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

Practical Screenwriting

Love At Ground Zero

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

The Unofficial Dave Barry Blog
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The Hive
The official blog of science fiction / horror author Terence West.

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

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

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Real Writers Bounce
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2020 Hindsight
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downWrite creative
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The literary weblog at the complete review.

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The rabbit writes on popular culture.

This Girl's Calendar
Momoka writes short stories.

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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."

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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
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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?

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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.

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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)

 
Tuesday, August 30, 2005  
Home sweet home
It was nice to get away but even nicer to get home. Renewed energy and focus. This is my last week before I put on my teaching hat and am hoping to figure out the ending of the mystery and the road story, so I can begin both endings after Labor Day. Still a good shot of finishing the mystery draft before school starts at the end of September. I'll be ready.

8/30/2005 07:22:00 AM | 1 comments

Comments:
A man called Bentley
Wants to enrol
In a post-graduate course
In joined-up thinking
At Oxford University.

He goes to a public lavatory
In Berlin
To speak to the academic registrar.
The academic registrar is not there.
The academic registrar
Is in a public lavatory
In Oxford.

"Why do you want to enrol
In a post-graduate course
In joined-up thinking
At Oxford University?"
He is asked.

"Because I am impressed
With the blue colour
Of yellow daffodils
As perceived by Polar Bears
In the Sahara Dessert,"
he replies.

"When you say Sahara Dessert,
Do you mean Sahara Desert?"
"Yes, I mean Kalahari main course,"
he replies,
"With noodles
And pachyderm depth psychology."

"Polar Bears
Are not pachyderms,"
Says the academic registrar.

"Some Polar Bears
May exhibit an internal predisposition
To pachydermatous behaviours
When aroused by joined-up thinking."

"What is your academic background,
Mr Bentley?"
"Zoology, Botany
And Crustacean Flower Arranging."

"Do you have an IQ?"
"I have several IQs"
"Which is your favourite IQ?"
"My favourite IQ is 156.
That is the IQ
Of a Giant Panda
On the crest
Of a whole-body orgasm."

"Your manner of speech is curious,
Mr Bentley."

"May I have an application form?"
"What kind of application form
Would you like?"
"I would like an application form
For post-graduate entry
To the select course
In joined-up thinking
At Oxford University."

"Would you like the application form
To have coloured pictures on it?"
"No. I would like the application form
To have black-and-white pictures on it
Which I can colour-in with wax crayons."

"At Oxford University,
You are allowed a choice
Of a special free gift
To go with your application form,"
Says the academic registrar.

"Thank you.
I would like a bee orchid
To go with my application form."
"Of course."
"Or a vegetable object
That is bee-orchid-like
In its visual characteristics,
Such as a tennis shoe
Or a traction engine."

"You have a fine mind, Mr Bentley."
 
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