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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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
"A wry writerly blog named in honour of a minor character in a minor Shirley Temple film."

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, January 20, 2006  
Confession
Since Thanksgiving, 2004, I've been keeping a secret blog that will be published posthumously. There will be a link to it here. Why am I doing this?

I'm very jealous of my time. I have things to write and not enough time to do them all. So I resist interruptions and avoid circumstances that invite interruptions of my writing time.

I'm easily suckered into political/religious/social arguments, which used to be fun for their own sake but which now are a distraction and a waste of time. So I wanted a place to say things (including "politically incorrect" things) that invited argument without having to participate in the argument -- that is, I wanted to vent without hearing from anyone about it, and thus being distracted from my work.

I also wanted a place to whine. I deplore public whining, so I didn't want to do it here (though I have made a tiny whine here from time to time). For example, I have a love-hate relationship with Portland, particularly with the Portland theater scene, and too often something happens that really sets me off, despite myself. This is why if I outlive my wife, which is unlikely, I'd move in a heartbeat. I like everything about Portland except its ghosts. I'd like to live farther away from them. So I also needed a place to bitch about Portland without arousing the wrath of Portland-lovers everywhere.

For these reasons, and a few others, I wanted a private blog space. Why not just write in a diary? Because my remarks in the contexts above are things I own up to and things that complete who I am. I just don't want the distractions that come with this side of me because I am very aware that my remaining time is limited, and I have a hell of a lot of work to do before then. No distractions. No hassles. Write, write, write.

I am mentioning this because I did some writing in this secret blog this morning about something happening in Portland theater now that really irks me. But I won't get into it now. I wrote it, I vented, no one can read it while I'm alive and suck me into saying more about it, and that's the end of it. Perfect.

So, one of these days, hopefully some years away, but possibly tomorrow, if not later today, this blog will end, and in a few days, I expect, a link will appear to the other "secret" blog, and you can learn that I'm not always as mild mannered as I may appear here. (To which someone is thinking, mild mannered! You've got to be kidding. All things are relative.)

The bottom line is, this works for me. And you have something to look forward to ha ha.

1/20/2006 12:05:00 PM | 6 comments

Comments:
fascinating concept!
i'm having my first seven entries of 2006 from my blog published in a regional publication (the editor digs my blog and so proposed making it even more public). it will be interesting owning up to it all for 26,000 readers but i'm not afraid. real emotion is just that, real. now, i don't vent - and i'm well tempered so it sounds like we're talking about two different things here. but just wanted to put it out there. you're smart not to distract yourself further from writing while also maintaining a venue for yourself to vent. but who knows - maybe you're a closet theater critic? :-)
best,
katey http;//www.thewritinglife2.blogspot.com
katey13@hotmail.com
 
Been there, done that.
 
I vent. LOL
 
Pretty egotistical thing to do, don't you think? I mean, who cares?
 
Of course it is! Jeez. How do you think writers survive except by having very strong egos? Writers believe they have readers out there, whether they do or not. Fortunately, in my case, now and again I hear from someone who lets me know this is true. A marginal writer is not an invisible writer -- but even invisible writers need to keep the faith. A wonderful book of literary criticism published in the 60s was called "The Performing Self." Writer as performing self. Perfect.
 
I'm one of your readers -- and a fan! Keep on truckin'!
 
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