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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Electronic screenwriting tutorial

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Finalist, Oregon Book Award

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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
By Susan.

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)

 
Friday, June 10, 2005  
Screenwriting
Time to get serious about judging the screenwriting contest. I'll read the first twenty pages of everything today and see if I can eliminate any of them. Usually that's all it takes but if these are all pretty good, I won't be able to and so I'll keep reading. Interestingly enough, each screenplay came with logline and synopsis but the first thing I did was throw them all away. These are necessary tools for buyers but I'm judging craft and in this context, I consider them crutches. I don't want to know what a script is about before I start reading it -- it's up to the writer to communicate that quickly and clearly!

The contest and reading is all I have planned for today. I won't begin the writing rhythm until Monday, after I've chosen the three winning scripts.

Finally heard from my two straggling students with late finals. One will send it tonight, in the nick of time. The other was the poorest excuse for a final I've read in many years. The final is only 30% of the grade, so the student still passes, but what a lame example of film analysis. The one coming in tonight, if really good, will help another struggling student considerably.

Need to get my camera down to the waterfront and see the ships in for the Rose Festival. In the mid-1930s, my dad, a young sailor, came to Portland on such a ship. His picture with other sailors in a Portland bar made the newspaper. This New Jersey kid never forgot Oregon as a result of the visit, and this is where he eventually retired many years later, in Medford in southern Oregon.

Great joy waking up today with the school year all but over! Maybe it's getting time to retire from teaching. I quit online teaching (I thought I'd quit the university first) this year because the experience was getting depressing, the quality of work dropping, the students disappearing. I don't miss online teaching at all, though I left it open with the company that I might return. University teaching is still fun -- in fact, the university is the last institution left to me that gives me a sense of community. I'm thinking the review may fill that gap. I really like accepting work I admire!

I finished the mystery. Found a few typos, unreal. They never completely disappear, no matter how many eyes go over it. I have to make some files now of the pages I saved with things I need to remember for the second. I'll begin that in earnest on Monday. I'll start the chamber opera on Monday, too. These are the two front burners right now. Then, back burner, the road story and the hypertext. These four projects will keep be busy, hoping to work on front burner projects six days a week and back three. I have a lot of reading/research to do for number two also.

The Moby Dick class started last night. It will be fun. I was surprised by the students. I expected retired people. Only two of 12 are over 60. And more men than women, which also surprised me. Informal, informative. Three college teachers, including myself. Parking was a zoo, next week I am using park & ride and taking the bus in.

Trying to decide whether or not to visit Idaho while Harriet is back east. I could make a quick trip there and back with the dog, might be fun, take my laptop. But all that driving is not writing time. Maybe not.

6/10/2005 07:45:00 AM | 0 comments

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