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, November 30, 2005 Pop/jazz song Susannah Mars is one of the better jazz/cabaret singers in these parts. I just learned her new act includes singing a song called "Portland Rain," music by Robin Henderson and lyrics by yours truly. Very neat to have a singer of her calibre doing your stuff!
11/30/2005 03:21:00 PM |
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Tuesday, November 29, 2005 The blahs There’s no reason for me to have “the blahs” but I seem to today. Maybe because I’m realizing the beginning of my novel needs more work than I expected. Maybe because only one of my three favorite Illinois scripts attracted the enthusiasm of another judge. Maybe because it’s goddamn freezing outside and I remain a SoCal boy despite all these years in the north. Maybe it’s a chemical imbalance. Maybe it’s end of the term exhaustion. Maybe I stumbled into a parallel universe. Maybe it’s the usual holiday blues.
Well, I have a very busy ten days ahead of me, so if I’m going to get the blahs, better on school time than on my writing time ha ha.
I’m going to keep going through the novel rewrite – but then print out a clean copy and do it all one more time before I release it for feedback. I was thinking this rewrite would be the first “public” one but I think I’m wrong.
Taste Rec'd the Illinois info. We have 28 finalists to rank now, the commission adding all of our recommendations, I think (since only 6 had more than one vote). Of my 3 top picks, only 1 shared someone else's recommendation (my favorite one). One script I hated (removing it on the first cut) rec'd recommendations from both other judges. Are you listening out there, beginning writers? See what a crap shoot it all is? See why these competitions have more to do with judges than with writers? Tomorrow is dedicated to this, getting out the 28 scripts to look at again, plus supporting material (resumes, artistic statements) to consider as well. Thumbing through the resumes, some heavyweights here, resident playwrights with a solid track record, screenwriters who've won some prestigious awards, most from Chicago. Friday we have a conference call to sort it all out. Should be "interesting," as they say.
11/29/2005 12:16:00 PM |
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Waiting Expecting the Illinois material today, to finish the judging. Hope it comes before I go to school, but this is unlikely. Eager to see how many of my choices are still in the running.
Meanwhile, I think I've found a section early in the novel that needs pumping up. I'll probably let it slide until the next read-through. But maybe I am farther from a presentable draft than I think.
11/29/2005 08:37:00 AM |
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Monday, November 28, 2005 Contests Literary contests have so much more to do with judges than with writers! I've said that before here. It really sinks in when I'm a judge myself. Writers probably know this, although it sounds like sour grapes if you say it about a contest you haven't won. "There's no accounting for taste" etc. etc. etc. Thus, it will be "very interesting" when we three judges have our conference call on Friday and discover how similar or dissimilar our literary tastes are. I worry about their sensitivity to screenplays. I feel very strongly about three scripts, two of them screenplays. If these three got funded, I'd be happy.
11/28/2005 08:44:00 AM |
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D.H. Lawrence Reading a thin literary biography of Lawrence. Know precious little about his life, didn't realize how poor he was through most of his career, how much of a struggle it was for him. Finding the devoted wife helped! Every artist can use a devoted partner of some kind. Was never a great fan of Lawrence but may reread something after this. Well, no, I did like his poems and some of his stories, and his novella "The Man Who Died." Wasn't a great fan of his novels.
11/28/2005 08:40:00 AM |
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And now the last lap A busy week, this. First, it's the final week of the Illinois script juror gig. Supposed to get the lists of finalists and make my grant recommendations, then we all have a conference call on Friday to make the collaborative recommendations. I hope my three favorite scripts make the cut! Thursday I pick up term scripts from my students, return them next Tuesday in exchange for their take home finals. I should get my grades in on Thursday of next week, Dec 8th, beginning my break till Jan 9th. In that month, should get a lot of work done, including the first rewrite of the novel. I think the next draft is one to get feedback on.
Glad my agent likes the short story so much. Beats the alternative ha ha. Of course, ten percent of almost nothing in the short story market doesn't make it worth while for him to market unless it's to publicize an upcoming novel. We'll cross our fingers that I find a good home for it. Be nice for things to start turning my way on the fiction front. Duh.
11/28/2005 08:32:00 AM |
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Sunday, November 27, 2005 More feedback My agent on the recent short story: "Excellent, Charles. Very, very good." (But it's not worth the effort to send it out himself. He's hoping I find a good home for it, of course, which might help marketing the novel when it's ready.)
11/27/2005 06:58:00 PM |
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James Agee One of my literary heroes is featured in Today In Literature today. I once made a special trip to Frenchtown, New Jersey, so I could stand outside the building where Agee had rented a room when he was working on Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. An extraordinary literary stylist.
11/27/2005 10:00:00 AM |
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Letter to a Dead Soul Brother Hey, Richard, it's been a while. Been working on "our novel," the story in which the main two characters are inspired by us, a fanciful road trip we take in our 70s if we both had lived that long, at one level an homage to our half-century friendship. The draft is done, and I've started rewriting. I worked a chapter near the end into a short story, using the same title as the chapter title, "Camp Thanatos," in which you decide to spend your last days fishing on the Salmon River (terminal cancer) and as you turn for the worst, convince me to shoot you to put you out of your misery. Colleagues who have seen the story like it a lot, a couple putting it in the top rank of my work. I'm peddling it now, starting at the top, but expect it will find its home in a literary magazine down the road. The novel, despite the heavy ending, and other serious stuff, is filled with comic moments, some of them stolen directly from our adventures over the years. It's the most autobiographical novel I've written, rather like my "Pig Roast" early short story in its connections to shared experiences we've had. That one made all but the last cut for Best Amer Short Stories, so I hope the new one, 40 years later, does as well.
Talked to both your sons recently. Kass still chasing demons but he sounded good when I chatted with him on his birthday. Brad has your business still going. Your granddaughter seems to be quite the budding actress.
Not much else to report. You'd be surprised to learn I'm still teaching. I thought I'd be retired by now myself but I still have fun doing it -- the classroom is the height of my social life ha ha now that I've outlived all my close male friends.
I'm writing better than ever, though the world at large still thinks the 80s were my best years. They'll come around eventually, though maybe after I've joined you in never-never-land. I have several projects going, as usual, and can't imagine having nothing to write. I write, therefore I am.
Visited your mom last summer. Frail but sharp as a tack. She'll probably outlive me. She appears to be indestructible.
The road story will be dedicated to your memory, my friend. Hope I don't join you for a while. Think of you often. Take care.
11/27/2005 08:39:00 AM |
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Saturday, November 26, 2005 Dynamic creation I think every literary project I've ever worked on has been changed by something I was exposed to while creating it. So with the road story. The other day I saw a book ad in the NY Review of Books, got the book at the library -- and now it's going to impact the novel by adding a comic subtexture based on some studies in the book, which make a connection I never thought of before but is organic to my story. This happens all the time. It's as if "fate" changes the project in some way. So not only do characters take over the story themselves and change things in surprising ways, I accidentally see something or read something that gets me thinking in a new way, which also changes the development of the project. It's a very dynamic process.
11/26/2005 09:04:00 AM |
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Friday, November 25, 2005 Good talk I practically had to be dragged to Thanksgiving since I didn't know our hosts and generally I am not good in situations like that. In other words, bored. However, I found myself in a million dollar house surrounded by artists of various disciplines and had a wonderful time! Best Thanksgiving I've had in years, in fact. Lots of good talk and, of course, good food, the highlight as far as I'm concerned being Harriet's sweet potato and pecan pie. We made a movie date with another couple for Sunday afternoon. Not sure what we'll see.
I did get the novel draft printed yesterday. A fine stack of work! I like the physicality of it, which of course is lost on the computer itself. May begin the red inking today, maybe not. Taking my time with it, meticulous word by word, paragraph by paragraph, page by page. Meanwhile did more reading for the history set story. What a gold mine of material! Silver mine actually ha ha. This is going to be so much fun. I have two journals from people who were there, including a rare one by a woman. And various theories and interpretations of the iconic event. I also know my protagonist already, a 13 year old boy thrust into history -- but of course, no one has heard of him yet ha ha. So in a sense, this dark comedy is a coming of age story in the midst of the event/myth. Just bringing the hard lens of reality to myth results in dark comedy, I think. Think Little Big Man. I'll be working in that tradition.
11/25/2005 06:37:00 AM |
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Thursday, November 24, 2005 Getting serious This morning feels like the right time to print out the draft of Kerouac's Scroll. This is an important step in my writing process. Early on, I rewrite at the keyboard -- but there comes a time when I like to work with hard copy and a red pen, and this is when the rewriting gets very serious indeed, when I start looking at the manuscript word-by-word, taking my time. I'll do this over the holidays, maybe even starting before then, before the last task with my students ends the term. But I'll print today, I think, so I can stare at the stack of manuscript for a few days, admiring the sheer bulk of it. In this sense, a novel feels like a greater accomplishment than a script. So much more grunt work, putting one word after the other. The story design issues are not very different but the hard labor is very different indeed.
11/24/2005 06:55:00 AM |
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Giving thanks At my age, on a holiday of thanksgiving one is most thankful for good health. Given the recklessness of my youth, I never expected to live this long. I've never written better (though evidence of this in the world at large is hard to find), which is a great bonus to the gift and gravy of still being on the planet. My hero in this matter is John Dos Passos, who lived and was actively writing for so long that his work passed into the public domain under the old copyright laws (costing him dearly) -- and after his death, among his notes was the plan for a cycle of twelve novels! Not a bad plan for a man in his nineties.
I thought the road story might be my last book -- then an idea for a short novel came, which I couldn't resist, and then I revisited an old idea of an historically set dark comedy, finding myself more excited than ever about it -- so if the gods be willing, I have enough to keep me busy for several years.
Each year I also think of retiring from the university but in fact I am enjoying teaching as much as I ever have, and the classroom remains my main link to a world outside of my home office, so I suppose I'll hang around till it stops being fun. Good students make it enjoyable, and this term I have quite a few of them.
So I have much to be thankful for. However, looking at the world, I can't say there's much to be optimistic about at all. In the tradition of old farts everywhere, I think the world is on a quick road to hell and "the good old days" are preferable to the present. But I do have perspective. In the signature of my email you'll find:
I believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong; and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid. -- G. K. Chesterton
Thanksgiving Most of my memorable Thanksgivings were in the late 60s and early 70s when half-a-dozen couples traditionally gathered, at first in L.A. where we all were living, then from around the west as we spread about after college. I dropped out of this tradition after moving east for a while after graduate school. At any rate, one in particular, hosted in San Jose by Dick (the model for Hooker in the road story) is especially memorable. We came down from Eugene, where I was in grad school, and most folks came up from L.A. We were a motley crew, whites, blacks, Chinese, Hispanic, who ate too much and drank too much and played music, a 3-day almost non-stop party, Ramos gin fizzes in the morning, excellent wine through the meals, beer in between. This was the occasion when we discovered San Jose's Mirasou winery and almost bought them out of Petite Sirah. When I visited L.A. a few years back after several decades, going down for a surprise 70th birthday party for one of the Thanksgiving regulars above, I was astounded later in the night when we picked up guitars and played and sang "the old folk songs" as if we'd been performing them all these many decades since the last time we'd played together. Today, in L.A., that Thanksgiving tradition actually continues, although I haven't participated since an appearance in the early 80s.
11/24/2005 06:06:00 AM |
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Wednesday, November 23, 2005 Fun Reading for the future history novel is great relief from the draining personal experience of the road story draft. It's all craft and wit, dark humor and poking fun at myth. Fun imagining the options available to me. When I rewrite the road story, I'll be able to come to it with the craftsman's distance, rather than the fragile hands of the creator. I don't think any book has drained me so much, not even my memoir.
11/23/2005 04:10:00 PM |
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Research Have begun reading and taking notes in earnest for the history-based novel down the road. This isn't an historical novel in the usual sense. It uses an historical event as backdrop for something else, a dark comedy, a take on an event that has been elevated into mythic proportions. The novel, if I do it right, will be like a pin pricking the hot air balloon of myth in a comic, perhaps even surrealistic, way. A great challenge, obviously, but will sure be great fun to attempt. I'm hoping I can start writing by spring or summer, whenever I finish the draft of the short novel that comes before. As always, I like to be working on several projects at once in different stages of development. With the draft of the road story done, I open up other possibilities. Rewriting is a more rational act than creating a first draft. At least the way I write. I can rewrite on a bus. I can't create on a bus (though I can do pre-creation brooding there).
Over the holidays I want to return to the animation script I started and maybe even finish the draft since it's short. My collaborators would like that!
I have some free time now, over the holiday, so I may print out the road story, getting ready for serious rewriting. Also time to make the final assembly of content for the release of the review.
11/23/2005 04:54:00 AM |
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Tuesday, November 22, 2005 Good manners Rec'd a generous acknowledgement from the University of Washington library for my gift of a CD-R of my literary archive. For posterity and all that. I think some libraries just deep six such a gift. However, the libraries at Univ of Washington and Oregon both have been very gracious recipients. Thus, it was worth sending them out.
11/22/2005 03:19:00 PM |
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The French Lieutenant's Woman The moment after Charles, our hero, proposes to Ernestina, a fine description of Victorian proper romance:
And so they kissed, with lips as chastely asexual as children's. Ernestina began to cry again; then dried her eyes, and allowed Charles to lead her back into the drawing room, where their mother and father stood. No words were needed. Ernestina ran into her mother's opened arms, and twice as many tears as before began to fall. Meanwhile the two men stood smiling at each other; the one as if he had just concluded an excellent business deal, the other as if he was not quite sure which planet he had just landed on, but sincerely hoped the natives were friendly.
The novel, of course, is noted for Fowles' intrusive narrative style. An example:
The novelist is still a god, since he creates…; what has changed is that we are no longer the gods of the Victorian image, omniscient and decreeing; but in the new theological image, with freedom our first principle, not authority.
I have disgracefully broken the illusion? No. My characters still exist, and in a reality no less, or no more, real than the one I have just broken. Fiction is woven into all, as a Greek observed some two and a half thousand years ago. I find this new reality (or unreality) more valid; and I would have you share my own sense that I do not fully control these creatures of my mind, any more than you control -- however hard you try, however much of a latterday Mrs. Poulteney you may be -- your children, colleagues, friends, or even yourself.
The last paragraph of the book, the "second" and darker ending:
The river of life, of mysterious laws and mysterious choice, flows past a deserted embankment; and along that other deserted embankment Charles now begins to pace, a man behind the invisible gun carriage on which rests his own corpse. He walks towards an imminent, self-given death? I think not; for he has at last found an atom of faith in himself, a true uniqueness, on which to build; has already begun, though he would still bitterly deny it, though there are tears in his eyes to support his denial, to realize that life, however advantageously Sarah may in some ways seem to fit the role of Sphinx, is not a symbol, is not one riddle and one failure to guess it, is not to inhabit one face alone or to be given up after one losing throw of the dice; but is to be, however inadequately, emptily, hopelessly into the city's iron heart, endured. And out again, upon the unplumb'd, salt, estranging sea.
Winding down Definitely in an end-of-term rhythm now, the only major task remaining for me being the most major of all, to read scripts and essays (finals) and compute a final grade, which begins in a week and a half. A short week now, then class presentations -- no more lecturing to do.
Finished the Fowles novel and will post a few excerpts here later today or tomorrow.
Need to send in my recommendations to Illinois. Think I'm cutting the 10 to 9.
Sunday, November 20, 2005 The countdown begins Thanks to Jim for sending these.
>TOP 15 COUNTRY SONGS FOR 2005 > >15. If I Can't Be Number One In Your Life, Then Number Two On You. >14. If The Phone Don't Ring, You'll Know It's Me. >13. How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away? >12. I Liked You Better Before I Got to Know You So Well. >11. I'm Still Missing You Baby, But My Aim's Gettin' Better. >10. I Wouldn't Take Her To A Dog Fight 'Cause I'm Afraid She'd Win. >9. I'll Marry You Tomorrow, But Let's Honeymoon Tonight. >8. I'm So Miserable Without You, It's Like You're Still Here. >7. If I Had Shot You When I first Wanted To, I'd Be Out Of Prison By >Now. >6. My Wife Ran Off With My Best Friend, And I Sure Do Miss Him. >5. She Got The Ring, And I Got The Finger. >4. You're The Reason Our Kids Are So Ugly. >3. His Teeth Were Stained, But His Heart Was Pure. >2. She's Looking Better After Every Beer. > >1. How Can I Kiss Those Lips at Night, >When They've Been Chewin' My Ass All Day?
11/20/2005 05:59:00 PM |
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My recommendations Well, I think I'll vote for ten scripts from Illinois to move into the final round. Breaks down to 5 stage plays, 1 children's play, 3 screenplays, and 1 radio play. I'm a tad early so I'll sit on it for a day or two.
11/20/2005 01:51:00 PM |
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Pleasure reading Enjoying the hell out of The French Lieutenant's Woman. Even more than the previous readings, I think. One of the great ones. Learning much from it, too, regarding techniques not in my bag of tricks.
Need to listen to the Illinois CDs today. And tomorrow read a couple of student online scripts.
Saturday, November 19, 2005 Two movies Have seen two movies this weekend, one so-so, the other exceptional, one of the best movies I've seen recently.
The so-so movie is Walk the Line. As in almost all biopics, the weak link in this production is the script. The performances are outstanding, especially the two leads, who also sing all songs themselves. But there is precious little real story but rather a sequence of events without engaging forward narrative momentum. Change the character Johnny Cash to Joe Smith and we'd have little reason to get engaged here. We watch because we know ahead of time that Cash is famous and we're curious about the famous guy, not because we're actually hooked by anything that happens in the movie. Almost all biopics suffer similarly. The producers pay too little attention to the script.
The outstanding movie, perhaps even brilliant movie, is Paradise Now, the story of two friends in Palestine who become suicide bombers with a mission against Israel. Screenwriting students can learn tons here about understatement and visual storytelling because this foreign film takes none of the Hollywood cheap shots. There's no "crank it up" energy here but rather genuine surprises of plot that keep us on the edge of our seats and a strong focus of the psychological level of meaning in this story, without political propaganda or taking sides. The ending is a triumph of visual storytelling: images over dialogue. Yes, a brilliant movie! It's been a while since I've seen a movie I admire so much.
11/19/2005 04:27:00 PM |
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Kerouac's Scroll Started reading casually through the draft of my road novel. Not the critical reading I'll begin over the holidays after printing it out. So far, so good, fixing a few typos and inconsistencies but nothing major seems to need attention -- yet. Like it.
The weekend, however, is devoted to getting my recommendations on the Illinois scripts together. I know 9 I'll recommend. 4 more are borderline. And I have some CDs to listen to, musicals and radio plays. I need to email my choices on Wednesday so I don't drag this into Thanksgiving. Some moments I think about the borderline ones, well, why not? maybe the other 2 judges love them -- but then at other times, I feel strongly about 9 and we can only give 8 and who knows what the other judges think, better to recommend as few as possible. Probably be a last minute decision. Right now, for instance, I'm thinking I'd just go with the 9, which I much prefer to the borderlines anyway. And of the 9, I'd separate them into 3 I would give an award to in a flash and then the 6 others I really like but wouldn't die over. If any of those 3 are ignored by both other judges, I'll be upset -- and I worry about this since 2 of them are screenplays and these really aren't read in quite the same way as stage plays are, at least not by anyone who's knowledgeable. A different aesthetic is at work. And I have no idea if the other two judges are hip to this.
Well, we'll find out soon enough.
At the university, I now can coast for two weeks until it's time to read final scripts and the final essay exam. By December 9 I should be finished, with a full month break this time! Usually it's 3 weeks. I really look forward to that and expect to get a ton of work done.
Reading Fowles, I'm getting more and more excited about my own historically set novel, and learning some techniques to consider from him. I think I'll begin re-reading the material for it during the holiday -- I have 9 or 10 books I bought last year on the period, including some very hard to get stuff. This will be a dark comedy, I think. It should be a lot of fun to write as I'm dealing with a lot of cultural myth about the period and particular event I'm dealing with, which is famous, something of a cultural icon. But which has never been put under the harsh light of reality and skepticism for comic effect -- unless Mad Magazine did something on it in the old days. They well might have! I'd love to find it if they did.
So the slate for 2006 seems to be:
Rewrite the road story
Begin a new short novel, already structured and clear to me
Readers & audiences One of the nice things (and sometimes not so nice) about playwriting or screenwriting as opposed to fiction writing is that you can observe your audience. Seldom does an author of books get the chance to do this. One of my fantasies is sitting next to someone on the bus who is reading one of my books. Well, not counting a textbook ha ha. As a playwright, however, I've had dozens of experiences of sitting in the audience at a play of mine and spending as much time watching the audience as watching the actors. I can get excited as a fiction writer when I discover someone has checked out one of my novels at the library -- how little it takes to excite a marginal writer! -- but it's not the same thing.
My favorite playwright-observer moment happened after a production of my early play Country Northwestern, the title play (and forgotten play) of my new collection. Someone in the audience yelled out, "This play has balls!"
My most disturbing moment was during a production of my MFA-thesis play at the University of Oregon. It was done at a small theater in the round. At intermission, when the lights came up I found myself facing a woman across the stage who was in tears. Her embarrassed husband was trying to comfort her. In fact, this was a proper response to the action but I found myself shaken by how upset she appeared to be. I paced outside during the second act, second-guessing myself about my responsibility as a playwright -- did I really want to cause this woman so much apparent misery? Apparently I decided I did ha ha.
Another unforgettable moment was during a production of my favorite play, The Half-Life Conspiracy, which has my favorite curtain line (found under the title of this blog). The lines are delivered by the main character, alone on stage after a party at 3a.m., on a deck overlooking the Portland skyline, under a few stars. There is a very short pause before the curtain lines are delivered. On this particular night, the very good actor playing the role stretched the short pause into a long pause and a longer pause and an even longer pause, and the lighting guy finally faded to blackout without the curtain line. The actor, it turned out, had spaced out the curtain line! As experienced and good as he was, in the middle of the run he couldn't remember it! I died a thousand deaths in the minute it took the lights to come down.
At the University of Oregon, I saw a production of Pinter's The Homecoming in the round. In the first act, an elderly couple was so upset they got up and left -- and since the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, they walked right across the set, in the middle of the action, to get the hell away from this evil play! The actors ignored them, not missing a beat.
As every theater person knows, each audience is different. Some laugh easily, some not at all. There are dead audiences and live audiences. For a playwright, it's a special experience to watch an audience watching your play.
11/18/2005 05:14:00 AM |
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Thursday, November 17, 2005 Up and at 'em! To the university very early today, getting ready for a full day of student conferences, giving my final feedback on their term scripts. Then, in class, we watch the first half of ADAPTATION after I finish my marketing lecture, which I began Tuesday. A full day! And a full weekend, finishing up the Illinois scripts so I can make my recommendations before Thanksgiving.
My own writing on hold for a tad, which is fine, with the novel draft done. I've dabbled in the opening pages of the next one. Won't write seriously again until the holiday break but then I expect to get a ton done.
11/17/2005 07:33:00 AM |
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Wednesday, November 16, 2005 Scripts Reading student scripts all day, a bit over half done. Taking a break. Some joyful reading and some disappointed reading. One woman, though, has made huge progress and now is writing like a pro. Great to see.
11/16/2005 02:29:00 PM |
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Tuesday, November 15, 2005 The French Lieutenant's Woman Paying my respect to John Fowles by rereading his brilliant novel. Been several decades since I've looked at the novel, though I've read Pinter's equally brilliant screenplay since then. What an achievement this novel is! Only 100pp into it but already hooked once again, big time. I'll watch the movie again soon, too. Maybe right after I finish. Here is Roger Ebert's film review, which is right on the money.
Reading this novel, I wonder why I waste time with most of the contemporary fiction I read ha ha.
11/15/2005 03:25:00 PM |
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From the mail bag "Thanks to my usual convoluted surfing, I stumbled across your Birthing piece. It describes so well my Jr and High School experiences which I have endlessly spun out for my kids, that I have sent it around (Hong Kong, Oakland, and Geneva)..." Go to Birthing Little Richard.
11/15/2005 01:40:00 PM |
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Scumbags I still get letters from writers who are hugely flattered by scumbag agents after their money and seek advice. I wrote about a notorious one some time ago, and she's still up to her tricks. You have to hand it to these scumbags, though: they sure know a writer's weakness -- the ego!
11/15/2005 11:04:00 AM |
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Long range An historical novel I had some enthusiasm for a year ago, but then lost it, has renewed my interest. I have at hand all the books I need for research, and I think I'll start going through them for what I can use. So I appear to have two post-road-story fiction projects now. Not finished yet ha ha.
11/15/2005 10:14:00 AM |
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Busy week The next three days are my toughest of the term. Give my marketing lecture today, always a busy session, and collect drafts of scripts from everyone. Have tomorrow to read them all so I can meet one-on-one with each student on Thursday, giving my last feedback before their rewrite and turn them in for a grade. Today I also pass out their take-home final exams, guidelines for last week class presentations (they pitch their stories as if the class were filled with producers), and the marketing handout. I get tired just typing this ha ha. Onward.
11/15/2005 08:24:00 AM |
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Monday, November 14, 2005 Another excellent screenplay... ...from Illinois. This one is superbly written, a professional script. Really deserves to hit the screen. (I wonder how the other two judges feel about screenplays. Neither appears to be "a film person." Screenplays can be tricky to read by literary types.)
11/14/2005 10:14:00 AM |
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Fickle, fickle A few years ago, Edward Albee visited Portland State University. During an interview, he was asked what he considered his best work to be. "Whatever I'm working on," he said. "Otherwise, why would I write?" So true. How easily we "abandon" past work in order to give our energies to the current work.
11/14/2005 06:31:00 AM |
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Moby Dick "...so much trash belonging to the worst school of Bedlam literature." So came the early reviews of what is now universally considered an American classic, perhaps the "great American novel," after its publication on this day in 1851. Read the full story in Today In Literature.
11/14/2005 06:24:00 AM |
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Literary competitions Literary competitions have more to do with judges than with writers. I've thought this for a long time. However, when you come to this conclusion as a writer, particularly after "losing" a literary competition, it sounds like sour grapes. Like most writers, I've not placed in a lot of competitions. I've also won some. And been a finalist in others. But lately I've been serving as a judge in such affairs and have become more aware than ever that there is "good writing" that I pass on that someone else with different literary values and tastes would go ape over. I believe in any competition, change the judges and you change the outcome. So, from a writer's point of view, it's about luck of the draw. Getting the "right judge" for your literary style and vision. For example, I abhor "over-writing," but there are others (I know some) who would call this "plush" or "visual" prose, not over-writing. "There's no accounting for taste."
I would love to win a literary competition with an opportunity to give an acceptance speech so I could make this point as a winner and therefore not be accused of sour grapes. Well, then I suppose I'd be accused of bad manners. The ungrateful snot etc. My, my. They say the truth will set us free but more often it just upsets a lot of folks.
11/14/2005 06:12:00 AM |
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Sunday, November 13, 2005 Author and Son Describe Difficulty of Iraq Service Novelist Frederick Busch and his son, a marine, in a candid interview. This is a warm, remarkable, honest interview between a father and son about their anxieties, one which doesn't make the over-simplifications we sometimes hear in similar parental interviews.
11/13/2005 06:51:00 PM |
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Illinois scripts Read a hugely entertaining screenplay I'm recommending, a comedy about a black teen out to find his biological dad, who ends up being a conman in the middle of a scam. Great characters, good story, great fun. Over-written but no more so than is typical these days from beginning screenwriters. The story saves it. So there are three I'm very excited about so far, and another half dozen I like a lot. Getting near the bottom of the pile.
11/13/2005 03:23:00 PM |
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The cure Two days of exhaustion and the funk that comes with it are quite enough! Up before sunrise, off in the car, grabbed coffee, cruised listening to jazz, across town got another cup, returned on the early morning bare roads of the city -- and now I'm raring to go. Scripts to read, a letter of recommendation to write, and maybe even more dabbling in the beginning of my new novel, called Mistress. Onward!
11/13/2005 08:11:00 AM |
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Saturday, November 12, 2005 Running expenses Today In Literature speaks to the issue of writing and exhaustion: "On this day in 1935, the poet Theodore Roethke was hospitalized for a manic-depressive breakdown, the first of many he would endure. Whatever the causes of his mental problems, Roethke's biographers say that he kept working with characteristic intensity even when ill; one of his psychiatrists said, 'I think his troubles were merely the running expenses he paid for being his kind of poet.'" Full article.
11/12/2005 02:52:00 PM |
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Recovery Today I still seem to be recovering. Moving very, very slowly. Brooding but not reading despite the pile of scripts waiting for me. But soon! (Writing takes so damn much out of me lately.)
11/12/2005 02:49:00 PM |
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Friday, November 11, 2005 Exhausted Apparently I'm taking the day off. I'm drained. Not from teaching -- from writing. The older I get, the more writing takes out of me physically and emotionally, and I'm sure this is a reaction to finishing the draft of Kerouac's Scroll, which is a very personal story. In my prior life, Irish whiskey used to take care of this but since my health doesn't permit that kind of escape any more, I experience more of the actual exhaustion (instead of its hungover mask). Tomorrow, however, I must return to the Illinois scripts. The deadline approaches.
I'm going to do the rewrite of the novel slowly and carefully. It's an important book to me, and there are a number of things that need fixing. I've set no deadline for it, though I expect it to be done before summer unless I find some problem I'm unaware of now. It's a short novel, 57,000 words. I expect to send it to my agent within a year.
TGIF The calm before the storm. Next Wed. and Thur. will be two of my toughest days of the term, Wed. reading scripts and Thur. having one-on-one conferences all day, my last feedback before they turn in final drafts. Meanwhile, a return to the more leisurely task of evaluating the scripts from Illinois. Have about 15 more to go through before making my recommendations for those that advance to the final round.
This term has just zipped by. I accomplished the front burner writing task, finishing the draft of the novel. I'll let it sit and return to other things, primarily the script for the animation and reading/notetaking for the epic opera, letting the hyperdrama sit for a moment. Return to it over the holidays. I may also begin sketching out the structure of my new novel idea. Onward.
11/11/2005 07:18:00 AM |
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Thursday, November 10, 2005 Office hours Did some more work on the ending of the novel. It's close enough to end this part of the process and begin rewriting.
Country Northwestern is ready sooner than I expected. A nice volume of most of my best known plays -- all of the "Oregon" plays.
Going to the opera tonight, Tosca. A new season begins! Always fun and exciting.
Tomorrow, back to the Illinois scripts. Man, talk about being busy! During the holidays, I'll finally get to spend some time with the New Yorker DVDs.
Going to stage a "celebration" in class today, have about a dozen students read their wonderful midterms. Half the class did a first rate job and only a very few had major problems in their scripts. A fine class indeed.
11/10/2005 03:33:00 PM |
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A possible ending I have an ending, rough as it is, and finished the draft of the novel. Lots of work to do but now it really gets to be fun. Now the process becomes more analytical and more rational -- and less temperamental. I think I'll let it sit for a few weeks and not start until the holiday break, come at everything with a refreshed perspective. But I must say I'm very pleased with the draft. I think everything wrong is fixable.
11/10/2005 10:08:00 AM |
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Midterms Quite a few really good midterms. Some good work being done in this class. Think I'll take the time today to celebrate it, let the students share their good work, before moving on into the last act of the term.
11/10/2005 10:07:00 AM |
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Wednesday, November 09, 2005 Breakthrough? May have stumbled blindly into my ending this morning. Looks like I have only a few pages to go now. We'll see.
The rest of the day belongs to my students. Mid-terms, which actually are always great fun to read.
11/09/2005 10:09:00 AM |
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Chomping at the bit I'm eager to start rewriting my novel, which is always the challenge and the fun. This is when you can take your time and brood over the right word, the right phrasing and rhythm of a paragraph. I love it. I still don't have my ending but between now and the end of the term I'll stay in the final chapters, hoping my ending reveals itself. If not, I trust I can figure it out later. During the holiday break, I'll start rewriting whether the draft is formally finished or not. It's essentially finished now except for a few things to fill in -- AND my last chapter. Close enough to start the fine-tuning.
11/09/2005 05:52:00 AM |
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Tuesday, November 08, 2005 John Fowles The author of The French Lieutenant's Woman, an extraordinary novel (and extraordinary screenplay adapted by Harold Pinter), has passed away. Here's the obituary in the NY Times. Apparently more popular in the U.S. than at home in England. From the Times: "I know I have a reputation as a cantankerous man of letters and I don't try and play it down," he told The Guardian newspaper in 2003. "A writer, more-or-less living on his own, will be persecuted by his readers. They want to see you and talk to you. And they don't realize that very often that gets on one's nerves."
11/08/2005 07:33:00 AM |
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Busy, busy November will be a hugely busy month, what with the closing weeks of the term and the Illinois juror stuff. May not finish the novel draft but surely I'll get it done over the holiday break, so no big deal. Eager to start rewriting -- also eager to start fumbling with the next one, surprised that I am that there is a next one, but my idea is too appealing to ignore. I may go on like this forever, thinking a novel is my last and then an exciting new idea invading the head at the last moment. I've set aside other things I need to do -- the hypertext and the epic opera -- so over the holidays I also hope to reengage those.
Next week is the deadline for contents in the first issue of the review. Housekeeping to get it ready -- and start assembling material for the next one. Onward, onward.
11/08/2005 07:17:00 AM |
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Monday, November 07, 2005 Working asleep Woke up with a notion in my head that I should rearrange the order of events at the end of my novel. Made a copy (so I can go back to the original if necessary), did the reordering, and on first glance it looks like an improvement. I'll continue working with it and we'll see if I still think so as the draft comes to an end. But it does look right. Interesting how the unconscious mind solves problems while you sleep.
11/07/2005 10:08:00 AM |
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Sunday, November 06, 2005 The Squid and the Whale Here's a nice little indie movie, full of sad/funny moments, good acting, marred only by its occasional attempt at being profound, as in the metaphor of its title. Take this away and the film is almost, well, profound. So many young artists don't trust their own material and so try to "explicate" it with some metaphor or other, which actually only moves the material toward the sophomoric.
11/06/2005 05:17:00 PM |
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Apprenticeship We forget that sometimes even "famous writers" have a long struggle before their work gets accepted. A case in point is Robert Frost, as told today in Today In Literature.
11/06/2005 07:28:00 AM |
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Preview My next book, due out early in 2006, gathers together five plays I wrote during the 1980s during residencies at theater companies in Portland, all stories set in and indigenous to the region. It's called Country Northwestern and other plays of the Pacific Northwest.
11/06/2005 07:19:00 AM |
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Saturday, November 05, 2005 Chores Out of the house early, first to the bank ATM to deposit a royalties check that arrived yesterday, then to my office at the university to upload a large (40M) file. On Saturday mornings, one of our local farmers' markets uses campus, and so I strolled through at they set up, looking for coffee and a roll but only found the former, the goodies not unpacked yet. Then, driving home, I thought of a variation of part of my ending for the novel, which I may be trying out this morning. Scripts to read today and a couple of football games to peek in on.
11/05/2005 08:38:00 AM |
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Friday, November 04, 2005 Endings again I think I have my ending, at least in structural terms. I have the foundation laid out, now I have to write it. I'm excited because I think this may work.
A fine mellow day, reading Illinois scripts, coming downstairs to do a dab of work, back to the scripts, a quiet warm house protecting me from the raging storm outside.
11/04/2005 03:06:00 PM |
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Book groups In the 1960s, when I did my apprenticeship as a writer, I never heard of book groups. I didn't know of any and didn't know any budding writers who knew of any. Indeed, given the acceptance of writing as a solitary act, we couldn't imagine the concept. This is not to say we didn't seek feedback. Informally we passed our work around. But the notion of an organized "book group" or writers' support group would not have impressed us if we'd thought of it.
Now book groups are everywhere. There must be dozens or more here in Portland. They are everywhere.
Do they increase the health of the literary culture? Well, clearly, at least to me, the "literary culture" has disappeared, at least as it was conceived decades ago, but I don't think book groups have contributed to that -- the corporate takeover of the book publishing industry, film industry and media in general has. But I still have a problem with book groups. It's the same problem I have with committees, the notion that two heads are better than one. In the arts, I think two heads are almost never better than one. The best art is about the realization and expression of a private, personal vision and what a book group does, which is to give feedback early in the process of creation, does not strike me as sympathetic to this goal. It is almost laughable to imagine Faulkner in a book group, Hemingway or Dorothy Parker or Doris Lessing in a book group, etc. etc. etc. Book groups have a social function no doubt but I wonder if they have a legitimate literary function. I suppose small, carefully chosen groups of like-minded artists, sympathetic to one another's process, might move in a positive direction -- but even then, there are times when a writer needs to be stubborn, resist all feedback about work-in-progress and simply bully ahead, alone and determined to find one's own way. Collective literary art may come out of the self-help movement more than anything else.
Illinois scripts Reading as a juror today. Read the most powerful script yet, a stage play, international theme, focused, compelling, very strong. Also read one of those scripts you see now and then that is not an especially good read but is a blueprint for a strong theatrical event. I may be recommending it -- I know a high energy "show" would come from this. So far, there are two I am certain to recommend and many other high possibilities. I'd like to recommend no more than 15 for the finals -- an arbitrary number, really, something small enough to make the finals less of a task than it would be otherwise. I'm grading the scripts with a letter grade, ever the teacher, and right now it looks like I may be recommending B+ and higher for the finals. I actually have no A's yet -- but two A-, the two clear recommendations. Each could be improved in minor ways, at least by my lights.
11/04/2005 12:57:00 PM |
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Thursday, November 03, 2005 Endings Finally came up with an ending that may work ... I'll write it, let it sit there in the manuscript as I go back to rewrite from page one, and see how I feel about it by the time I get to the end again. It's enough of an ending to get me through this stage of the process.
11/03/2005 02:55:00 PM |
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Cycles Finally caught up with my reading of student scripts -- at least for this week. Tomorrow, back to the Illinois scripts.
Brooding about the ending of my novel. Need to find the handle.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005 Online screenwriting class I'm teaching an 8-week online screenwriting class for beginners, starting January 9, 2006. Info at Screenwright page 11/02/2005 01:33:00 PM |
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Raking leaves Took a break to do one of my favorite chores, rake leaves. I actually use a rake! My neighbors use one of those loud god awful machines -- then offer a neighborly middle finger by wearing ear plugs themselves! High on my list of annoyances, right up there with power mowers (I use an old-fashioned push reel model and have one of the largest yards in the neighborhood).
Still quite a bit of reading to do. What I don't get done this afternoon I can spill onto tomorrow morning. Friday have to get back to the Illinois scripts. Try and finish the 2nd box before the following weekend.
11/02/2005 12:57:00 PM |
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Students A day devoted to student scripts. Some good stuff. Few of my students have any writing issues now, which means we can concentrate on storytelling issues.
I rec'd favorable response from Illinois Arts Commission to my suggestion of publishing some of their scripts in the review, given author's permission. I think this may become a good resource for the script section of the review. We'll see how it pans out after the fellowships are awarded. I've already read several scripts I'd be happy to publish, winners or not.
The ending of the novel remains a struggle. I just don't have a handle on it yet. Know the general feeling of what I need, just not how to do it. Well, it'll come to me eventually. Just don't want to wait too long for it ... I'll blunder along and if something doesn't happen in a week or so, I may start the rewrite without an ending.
11/02/2005 11:01:00 AM |
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Tuesday, November 01, 2005 Endings Not sure I've found the right ending for the road story -- but I move forward. Things always can be changed later. I'm eager to finish a draft, any draft, so I can go back and start over -- rewriting, the real joy of this process. The issue here is how long in a buddy story can I continue after one buddy is dead? Of course, I can make it for it with non-chronological things, which I'm looking at. But I also want some of the protagonist's world after the buddy is gone, too. I just don't want to lose the tension in the story after the death. Or maybe I should shuffle the deck and save the death till the end. Endless possibilities. I'll just go where I'm going and worry about all this later. Mostly the book strikes me as being in pretty good shape. Looks like it will come in around 55000 words, the short novel form I love so well. I feel like I have a security blanket after the nice letter from the University of Oregon library, knowing I have a book shelf for anything I do. That's the first thing, giving the work an independent existence. Nothing happens without this. The existential reality of writing ha ha.
11/01/2005 03:36:00 PM |
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Light Think I may be two chapters from ending the novel draft. Going in to the university a tad early to work, escape the home owner blues. Also have some downloading/uploading to do and it's so much quicker on my office computer/connection.
11/01/2005 12:37:00 PM |
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_The Writing Life