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
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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)

 
Monday, March 13, 2006  
Nicholl Blues
The Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship folks are having a heck of a time. For reasons unknown, they've been unable to produce either a hard copy or online application form yet this year. Usually they have an early deadline on April 1. They kept saying everything would be ready in late Feb. but it wasn't. Then on their website appeared the following: "there will be no early bird application or entry fee this year." Yeah, right. They clearly meant no early bird entry fee, not no fee at all. So a few days later they fixed it: "no early bird application or early bird entry fee" this year. Interesting what clarity correct grammar provides! I do believe that's why we have grammar in the first place. Since they've been doing this for years, I am very curious what on earth could go wrong with cloning the same old application form for another year, where the only thing that changes is the year. Sabotage? Hackers? Is there a movie there somewhere?

Northwest Examiner, a neighborhood weekly, is writing a nice piece on Diana Callihan and I contributed info on her theater work. Probably the best thing she did with my work is directing and performing in the hyperdrama that played at Edgefield, a resort east of town, which was an adaptation of Bateau de Mort, the sequel to Chateau de Mort, which at Edgefield was renamed The Bride of Edgefield. This was not as financially successful as hyperdramas usually are, for a variety of reasons, but Diana did a damn good job at it. At our recent coffee meeting she was even thinking of reviving my play Country Northwestern, which I'd love to see revived. It died after its premier but no play of mine has more ribald logger humor than that one, nor has any play been more influenced by my friendship with Dick Crooks.

Speaking of whom, he is the model for Red Hooker in Kerouac's Scroll (just as I am the model for Robert Bass aka Bear), and during term break I'll print the sucker and mail it to my agent. I'm already covering my ass in case Eric doesn't embrace it. It is impossible to know what someone thinks is marketable. In fact, in real fact, I think anything is marketable today if you put the money behind it, which is why so much crap gets a lot of attention. So the key is what they decide to put their money behind, and in this regard there is more following than leading. A lot of gay guy movies -- firemen, pro football players, loggers, Sumo wrestlers -- are forthcoming, believe me.

So all I can do is print the sucker and send it off and go from there. I never am one to let moss gather round my feet, however, and several plans and strategies are in place for whatever happens.

My front burner summer project will be the new libretto, an adaptation of an American classic. It's important to get this done sooner rather than later, before someone else thinks of it.

Term break, I have some catching up to do on the review. Just got the green light on another hypermedia submission. I appear to be focusing on hypermedia for the summer issue, though I am getting some plays. No screenplay submissions yet. Writers can't get used to publishing screenplays, I think. They don't think of them as literature either!

3/13/2006 05:42:00 PM | 0 comments

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