELLA: Frank? Billy?

FRANK & BILLY: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

STELLA: (under the yelling) God help us all!



(LIGHTS FADE TO BLACKOUT as the yelling continues. The play is over.)


Merry Christmas, everyone!

12/24/2003 11:45:00 AM | 0 comments

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