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."
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.
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.
The Writing Life...
"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
Tuesday, November 30, 2004 Looking forward to ... Closer, the new Mike Nichols film. Dark relationship stories sprint through Portland in a week or several, so you have to catch them early. The two films based on Andre Dubus stories, In the Bedroom and We Don't Live Here Anymore, were gone before I got to see them a second time. If you blink, the movie may be out of the theaters. It's astounding these movies even get made in today's top-heavy bottom-line environment. At any rate, it comes out during term break so I'll be sure to catch it very early so I can see it again if I want.
John doesn't like changing the title of Varmints, at least to Greed, and he may be right. We have time to think about it.
11/30/2004 09:59:02 AM |
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Anticipation Phone call from the publisher last night, reminding me that Oregon Fever should get in our hands this week. Also he wanted to share his excitement about a distributor he never heard of calling for a case of books. He says this is a lot of action he's getting before the book is even published. We'll see. I think I'll have fifty books at the Sunday book fair, so we'll see how many sell in the four hours of the signing.
I bit of reading to do before class but otherwise have time, hope to get some writing done later this morning. Still fighting the cold but also still not defeated by it.
Last night watched a musical version of A Christmas Carol, taped from last week, and it wasn't too bad actually.
Thursday I pick up their final scripts -- the big reading chore for grades follows, my weekend. Return them in a week Tuesday and pick up finals ... so I should have my grades in by Thursday of next week, about 10 days. Then I print out the screenwriting textbook and take care of it. After that, print Patriots and start rewriting.
Monday, November 29, 2004 Annie Hall Inspired by the documentary, rewatched this today. It holds up well, although a lot of the touches that seemed so original when the film came out do not surprise now, of course. But it's a fine, touching movie. Allen and Durrenmatt share a love for the outrageous presentational narrative style, naturalism be damned.
11/29/2004 06:54:45 PM |
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Woody Allen Watched Woody Allen: A Life in Film, an informative and first rate documentary. Much more appealing than Wild Man Blues, the doc about his jazz band in which Allen comes off as a total jerk. Here he is charming, humble, revealing. He's made more than enough great films to establish his genius; such artists should be forgiven their lesser work. This is a good overview journey narrated by the master himself. 11/29/2004 02:29:06 PM |
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Varmints Act one of the new libretto appears to be in very good shape now, after inputting changes and making some more. Thinking of changing title to Greed. This has a more contemporary ring -- and is the very theme of the piece. I'll run it by John.
Now to get to my students' query letters. I have them pretend I am a producer and pitch their scripts to me. Tomorrow, in class, they present the previews and posters they've created for their stories. This is a good exercise to get them to find the spines of their stories.
11/29/2004 10:26:44 AM |
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On the edge Ah, my wife's cold, having abandoned her, tenaciously hopes to find a home in yours truly. I'm using all the usual defenses against it. At this stage, no telling who will win.
11/29/2004 03:13:08 AM |
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Sunday, November 28, 2004 Second time around Saw Sideways a second time today. It wears well. Came home and started the novel again. Still seriously considering teaching both film and book versions in the spring.
Saturday, November 27, 2004 A good start Finished a chapter this morning. Rest of the writing day dedicated to inputting the act one libretto changes. Need to take some time to listen to the entire Dark Mission orchestrations with score in hand, as if seeing the opera.
I've been reading Travels With Charley but find it a tad disappointing. If it weren't written by a famous author, I doubt if it would be interesting at all. Not sure I'll finish it. Also browsed through a thick volume three of the life of Graham Greene. I agree with a reviewer who thought its organization was a mess. Yet it's full of anecdotal interest, especially (for me) in a section near the end about why Greene never got the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Friday, November 26, 2004 Progress Another rewrite of act one of the libretto and the part of act two I've started. And most of a new chapter of Scroll. Not bad for the day after. Feeling a cold coming on, just as Harriet is getting better. Hope I can head it off.
11/26/2004 05:21:48 PM |
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Thursday, November 25, 2004 Scenes from Dark Mission Here are some of my favorite musical scenes from our opera.
Scene 2: Into their homeland come missionaries, led by Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, who establish a mission as a base in their efforts to convert the Cayuse to Christianity.
Scene 3b: Marcus is overwhelmed by the task ahead. He expresses his love for Narcissa.
Scene 5: When Cayuse children become sick, a Medicine Man who cannot cure them is banished, as is the tribal custom (banishment or worse). Marcus, also a medical doctor, comes forward and helps the children get well.
Scene 6: In a dream, Narcissa misses her cultured life in Boston. Their task here is so hard.
Scene 7: Chief Timothy is very curious about Christianity, especially since Marcus gives credit to Jesus Christ for his ability to make the Cayuse children well again.
Scene 15: The chief woos Lorinda, treating her with respect, but fails to win her heart. He finally lets her return to her people. In the meantime, the chiefs are captured and convicted of murdering the missionaries.
Scene 17: In heaven, Marcus feels like their mission failed. Narcissa disagrees and comforts him.
Happy Thanksgiving When I was a young man, Thanksgiving was my favorite holiday. Through much of my 20s and 30s, from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s, I was part of a group of half a dozen couples who traditionally had Thanksgiving together, making it a holiday of Friendship. We were a motley crew, white and black and Chinese, brought together not only by friendship but by a love of folk music. Most of us were performers, so these holidays were filled with music.
The holiday meal was huge and varied, turkey and duck and ham at least, perhaps four or five kinds of dressings, a wide assortment of vegetables and side dishes. We were all big drinkers as well as big eaters. After Ramos fizzes in the morning, the beer and wine flowed all day. We were at the age where everyone could maintain and signs of drunkenness appeared, if at all, only late at night. Mostly it was a time of laughter and music.
I dropped out of the group after moving east, where my marriage ended. After that, Thanksgiving has been without much tradition for me. Even now, we go year to year, sometimes being a host, sometimes a guest, sometimes going to a restaurant or out of town. For a while I still made shrimp aspic and oyster dressing every Thanksgiving but recently I stopped. I still make -- my last tradition, I suppose -- blackeyed peas for New Year's day.
I'm glad I experienced Thanksgiving as a holiday of friendship. I can't say I miss it because most of the parameters for it have changed. A few years ago I went to LA to a friend's surprise 70th birthday party; he and his wife were in the old Thanksgiving group. Late in the night I picked up a guitar and was amazed to learn that we still remembered some of the old folk songs from that era, complete with harmonies. It felt good singing them.
Wednesday, November 24, 2004 Varmints Rewrote the first act of the libretto this afternoon, getting back into the rhythm of it. Ready to tackle act two. Onward.
11/24/2004 05:34:40 PM |
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Progress A very productive morning of writing. H feeling better, well enough to bake pies this afternoon for the potluck we're supposed to go to tomorrow.
Ordered some books for Xmas presents, including a copy of Sideways to a lady friend who really appreciates her good wine.
Tuesday, November 23, 2004 Lazy Came to school early to get some work done in my office -- and I've just been farting around. Now a student is due at 3, so I guess I won't get anything done. I did get a chapter written this morning but I'd intended to spend several hours on the libretto before office hours begin. Well, there's always tomorrow, right? I'm still feeling good about getting a libretto draft done before the end of the year.
I can see Kerouac's Scroll, for all the "fun" of writing it, also will have its difficult emotional moments since some heavy experiences are camouflaged in this one. I press ahead. The scene addition is first rate, as is the scene(s) deletion, from the other day. I have a general sense of this but I love the surprises that happen in the process, especially when they work out.
How many times have I watched the documentary "The Monster That Ate Hollywood", which I show today? It's still enlightening.
A former student suggested John Irving's My Hollywood Business, which I've reserved at the library.
For spring, I definitely am thinking of using both novel and script of Sideways. I don't know if my new textbook Practical Screenwriting will be ready by then. Likely not. I'll start using it next fall then. In winter, and I think again in spring, I'm also teaching Adaptation, a hoot of a story for screenwriters.
So far I don't feel like I'm getting Harriet's cold. I definitely do not need to get sick!
A short week, class today only. Nothing special planned for Thanksgiving, no big gathering or anything. We've been invited to the house of church friends and likely will go unless Harriet doesn't feel up to it.
Thanksgiving used to be my major holiday! In the 60s and 70s, the holiday was reserved for about half a dozen couples, our best friends, Crooks and LA friends, and it was quite a long weekend of eating, drinking, music, and laughter. Very special memories.
11/23/2004 02:40:52 PM |
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Welcome home Good to have Harriet home, although she returned with a terrible cold, which I have to avoid getting now. Last thing I need is to be sick during grading time.
Did the only class prep I have today: rewound a tape! Like mornings like this ha ha. Now I can spend the rest of pre-classroom time working on the libretto and novel. Onward.
11/23/2004 09:40:51 AM |
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History's personal puzzles 41 years ago yesterday, I was sitting in my 11am class at Pasadena Community College, where I was making up some courses after the army prior to transfering to UCLA. I was sitting next to a quiet Lebanese student who would become the assassin of Robert Kennedy in five years. The back door suddenly swung open and someone shouted that President Kennedy had been shot. JFK died later in the day. Sirhan Sirhan and other foreign students, who entertained various conspiracy theories involving JFK and the Pope, did not believe this was a bad thing.
How strange history can be! A few days later I scribbled out a song to the tune of a Woody Guthrie ballad: The Ballad of JFK. I sang it often through the sixties and seventies, hardly at all since then. 11/23/2004 05:33:03 AM |
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Monday, November 22, 2004 Good scene, wrong play My first experience in the importance of removing good material from a work if its "goodness" doesn't contribute to the whole was with my play based on the life of Moliere. This was commissioned by the New Rose Theatre in the early 1980s when I was resident playwright there. In fact, it was while working on this play, and being stuck, that I took a quick diversion and quickly wrote Christmas at the Juniper Tavern, which went on to become my best known play, largely due to being picked up by public television.
The Moliere play was originally called The Comedian In Spit Of Himself and was a long three-act play. Too long, in my opinion. Although the artistic director of the theater liked the play and was ready to open with it, I wasn't so sure about it. We made a compromise: we'd open but I got to rewrite during the run. The actors, needless to say, were not thrilled at this, but this is what happened. In fact, I made major rewrites during each of the six weeks of the run. In a very real sense, there were six different plays shown, a new one each week. And all my changes were cuts. By the end, the play was forty-five minutes shorter than when we started.
The cut I had to fight for was the funniest scene in the play, a drunk night between Moliere and the company stage manager. Audiences howled. Artistic directors love it when audiences howl. So why cut the scene? Because, in fact, it had nothing to do with the play! I found a way to insert the drunken comic relief in another scene, getting what needed to be done in about a minute instead of ten minutes. I finally won this argument with the artistic director and the scene was cut.
After the run, I continued to rework the play, finally rewriting it into two acts and renaming it Sad Laughter. It remains one of my favorite plays.
In a work of art, every part must contribute to the whole. Sometimes a scene or chapter can have its own appeal and look good in the short run but in the long run it hurts the work by diverting focus and slowing down the central narrative. Of course, this is always a judgement call. I made the right choice in the Moliere play. And I just made the right choice again in the new novel. As soon as I made the decision, something else occurred to me, an addition which will set up very early an important development much later in the story -- the cut made room for it in my mind perhaps. Good progress on both fronts, cutting and adding. Onward.
11/22/2004 06:07:09 PM |
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Research Spent a lot of time researching some things for the new novel and along the way decided on a plot change because what I had in mind might twist focus off the more important material. It's like a good scene in the wrong play.
11/22/2004 03:12:37 PM |
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Greetings from Hawaii Harriet is having a grand time. The sunset wedding on the beach was gorgeous, she told me on the phone yesterday. Her snorkeling adventure, just before the call, was fantastic. No Portland cold fog there ha ha. We'll have to return together some time. Meanwhile, caught up on school stuff, will send time on the libretto today. Onward.
11/22/2004 09:39:12 AM |
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Sunday, November 21, 2004 The way to a writer's heart It's so easy to satisfy a writer. Buy one of his books! Doing research on the net tonight, I by chance discovered that the Chicago Public Library has Love At Ground Zero on its shelves, a book of which I am particularly fond. Other distant cities don't (I checked, of course!). A librarian in Chicago ordered it for some reason. Very nice. My screenwriting book is in lots of libraries across the country but usually only regional libraries order my fiction and drama.
11/21/2004 07:41:02 PM |
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Grunt work A laid back day of casual grunt work. Researching agents to whom to query about AFTER 9/11 after I rewrite Patriots. No writing today, at least not so far.
11/21/2004 04:21:18 PM |
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Saturday, November 20, 2004 Sports heroes, then and now As a kid in Southern California, I used to collect autographs of professional football players. Teams coming in to play the L.A. Rams often stayed at the Green Hotel in Pasadena, where I and a friend would track them down for autographs. What I remember most is how gentlemanly and humble these athletes were.
My #1 sports hero at the time was Hugh McElhenny of the San Francisco 49ers. I was a 49er fan, despite leaving in So. Cal., because my dad was. He loved nothing better than taking me to a 49er-Rams game at the Coliseum and rooting for the visitors, especially if we were sitting in the middle of the home crowd.
One afternoon we found McElhenny in the lobby of the Green Hotel and once again, as last season, got his autograph. Only this time my hero asked if we were busy. We weren't. McElhenny took us out to pick out a birthday gift for his nephew who was about our age. Later he took us out for ice cream. We spent about two hours alone with my greatest sports hero, and I was in heaven.
Much has changed since then. Athletic stars are seldom humble and soft spoken any more. A back scores a routine touchdown and has to do a dance to celebrate. It is impossible to picture Hugh McElhenny dancing in the end zone -- or Joe Perry, Alan Ameche, Jim Brown, and countless others from that era. It is simply unthinkable. If asked why they don't dance to celebrate, they would have answered, I'm just doing my job. They pay me to score touchdowns. I'm just doing my job.
Maybe it was Cassius Clay, as he was called then, who changed it all by creating a flamboyant, arrogant personality that the media couldn't give enough of. And money helped, too, arrogance often following wealth. McElhenny, asked to compare college and professional football after his first year, said he liked pro ball all right but didn't like the salary cut. He apparently had received more under-the-table benefits from alumni as a college star than his pro salary in those days. Not much earlier, DiMaggio's unheard of salary of one hundred grand made headlines.
Average players are millionaires today. Average players. Many of them are arrogant jerks as well. I feel sorry for kids today, who often hold up men without character as heroes.
The trance of the writer There's a wonderful scene in the film The Hours that captures what it's like to be a writer. Virginia, her sister, and Vanessa's children are in the parlor, Venessa yapping away. Virginia, lost in thought, is in her own world. Finally Venessa gets her attention. She explains to her children that Aunt Virginia is one of the lucky ones who has two lives, the life the rest of them live here in the parlor but also a private life in her mind with the characters she creates for her novels. Later Virginia, responding to a child's inquiry about what she was doing, explains that she had decided to kill off her protagonist but now has changed her mind. She's afraid she'll have to kill off someone else instead.
A writer lives a lot of life in a trance, especially when developing a new story. I was in a trance this morning, driving across town for breakfast at Nobby's. Hooker and Bear, my two characters in the new novel, were speaking to me endlessly, as if rehearsing scenes to come later. I don't get in the same trance with the libretto because its story already exists, its adapted from a play of mine. Trances are deepest when earliest in the creative process, it seems.
The writer is fragile and hard to get along with at this stage. Writers, probably hard to live with in general, are especially hard to live with now. If a person doesn't understand the creative process, they can seem impossible to live with.
This is a special novel, the way The Half-Life Conspiracy is special, a work of fiction, yes, but one raised on the foundation of deeply personal experiences. It makes it both easier and harder to write.
The rush The new novel is just pouring out of me, and I've written two chapters already. I think I am close to the right tone. It's both fun and moving to write, being so autobiographical, or at least more so than usual. But I'll spend the rest of the day with the libretto, which is front burner. I'm enough into the novel now to fee secure about its tone for the moment. Onward.
11/20/2004 06:49:14 AM |
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Friday, November 19, 2004 Insatiable Ended up doing some writing today after all, the opening paragraph of the new novel, perhaps the fifth or sixth version and the first that may have the right tone, an echo of Kerouac's opening in On the Road. We'll see how it sounds in a few days.
11/19/2004 05:15:19 PM |
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Transition Feel like being laid back today. If I didn't have the morning marketing meeting, I'd put the dog in the car and head for the coast! As is, probably just hang around and read after the meeting or at most print out the screenwriting book to proof. Or maybe I'll take a shorter trip with the dog, up the gorge, to coffee in McMinnville or some nearby small town, whatever strikes me at the time. What I don't want to do is write or work ha ha. When you are as prolific as I am, no problem taking time off without feeling guilty.
11/19/2004 08:40:44 AM |
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What's in a title? The books being sent to me to review are:
Screenwriting: the Sequence Approach. Nice title. A sequence outline is a nifty way to structure a story.
Screenwriting Is Storytelling. Amen!
The Screenwriter Within. Oh, God, tell me this isn't some New Age mumbo-jumbo.
Shuffling the deck With the novel draft done, time to instigate new priorities in my work schedule:
Bring the libretto front burner. In fact, start working on it (act two) immediately.
Print out the proof of Practical Screenwriting and start correcting it.
As time permits, get started on Kerouac's Scroll. During office hours yesterday I scribbled the possibility of a 3-part structure: On the Road; Memories; Death & Resurrection. Will give this more thought.
Thursday, November 18, 2004 A grudge for the gods Received an unexpected packet of Deemer family photos (grandparents and such) via my sister-in-law via an ex who still, after a quarter of a century, refuses to speak a word to me, or even to send mail. It so happens that both of us contributed to the end of our marriage, and somewhere along the way I got over it -- today I remember the good times, of which there were many, not the bad times. The ex apparently can't do this. I should have known, having witnessed a grudge she held against her father concerning a boyfriend she had in junior high. This lady holds a grudge with Athenian energy! Remarkable. P.S. A version of her (flattering, actually) will appear in the road story novel. I'm already ducking ha ha.
11/18/2004 03:51:13 PM |
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Into the stretch... Got my scripts read -- some nice surprises, a few struggling students got it figured out. I can do my marketing lecture without prep, so I'm almost home free. Lecture today, short week and a film next week, then I sit back and watch their class presentations when they pitch their stories with a preview and a poster. The term is almost over.
Drove Harriet to the airport at 6am. I think she'll love Hawaii. I did. I was fortunate to visit a friend over there, my favorite teacher, who first encouraged me to write when I took classes from him after the Army -- and we stayed in touch. But visiting him let me see the non-tourist places. In fact, I was shocked to learn that Honolulu was no more expensive than Portland if you knew where to go. I loved it over there! His apartment was on the canal, or one of them (don't remember if there's more than one). I had a great long visit with him. He was a fantastic teacher. J. Robert Trevor, Bob. Later became VP of a junior college, which took him out of the classroom and he hated it. He was teaching part-time after retirement in Honolulu.
My ending Reread the ending of the novel, touched it up a tad, but I still think it's basically right. We'll see. I'll wait now till Thanksgiving break, I think, then print it up to begin reading and rewriting over Christmas. I should have it ready to go early in 2005 then, certainly before spring. Also over Christmas, of course, I have to get a final copy of the screenwriting textbook to the publisher, but that should be an easier job than the novel.
When then do I start the road story? Maybe as early as term break! We'll see. I have the libretto front burner first, so not until I'm back in the rhythm of that.
Still a few more scripts to read. Harriet goes to the airport at 6am, not far away, so I'll have time this morning to read them. I'm up after three hours of "napping." Just couldn't get through all the scripts last night.
I have a hankering to reread Steinbeck's Travels With Charley, think I'll dig it out.
My marketing lecture in class today: how to market screenplays if you don't live in L.A. My "system" works -- I've had many, many students get their scripts read by producers and some even option them.
A novelist of note on our faculty, a student tells me, has started to use my "tree-forest" concept of alternative story development tracks for creative writers. Imitation is the best form of flattery, they say. She learned about the concept from the same student, who of course credited it to me.
Wednesday, November 17, 2004 Aloha! Harriet flies to Hawaii tomorrow to attend her son's wedding. So I'm baching it again. But for less than a week this time. 11/17/2004 07:52:34 PM |
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Ta da! Took a break from reading scripts, out to coffee with Harriet, back home and came down to my office to check email. When I was done, opened up the novel and the last chapter just poured out. It's pretty damn close, too. So, the big news: the draft of PATRIOTS is finished! In the old days, this would inspire a five or six day celebration ha ha. These days it's, ah me, back to reading student scripts.
Oh yes, Creative Screenwriting is sending me three books to review. Nice way to keep up on the latest in the field and get paid doing it.
On yes #2 ... John sent 14 orchestrated files, which I haven't had a chance to listen to yet. Friday or Saturday! I look forward to it. Only 4 more files/scenes to go.
But I do have to finish up these scripts tonight. I hate reading them on the day before class, too stressful.
11/17/2004 03:56:30 PM |
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Reflection My students' midterms were so much better than their term projects (in general) -- the difference being that I provided the story situation in the former, not in detail but in part. It appears to have been enough -- plus, perhaps, the page limitation -- to get them focused. On their projects, many who aced the midterm are writing with typical inefficiency, the common problem for beginning screenwriters. After the elation of reading their midterms, I find their projects for the most part (i.e. some fine exceptions) to be a bit disappointing.
11/17/2004 01:47:32 PM |
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Novel v. film There are many changes made in going from the novel Sideways to the film, which is typical. But some are easier to understand than others. The novelist thanks the filmmaker in a postscript, so he believes the heart of the book is retained, which I suppose it is. The shift, I believe, is that the novel is more about the buddies and the complexity of their relationship, while the film focuses more on the protagonist-woman relationship as it develops into romance. A shift of emphasis. For example, in the movie the buddy gets his nose broken by the woman he's been playing around with and lying to; in the novel, it's the protagonist who breaks his buddy's nose, hitting him when he learns the buddy paid Maya, his female interest, a grand to sleep with him, an unromantic event entirely cut from the movie. This makes the novel darker than the film. I'm eager to read the screenplay and see what else I learn.
11/17/2004 11:42:13 AM |
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Feedback Today may be the hardest day of the university term: I have all their scripts, and it's my last chance to offer constructive feedback before they turn them in for a grade in two weeks. So I need to be especially insightful in my reading. And there are a lot of them to do, so it will be a long day.
Joe wants another marketing meeting on Friday. I'm not sure what there is to cover that we didn't cover at the last one.
11/17/2004 08:10:31 AM |
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Tuesday, November 16, 2004 Road stories Sideways is a buddy road story like my next novel Kerouac's Scroll will be, though I plan to take more formal risks than this one, which is very traditional. But it's a good thing to read before I start mine. Very, very interesting changes in storyline to the movie -- always fun to ponder why the hell they made the changes. These novel to movie changes always appear to be in the direction of simplicity and focus. Perhaps a dumbing-down of the audience is implied in there. At any rate, the novel is a fun, quick read. About halfway through.
11/16/2004 03:26:32 PM |
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Sideways, the novel Started reading this and am enjoying it immensely. Thinking of using both script and novel in the spring. I've never required my students to read a novel in a screenwriting class -- yet the hurdle many have trouble with is understanding the different rhetorical universes of fiction and screenwriting. An example of the same story done each way might help. We'll see how the script is. Already, having seen the movie, I see interesting changes, simplifications, from novel to film but I'm mainly interested in the rhetorical differences, not the storytelling ones, though they too are important. But even at this late date, a few of my students are still writing as if they were writing fiction, not a script. It's a short novel, a quick read, I may use it. All depends on how the script is written, whether or not it's a good model of compression or one of those verbose shooting scripts.
Ready for class, finally. Still in my robe at noon! Shower, shave, get ready for school. A ton of reading tomorrow since tonight I pick up all their next-to-last drafts. Onward.
11/16/2004 01:00:42 PM |
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Celebration I think my university class today will be a celebration of their midterms. There are 10 short scripts that are quite good ... would take most if not all of our two hours to read them but I think that's what I'll do. Their rewrites of class projects are due today, I can push my marketing lecture to Thursday, next week we watch a short documentary "The Monster That Ate Hollywood," then Thanksgiving. Yes, a good day to share scripts. I also pass out their take-home final today and guidelines for their class presentations, in which they pitch their scripts by writing the preview and designing the movie poster. I still have a bit of prep work to do but in good shape.
I don't have the ending of the novel right yet. Not going to sweat blood over it yet -- one way or another, I'll wrap the draft up on Friday, I think.
11/16/2004 08:13:19 AM |
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Monday, November 15, 2004 Revisiting The Visit An actor friend who used to live in Portland and now lives back east, Philadelphia I believe, sent me an email asking what I liked about Durrenmatt's play The Visit, which I had recommended to him. The question assumes he didn't like it much. Let me explain why I do.
A serious subject matter. This play, like all of Durrenmatt's best work, rises from a moral question: would an economically depressed community sacrifice one of their own for recovery and riches? The play is about how the knee jerk responses -- of course not! -- becomes its opposite -- well, given our situation, I suppose we might... Durrenmatt's view of humanity is dark but in my view it also is one substantiated by the historical record. I like this play first because for me it speaks much truth about the human condition.
High theatricality. It also is a pure play, a play that is not improved by moving to film. Indeed, its style -- human actors portraying trees and deer in one scene, for example -- is the opposite of film realism. Durrenmatt's dramatic style is poetic and presentational, not realistic and representational, and this is the kind of theater I enjoy most. The vast majority of American plays would make a better movie -- and the best of them usually do.
Dark humor. The play is very funny and witty despite its serious subject matter. The humor is dark and absurdist, which is not as much in fashion as it was in the sixties, but I've never lost favor with dark comedy. This is dark comedy indeed.
Its ending. The play doesn't cop out for a happy ending. The movie version compromises the ending (the movie version stinks, mostly for stylistic reasons -- you can't tell this story "realistically"). This play doesn't take short cuts.
Yes, I love this play -- not as much as his other major work, The Physicists, but it's high on my list of all-time favorite plays. At the same time, I can see how in content especially it is not for everyone. Its theatrical style is very difficult to pull off without looking corny -- this is not a play for amateur theaters to tackle.
Midterms II Best batch of midterms I've read in ages. Assignment was a short script based on a situation I provided. Huge variety of responses, half a dozen of the scripts could have been written by pros, only a few with any serious screenwriting problems at this late stage of the term. Going to have about ten of them read in class, all of the story interpretations quite good. A real joy to read! It is not always like this, ha ha.
11/15/2004 04:44:58 PM |
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American Primitive: Man With Fish I've written a lot about Dick Crooks here. This is Brad, his oldest son, showing off his first steelhead, caught in the Clearwater River in Idaho. Go, Brad! 11/15/2004 11:06:43 AM |
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The Excommunicated Unitarian This has such a nice ring to it! One of those phrases that makes you do a double-take. Yes, I should start calling myself an excommunicated unitarian. Do street theater on the church steps, performed by the Excommunicated Unitarian Players. What fun!
By the way, the skinny on the minister, who runs the church like the Southern Baptist she was as a child, is that she is so depressed by Bush's election, and assumes her congregation is as well, that she can't deal with anything "dark" or what she labels as "a downer," which apparently is how she thought of the service, which is a misrepresentation. This, of course, does not explain her fascist management style, which is the real problem. I, not the music director, actually was the director of this service but she never talked to me at all. Well, I'm not on the payroll like the music director is, she has nothing to hold over me. I wonder how she deals with the Republicans in the congregation -- and there are some. Unitarian principles include "acceptance of one another" and "the inherent worth and dignity of every person" -- but somehow if you are a Republican who voted for Bush (neither of which I am myself, but I know folks who are and don't dismiss them as deranged, just optimistic), you don't fit into this minister's world of acceptance. Hence I've added an Eighth Principle, borrowed from Orwell, to the seven the church now has: All Unitarians Are Equal But Some Are More Equal Than Others. At any rate, I've decided to call myself an Excommunicated Unitarian -- if for no other reason than that it sounds so cool! I need a hat. I need a T-shirt. Onward.
11/15/2004 10:39:28 AM |
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Sunday, November 14, 2004 The rest of the year ... Writing schedule for the rest of the year looks something like this:
Finish the last few pages of the draft of Patriots. Print it and let it sit for a bit.
Print out the proof of Practical Screenwriting. Go over it during Christmas break, submitting the final copy before the end of the year.
Move the Varmints libretto draft front burner for new projects.
Begin the draft of Kerouac's Scroll but keep Varmints front burner until a draft is done. Then bring this front-burner. After the first of the year:
Rewrite Patriots and Varmints. I hope to be able to finish both before spring.
Adventures in Unitarian land The first service was excellent. The congregation was moved and appreciative of our efforts, many coming up to me to say I "outdid myself." The service ran a tad longer than usual but no one seemed to mind. However, the minister still had her thumb up her ass and rushed to the music director to dictate more cuts, including a moving contribution by a congregant who was not at the first service and therefore would miss her story entirely. I shook my head in disbelief, apologized to her husband, and left. "Louis, I think this may be the end of a beautiful friendship."
11/14/2004 11:49:14 AM |
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Out of deep sleep... ...to come down to my basement office, where I got a good start on the last half of the last chapter.
Will put on my director's face today and focus on the well-being of my actors. I don't want them upset or distracted by this recent cut and whatever political hogwash is behind it. They were fantastic at dress and I want the same energy from them. Then we can all piss and moan later.
Unitarian Censors at work? Well, well, well. What an interesting development. I just had a phone call from the music director. The minister asked about the service tomorrow (at this late date), the music director told her, and she had a fit. It sounds like such a downer! Well, it's about grief -- and most of it is an oral history project, in which many members of the congregation voluntarily shared their grief stories with me. One story in particular, in which a teenage girl driver had an accident that killed her father (a story voluntarily offered to be used), the minister decided was too horrible, or too something, for the congregation ("her" congregation, I suppose) to take. The story must be cut. I can't believe it.
There was a time when I'd have my own fit over this. I'd arrive at church early and pass out uncensored scripts as the congregants filed in. Or I'd stand up and tell the story myself.
But I'm past all that. The minister apparently doesn't believe her congregation can handle so many stories of grief. Or something. Since this service has been months in the making, well publicized regarding the collection of grief stories, etc etc etc, why is this happening only 16 hours before the first service? Why is the minister "having a fit" (as the music director explained her reaction to me)? What the hell is going on?
What poppycock. This so-called "liberal" church is as uptight as many churches and believes in diversity only as long as it pulls the party line. All Unitarians Are Equal But Some Are More Equal Than Others, the 8th Principle. Liberal church politics stinks as much as conservative church politics.
Dress rehearsal Show is a tad long so I did some on the spot cutting ... but with the music added, it's a fine piece if I say so myself. The actors/readers do a first rate job, as does the choir. Tomorrow I'll watch both shows from the upper balcony, out of reach of the music director who will want me to take a bow. I prefer letting the actors do all that stuff. That's what they're paid for ha ha.
Sideways the novel has been shipped. Will arrive next week, can't wait to read it.
Down to the last half of the last chapter. Thinking about it but haven't begun writing yet and likely won't today.
I'd like to see Vera Drake tonight. Not sure what my wife wants to see.
UCLA beat Oregon. I have degrees from both but always root for UCLA, the team I rooted for as a kid, even though I've now lived much longer in Oregon than in LA. In a strange way, I still regard Pasadena as home. Certainly felt like home when I returned a few years ago, after decades away. Or at least as near as I can regard a physical place as home. As a lyric in one of my songs says, "The inside of my head is my country."
Lysistrata II A very bawdy, edgy, over the top production. Great set, costumes, music. Uneven performances, typical of a college production. Well directed. But finally this is a one-joke play, the fault of the script itself, I think.
While my wife was back east, a cousin talked her into entering a calendar photo contest in Maine (of the fall colors she was photographing). Damned if she didn't get two second places, both photos going into the calendar!
11/13/2004 03:38:25 AM |
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Friday, November 12, 2004 Lysistrata The opera last night, theater tonight: a new rock musical version of Lysistrata. Might be a hoot, especially since it is directed by Julie Akers, who has directed several of my plays and did a first rate job of them. In fact, she directed two of the three plays during the "retrospective" of my work here back in the late 80s. A retrospective that turned into a jinx: a decade passed before another play of mine was produced in Portland, and two award-winning recent plays still have never been done here. When they give you a retrospective, I guess they think you're dead. At any rate, Julie is a very fine director. I look forward to seeing what she's up to tonight.
11/12/2004 06:31:16 PM |
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Practical Screenwriting Focus Publishing has announced my new screenwriting book on its web page for a 2005 release. Better go over the proof they sent me a while ago! The book will retail at $19.95, which isn't too bad. A colleague's screenwriting book, a slender book published by a small press, interested me until I learned it retailed at $34.95. Outrageous.
11/12/2004 04:01:47 PM |
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Progress Fantastic morning of work! Got a good start on the midterms, two of which blew my mind they were so good, future pros behind those scripts. Finished the chapter I'd been working on and the next, leading to the confrontation chapter. Man, I may even finish the draft this weekend. This is great. Then I can let it sit and turn to the libretto, with a good shot of finishing the draft before year's end. Over Christmas I also need to look at the proof of the screenwriting book getting published. Busy, busy. I love it.
11/12/2004 11:20:19 AM |
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Opera season begins Our opera season began last night with Rossini's The Journey to Reims. This has little story and really is a celebration of song, with lots of fun and good moments of singing. Very nicely done and appreciated for what it is. 11/12/2004 05:41:37 AM |
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Midterms Will start off the day reading midterms since I read none at all yesterday. Planned out the last four chapters of the novel and got a good start on the first of these. Archie comes home on emergency leave after his mother dies, arrives on the 4th of July when Claire, his wife, is out marching against the war -- and discovers the house has been robbed (by two homeless men Claire has been letting camp in the backyard). When Claire comes home, they have their confrontation. In the last chapter, we get a hint of what their separate lives will be after this confrontation. The draft is almost done!
Which is a good thing, for each day I have more energy to begin Kerouac's Scroll. I'm going to pair Patriots with Love At Ground Zero and see if I can market these two short novels together as After 9/11: Two Short Novels. Doing this because so many wouldn't look at Love because it was so short.
I'm very excited that the script to Sideways has been published, the first Payne movie to come out in book form (Citizen Ruth was published in Scenario magazine). Have ordered it and may well teach it in the spring. I wonder if it would be too much to assign them the novel on which it is based -- I've been thinking of teaching a novel and script together to bring home the point of what different rhetorical universes the two forms exist in. Next term, winter, I'm using 3 scripts, The Birdcage, my old stand by; The Hours again; and Adaptation, a question on which will be their final.
No plans for Thanksgiving. Last night suggested a country ride and stopping at a cafe in a small town somewhere. Sounds good to me. Onward.
11/12/2004 05:33:50 AM |
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Thursday, November 11, 2004 Alexander Payne Payne has become my favorite young director. Each of his films -- Citizen Ruth, Election, About Schmidt and now Sideways -- is a real gem. Saw the latter last night. Absolutely love it. He has a new one in the works, a father-son road comedy called Nebraska. Payne specializes in off-beat characters and stories, rich characterizations, and right on human comedy. Really great stuff.
11/11/2004 03:50:29 PM |
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5-day window Holiday, no school, today, so I don't return to class until Tuesday, giving me a 5-day window to write. Also have a pile of midterms to read; if I'm smart, I'll do some each afternoon. But mornings I want to focus on the novel. I even have a shot at finishing the draft. Exciting.
11/11/2004 08:30:52 AM |
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Wednesday, November 10, 2004 And now we wait ... The anthology looks great! We approved the proof, the printing begins. More pre-publication orders came in from around the state as well. This may be a regional hit -- or it may bomb. But the pre-publication interest is very strong, the publisher is delighted. Onward.
11/10/2004 01:52:38 PM |
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One hoop to go This morning I check the book proof from the printer, what used to be called "the blue line." When I was managing editor at Oregon Business Magazine (my last 9 to 5 job, 20 years ago!), the arrival of the blue line was a great occasion. I'll likewise be excited to go over the book this morning at the publisher's.
I picked up a stack of midterms last night. Fortunately, with Thursday a holiday, I don't have to read them all today. I want to finish the novel chapter I started in my office and maybe start another, the end very much in sight. I think surely I can finish the draft before Thanksgiving! If I get hot, in a few days.
Tuesday, November 09, 2004 The office Was falling asleep at home, after finishing my school prep, so I came to my office at the university early and am getting work done. Wrote a long overdue email to a friend in LA and got a good start on the next chapter of the novel. I'm less than half-a-dozen chapters from the end now, things coming together nicely. The tone of the ending will be tricky and something I'll worry about later. Right now, I just want to get everything on the page, print it all out, and let it sit a spell while I work on the libretto. Then I'll start rewriting, always the most fun part of the process, even as I start pulling teeth, always the most frustrating part of the process, on the senior road story.
Busy, busy Harriet's home, exhausted and sleeping in. I can't wait to see her photographs of New England's fall colors.
I have a lot of prep work to do before class today. The printer has the anthology proof ready, so I'll go look at it tomorrow. Joe says the cover looks great. He sent out fliers announcing publication and 100 copies requested so far, which encourages him that the book may do well. After the first of the year, he's sending me out on a radio-TV-bookstore blitz. The first event is still the Xmas book sale at the historical society.
Well, a ton of work to do this morning, I'd better get at it. Maybe I can add more here during office hours. Onward.
11/09/2004 07:24:54 AM |
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Monday, November 08, 2004 Roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em Most of another chapter on the novel today. Ever closer to the end.
A day of chores now, what with my wife flying in late tonight. The attempt to return the house to the way she left it ha ha.
Sunday, November 07, 2004 Paula Radcliffe After her Olympics disaster, Radcliffe came back to win the NYC marathon. Good to see. 11/07/2004 05:21:30 PM |
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Kerouac's Scroll Even as I work on Patriots, which I like a lot, I often am thinking about this next one, which more and more feels like "my masterpiece." Not in any commercial sense but in terms of its content, reach and formal invention. A strange marriage between On the Road and Tuesday With Morrie, this road trip between two lifelong friends now in their 70s will be driven, I hope, as a suspense story -- each has a major secret he's keeping from the other, one of which gets revealed in the beginning, the other in the end, of the story -- but along the way will be many other things as well, including a kind of summary of everything I've been writing about these many years. It needs to move forward quickly, have a strong comic voice, a tad dark, and come out at 300 pages or less. That's about all I know about it right now but this is more than enough to make me eager to begin. As soon as the draft of the current one is done, I'll do it! Maybe even this month. Onward.
11/07/2004 09:56:35 AM |
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Sunday morning Breakfast at Nobby's, where my usual waitress is in mourning over the election. Still. Wishing she could afford to move to Canada.
I'm reminded of the elections of 1968 and 1972, where Democrats suffered similar depression over Nixon and Vietnam, many wishing to emigrate. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
The pendulum will swing back yet again into an era where "liberal" will not be a pejorative term and conservatives will look like barriers to progressive change. I may not live that long ha ha, but the times they are a-changin', always, always.
Here in the west, of course, blue states from top to bottom, it's already like living in a foreign country, foreign to the national mainstream. It's always been one of its charms. The west! But I wouldn't be surprised if we see some pink here before the pendulum starts its next cycle. I don't lose any sleep over any of this, at least not yet. Keep focused on doing my thing -- and at Nobby's this morning, before and after breakfast, I wrote a new chapter on the novel. Add an ! to that, it was a long time coming.
Saturday, November 06, 2004 And the beat goes on I just learned that Geoffrey Sirc's book English Composition as a Happening won the 2003 W. ROSS WINTEROWD AWARD as the "Most Outstanding Book in Composition Theory." Here is a blurb about the book:
What happened to the bold, kicky promise of writing instruction in the 1960s? The current conservative trend in composition is analyzed allegorically by Geoffrey Sirc in this book-length homage to Charles Deemer’s 1967 article, in which the theories and practices of Happenings artists (multi-disciplinary performance pioneers) were used to invigorate college writing. Sirc takes up Deemer’s inquiry, moving through the material and theoretical concerns of such pre- and post-Happenings influences as Duchamp and Pollock, situationists and punks, as well as many of the Happenings artists proper. With this book, sure to become a cult classic, begins a neo-avant-garde for composition studies.
This "homage" is perhaps the most rewarding thing about writing: you never know who is going to read what and be moved to write something else to continue the energy. (You can read my original essay here.) Man, I wrote that so long ago!
Chores Finally got a lot of raking done this morning. Not all of it but the worst of it. Now to relax and watch some football. Still not back in the novel groove, ah me, but soon, I keep saying.
11/06/2004 01:48:21 PM |
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Thursday, November 04, 2004 Office hours A fine crisp autumn day today -- so it's befitting that on the drive to school I heard Miles Davis' fine rendition of Autumn Leaves. Earlier took the dog for a run and the changing trees were florescent, though probably not as spectacular as the New England fall my wife is visiting. She returns Monday and none too soon ha ha.
Feeling like I'll be back in the writing groove tomorrow. Have a morning meeting with Joe first, and some lawn chores to do, but I expect to get back in rhythm between now and Harriet's return. The end of the novel draft is quite close! Maybe five good writing days. Be exciting to finish it.
Been picking a lot on the 5-string lately. Re-remembering Salty Dog, Little Maggie, Old Joe Clark. Maybe I'll even learn some new songs.
Expect a hard rehearsal tonight, last real chance to make major changes before we start run-throughs next week. But we're in good shape. Onward.
11/04/2004 04:02:21 PM |
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Free screenwriting software A company called Mindstar Productions has a free self-contained screenplay format program at this address. I've tried it out and it is very user friendly. No bells and whistles but it will format your screenplay. They underline sluglines, not a widespread standard, but that's a small inconvenience for the great price. A PC version available now, Mac on the way. This will be a life-saver for many of my students.
11/04/2004 10:58:19 AM |
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Nth wind Feel a new surge of energy coming on! End of rain, colder weather ... caught up on student reading, so the rest of the day is my own. I need to rake leaves! But that's good activity for a Saturday, while listening to a football game -- need to check the weather and get it done before the next rain, however.
Long rehearsal planned for tonight, getting it together ... only one rehearsal next week, then a dress, then two performances. They are in good shape. Strong cast, a delight to work with. But I think this may be my last show at UU for a while. Or rather, I am "going on strike" and holding out for scenes from Dark Mission, so when I am next asked to fill a slot, I'll suggest this and if not embraced, well, I won't do anything. Meanwhile, the director lady returns Nov. 15th and the score is waiting for her. Man, I hope she responds to it! It sounds to me as if the rest would fall naturally in place if she does. I like this piece, John's music, more the more I hear it. I'm not so sure about the libretto but the music is first class.
Haven't rec'd any orchestration files from John lately. He's having a bad time, according to his blog, so he's probably scrambling to solve more immediate problems. Work is the curse of the artistic class -- work as traditionally defined, of course. No one works harder than an artist. An artist works 24/7!
As my verbosity here suggests, I have crawled out of the whatever-it-was ditch I was in for a few days.
I got interviewed by a reporter about National Novel Writing Month, even though I'm not participating after all. I endorsed it as a writing teacher.
I thought I was retired as a screenwriter but I keep getting these ideas for scripts. I remember what a former playwright turned screenwriter once told me: whenever he got an idea for a play, he went out and got drunk and that usually cured him. He was fed up with being a starving playwright, became a wealthy screenwriter instead.
Well, I have the morning to myself before I have to head out for the big U. Onward.
Wednesday, November 03, 2004 Life Goes On Reading student scripts, took a break to re-watch Election. Highly recommended post-election entertainment!
Protest march downtown, some woman screaming "we want our democracy back!" Wait a sec, lady. The Prez got over 50% of the popular vote. Majority rules and all that. That's why Plato didn't like democracy ha ha! The unlearned masses rule. He wanted philosopher kings to rule.
Ah, me. Yet, as divisive as the country is, it's not as split as the sixties -- at least not yet.
Office hours The last several days of relative inactivity on the writing front may have come from exhaustion from the sprint immediately before. At any rate, feeling renewed and more energetic today. Pick up scripts today, too, so tomorrow I'll spend reading them. Friday a "marketing meeting" with the anthology publisher, so I may not get back into full writing rhythm till the weekend. But the end is in sight! I think a good five to seven writing days will finish the draft. Then I'll let it sit for a while and see if I can finish the draft of the libretto. Then rewrite the novel and start the draft of the next one. Good to have energy again! Onward.
11/02/2004 03:41:42 PM |
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Renewal? Up with more energy than I've had in last few days. Hope to get some writing done before going to the U, and from there to rehearsal, then home to see how nasty the election has become, see what kind of "model of democracy" we present to the world.
11/02/2004 08:20:29 AM |
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Monday, November 01, 2004 Turtle Another slow day. Must be recharging the battery.
I hope someone wins tomorrow clearly enough to keep the election out of the courts. Who needs terrorists to destroy us when with mean-spiritedness and ideological hysteria we can do it ourselves? Both sides of the political spectrum are guilty in this department.
I am reminded of a Morse story from my play: losing a close election to Bob Packwood in the Vietnam era, the senator refused to follow the advice of his aides and demand a recount. He did not want to be remembered as a bad loser. Today the country is filled with bad losers.
11/01/2004 06:15:14 PM |
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_The Writing Life