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.
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
Wednesday, August 31, 2005 Progress Ended up writing over 1000 words on the mystery draft today, hopefully putting me back in the groove. I'll know tomorrow. Going to sit on the sunny deck and catch up with reading.
8/31/2005 02:28:00 PM |
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Update A good start on chapter 29 this morning, and I think I'm not done for the day yet.
But the early returns on the marketing blitz for Love in the Time of Terror are very discouraging. Only one request for a script thus far. My sensibilities must be very out-of-line from what the buyers are after.
On the 24-hr writing contest I entered, I was the 3rd runner-up. I actually wrote a piece in the wrong genre, so I was surprised to do this well.
8/31/2005 09:39:00 AM |
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Tuesday, August 30, 2005 Stumbling ahead Rewrote chapter 28 today, ready to go to 29. Very tempted to stop, print everything out, and start from page one and do another "let's fix what needs fixing" rewrite but I strongly resist this since I'm so close to the end, I think in the long run it will be more useful to stumble forward and get my ending. The rewrite is going to be more significant than of the first one because the story is more complex, but that's fine, it's the really fun part. I need to bully forward to the end, I think. So I'll keep moving forward -- and if I get too discouraged, I'll stop and do the rewrite.
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 |
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Monday, August 29, 2005 A weekend at the coast We're staying in what amounts to a 1BR apt., overlooking the marina in Newport, within walking distance of all the wharf and bayfront shops and restaurants. Quite nice! And very quiet.
The play Saturday night went very well. A good performance, good audience and discussion afterwards. But the more I watch the play, the more I miss it as the teleplay it originally was commissioned as, the vision of the piece is more visual than for stage. But it does its job, it seems, and audiences like it. I'm just aware of how much more it could be.
Today is our relaxing day and back tomorrow. All kinds of activities in the area that H is interested in. I'm interested in hanging out right here, with a walk for coffee as ambitious as I want to become. She's sleeping in, so we'll see how the day develops.
MONDAY. This has been a total period of relaxation, which is to say, I haven't done any work or even any reading. Lots of staring at the ocean, walking, playing with the dog, eating great seafood, staring some more at the ocean. Now it's time to return and get back in the grind. A good battery charge.
8/29/2005 03:58:00 PM |
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Saturday, August 27, 2005 Perfect timing Off to the coast today to see my Morse play, and the timing couldn't be better. We're both ready to get out of town, if even for so short a time. We're thinking of a camping trip after Labor Day but nothing firm yet. I love seeing my plays out of town, even better out of state. Doesn't happen all that often any more since I'm not writing anything new. I remember meeting a playwright-turned-novelist-and-screenwriter some years ago, who had been widely produced and respected as a playwright, but made precious little money at it nonetheless, who when I asked him if he missed playwriting said, "I still get an idea for a play from time to time but usually one of two things usually gets rid of it, a fifth of whiskey or banging my head against a brick wall."
In Ireland -- I don't know if this is still true or not -- writers used to be excused from paying taxes. Different cultures treat their artists in far different ways. We've always had the cowboy culture, in different variations, independence, star-hero driven, do it on your own. The main thing wrong with the culture today is that we've created the leisure and education to create many, many more artists in all genres than the culture has the slightest idea what to do with -- so, to make a living, most of them teach and train still more unemployable artists! We have a huge amount of talent out there, and very few actually make a living at their art. The star emphasis in the arts has eliminated the middle class. In the arts, there is no middle class. You either are upper or lower class. (In any given year, about 80% of union card-carrying screenwriters don't make it above the poverty level income. But hopefully some of them are still living off past peak years.)
Well, the facts of life. Follow your bliss and to hell with money. You can figure out how to pay the rent without doing too much damage to your self-image ha ha.
I've been amazingly lucky in this regard. I've had very few years of "normal" 9-to-5 employment in my life. Lived off grants, by my wits, as a freelance writer, all this before I returned to teaching, where I started for a while. I'm in a great rhythm now, a screenwriting professor Tues, Wed and Thur during the school year, a full-time writer all the rest of the days and all summer. And I may quit teaching any year now, I keep telling myself, though I continue because I still enjoy it and also enjoy the income. Retiring will require less luxury. Unless something "happens," which one can't count on.
But I have no serious complaints about much of anything. At least not this morning ha ha. Onward.
8/27/2005 08:30:00 AM |
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Oregon Literary Review Here's the address for the sneak preview, as they say in Hollywood. We're still accepting submissions and will be till November anyway. Where we're under-represented at the moment are in the areas of poetry and nonfiction, whose editors have been silent this summer. Also in prose fiction. But we already have a strong issue, especially in music, hypermedia and scripts, areas usually ignored by reviews, which is a gap I think we can fill. At any rate, so far, so good.
8/27/2005 04:25:00 AM |
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Friday, August 26, 2005 Onward Finished chapter 28 this afternoon, ending with a nice surprise. I'll take the AlphaSmart to the beach and hopefully start 29 over the weekend. I also want to reread, and polish as needed, the thriller I'm going to market again.
A quiet warm afternoon. I can't believe how slow the housing development work is. They work for a few days, then disappear for a week or more. Maybe they have to jump through legal hoops, or have run out of money, or who knows what. I thought the new houses would be up at the end of the summer but obviously that's not going to happen.
Stephen DeCesare's excerpt from his Requiem, which John chose for the review, is first rate. Listened to it earlier with the volume cranked up. Very moving!
Pretty soon I'll be posting the URL for the preview here. You can check DeCesare out for yourself because I've put him in the preview.
Rec'd a hard-to-find book I ordered about the People's Park conflict in Berkeley, the first (original) one, which I may be using in a future project.
Hollywood's hard reality Been in a fruitful exchange of emails with the producer below. She reminded me that she is a specialist and what she specializes in are true stories. I told her I have one -- the true story of Ruth Barnett, Portland's famous abortionist in the 50s. Ha ha ha, how marketable is that? She actually is very sympathetic to the subject matter but knows how difficult a sell it would be today. Kindly, however, she asked for a synopsis. Meanwhile, I got my first request for a script of Love in the Time of Terror. So at least I didn't strike out. Since I'm in a marketing mode, I think I'll do another whirlwind of an old thriller I still like, with its original title Black and White. An agent loved it some years back but couldn't sell it under a different title. What goes against it is that the same character is portrayed as both white and black, although with computer technology today that should be a breeze. So we'll see what happens. I get on these marketing jags. Then they depress me so much, I don't do much of it for a while. In truth, the literary review is going to become my Blanket of Sanity, I see the handwriting on the wall, because so much good "high art" is coming in, it's invigorating -- and it also gives me an outlet ("Editor's Showcase" section) for my own high art. At least I don't have to live my entire life in the literary gutter ha ha.
8/26/2005 12:25:00 PM |
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O Hollywood! An early response from a producer to my pitch about Love in the Time of Terror: the story sounds quite good and very moving. Is it based on a true story? No? Oh, too bad, I probably can't sell it then.
Maybe I should just lie and say it is. If it sells, hire two actors to be the "real people." What an environment.
8/26/2005 02:58:00 AM |
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Thursday, August 25, 2005 Busy day More writing on chapter 28 today, and I should be able to finish the chapter tomorrow.
Tried starting two recent novels but quit on both after the first chapter.
John sent along some beautiful music files for the review tonight. I really like how the music section is coming together.
8/25/2005 09:51:00 PM |
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Wednesday, August 24, 2005 Vacation These past two days I've felt like I'm on vacation. Mellow, slow, getting little work done but not being bothered by it, as I often am. This afternoon I wrote 300 words on the mystery and stopped, thinking, well, that's enough for today.
8/24/2005 03:49:00 PM |
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Marketing blitz Tomorrow begins the marketing blitz in behalf of Love in the Time of Terror, the screenplay (happy ending version) based on my novel Love At Ground Zero, a book that is wearing very well with me. (The screenplay closest to the book's ending is called Love in the Ruins -- all versions are available in my archive.)
8/24/2005 01:18:00 PM |
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Urban living An early errand had me downtown before 9 -- the city is so nice at this time of day. Our original plan about "retirement" was to move downtown after selling our house but prices have skyrocketed so much I'm not sure this is now the best option for us. We'll have decisions to make in a couple years. But living downtown definitely would have its advantages.
I finished Three Bedrooms in Manhattan by Georges Simenon and like this novel a lot, although I'm not sure about the ending, which seems to present a forced optimism. But overall the characters and story moved me.
I didn't get any writing done yesterday at all. Caught up on reading. No biggie, I think I'll get some done today. I feel like the summer already has been productive but I'd still like to finish the mystery draft at least before school starts. If I also could get back on track with the road story, so much the better.
Showing a preview of Oregon Literary Review to a select audience. I'll release the preview to the public in mid-September. The executive director of Literary Arts wrote, "How exciting!," which is a good sign.
We had a cold spell, with another coming, but it's supposed to warm up for a few days again. I'm not ready for summer to end.
I am ready for a trip to the coast. We see my Morse play Saturday night. Looking forward to it.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005 Amazon shorts A reader has alerted me to Amazon Shorts, a new program for readers and writers featuring short work (fiction and nonfiction, literary and practical and entertaining) in a wide variety of genres, available for 49 cents each. Very significant development if this catches on as it will build an audience for electronic-only publishing, which already exists, of course, though for a limited audience. This can really increase the popularity of reading electronic work. It's a small step to make this work hypertext, which is where the real revolution is, it seems to me.
I'm going to check this out as a writer. I may not be enough of "a big shot" for them but we'll see. I'd love to do short hypertexts for this program, specifically to build an audience for the new dramaturgy.
8/23/2005 05:33:00 AM |
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Monday, August 22, 2005 Kerouac's Scroll I think I've identified part of the problem with my last movement of this story: the new plot point I added some time back is too contrived. I need something much more personal and natural, and I think I have a candidate. I'll make a note on the manuscript but let it rest until I finish the mystery draft.
Facing progress Since we can't look at an orchard any more, leave it to Harriet to come up with something more pleasant than staring at a housing development -- an art wall! It's in progress and already is a hoot.
8/22/2005 08:52:00 AM |
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AA Independent Press Guide Another extraordinary free literary resource on the net, The AA Independent Press Guide, listing thousands of lit mags and publishers around the world.
Got a good start on chapter 28 this morning. Another fine animation came in to the review, this one from a former student, great work. John is getting more music. In a few weeks, the preview issue will be released.
8/22/2005 08:48:00 AM |
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Sunday, August 21, 2005 Berkeley in the '60s Many political documentaries today have become shrill and manipulative, a product of the talk-show and TV cable commentary era. For a refreshing reminder that this film genre can be historically relevant and important, check out Mark Kitchell's Berkeley in the '60s, a film that puts an important era in clear and accurate perspective. I'm watching it this morning for the 7th or 8th time -- I seem to watch it almost once a year to remind myself of some of my roots, although my year in Berkeley was 1959 before the campus became politicized, when the climate was as wonderfully chaotic as the Internet was ten years ago before corporations discovered cyberspace. By the time students became politically active, I was at UCLA and later the University of Oregon.
But it's such a delight to see a documentary without a manipulative agenda, that lets the events of history and the participants in them speak for themselves in all their varying points of view. We need documentaries with this kind of integrity for our own times.
8/21/2005 10:14:00 AM |
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In the office Worked in the office this morning, rather than going out for coffee. Did a good rewrite of chapter 27 ... now ready to move on to 28. Maybe only ten or so chapters to go.
When I finish the draft, which I assume will be before school starts, I'll print it out and let it sit for a few days while I bring the road story front burner and solve this damn third act problem that has been stuck.
Saturday, August 20, 2005 Wayne Morse My play about Wayne Morse will be presented next week on the coast at the Newport Performing Arts Center, and I'll be there. It's nice to see this script touring twenty years after I wrote it on commission. In the mid-80s, after the public TV success of Christmas at the Juniper Tavern, which won an ACE award. I pitched a teleplay about Wayne Morse to Oregon Public Broadcasting and got the gig. I tell the full story in my memoir. The short version is that in the year it took me to write it, the administration at the station changed and the new bosses weren't hot to see it. I was a tad pissed but they'd paid me a good advance, which I kept.
For over a decade, the script gathered dust. I gave a staged reading of the teleplay that went so well I decided to convert it to the stage. But I didn't want to produce it. Finally, almost a decade later, the folks at the Morse Ranch memorial in Eugene came into the picture, and they managed to get it up and running on stage.
Americana: Multnomah Days Parade So much a community parade that anyone can be in it. Walk your dog. Pull your chickens in a wagon. Dress up like a slice of pizza. All within the "city" limits of Portland. (Click image to enlarge it.)
8/20/2005 01:34:00 PM |
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Thinking ahead After Labor Day, I need to start thinking about teaching. I'm making some changes in my syllabus. First, I'm showing the documentary "The Monster That Ate Hollywood" -- an overview of the industry today, which is not very encouraging to screenwriters -- at the beginning rather than the end of the class. My strategy was, OK, now you have the rudiments of craft, this is what the real world is like. My new strategy is, This is the world you are entering. Why don't you work to change it?
The second thing is, I'm scheduling one-on-one required conferences during class time, two I think. Although I have office hours and am easy to find, most students don't take advantage of this. For some reason, they sometimes don't "get" the comments I make on their work. I want to sit down with them for ten minutes and tell them specifically what they are doing wrong, beginning with format and rhetoric issues, the easiest to fix. So a conference near the beginning of the term and one near the end will be required.
I'm using the same books as spring, with my new textbook replacing my old one. For winter term, I may drop the novel -- we'll see how it goes. Maybe it's too inefficient a way to make the comparison points I want to make between fiction and screenwriting. We'll see how it goes this term. I may drop the second screenplay, too, and instead show an extra movie, probably for their final, something we haven't talked about. No two terms are exactly the same. I think the changes are mainly for my benefit.
Thinking ahead on writing projects, I see the months ahead this way:
finish the mystery draft
begin rewriting the mystery
finish the road story draft
begin the Tchaikovsky hypertext
begin research for the epic opera libretto
rewrite the road story
final rewrites on mystery
begin first draft of the epic opera libretto
talk to my agent about the mystery series, especially regarding a third novel -- relevant if nothing has sold after giving the second novel an early shot.
More Americana Multnomah Village is a "neighborhood" close to here, with a one block "main street" of shops and restaurants and a couple side streets that spin off of that, small and quaint and artsy. When I lived there in 1967 it was much the same (a tad more artsy-fartsy now) and my hangout then, The Ship Tavern, still exists. At any rate, this morning is Multnomah Days and we're taking it in, first the parade (all of several blocks!) and then the street fair.
In the meantime, my new flash fiction is called Mothers and Sons. As a bit of background to this, my mother was a Navy wife. I think I know something about most military wives and many (but surely not all) military mothers.
8/20/2005 08:05:00 AM |
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Friday, August 19, 2005 Keeping the faith Just reread my screenplay Love in the Time of Terror, the multicultural (American-Muslim) love story based on my novel Love at Ground Zero(with a more optimistic ending than the novel) -- and man, this script still moves me. I've got to keep this one in the marketplace. Sooner or later the right producer has to find this, it's so much the perfect love story for these times.
8/19/2005 07:16:00 PM |
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O bright new world! When I got my new computer, the monitor wasn't in so they had to back order it, and I got it today. Talk about an improvement! Also arriving today, my last addition, I think, an external floppy drive since I didn't have an internal one. So now I am floppy, CD, and DVD ready.
I keep talking about retiring but picking up my mail on campus, I was constantly reminded that the university is my community. I feel more at home there than in any other community. Not sure I'm ready to leave it yet. Well, I'm committed to a year and don't have decide on 2006-7 till the end of this calendar year. I'm pretty sure I'll do another.
8/19/2005 04:13:00 PM |
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Small world A librarian in Springfield (across the river from Eugene, where the university is) was cataloguing Oregon Fever and saw my name as editor and wondered something. She tracked me down and sent an email, asking if I had taught at the University of Oregon in the early 70s, in particular a writing class full of Black Panthers. Yep, I'm the guy! Ends up she was one of the shy, quiet white girls in the class, mesmerized by both fascination and fear. The Panthers, in their black berets and leather jackets, marched into class in military formation. They said mutherfucker a lot. It was one unique class, to say the least.
This, along with hearing from my favorite high school teacher after posting something about him here, are what make the Internet continuously mind-boggling.
8/19/2005 10:33:00 AM |
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Onward Another 1000+ word morning at Starbucks, finishing chapter 27. Things are cranking up -- and I'm at the point where I realize what a joy the next draft will be. First drafts by nature are stressful, frustrating, worrisome, because a story is created in empty space. But the next time through, it's REwriting, which is the absolute joy of the writing process. Take off the God hat and put on the craftsman hat, a much better fit.
I'll print out 27 and red ink the sucker later, I think. Time to get back to cleaning my office! Only about 2/3 done when the computer crashed and interrupted everything. Need to have a newly organized office by the time school starts, and I'm mostly there.
Watched the documentary Michael Moore Hates America last night. An unfortunate title, misleading, because this is not a mean-spirited film at all, certainly much less mean-spirited than Moore himself often is (never more so than during his visit to Portland, when he gave out the private telephone number of a conservative radio personality here, who immediately was besieged with life-threatening phone calls: dirty tricks by liberals are as dirty as dirty tricks by conservatives). The movie gets repetitive but it has a better heart than Moore's work, I think. Moore is too shrill, arrogant and self-serving. However, Moore is a better artist, but Michael Wilson seems like a nicer guy. But, of course, Moore is the millionaire, poor blue collar baby ha ha. Interesting how politicians and political commentators so often turn into the very folks they criticize.
8/19/2005 08:41:00 AM |
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Thursday, August 18, 2005 AMERICANA: a trip to the Clackamas County Fair Click on photo for larger image.
8/18/2005 05:31:00 PM |
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Update A good start on chapter 27 this morning. Then I did some grunt work on the review ... I had neglected to back up some recent corrections but I think I'm caught up now.
This afternoon we're off to the Clackamas County Fair, one of those smaller ones that haven't been corporationized and overgrown yet.
I'm approaching the 300 page mark on the mystery -- I may resist printing it out then for a polish and bully forward to the end. Lord knows there's plenty to fix but I am anxious to establish what my ending is, then go back with that good information from the start and begin to "stack the deck" the way magicians do. An influential essay about writing that I read early in my career was called "The Unemployed Magician," writer as same, by Karl Shapiro if I remember right. I should track it down in the library. Revisiting a lot of things that influenced me early on.
8/18/2005 10:46:00 AM |
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Wednesday, August 17, 2005 Everyone Who's Anyone in Adult Trade Publishing and Tinseltown Too This is the most remarkable free site for marketing info for writers that I know of. Earlier I had the name wrong, which is why a search wouldn't turn it up. Here is the website address. The work that went into this is staggering. The guy accepts donations. Send him something.
8/17/2005 06:24:00 PM |
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A groovy day Whenever I write 1000 or more words in a morning, like today, the rest of the day is downhill.
Just delivered about 100 screenwriting & playwriting books, plus every issue of Scenario, to the university library. A nice gift, following up starting the screenwriting program -- now they have some books to justify it. Their selection had been very poor. Makes a guy feel like he's made a contribution.
Three 9/11 movies in development in LaLaland at the moment with more in the works. When will they realize the wisdom of doing my Love at Ground Zero story, which is the love story of our times. Forgive my modesty.
I think I'm going to do another round of marketing the hell out of the screenplay based on my novel. Never give up.
8/17/2005 02:54:00 PM |
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Welcome home First good writing morning in a while, 1300 words, finishing chapter 26 of the mystery, a good sense of what must happen in 27. I'm looking at between 35 and 40 chapters so the end is definitely in sight. There is a ton of rewriting to do, of course, but in this draft the goal is to find and set down the dramatic logic of the story. In the next draft I'll focus on characterizations and settings, filling it out more fully and dramatically. Then we'll stop and see what we actually have. I'm not sure I can finish this "story draft" before school starts but I have a good shot at it. I'm not even going to think about my third act problem in the road story until this draft is done. Then I can let it sit for a spell while I solve the other problem. By the time school starts, or shortly into the term, I should be able to think seriously about two new projects, both ambition: the Tchaikovsky hypertext and the epic opera libretto. Driving home this morning, I also got another idea for a hypertext, based on an old favorite historical oddity of mine, which I'd always thought of as a traditional play. But it could be a very manageable hyperdrama, with only three characters, combining three separate one person shows, and scenes with all possible combinations of characters in twos and three. It would be very doable if you could find the three actors good enough to do it, both one man shows, scenes, and the usual improv attached to hyperdrama. But I could write it as a hypertext to be read, performance only its secondary possibility. Hmm. Would require some research and very difficult writing. A one-man show, in my opinion (having written several), is harder to write than a play.
Well, first things first! Every time I think I'm close to retirement, I get a great new idea ha ha.
8/17/2005 11:16:00 AM |
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The 40 Year Old Virgin Saw a free showing last night. While the movie has many very funny moments, none better than the surprising ending, I thought it could have been 25% or so shorter without losing a thing. In my gradebook a B-, which is much less enthusiasm than many critics have for this comedy. I thought most of the fat was in the first half.
8/17/2005 05:18:00 AM |
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Cleaning house When my old computer crashed last week, I was about 2/3 of the way through cleaning my office. Time to finish. I'm getting rid of a lot of books, including seven boxes of screenwriting books I'm donating to the university library, which will give them an excellent section of same. The most valuable part of the gift are all 20 issues of the late quarterly, Scenario: the Magazine of Screenwriting Art, an excellent if short-lived publication to which I was a charter subscriber. If I can finish my office this week, I'll be looking pretty for the new term. I"ll rewrite my syllabus after Labor Day.
I'm changing a few things, besides using my new textbook. A video I've been showing at the end of the class I'm now going to show at the beginning (about the dismal state of the film industry), more as a challenge to change it than a depressing farewell message. I'm building in two required student conferences; in the past, they were optional. I'm again using both the novel and screenplay (and DVD) of Sideways, though I'm not convinced taking the time for the novel is worth it, as opposed to looking at selected excerpts.
And, of course, I need to get back in the full rhythm of writing -- I still have a shot at finishing the mystery draft before school starts. That would let me begin the new term on a real high.
8/17/2005 04:55:00 AM |
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Tuesday, August 16, 2005 Say what? A day of constant activity and zero progress on writing projects. They happen. Lots of net grunt work and home owner grunt work. "Tomorrow is another day."
8/16/2005 05:14:00 PM |
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Advertisements for Myself In the tradition of Norman Mailer, here's some blatant self-promotion, or something (things I found while researching something else), from my "good old days" (though most reviews from that period are too old to be digitized).
Monday, August 15, 2005 Staring down progress We decided to put up a fence to block off the lost orchard and new development. A special kind of fence -- an art wall, upon which Harriet will hang, attach, paint and otherwise grow all kinds of found and made objects. A Rube Goldberg fence facing the modern houses! So we're clearing out brush and black berries, no easy chore, and pounding in stakes to root the fence.
Normalcy! This morning I finished chapter 25 of the mystery. Feels like a long time since I've made progress. On to 26.
8/15/2005 10:04:00 AM |
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Awards Awards are funny things. As the recent judge of the Pacific NW Screenwriting Competition, I gave "relative" awards since, in fact, I didn't believe any screenplay was worthy of "winning an award."
Simenon I really am enjoying this Simenon novel, Three Bedrooms in Manhattan, a curious love story about two lost middle-aged souls who drink too much. Very crisp, good stuff.
8/15/2005 07:05:00 AM |
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Routine Man, I love routine! This is the first morning since my old computer crashed that I've been able to do my usual morning things. A routine is mellow and sane, at least for me, and without it I feel a tad lost in the world. I printed out some old material from AlphaSmart and this morning I'll get back to the mystery. Feeling human again. I would be delighted if this computer turns out to be my last one. I'll use it till it breaks down, at any rate. I am impressed with it thus far. I can't imagine ever needing all its capabilities. So despite the several days of geek grunt work, this transition was overdue.
8/15/2005 06:59:00 AM |
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Marketing screenplays Got an email from a former student who is ecstatic because two producers have asked to read a script he started in my class a year ago and has recently finished. He used the method I outline in a handout I distribute near the end of the class on marketing screenplays if you don't live in L.A. I once taught an online class around this method and every student in the class received at least one request for a script from a bona fide producer (i.e. one with credits) before the class was over. So the method "works." There's nothing magical about it. Its basic outline is this:
Make sure you script is as good as you can make it.
Register it at the WGA.
Make a list of every movie you can think of that answers the question: "The people who made such-and-such should make my movie." Same genre or anything else.
Look up each movie on the Internet Database and list all the low-end production companies associated with it. Low end means two things: you never heard of them, and they are the ones who actually found the script.
Look up each prodco in a reliable source like the Hollywood Creative Directory (use the one-week trial subscription) or the excellent free online "Anybody Who's Anybody in Hollywood" website. Look for prodcos with email addresses, as this method is email querying only. Build an "A-List" of email addresses this way.
Build a "B-list" this way: go through your directory and ask, Is there a reason I should not query these guys? In HCD, for example, credits are listed and if they obviously make only horror films and you have a romcom, etc.
Write a short query letter that fits on one computer screen. This is harder than writing a script, so take your time with it. Use the three-paragraph template: hook, short summary, credentials. For credentials, do not mention fiction writing (there is a bias that fiction writers can't write screenplays -- it's actually fairly accurate). Good writing backgrounds for screenwriters are ad/copy writers, journalists. Playwrights are iffy but better than fiction -- mention it if you've won a significant award. Also, put your background in its best light. I tell my students, don't say you took a screenwriting class, say you studied screenwriting. It sounds more serious.
Test the query letter with 10 or 20 prodcos on your B list. Expect a 10% request rate. So if 1 or 2 requests for the script don't arrive (usually within a week -- my student mentioned above got two requests the same day, which really jacked him up). If you don't get this, revise your query letter. Keep testing it with the B-list till you get the expected results. Then send it to your A-list and the rest of the B-list.
Make no follow up calls or emails. If they are interested, you'll here from them.
Start a new script! Psychologically very important to get distance from this one or you will go mad from all the rejection.
If you get a request, you may be asked to sign a release form. Sign in. It sounds like you are signing your life away. Sign it.
Keep marketing. There should be several hundred emails on your combined lists. Send them all out. As requests come in, start a new list, an AA list of folks who liked your pitch. You'll be pitching to them again.
Keep writing and keep marketing. This is an endurance game, and a game of numbers. My students who make it are seldom my most talented ones. They are the ones who don't give up.
If you are a beginning screenwriter, know that this marketing method works -- meaning, producers will ask to read your script, even if you are not in LA and don't have an agent. The time to get an agent is when someone wants to option your script, not before (if you don't live in LA), although there are agents who handle spec script writers from out of LA.
Hollywood is the place where Yes means No. The first time a producer asked to read a script of mine, I was as jacked as my former student. Even more so when my first script was optioned. Even more so when I got my first significant check (these checks come much later in the process now since it is a buyer's market, a change that happened in the 80s). Even more so when a producer said she was signing the final papers the next day and starting production immediately (it never happened). But every Yes in this process transformed into a No in the longer haul. Interesting. The experience drives many writers batty. They abandon screenwriting for something less painful. You have to really like writing them and you have to keep writing new ones to distract you from the horror of the marketplace.
Sunday, August 14, 2005 Mystery #2 Lots of filling out to do on the new mystery, enough that I'm almost tempted to print it all out again and attack it with the red pen. But I'm going to resist, at least as long as possible, because I still need a clearer sense of my ending, which is best revealed by bending against the wind and moving forward. I'd really like a hot two weeks before Labor Day but one never knows. At least I'm up and running again with all necessary tools back in order.
8/14/2005 09:47:00 PM |
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Resurrection The Fifty Word Fiction site has been inactive ever since it was a Yahoo! pick some weeks back -- no doubt because its owner was flooded with submissions. It was finally updated today, and two more of my stories have been added, When Friends Choose Sides and Bliss. I'm writing them too fast to submit ha ha, so I just add them to the flash fiction area of my archive.
Man, seems like every few hours I remember some program I need and don't have. Yet I'm using only 10% of my hard drive! Writers, unlike photographers and videographers, need so little space.
Happy camper I got AlphaSmart connected to the new computer after downloading a driver update from their site, so all is well again. I am now functional, all major requirements met, without only a few minor things to fix. Monday I can write again.
8/14/2005 08:01:00 AM |
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Slow progress The ordeal continues as I try to configure my new computer to a comfort zone as close as possible to where I was when I crashed. It's a far better computer, of course, but frustrations continue. I thought I was there yesterday afternoon, only to learn my DVD drive had been disabled along the way -- the virus/firewall software, I think. I used the marvellous "restore" capability to return to an earlier computer state, and began retracing my installation steps one at a time, checking that the drives still worked after each one, and now I'm reinstalling the virus stuff in a different order to see if I make it. A tad nervous, to say the least.
Meanwhile another problem, a major one, surface: apparent, or temporary, incompatiblity between my AlphaSmart and Windown XP. I've written support about it. If I can't connect, man, that will be a huge problem -- I might have to upgrade AS, but I would think this is a problem they've heard about before and that they have a solution to it.
I sure hope I pass this step. Otherwise, I have to restore again and solve the virus thing some other way.
Yesterday we went to the Mississippi Street Fair. I meant to bring my camera but forgot. My old duplex, the home in which I literally became a writer, publishing literary fiction and newspaper articles for the first time, still stands next to an abandoned flower shop and greenhouse complex. The fair was wonderful. Funky, bohemian, full of great BBQ grills, artsy booths -- it had the friendly informality that gets lost as these festivals grow and become instiutionalized and, worse, corporate in flavor, such as the larger "The Bite" going on at the waterfront this weekend. We'll skip it again today for the Tualitin Crayfish Festival! We prefer these smaller neighborhood fairs.
Installing McAfee takes forever. Longer because you know you may be adding the problem all over again.
What would I do if I can't connect AS to my new computer? Good question. See if I can print from it, I guess, and go that way. But a major hassle and change of routine and habits. I best solve this one instead.
I have two McA programs, firewall and viruscan, and I am hoping the former is the problem, perhaps in conflict with the windows firewall already installed. So now I'm loading viruscan (before I loaded firewall first) and if it works, I'll skip McA firewall, I think, and let the windows one do its thing. Interesting thing I learned during all this -- in genreal, the older the program, the less trouble I have with it! I think because there are less built-in security issues in older solftware. Another reason I am against upgrades in general, although now and again they are an actually improvement, such as the new Finale.
Man, I don't want to have to restore and reload again! This gets old quick.
If this works, I am cooling it for a bit. There still are details to fix but small ones. I want to get back into writing mode and away from halfassed geek mode.
My textbook Practical Screenwriting has gone out to various places and I rec'd my first thank you for it.
Saturday, August 13, 2005 And still at it ... I may finish this weekend but maybe not. Two areas where I screwed up -- not backing up often enough my stuff online, such as the literary archive. I like to have a current backup offline, just in case ... so I have a lot of work to do updating the offline files. Nearing the end of that.
I am taking some time off today to go to a street fair. I want to be back to normal by Monday so I can get back into the rhythm of writing (I didn't lose any writing), but it may be a horse race.
8/13/2005 07:29:00 AM |
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Still at it! Some 15 hrs. later, I'm still restoring stuff -- but am about to quit for the day.
8/13/2005 01:57:00 AM |
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Friday, August 12, 2005 Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh The good news: I have an external hard drive, so all my good stuff is saved. And I found a great deal on a new computer.
The bad news: Though data is saved, virtually every program I run requires new drivers since I've upgraded my operating system.
8/12/2005 02:25:00 PM |
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Thursday, August 11, 2005 R.I.P. My computer crashed and likely died tonight ... 5 yrs old, Windows Me, just as well I think. At any rate, need to replace it, which may take a few days, we'll see.
8/11/2005 08:50:00 PM |
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Food for thought "The script is the literary form for a society giving up literacy." David Thomson, Beneath Mulholland: Thoughts on Hollywood and Its Ghosts.
8/11/2005 12:29:00 PM |
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The Love of Long Ago OK, reworked the libretto this morning, scribbling in red ink all over the manuscript, and as soon as I input the changes, I think I have a draft ready for John to look at. Hope to send it to him later today.
Wrote only 500 words on the mystery but I'm in a difficult transition point as I approach the last movement of the story, so this is good progress in context. Maybe I'll work more on it later today.
The road story is still in limbo as I rethink the third act.
I'm reading a wonderful novel by Georges Simenon, Three Bedrooms in Manhattan, much more literary than other things of his I've read. This is first class, 1/3 of the way through, and I hope he maintains it.
Cleaning the office and getting rid of lots of books. Giving screenwriting material, including every issue of the excellent but now defunct journal Scenario: the magazine of screenwriting art, to the university library. Time to prepare to travel very light after we sell the house in a year or two or five.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005 Libretto Finished a rough draft, will give it a polish and send it off to John on Friday, I expect. This chamber opera is based on a short story by Guy de Maupassant and is quite controversial for its time in the way it criticizes marriage and defends adultery.
8/10/2005 01:21:00 PM |
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Tuesday, August 09, 2005 Ernest Tubb Now and again, some urge to listen to a particular artist or song becomes overwhelming -- and today as I was clearning my office, it was "Waltz Across Texas" by Ernest Tubb. Turned into an Ernest Tubb afternoon. Yeeha.
8/09/2005 04:48:00 PM |
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Sneak preview Here are some of the artists being featured in the upcoming Oregon Literary Review: Peter Ciccariello, Daniel Petrov, , Kenney Mencher, Timothy M. Leonard, Pris Campbell.
Limbo The guys who cleared out the orchard are like hit-and-run drivers -- do their thing and get the hell out of there. However, the guy I talked to said they also were putting in the utilities, but that hasn't started yet. Nor has the tall pine been felled. This moves much more slowly than I anticipated.
Some work on the mystery this morning, prep for working on the libretto this afternoon. Yesterday lots of activity in the archive looking at Dark Mission, which is always nice to see. The large complete score was downloaded, too.
Weather has settled into the 80s, very comfortable, though I wouldn't mind it a bit warmer.
Monday, August 08, 2005 Thomas Paine Thomas Paine: Firebrand of the Revolution Harvey J. Kaye Oxford University Press, 2000, 157pp
Concise, excellent biography of Paine. Some excerpts follow.
A witness to Paine's obscure burial on a farm:
This internment was a scene to affect and to wound any sensible heart. Contemplating who it was, what man it was, that we were committing to an obscure grave on an open and disregarded bit of land, I could not help feeling most acutely. Before the earth was thrown down upon the coffin, I, placing myself at the east end of the grave, said to my son Benjamin, "stand you there, at the other end, as a witness for grateful America." Looking round me, and beholding the small group of spectators, I exclaimed, as the earth was tumbled into the grave, "Oh! Mr Paine! My son stands here as testimony of the gratitude of America, and I, for France!" This was the funeral ceremony of this great politician and philosopher!
But the story continues after burial. Some years later, England wants to claim him (Paine was English by birth).
On an autumn evening of the same year, Cobbett, his son, and another man dug up Paine's coffin without permission and, before they could be stopped, hurriedly transported it to New York City, where they loaded it on board a ship bound for Liverpool. But history would not have it that Citizen of the World Paine could so easily be claimed by England, or by any other single country. Stories differ as to what precisely happened next. Some say that on Cobbett's return he displayed Paine's bones in Liverpool and then put them in a warehouse, where they were lost. Others insist that Cobbett's son sought to have the box of bones auctioned off in 1835, on his own father's death, but the auctioneer refused to follow his instructions. Paine's remains are said to have subsequently disappeared. Either way, they are nowhere to be found.
A former student of mine wrote an overdue screenplay about Paine and, last I heard a few years ago, had some interest in it. The challenge is that his story is really too rich for a single movie. Focus would be the key.
8/08/2005 09:32:00 AM |
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Summertime blues Hollywood execs are going nuts because the summer action films mostly have flopped. So who gets the blame? The writers, of course.
Both films [The Island, Sleuth] were based on original screenplays, and, in retrospect, that might have been a handicap because neither was developed from such promotable franchise properties as Warners' "Batman Begins" and 20th Century Fox's "Fantastic Four." And neither boasted a mammoth concept coupled with a global celebrity and star, as was the case with Paramount Pictures/DreamWorks' "War of the Worlds," starring Tom Cruise and directed by Steven Spielberg.
How to fix the problem? More sequels!
"This is going to become more and more a brand business," the manager said. "Studios will be looking for a prebuilt audience, whether it's a book, a video game or a comic book audience."
When you are in the business of dumbing down, the solution is to dumb down even more.
Back to the grind Took the day off yesterday. Recharge the battery, clear the head, get ready for the August work -- because after Labor Day, I have to put my professor's hat on again and split my energy. Hopefully, I can finish the mystery draft in the next three weeks and the libretto draft this week. Onward.
8/08/2005 07:36:00 AM |
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Saturday, August 06, 2005 Ending the middle A good start on chapter 25 this morning. Lots of new ideas, so it's getting messy again, but I think this new idea, basis of the surprise ending, will work. Just plowing forward and I'll do the housekeeping later. Lots of surprises still ahead, I'm sure. I do have a fine finale planned, lots of desert action. Right now, just keeping the faith and moving forward.
8/06/2005 08:16:00 AM |
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Friday, August 05, 2005 Eureka! Back to the mystery after all, finishing chapter 24 this morning -- and in the process came up with a hell of a good surprise ending. However, right now it would come off as a "deus ex machina," so I have a lot of subtle foreshadowing to do. The key is to have the reader respond with Aha! and not with What? Surprising but not illogical and not coming out of nowhere. But I think it can work. We'll see how it sits as I move forward. Not all that difficult to set up either. Many of the elements are already there, and it gives a nice twist to the story. I think I'll be going with it but I don't have to commit to it yet. Exciting to think of, it just popped into my head out of nowhere, its possibility. Some quick research on the net about the end of the Vietnam war, and everything fell into place. A warrior-vet is my antagonist. It's extraordinary how at times like this it's the author who's more surprised than anyone ha ha! This is the material having its own life and telling you what to do, although in its own sweet time. I suppose its working with the material long enough to find its interior logic and hidden caves. This is why I could never be a "tree person," planning everything out first. I'd miss the most fun, which are surprising discoveries like this one. I just don't think they'd materialize out of the dramatic context of actually writing the narrative. The first draft is a discovery draft, messy and fluid, and you just go with it and see what works and sticks and what doesn't. Then you go back with your left brain and put everything together in a tighter order. That's how it works for me anyway.
Still plan to get back to the libretto today. I think I can let the road story sit until I finish the libretto since I'm close. I'd like to finish it next week.
8/05/2005 09:27:00 AM |
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Thursday, August 04, 2005 Tom Lehrer My latest flash fiction is a tribute to a musical and satiric genius (Mark Russell doesn't come close). I had the pleasure of buying his first 10-inch LP when I was in high school and of talking to him on the phone for almost an hour in the mid-80s, after calling to get permission to use some of his songs in a play. Much of the time we talked about an extraordinary, one-of-a-kind concert he gave at Stanford in the 1950s -- and I had driven up from L.A to see it with some high school buddies who had started school there. I think that since I was an obvious Lehrer groupie from the beginning, he didn't charge me any royalties for using the songs (which he said he would deny to his agent if my play became famous, which it didn't ha ha). More flash fiction.
8/04/2005 07:07:00 PM |
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Libretto I seem to be "semi" stuck on everything but the new libretto, which is an adaptation of a short story, which story therefore already exists -- so I think I'll move it front burner and try and finish the sucker next week and get it to John. By then maybe the brooding on the mystery and road story will have me back in gear.
I'm also eager to set down a structure for the epic libretto I have in mind. I have no idea if I can actually pull it off -- but what a ball to try!
I'm glad I have another month before I have to worry about classes. I seem to revise my syllabus every year in some small way, trying to keep it fresh to me, I suppose. And this year, a next textbook though it's mostly the same as before. But it sure looks nicer!
I need a hot August to finish the novel drafts before school starts. If I get unstuck, I have a shot at it.
8/04/2005 04:23:00 PM |
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Practical Screenwriting Copies of my new textbook arrived. I'm delighted! The cover looks much better "live" than on the net, much more vibrant, which makes it work ... and overall the production values are extremely high. Now we'll see if any schools pick it up.
8/04/2005 03:42:00 PM |
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Brooding One of those days in which I'm working hard but not doing any actual writing except for notes. Brooding about the mystery ending, the various possibilities, the real culprit etc. Everything is really a set up for the ending -- which must be both logical and a surprise. Not easy to do.
8/04/2005 02:18:00 PM |
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And then he wrote ... The trees are gone -- except for the towering pine -- and it's time to get back to work. Morning coffee with John, so I may head into town early with the laptop and write there before our meeting. Supposed to get close to 100 today, which is fine by me!
8/04/2005 06:54:00 AM |
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Wednesday, August 03, 2005 Two new ones Two new pieces of flash fiction:
Mourning about the adjacent trees being ripped from their roots by Technology, the gods decided to bring me two tech toys today – Finale 2006 and a DVD burner.
I really don’t need both but caught sales I couldn’t resist. I generally don’t like upgrades but Finale added some attractive features and I thought the present version a tad clunky anyway, so I bit. I love it at first glance. The interface is different – and a great improvement to my tastes. This may be a very cool program at last. It’s always been incredible in its way but now maybe it’s elegant as well.
I eventually need a DVD burner and so why not now? I couldn’t resist the price. I doubt if I’ll use it soon but I have it installed and running. I can always make a DVD as well as a CDROM of the review.
My asst. ed. Doing some great proofreading for me as the final versions of accepted material get ready. Always good to have more than one pair of eyes doing that sort of thing. Typos are like hangers, they just seem to appear out of nowhere. Hangers are like metal rabbits in the dark closets of midnight but I have no idea how typos reproduce.
Goodbye, old friends It only took a few minutes for the Great Machine to rip out the apple and peach trees. Its operator, seeing me watching, came over to introduce himself. He's just doing his job etc. It's progress etc. Well, he's right. It was nice of him to come over to chat. I wouldn't want to mess with that machine.
8/03/2005 09:29:00 AM |
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Sad music The chainsaws are out this morning.
On a brighter musical note, John sent a fine piano piece for the review by Nathan Wright Shirley. 4 strong musical pieces in the first issue.
August 3, 1959 46 years ago -- certainly one of the very important dates in my life. I joined the Army. More specifically, the Army Security Agency, not because I chose to but because my recruiter in Berkeley had to fill a quota. Few guys with some college were joining up. So I got sent to Monterey and became a Russian linguist. I met my soul brother. I spent three years of the most intense education I'd experienced before or since, including graduate school later. I was in a company of 98 guys with Masters degrees in the humanities -- only two of us didn't have a college degree -- many of whom kept passing me books to read. An incredible experience -- in the Army! And it changed my life forever.
8/03/2005 07:46:00 AM |
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Getting closer Most of the orchard got cleared out today, trees literally uprooted. Two trees left, a peach and an apple, are the ones adjacent to our property line.
8/02/2005 06:38:00 PM |
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And so it begins ... The clearing of the orchard has begun. No chainsaws yet -- they have a huge machine that pulls up trees by the roots. I don't think it'll work on a few of them, but I'm amazed how many they are able to rip out of the ground.
Etc. Another good morning of writing over coffee, bright and early. Finished chapter 23, a good start on 24. The pace increasing now, approaching the last act and its sprint, I think.
Also did some refinement of the aria lyrics. Might be able to send it off today. I’ll look at it closely one more time. Get it into the libretto, and move forward.
Need to get back to the road story. Maybe I’ll bring that to the front burner for the afternoon.
I’m getting a DVD burner. Seems like something I should have. Caught a sale. Also caught a sale for Finale 2006.
Monday, August 01, 2005 Decisions, decisions I've decided to publish the long play about the death of John Berryman as is. Even though I think it can be improved with tightening, this is not a problem of focus, as in the boxing play, but of pacing -- and I think these matters are best determined in a rehearsal situation, not abstractly off the stage. In a more literary context, I've decided to release the full version.
Good start A good way to start the week, 1500 words on the mystery, finished lyrics in draft to the aria, all before 11 a.m. and lots of day left. Onward.
8/01/2005 10:46:00 AM |
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_The Writing Life