I've been back from my Georgia/Arizona trip for a few days now, almost caught up with all the stuff I had to do before I left. I actually did get to work on a few stories while I was away and one of them is almost ready to send out. Looks like Gordon Van Gelder will get the first shot at it (whether he wants it or not).
Read a couple of books on vacation that I enjoyed pretty well – Robert McCammon's Boy's Life and Steve Hamilton's first mystery (and Edgar winner, I believe) A Cold Day in Paradise. I didn't read very many stories, but since I've been back I've read a couple of older ones – Harlan Ellison's "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs" (excellent) and "The River Styx Runs Upstream" by Dan Simmons, which just tore me apart.
Almost as good as the Simmons story was the Harlan Ellison introduction to the Simmons collection Prayers to Broken Stones. In it, Ellison describes a workshop experience that started out abysmally: he really ripped into an old man who apparently had little talent, but refused to stop writing. (The old guy had written something like 62 novels, all unpublished.) Then Ellison read a story by Simmons that turned everything around. It was an early version of "The River Styx" and Ellison was really moved by it. He declared Simmons a bona-fide writer on the spot and told him he would be blessed/cursed for the rest of his life as a bona-fide writer.
Two extremes at the same workshop. Sometimes I wonder which one I'm closer to.
Cut back on my cable channels and rejoined NetFlix. Ah...goodbye local video stores and your choking late fees, bad selection and unresponsive employees.
Now Playing = Beggars Banquet – Rolling Stones
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Monday, July 11, 2005
Cooling Off in Arizona
Cindy and I are visiting my mom, my brother and his wife, their two dogs and two horses in Arizona. Yesterday was a nice toasty 112 degrees. Good for a nice jog. Cindy saw a sign advertising a local marathon...in January.
We took my mom to church yesterday. You know you're in a retirement town when ALL of the church parking spaces are handicapped. But the people were friendly and the service was nice. One of the prayer requests in the bulletin read: "Please pray for the pastor's wives." Hmmmm....How many does the guy have?
Haven't really done much writing yet (Hey, I'm on vacation!), but I brought a few stories that need some attention. I'll probably do a little work today. My brother Bob has a great house that has a little patio on the roof. It's great for sunsets, or an evening drink, or just sitting around talking. I'd love to do some writing up there, but I probably wouldn't be able to do much after 6:00 AM or before 9:00 PM. (I still can't get used to this time. I've kept my watch set to Eastern time, confound it!)
Reading some stories from Cicada magazine, which are very good. My Clarion buddy Trent has had a story accepted there. I found a copy at a library sale and will probably go back and pick up the others I saw. Plus there's a used bookstore nearby....I'm there.
Reading Robert McCammon's Boy's Life which I'm enjoying about 80% of. I'm about 100 pages from the end and I'm hoping for a good ending. He's thrown a lot of ingredients in the soup; we'll see what comes out.
To all those at Clarion - hang it there, you're almost done.
Now Playing: Bob's Air Conditioner. Sweet music....
We took my mom to church yesterday. You know you're in a retirement town when ALL of the church parking spaces are handicapped. But the people were friendly and the service was nice. One of the prayer requests in the bulletin read: "Please pray for the pastor's wives." Hmmmm....How many does the guy have?
Haven't really done much writing yet (Hey, I'm on vacation!), but I brought a few stories that need some attention. I'll probably do a little work today. My brother Bob has a great house that has a little patio on the roof. It's great for sunsets, or an evening drink, or just sitting around talking. I'd love to do some writing up there, but I probably wouldn't be able to do much after 6:00 AM or before 9:00 PM. (I still can't get used to this time. I've kept my watch set to Eastern time, confound it!)
Reading some stories from Cicada magazine, which are very good. My Clarion buddy Trent has had a story accepted there. I found a copy at a library sale and will probably go back and pick up the others I saw. Plus there's a used bookstore nearby....I'm there.
Reading Robert McCammon's Boy's Life which I'm enjoying about 80% of. I'm about 100 pages from the end and I'm hoping for a good ending. He's thrown a lot of ingredients in the soup; we'll see what comes out.
To all those at Clarion - hang it there, you're almost done.
Now Playing: Bob's Air Conditioner. Sweet music....
Monday, June 27, 2005
Cinderella Man
Ron Howard's Cinderella Man is, to use a cliche, one of those films they don't make anymore. The story of boxer James J. Braddock (Russell Crowe) could easily have been picked up fifty years ago by a director like Frank Capra. Howard has pulled back and made the film with less realism and grit than he could have, but Braddock's story is what's important and Howard delivers it well. Sure, not all of the scenes work – a couple of the scenes with Renee Zellweger are sappy, and some of the fight banter is contrived, but I can overlook that stuff. Braddock comes across as a good guy (even if Crowe isn't) that you want to root for.
Cinderella Man might even be considered an Oscar contender if not for its release date. It's likely no one connected with the Academy will remember it six months from now and that's too bad.
Cinderella Man is not a great film, but it's very good. I've always believed that Ron Howard doesn't get enough credit, but more and more I read critics bashing his films. I mean, come on, he's already being slammed for The Da Vinci Code and it won't be released for almost another year! Howard has been accused of everything from poor craftsmanship to selling out. Sorry, I don't buy it.
Howard isn't my favorite director and I don't care for some of his films, but that's an issue of taste; he's not incompetent. As a director, he's hired to produce films that will be entertaining to a large audience. For quite a lot of the movie-going public, his films are entertaining. Splash, Coccoon, Backdraft, Apollo 13, Far and Away, A Beautiful Mind and many others attest to the fact that Howard knows how to make an entertaining film. That's his job.
Everyone's tastes are different. You might not like Cinderella Man, you might not think what Howard produces is art, and you might think he's too Capra-ish in light of Scorcese, Tarrantino, etc. That's fine. But he's not incompetent. Learn how to separate taste from craft. They're two different things.
Now Playing = The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Cinderella Man might even be considered an Oscar contender if not for its release date. It's likely no one connected with the Academy will remember it six months from now and that's too bad.
Cinderella Man is not a great film, but it's very good. I've always believed that Ron Howard doesn't get enough credit, but more and more I read critics bashing his films. I mean, come on, he's already being slammed for The Da Vinci Code and it won't be released for almost another year! Howard has been accused of everything from poor craftsmanship to selling out. Sorry, I don't buy it.
Howard isn't my favorite director and I don't care for some of his films, but that's an issue of taste; he's not incompetent. As a director, he's hired to produce films that will be entertaining to a large audience. For quite a lot of the movie-going public, his films are entertaining. Splash, Coccoon, Backdraft, Apollo 13, Far and Away, A Beautiful Mind and many others attest to the fact that Howard knows how to make an entertaining film. That's his job.
Everyone's tastes are different. You might not like Cinderella Man, you might not think what Howard produces is art, and you might think he's too Capra-ish in light of Scorcese, Tarrantino, etc. That's fine. But he's not incompetent. Learn how to separate taste from craft. They're two different things.
Now Playing = The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Science Fiction: The Best of 2004/The Things They Carried/New Story
Just finished the Haber/Strahan anthology Science Fiction The Best of 2004 which includes 13 stories from last year. I've already mentioned the Stephen Baxter story, which I enjoyed quite a bit, but some of the others that I thought were very good:
"The Best Christmas Ever" a touching story by James Patrick Kelly, whose work I've really enjoyed discovering.
"The Voluntary State" by Christopher Rowe. Some of my Clarion 2004 buddies and I have talked about this one at length. Nominated for a Nebula, it was one of the most intriguing stories I read this year. It's one of those stories that you have to read multiple times, but it's so good you don't mind.
Any Nancy Kress story is bound to be excellent and "My Mother Dancing" is no exception. "The Tang Dynasty Underwater Pyramid" by Walter Jon Williams is loaded with fun and certainly doesn't seem like it's fifty-seven pages long.
But the story I am most anxious to reread is M. John Harrison's "Tourists," a fascinating setting with fascinating characters in a story that walks a fine line between depression and redemption, especially in it's depiction of the relationships between men and women. It's a story that I wanted more of and I think if I read Harrison's novel Light, I'll get more.
Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried just knocked me down and held an Army-issued boot over my face. Wonderfully written, sometimes hard to stomach, sometimes so uplifting you'll think O'Brien's writing might have the ability to heal just about any wound this world can deliver. His vision of life, death, friendship and love in Vietnam is beyond gripping. You just can't turn away because if you do, you might miss something that no other writer is capable of sharing with you. Outstanding.
I'm about 1,000 words into a new story that takes place entirely at a press conference sometime in the 70's. I like the start, but I can see that it could go in several directions. I have to let the story tell me which direction it should go. Sent out two stores this week bringing my total "stories in circulation" number to five.
Now Playing: The Otis Redding Anthology
"The Best Christmas Ever" a touching story by James Patrick Kelly, whose work I've really enjoyed discovering.
"The Voluntary State" by Christopher Rowe. Some of my Clarion 2004 buddies and I have talked about this one at length. Nominated for a Nebula, it was one of the most intriguing stories I read this year. It's one of those stories that you have to read multiple times, but it's so good you don't mind.
Any Nancy Kress story is bound to be excellent and "My Mother Dancing" is no exception. "The Tang Dynasty Underwater Pyramid" by Walter Jon Williams is loaded with fun and certainly doesn't seem like it's fifty-seven pages long.
But the story I am most anxious to reread is M. John Harrison's "Tourists," a fascinating setting with fascinating characters in a story that walks a fine line between depression and redemption, especially in it's depiction of the relationships between men and women. It's a story that I wanted more of and I think if I read Harrison's novel Light, I'll get more.
Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried just knocked me down and held an Army-issued boot over my face. Wonderfully written, sometimes hard to stomach, sometimes so uplifting you'll think O'Brien's writing might have the ability to heal just about any wound this world can deliver. His vision of life, death, friendship and love in Vietnam is beyond gripping. You just can't turn away because if you do, you might miss something that no other writer is capable of sharing with you. Outstanding.
I'm about 1,000 words into a new story that takes place entirely at a press conference sometime in the 70's. I like the start, but I can see that it could go in several directions. I have to let the story tell me which direction it should go. Sent out two stores this week bringing my total "stories in circulation" number to five.
Now Playing: The Otis Redding Anthology
Monday, June 20, 2005
Forgotten Films of the 70's: The China Syndrome
"She'll do anything we tell her to do." That's one of the first lines of The China Syndrome, the film that literally shook the world in 1979. The line is delivered by decision-making men in a television news control room while watching Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda), a redheaded LA TV news reporter. Kimberly covers mostly fluff human interest stories, but she really wants a chance to report hard news, even though she seems to know the big stories are probably beyond her. Her boss even admits to her that she wasn't hired for her intellectual capabilities.
On a routine assignment to a nuclear power plant, Kimberly and her cameraman Richard (Michael Douglas) witness an accident, only the plant officials aren't calling it an accident, downplaying the event as a "technical glitch." One of the senior workers at the plant (Jack Lemmon) suspects that the "glitch" belies a deeper, more serious problem. Much more serious.
The China Syndrome is remembered primary as a historic film landmark. The film's warning to reconsider nuclear power and its potential dangers turned strangely prophetic: only twelve days after The China Syndrome's release, the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania suffered an accident mirrored by the one in the film, sending people to the theatres in droves.
But The China Syndrome should not be relegated to the status of an interesting footnote in film history. The film received four Oscar nominations, a fact largely forgotten today. It's interesting that Jane Fonda would choose to play a character whom at the beginning of the film is little more than a pretty face and by the end of the film has to face some harsh realities. She doesn't overplay; her performance is restrained and believable. With the red hair and the close-ups that she's maybe not the sexpot of the 60's anymore, she's vulnerable. People who wouldn't walk across the street (or the protest line, as the case may have been) to see a Fonda picture just a few years earlier eagerly watched The China Syndrome. And some of them even decided that Jane was a pretty good actor.
Jack Lemmon never gave a bad performance, never. I know I'm biased; I'm a huge Lemmon fan, but the man elevated every film he touched. Just watch Lemmon's body language throughout the film. No one could match him in non-verbal (and often verbal) communication.
The film does have weaknesses. The pacing slows in the middle and although the screenplay does not assume the audience is ignorant, sometimes too much is explained. (Maybe we needed a little more explained in 1979 – nuclear power was something millions of people really didn't understand.)
A couple of the supporting roles are played by actors who worked mostly in television and those roles stand out as either wooden or overplayed. The gap between TV actors and the three stars is widened even further by the performances of Fonda, Lemmon and Douglas.
Last week I saw another "Forgotten Film from the 70's," Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation, which has been largely forgotten in the light of The Godfather films and Apocalypse Now. The 70's (My favorite film decade after the 40's) produced so many films covering such a broad range of genres it's easy to overlook great and good ones that fell through the cracks. The China Syndrome is still a good film; The Conversation, great.
Now Playing: The Older Stuff – Michael Nesmith
On a routine assignment to a nuclear power plant, Kimberly and her cameraman Richard (Michael Douglas) witness an accident, only the plant officials aren't calling it an accident, downplaying the event as a "technical glitch." One of the senior workers at the plant (Jack Lemmon) suspects that the "glitch" belies a deeper, more serious problem. Much more serious.
The China Syndrome is remembered primary as a historic film landmark. The film's warning to reconsider nuclear power and its potential dangers turned strangely prophetic: only twelve days after The China Syndrome's release, the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania suffered an accident mirrored by the one in the film, sending people to the theatres in droves.
But The China Syndrome should not be relegated to the status of an interesting footnote in film history. The film received four Oscar nominations, a fact largely forgotten today. It's interesting that Jane Fonda would choose to play a character whom at the beginning of the film is little more than a pretty face and by the end of the film has to face some harsh realities. She doesn't overplay; her performance is restrained and believable. With the red hair and the close-ups that she's maybe not the sexpot of the 60's anymore, she's vulnerable. People who wouldn't walk across the street (or the protest line, as the case may have been) to see a Fonda picture just a few years earlier eagerly watched The China Syndrome. And some of them even decided that Jane was a pretty good actor.
Jack Lemmon never gave a bad performance, never. I know I'm biased; I'm a huge Lemmon fan, but the man elevated every film he touched. Just watch Lemmon's body language throughout the film. No one could match him in non-verbal (and often verbal) communication.
The film does have weaknesses. The pacing slows in the middle and although the screenplay does not assume the audience is ignorant, sometimes too much is explained. (Maybe we needed a little more explained in 1979 – nuclear power was something millions of people really didn't understand.)
A couple of the supporting roles are played by actors who worked mostly in television and those roles stand out as either wooden or overplayed. The gap between TV actors and the three stars is widened even further by the performances of Fonda, Lemmon and Douglas.
Last week I saw another "Forgotten Film from the 70's," Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation, which has been largely forgotten in the light of The Godfather films and Apocalypse Now. The 70's (My favorite film decade after the 40's) produced so many films covering such a broad range of genres it's easy to overlook great and good ones that fell through the cracks. The China Syndrome is still a good film; The Conversation, great.
Now Playing: The Older Stuff – Michael Nesmith
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson
Dylan and Willie at Prince George's Stadium, Bowie, Maryland, June 14, 2005: I have never lived closer to a Dylan concert site (7 miles) or taken more time to get there (an hour and a half due to an accident less than a quarter mile from the venue). When everything was said and done, I walked into the stadium just in time to hear Willie start in on his opener "Whiskey River."
Maybe Willie's been hanging around Dylan too long; he started his signature tune with a half-talking/half-singing style similar to Bob's and kept it going for the entire night. The black cowboy hat and black t-shirt sure looked like Willie, but I'd never heard his voice this weary. He dropped phrases like they were memos from the IRS.
But it was still fun. And the man can still play guitar like nobody's business.
I saw Dylan in 1995 the day after the O.J. Simpson verdict and in 2005 the day after the Michael Jackson verdict. On both occasions Dylan opened with "Drifter's Escape," which I thought was hilarious.
Dylan had his five-piece band decked out in white and black western shirts and black pants while the "Columbia recording artist" wore black with red stripes down the pants-leg and red pocket stitching. And a black hat. I was a little disappointed that Dylan never left the keyboard except for a couple of times to step out and play harmonica. I've seen Dylan for nearly twenty years and I've always thought he performs his best when it's just him and his guitar.
But he really kicked the doors in last night. I never would have figured I'd hear so many different styles done so well.
"Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)" featured a vocal that almost pleaded with resigned desperation as Dylan ended most of the phrases with withdrawn octave leaps, something I'd never heard him even attempt before. "Lonesome Day Blues" showed that Bob can deliver, yes, a pronounced yet authentic blues vocal. "Shooting Star" was downright lyrical, easily topping the studio version.
Starting with "Highway 61," Dylan showcased his excellent band. These guys soared with blistering solos and stunning interludes, extending the typical running time of most of the remaining songs by at least a couple of minutes. "Stuck Inside of Mobile" reached back to the Nashville Skyline days, proving these guys can honk out some serious country. I've seen a lot of Dylan shows, but I've never heard any greater energy than I did when he drove "Summer Days" through the night like a rocket.
"This Wheel's on Fire," "John Brown," and "Chimes of Freedom" were all great. Only with "Bye and Bye" did Dylan miss the mark, sounding a bit tentative and out-of-place.
(Bob had a little fun with the crowd, plunking out "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on the keyboard. What can you say? The man's a riot.)
The first encore "Masters of War" was full of grit and raw power and when it was over I think we all wished the stadium was a little closer to Pennsylvania Avenue. The evening ended with "Like a Rolling Stone," and if you had any doubts about whether Bob can still deliver at age 64, all you had to do was listen to him sneer "how does it feel."
After the show, waiting for the traffic to move, a teenage kid ran through the cars, waving his arms, yelling "Dylan! Dylan! Dylan!"
Yeah, I'd say Bob can still deliver.
Now Playing = Highway 61 Revisited (What else?)
Maybe Willie's been hanging around Dylan too long; he started his signature tune with a half-talking/half-singing style similar to Bob's and kept it going for the entire night. The black cowboy hat and black t-shirt sure looked like Willie, but I'd never heard his voice this weary. He dropped phrases like they were memos from the IRS.
But it was still fun. And the man can still play guitar like nobody's business.
I saw Dylan in 1995 the day after the O.J. Simpson verdict and in 2005 the day after the Michael Jackson verdict. On both occasions Dylan opened with "Drifter's Escape," which I thought was hilarious.
Dylan had his five-piece band decked out in white and black western shirts and black pants while the "Columbia recording artist" wore black with red stripes down the pants-leg and red pocket stitching. And a black hat. I was a little disappointed that Dylan never left the keyboard except for a couple of times to step out and play harmonica. I've seen Dylan for nearly twenty years and I've always thought he performs his best when it's just him and his guitar.
But he really kicked the doors in last night. I never would have figured I'd hear so many different styles done so well.
"Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)" featured a vocal that almost pleaded with resigned desperation as Dylan ended most of the phrases with withdrawn octave leaps, something I'd never heard him even attempt before. "Lonesome Day Blues" showed that Bob can deliver, yes, a pronounced yet authentic blues vocal. "Shooting Star" was downright lyrical, easily topping the studio version.
Starting with "Highway 61," Dylan showcased his excellent band. These guys soared with blistering solos and stunning interludes, extending the typical running time of most of the remaining songs by at least a couple of minutes. "Stuck Inside of Mobile" reached back to the Nashville Skyline days, proving these guys can honk out some serious country. I've seen a lot of Dylan shows, but I've never heard any greater energy than I did when he drove "Summer Days" through the night like a rocket.
"This Wheel's on Fire," "John Brown," and "Chimes of Freedom" were all great. Only with "Bye and Bye" did Dylan miss the mark, sounding a bit tentative and out-of-place.
(Bob had a little fun with the crowd, plunking out "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on the keyboard. What can you say? The man's a riot.)
The first encore "Masters of War" was full of grit and raw power and when it was over I think we all wished the stadium was a little closer to Pennsylvania Avenue. The evening ended with "Like a Rolling Stone," and if you had any doubts about whether Bob can still deliver at age 64, all you had to do was listen to him sneer "how does it feel."
After the show, waiting for the traffic to move, a teenage kid ran through the cars, waving his arms, yelling "Dylan! Dylan! Dylan!"
Yeah, I'd say Bob can still deliver.
Now Playing = Highway 61 Revisited (What else?)
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Clarion One Year Ago/Stephen Baxter
It's hard to believe that it's been a year since Clarion. I think about that experience and those people every single day, but I think the thing I learned most was what I didn't know. I realized quickly that I hadn't read enough of the genre. I've been working to correct that, reading not only sf/f but also lit, mostly short fiction. Things are beginning to focus more clearly in my writing as I see good writing in the work of others. My ratio of reading to writing is probably 3 to 1 right now and that's okay. For now.
Read Stephen Baxter's "PeriAndry's Quest" from Karen Haber and Jonathan Strahan's Best of 2004. I haven't read much Baxter, only one other short story from the same anthology in 2003, which was a hard sf space opera (which I enjoyed). "PeriAndry's Quest" was a real surprise. I expected straight-ahead hard sf, but the story contains really little hard sf elements. (What's there is crucial to the story, but it's very reader-friendly for a science idiot like me.)
I guess what surprised me is the humanity and emotion of the story. It's very touching, almost fairy-tale like in it's manner. Baxter avoids making his characters one-dimensional fairy-tale clones by creating just enough of a sf backdrop: love between two beings separated by time distortion. And the ending is not what you would expect from a fairy-tale. Enjoyed it.
Now Playing: One Endless Night - Jimmie Dale Gilmore (not nearly as good as The Flatlanders' More a Legend Than a Band)
Read Stephen Baxter's "PeriAndry's Quest" from Karen Haber and Jonathan Strahan's Best of 2004. I haven't read much Baxter, only one other short story from the same anthology in 2003, which was a hard sf space opera (which I enjoyed). "PeriAndry's Quest" was a real surprise. I expected straight-ahead hard sf, but the story contains really little hard sf elements. (What's there is crucial to the story, but it's very reader-friendly for a science idiot like me.)
I guess what surprised me is the humanity and emotion of the story. It's very touching, almost fairy-tale like in it's manner. Baxter avoids making his characters one-dimensional fairy-tale clones by creating just enough of a sf backdrop: love between two beings separated by time distortion. And the ending is not what you would expect from a fairy-tale. Enjoyed it.
Now Playing: One Endless Night - Jimmie Dale Gilmore (not nearly as good as The Flatlanders' More a Legend Than a Band)
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
It's Been Three Months???
Wow, time does get away...
Finished two books (reading, not writing) this week - Train by Pete Dexter and Blood Is the Sky, a mystery by Steve Hamilton. Dexter draws some very interesting characters while showing (not telling) how violence, racism, and just trying to do the right thing can really screw up things. Blood Is the Sky was a nice read; Hamilton knows how to keep the pages turning as well as anybody.
Lately I've been reading more lit. short stories than sf/f, T.C. Boyle in particular.
I guess for the last few months I've read more than I've written. For where I am now, I think that's the smart thing to do. All the reading has helped me identify not just "bad" writing in my work and others, but also how events progress, how character is developed, how initial promises between author and reader are kept or broken.
So here we are one year after Clarion and the writing output is slow; very slow. I finished a story a couple of weeks ago that literally took six months. It was like pulling teeth...or just brushing my greyhound's teeth. This one is coming easier, but I'm still in the learning process. I have to keep telling myself that I'm still working on fundamental matters. And that's okay. For now...
More on the one-year anniversary of Clarion later.
Now Playing: Rubber Soul - Beatles
Finished two books (reading, not writing) this week - Train by Pete Dexter and Blood Is the Sky, a mystery by Steve Hamilton. Dexter draws some very interesting characters while showing (not telling) how violence, racism, and just trying to do the right thing can really screw up things. Blood Is the Sky was a nice read; Hamilton knows how to keep the pages turning as well as anybody.
Lately I've been reading more lit. short stories than sf/f, T.C. Boyle in particular.
I guess for the last few months I've read more than I've written. For where I am now, I think that's the smart thing to do. All the reading has helped me identify not just "bad" writing in my work and others, but also how events progress, how character is developed, how initial promises between author and reader are kept or broken.
So here we are one year after Clarion and the writing output is slow; very slow. I finished a story a couple of weeks ago that literally took six months. It was like pulling teeth...or just brushing my greyhound's teeth. This one is coming easier, but I'm still in the learning process. I have to keep telling myself that I'm still working on fundamental matters. And that's okay. For now...
More on the one-year anniversary of Clarion later.
Now Playing: Rubber Soul - Beatles
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Still Plugging Along
I've written about 20,000 words of my second novel. Since the novel is an expansion of a short story written at Clarion, parts of the framework were already in place. I read the short story several times, made some notes on what I thought were the major points, then wrote a rough outline. Then I started.
The last and only other time I wrote a novel, my first draft was just a big 300 page freewrite: no outline, no notes. Just start writing and find out what happens as you go along.
Although there are many things I love about freewriting, this time I felt I needed some type of outline. The danger is in following your outline so closely that you begin to manipulate your story. The outline is very skeletal and I frequently depart from it, but I still think it gives me a loose but helpful framework. Whatever the case, I feel much better about this novel than the first one. Plus I'm really taking my time on this one: 1,000 words a day. That's not much, but I wanted to also spend time on some short stories. Maybe even some poetry.
I've got five stories out right now. I started expanding a flash fiction piece last night, "Lady in Broken Satin" about Billie Holiday.
Very disappointed in Alias last night. Think I'll stick to PTI.
Now Playing = Wildflowers – Judy Collins
The last and only other time I wrote a novel, my first draft was just a big 300 page freewrite: no outline, no notes. Just start writing and find out what happens as you go along.
Although there are many things I love about freewriting, this time I felt I needed some type of outline. The danger is in following your outline so closely that you begin to manipulate your story. The outline is very skeletal and I frequently depart from it, but I still think it gives me a loose but helpful framework. Whatever the case, I feel much better about this novel than the first one. Plus I'm really taking my time on this one: 1,000 words a day. That's not much, but I wanted to also spend time on some short stories. Maybe even some poetry.
I've got five stories out right now. I started expanding a flash fiction piece last night, "Lady in Broken Satin" about Billie Holiday.
Very disappointed in Alias last night. Think I'll stick to PTI.
Now Playing = Wildflowers – Judy Collins
Friday, March 04, 2005
Novel Fever
Three years ago I started and finished my first novel. I wrote a first draft, set it aside for a few months and started a second draft. I finished the second draft, let my writers group read it, and set it aside before going to Clarion.
When I got back from Clarion I was really focused (and still am) on writing short stories, so I kept the novel in a drawer. A few months after Clarion, I read the novel again.
Boy, was it bad. And it still is. (They don't get better sitting in the drawer. I know some of us would like to think they do, but they don't. Take my word for it.)
I think the initial idea I had for it was good. Not very original, but still good: In 1880, two university students (both male, of course; it's 1880.) accidentally stumble into an apartment in downtown Baltimore. (I know - how do you accidentally stumble into an apartment? That's just one of the things that needs work!) Inside the apartment they find an entire room full of objects and devices they have no way of explaining. That's how the novel begins.
I still think it's a good idea and believe the novel contains some good scenes, but overall, it's a bad novel. I didn't know how to put it together, didn't know how to execute it. (Hey, maybe execution's a pretty good idea!) It's a first novel. It was a learning experience and one I wouldn't trade for anything.
Now I'm starting another one.
I hadn't planned on doing it. I'd written a short story at Clarion and did a revision of it six months later. I sent it to P.O.E. and got some good critiques on what worked and what didn't. And I came to the point that probably all writers come to at one time or another when working on stories: There's just too much story here for a short story, or novelette, or even a novella. This sucker's got to be a novel.
But I'm not in a hurry. My word count goals are pretty small – I want to write at least 1,000 words a day. That's not much, but I still want to work on short stories too. So I'm 6,000 words into the novel and feel pretty good about it. But ask me again in three or four months.
Writing the first novel was like trying to walk through the jungle. I had no clue at all, I just started walking. It's a little different now. There's a tiny, winding, dusty trail cut through the jungle now. I can see up ahead that the path branches off in several different directions. Which one's right? We'll see. But the journey is the fun part.
I hope I feel this way four months from now.
Happy writing, everyone.
Now Playing = A Night in Tunisia – Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers
When I got back from Clarion I was really focused (and still am) on writing short stories, so I kept the novel in a drawer. A few months after Clarion, I read the novel again.
Boy, was it bad. And it still is. (They don't get better sitting in the drawer. I know some of us would like to think they do, but they don't. Take my word for it.)
I think the initial idea I had for it was good. Not very original, but still good: In 1880, two university students (both male, of course; it's 1880.) accidentally stumble into an apartment in downtown Baltimore. (I know - how do you accidentally stumble into an apartment? That's just one of the things that needs work!) Inside the apartment they find an entire room full of objects and devices they have no way of explaining. That's how the novel begins.
I still think it's a good idea and believe the novel contains some good scenes, but overall, it's a bad novel. I didn't know how to put it together, didn't know how to execute it. (Hey, maybe execution's a pretty good idea!) It's a first novel. It was a learning experience and one I wouldn't trade for anything.
Now I'm starting another one.
I hadn't planned on doing it. I'd written a short story at Clarion and did a revision of it six months later. I sent it to P.O.E. and got some good critiques on what worked and what didn't. And I came to the point that probably all writers come to at one time or another when working on stories: There's just too much story here for a short story, or novelette, or even a novella. This sucker's got to be a novel.
But I'm not in a hurry. My word count goals are pretty small – I want to write at least 1,000 words a day. That's not much, but I still want to work on short stories too. So I'm 6,000 words into the novel and feel pretty good about it. But ask me again in three or four months.
Writing the first novel was like trying to walk through the jungle. I had no clue at all, I just started walking. It's a little different now. There's a tiny, winding, dusty trail cut through the jungle now. I can see up ahead that the path branches off in several different directions. Which one's right? We'll see. But the journey is the fun part.
I hope I feel this way four months from now.
Happy writing, everyone.
Now Playing = A Night in Tunisia – Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Learning from Others
Damon Knight's Creating Short Fiction contains "Semper Fi," one of his own stories. Only this story is annotated with Knight's thoughts on what he was thinking when he wrote it and the devices he used. The story is on the even pages, the notes across from it on the odd pages. This is a great idea and is extremely helpful. I wish more people who pen books on writing would annotate their own stories.
You can find some other books that are very helpful in explaining how sf/f stories work:
Robert Silverberg's Science Fiction 101 (formerly Worlds of Wonder) contains Silverberg's thoughts on each story from a writer's point of view. The stories are somewhat old school, but there's good stuff there. (Silverberg's introduction alone is worth the price of the book.)
Two other books that do the same thing (recommended to me by Gordon Van Gelder at Clarion) are Paragons and Those Who Can, both edited by Robin Scott Wilson. Both contain examples of stories and author essays on plot, character, theme, point of view, etc. Paragons contains more current writers (Nancy Kress, Karen Joy Fowler, Lucius Shepard, Kim Stanley Robinson, John Kessel, etc.) than does Those Who Can, but both books are excellent.
Intersections is a collection of stories submitted to and critiqued at the Sycamore Hill Writers' Conference, an invitation-only event featuring some of the biggest names in sf/f. Not only do you get great stories, you also get to read how the participants critiqued each story. Extremely valuable. Intersections is edited by John Kessel, Mark L. Van Name and Richard Butner.
That's it for today. Happy writing, happy studying.
Now Playing = Now Here Is Nowhere – Secret Machines
You can find some other books that are very helpful in explaining how sf/f stories work:
Robert Silverberg's Science Fiction 101 (formerly Worlds of Wonder) contains Silverberg's thoughts on each story from a writer's point of view. The stories are somewhat old school, but there's good stuff there. (Silverberg's introduction alone is worth the price of the book.)
Two other books that do the same thing (recommended to me by Gordon Van Gelder at Clarion) are Paragons and Those Who Can, both edited by Robin Scott Wilson. Both contain examples of stories and author essays on plot, character, theme, point of view, etc. Paragons contains more current writers (Nancy Kress, Karen Joy Fowler, Lucius Shepard, Kim Stanley Robinson, John Kessel, etc.) than does Those Who Can, but both books are excellent.
Intersections is a collection of stories submitted to and critiqued at the Sycamore Hill Writers' Conference, an invitation-only event featuring some of the biggest names in sf/f. Not only do you get great stories, you also get to read how the participants critiqued each story. Extremely valuable. Intersections is edited by John Kessel, Mark L. Van Name and Richard Butner.
That's it for today. Happy writing, happy studying.
Now Playing = Now Here Is Nowhere – Secret Machines
The Journey to Best Picture
Last year I almost made it. I saw four of the five films nominated for Best Picture. The only one I missed, Mystic River, I saw a couple of weeks after the Oscars.
I don't think I'll even get that close this year. With only six days left, I have three films to see. But I'm going to try. Of the five nominated films, I saw Ray about four weeks ago and Million Dollar Baby yesterday. Having seen Eastwood's latest film, I have to ask two questions:
1 – Is Million Dollar Baby really one of the five best films of 2004?
2 – Why didn't Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind receive a nomination for Best Picture?
There's been a lot of controversy about Million Dollar Baby and if you haven't seen it, I'll be bringing up a few SPOILERS now. But forgetting the controversy concerning the ending (which bothered me, but other things bothered me much more), I want to talk about the film itself and whether it deserves the "Best Picture" nomination.
Now anybody that follows movies will tell you that the five films nominated for Best Picture are not always the five best films of that year. Many films (especially independent ones) are often ignored by Hollywood for obvious reasons. Some years are better (or worse) than others and sometimes a film that's just not that good slips in. That's the case (at least for me) with Million Dollar Baby.
This isn't a boxing movie. I didn't believe for one minute that anything happening onscreen was in any way true to boxing. I'm no boxing authority, but what I do know about it contradicted what I saw onscreen. So if it's not a boxing movie, what is it?
It's a melodrama.
Don't get me wrong, it's pretty good as melodramas go. But the story feels manipulated, contrived and artificial. Morgan Freeman's narration reminds us way too much of The Shawshank Redemption and when at the end we learn the reason for the narration, we think, "That's just not plausible. Why would this man write this letter to a woman he'd never met? And why would she even read it?" Frankie's (Eastwood's) strained relationship with his daughter only serves one purpose: to have Freeman's character narrate the story.
Again, the boxing scenes are just too much to accept, especially Maggie's title fight. I didn't believe one bit of it, plus it was telegraphed in big, flashing letters. Maggie's family consists of stereotypical cardboard characters that just aren't convincing. A director asks his audience to believe that certain things can and would happen under certain circumstances and I didn't believe Clint this time. I just don't think this film's that good.
And I certainly don't think it is a better film than Eternal Sunshine, which is original, well acted and directed, brilliantly edited, compelling and satisfying. But I've learned over the years to never expect justice on Oscar night.
More about writing next time. I promise.
Now Playing = Mingus Ah Um – Charles Mingus
I don't think I'll even get that close this year. With only six days left, I have three films to see. But I'm going to try. Of the five nominated films, I saw Ray about four weeks ago and Million Dollar Baby yesterday. Having seen Eastwood's latest film, I have to ask two questions:
1 – Is Million Dollar Baby really one of the five best films of 2004?
2 – Why didn't Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind receive a nomination for Best Picture?
There's been a lot of controversy about Million Dollar Baby and if you haven't seen it, I'll be bringing up a few SPOILERS now. But forgetting the controversy concerning the ending (which bothered me, but other things bothered me much more), I want to talk about the film itself and whether it deserves the "Best Picture" nomination.
Now anybody that follows movies will tell you that the five films nominated for Best Picture are not always the five best films of that year. Many films (especially independent ones) are often ignored by Hollywood for obvious reasons. Some years are better (or worse) than others and sometimes a film that's just not that good slips in. That's the case (at least for me) with Million Dollar Baby.
This isn't a boxing movie. I didn't believe for one minute that anything happening onscreen was in any way true to boxing. I'm no boxing authority, but what I do know about it contradicted what I saw onscreen. So if it's not a boxing movie, what is it?
It's a melodrama.
Don't get me wrong, it's pretty good as melodramas go. But the story feels manipulated, contrived and artificial. Morgan Freeman's narration reminds us way too much of The Shawshank Redemption and when at the end we learn the reason for the narration, we think, "That's just not plausible. Why would this man write this letter to a woman he'd never met? And why would she even read it?" Frankie's (Eastwood's) strained relationship with his daughter only serves one purpose: to have Freeman's character narrate the story.
Again, the boxing scenes are just too much to accept, especially Maggie's title fight. I didn't believe one bit of it, plus it was telegraphed in big, flashing letters. Maggie's family consists of stereotypical cardboard characters that just aren't convincing. A director asks his audience to believe that certain things can and would happen under certain circumstances and I didn't believe Clint this time. I just don't think this film's that good.
And I certainly don't think it is a better film than Eternal Sunshine, which is original, well acted and directed, brilliantly edited, compelling and satisfying. But I've learned over the years to never expect justice on Oscar night.
More about writing next time. I promise.
Now Playing = Mingus Ah Um – Charles Mingus
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Backstory, or Why Can't I Write It? HE Did!
I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying and learning from Damon Knight's Creating Short Fiction. What a great, practical book. But that's not what I wanted to yap about today.
I started reading a certain novel two days ago. It's by a much recognized and honored writer. This particular mainstream book, in fact, won several awards the year it came out (over ten years ago). It begins with a brief description of the setting, which is itself a character. The opening only hints at the coming conflict between characters. What follows next is our good friend Backstory.
And it goes on. And on.
And nothing happens. I mean nothing for the next three chapters, which is where I stopped.
Then I started reading Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, which also contains quite a bit of backstory. The difference between the two books is Roth's opening is so compelling (What if Charles Lindbergh became a Nazi sympathizer and beat FDR in the 1940 presidential election?) that I didn't mind the backstory. In fact while reading, I understood that Roth was using the backstory to explain to me how this intriguing premise could have legitimately come about. Maybe the first writer was going to show me how his/her characters were going to develop, but after three chapters of zero conflict and a not very engaging premise, I wasn't about to hang around any longer.
So we've got two established writers using a lot of backstory. But Roth knows how to get away with it. The first writer didn't sell the backstory as well as Roth, but he/she got away with it too (just not with me). Watch out for backstory, boys and girls, it's everywhere. When you find it, see if it's justified. See if it goes on for too long. Today's lesson is over. Happy writing.
Now Playing = B.B. King Live in Cook County Jail
I started reading a certain novel two days ago. It's by a much recognized and honored writer. This particular mainstream book, in fact, won several awards the year it came out (over ten years ago). It begins with a brief description of the setting, which is itself a character. The opening only hints at the coming conflict between characters. What follows next is our good friend Backstory.
And it goes on. And on.
And nothing happens. I mean nothing for the next three chapters, which is where I stopped.
Then I started reading Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, which also contains quite a bit of backstory. The difference between the two books is Roth's opening is so compelling (What if Charles Lindbergh became a Nazi sympathizer and beat FDR in the 1940 presidential election?) that I didn't mind the backstory. In fact while reading, I understood that Roth was using the backstory to explain to me how this intriguing premise could have legitimately come about. Maybe the first writer was going to show me how his/her characters were going to develop, but after three chapters of zero conflict and a not very engaging premise, I wasn't about to hang around any longer.
So we've got two established writers using a lot of backstory. But Roth knows how to get away with it. The first writer didn't sell the backstory as well as Roth, but he/she got away with it too (just not with me). Watch out for backstory, boys and girls, it's everywhere. When you find it, see if it's justified. See if it goes on for too long. Today's lesson is over. Happy writing.
Now Playing = B.B. King Live in Cook County Jail
Monday, February 14, 2005
Valentine's Day, Ursula K. Le Guin and Fred (Sorry, these topics have nothing in common whatsoever.)
Happy Valentine's Day, Boys and Girls,
Well, it's that time of year again - no, not Valentine's Day, but Navy Band tour, which Cindy is on for three weeks. That translates into: I've got to cook for myself, clean for myself, etc. But I get to read and write more, so I'm looking forward to three super-productive writing weeks. As long as I don't fall asleep watching American Movie Classics or something like that.
Reading some really good stuff. Read two Ursula K. Le Guin stories this weekend, "Nine Lives" (which is very good) and "The Day Before the Revolution" (which is so good it's scary). Anybody who doesn't read Le Guin should be taken out and whipped right now, this very minute! Man, the woman can write. I'm in awe.
I'm also working my way through Damon Knight's excellent book Creating Short Fiction. Knight says that the act of putting a story together involves a collaboration between the conscious mind and the unconscious mind, which he calls Fred. A lot of times when you're working on a story, you've simply got to turn it over to Fred; he's the only guy who can get it done. The only problem is Fred doesn't keep a regular schedule.
I've been working on a couple of short stories that I hope to send out in the next few weeks. One of them just won't get over a certain hump. I've told Fred to work it out; I've done all I can do with it. The answer I get? "I've got a couple of my best guys on it now." Yeah. I can just picture a couple of overweight derelicts taking a nap on top of several pages of my manuscript.
Fred will eventually come through. He's got stacks and stacks of my manuscripts in his IN box and a few paragraphs in his OUT box, but he'll get the job done. Sure, I'd like him to work faster. What can I do, fire him? Who else would work this cheap?
Happy Writing
Now Playing = The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album (Hey, it's Valentine's Day, alright?)
Well, it's that time of year again - no, not Valentine's Day, but Navy Band tour, which Cindy is on for three weeks. That translates into: I've got to cook for myself, clean for myself, etc. But I get to read and write more, so I'm looking forward to three super-productive writing weeks. As long as I don't fall asleep watching American Movie Classics or something like that.
Reading some really good stuff. Read two Ursula K. Le Guin stories this weekend, "Nine Lives" (which is very good) and "The Day Before the Revolution" (which is so good it's scary). Anybody who doesn't read Le Guin should be taken out and whipped right now, this very minute! Man, the woman can write. I'm in awe.
I'm also working my way through Damon Knight's excellent book Creating Short Fiction. Knight says that the act of putting a story together involves a collaboration between the conscious mind and the unconscious mind, which he calls Fred. A lot of times when you're working on a story, you've simply got to turn it over to Fred; he's the only guy who can get it done. The only problem is Fred doesn't keep a regular schedule.
I've been working on a couple of short stories that I hope to send out in the next few weeks. One of them just won't get over a certain hump. I've told Fred to work it out; I've done all I can do with it. The answer I get? "I've got a couple of my best guys on it now." Yeah. I can just picture a couple of overweight derelicts taking a nap on top of several pages of my manuscript.
Fred will eventually come through. He's got stacks and stacks of my manuscripts in his IN box and a few paragraphs in his OUT box, but he'll get the job done. Sure, I'd like him to work faster. What can I do, fire him? Who else would work this cheap?
Happy Writing
Now Playing = The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album (Hey, it's Valentine's Day, alright?)
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
See, I'm Not the Only One
Today I was looking at the number of stories I'd sent to markets last year compared to what I've sent out so far this year. Much fewer this year. Right now I've only got three stories floating around out there, all of them revisions of stories written at Clarion. I've been working on a new story for about a month and it's slowly taking shape. It might be ready to send out after another three to six weeks.
Now I'm looking at my goals list on my monitor. "Keep at least 5 stories in circulation and send out a new one every 2 weeks." Nope. Not gonna happen. I think I could do that, but I'd be wasting some editor's time and moving my name to the top of the "Discard Immediately" pile.
Some of my Clarion buddies are going through this same process of slowing down, which tells me I'm probably on the right track. I think the key to the whole thing is knowing your characters. In the story I’m working on now, I've been freewriting about two of my characters for the past few days. I'm learning a little more about them each day. Not all of what I'm learning will make it into the story, but it's all stuff I need to know. The more you know the character, the more he will tell you what to do. Do you ever re-read something you've written and your character says "I'd never do that. Never. Delete that, you clown. That's not me." Happens to me. (Sometimes I get called things worse than a clown, though.)
It's not just character, it's also setting, tone, pacing and about a dozen other things. The temptation is to concentrate on all of them at once, but you have to isolate problems. One thing at a time. Patience. Patience. Patience.
Now Playing = How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb – U2
Now I'm looking at my goals list on my monitor. "Keep at least 5 stories in circulation and send out a new one every 2 weeks." Nope. Not gonna happen. I think I could do that, but I'd be wasting some editor's time and moving my name to the top of the "Discard Immediately" pile.
Some of my Clarion buddies are going through this same process of slowing down, which tells me I'm probably on the right track. I think the key to the whole thing is knowing your characters. In the story I’m working on now, I've been freewriting about two of my characters for the past few days. I'm learning a little more about them each day. Not all of what I'm learning will make it into the story, but it's all stuff I need to know. The more you know the character, the more he will tell you what to do. Do you ever re-read something you've written and your character says "I'd never do that. Never. Delete that, you clown. That's not me." Happens to me. (Sometimes I get called things worse than a clown, though.)
It's not just character, it's also setting, tone, pacing and about a dozen other things. The temptation is to concentrate on all of them at once, but you have to isolate problems. One thing at a time. Patience. Patience. Patience.
Now Playing = How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb – U2
Saturday, February 05, 2005
Out of the Sick Boat
Man, I'm glad that's over. Most of it is, anyway. Cindy got sick first, then I got it. I mean I couldn't do anything. Surprisingly it didn’t hurt too badly to read, so I got some books read and watched a few movies, two of which were outstanding.
2003's House of Sand and Fog (based on the novel of the same name, which I have not read) is a modern-day tragedy with excellent performances, especially from Ben Kingsley. (Although it still chaps me that he won the Oscar for Ghandi – a part he was literally born to play - over Paul Newman in The Verdict in 1983.) I'd give the film 4.5 stars out of 5. In the last third of the film, one of the characters does something major that the viewer was not prepared for. The character wasn't prepared for it either; there was no indication that this character had any inclination to do this thing. It just didn't ring true for me, but I suppose the film couldn't have continued (or ended) without it. Sorry I can't be more specific, but I don't want to spoil the film for you. (And you should see it.)
I also saw 2004's outstanding Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It's a crime that this film is not nominated for Best Picture. I had absolutely no idea what the film was about when I rented it, so I'll leave you in the same situation by not describing the plot. But this is an exceptional film, beautifully photographed, brilliantly constructed, well acted. Don't be surprised if you see yourself in it.
Now Playing = Medulla - Bjork
2003's House of Sand and Fog (based on the novel of the same name, which I have not read) is a modern-day tragedy with excellent performances, especially from Ben Kingsley. (Although it still chaps me that he won the Oscar for Ghandi – a part he was literally born to play - over Paul Newman in The Verdict in 1983.) I'd give the film 4.5 stars out of 5. In the last third of the film, one of the characters does something major that the viewer was not prepared for. The character wasn't prepared for it either; there was no indication that this character had any inclination to do this thing. It just didn't ring true for me, but I suppose the film couldn't have continued (or ended) without it. Sorry I can't be more specific, but I don't want to spoil the film for you. (And you should see it.)
I also saw 2004's outstanding Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It's a crime that this film is not nominated for Best Picture. I had absolutely no idea what the film was about when I rented it, so I'll leave you in the same situation by not describing the plot. But this is an exceptional film, beautifully photographed, brilliantly constructed, well acted. Don't be surprised if you see yourself in it.
Now Playing = Medulla - Bjork
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Another Birthday
Yesterday was my birthday - my (ouch) 43rd. But I don't feel 43, which is good. I received several nice cards/wishes/gifts from family and friends and my family & friends are giving me a party Friday night. I really have been blessed in so many ways.
As far as writing goes, a lot of things happened during the past year:
I had some articles published in a couple of local newspapers and one magazine.
I've been asked to teach a future DC Writers Way workshop.
I was accepted to Clarion (East) where I met and lived with seventeen wonderful new writers and seven established ones.
I'm still getting rejection letters from markets, but most of them include hand-written notes (some of them even saying "send more"), which is a big step forward. (Hey, at least the notes don't say "Try using verbs in your next story.")
I've established a schedule and process for reading and studying stories on a regular basis.
I know that I'm getting closer to becoming a good writer. I can see progress. My First Reader (Cindy) can see it and my writers' group P.O.E. can see it. Now it's just a matter of sticking with it and working on it everyday.
I think it was Ray Bradbury who said you've got to write about 1,000,000 words before you produce anything good. I figure I've written about half that, so if I've climbed the mountain, maybe I'm on the way down. (Or maybe I'm just halfway up the mountain and the hardest part is yet to come?)
But anyway, the journey is terrific.
Now Playing = Now Here is Nowhere - Secret Machines (birthday present - Thanks Bob and Em!)
As far as writing goes, a lot of things happened during the past year:
I had some articles published in a couple of local newspapers and one magazine.
I've been asked to teach a future DC Writers Way workshop.
I was accepted to Clarion (East) where I met and lived with seventeen wonderful new writers and seven established ones.
I'm still getting rejection letters from markets, but most of them include hand-written notes (some of them even saying "send more"), which is a big step forward. (Hey, at least the notes don't say "Try using verbs in your next story.")
I've established a schedule and process for reading and studying stories on a regular basis.
I know that I'm getting closer to becoming a good writer. I can see progress. My First Reader (Cindy) can see it and my writers' group P.O.E. can see it. Now it's just a matter of sticking with it and working on it everyday.
I think it was Ray Bradbury who said you've got to write about 1,000,000 words before you produce anything good. I figure I've written about half that, so if I've climbed the mountain, maybe I'm on the way down. (Or maybe I'm just halfway up the mountain and the hardest part is yet to come?)
But anyway, the journey is terrific.
Now Playing = Now Here is Nowhere - Secret Machines (birthday present - Thanks Bob and Em!)
Monday, January 17, 2005
The Journey
I’m convinced that the people who are most successful – writers, actors, musicians, football coaches, business people, software designers, restaurant managers, sales people - have a plan. That’s certainly no revelation, but I think sometimes we forget about planning.
I still remember what one of my mentors told me when I was a band director. “To have a great band, you only have to go through three steps: Step One – Know what a good band sounds like. Step Two – Know what your band sounds like. Step Three – Know how to get your band from Step Two to Step One.”
That’s the plan. First, find out what a good story is like. Right now I’m studying one story a week, one story that I really admire. (This week’s story is “Only Partly Here” by Lucius Shepard.) What is this writer doing in this story? How does he do it? Why does he use this tense? This point of view? What does this scene do? How does he convey information about the characters, the story, the setting? Why does he use dialogue in this scene and not this one? What does this symbol mean?
Then know what your stories are really like. If you’re getting your stories critiqued on a regular basis, you’ll start seeing patterns. Right now I know that I have too many ideas in my stories. I also sometimes don’t make pivotal story points clear enough. You’ve got to point to specifics in your stories and be able to say, “This is a problem.” (And I believe you need somebody to point them out, whether it’s a first reader, an editor or a writers’ group.)
Now the fun part. Moving from where you are to where you want to be.
I remember the first band I taught. They sounded awful and it was my fault. I asked a director friend of mine to listen to them. When the rehearsal was over, I said to him in frustration, “Everything is wrong. Nothing is right. What do I do?”
“Isolate problems,” he said. “Fix the most obvious problem first, then tackle the others one at a time. That’s it.”
When it comes down to it, he’s right. That’s exactly what you do.
And I wasn’t kidding. The journey – learning and applying what you learn - really IS the fun part! Maybe I’m weird (a given), but when I discover something about my writing I didn’t know before, and how to make it better – that’s exciting. That means I’ve taken one step closer to becoming a better writer; not necessarily a published writer, but a better one. And I can live with that.
Now Playing = Tales From Topographic Oceans - Yes
I still remember what one of my mentors told me when I was a band director. “To have a great band, you only have to go through three steps: Step One – Know what a good band sounds like. Step Two – Know what your band sounds like. Step Three – Know how to get your band from Step Two to Step One.”
That’s the plan. First, find out what a good story is like. Right now I’m studying one story a week, one story that I really admire. (This week’s story is “Only Partly Here” by Lucius Shepard.) What is this writer doing in this story? How does he do it? Why does he use this tense? This point of view? What does this scene do? How does he convey information about the characters, the story, the setting? Why does he use dialogue in this scene and not this one? What does this symbol mean?
Then know what your stories are really like. If you’re getting your stories critiqued on a regular basis, you’ll start seeing patterns. Right now I know that I have too many ideas in my stories. I also sometimes don’t make pivotal story points clear enough. You’ve got to point to specifics in your stories and be able to say, “This is a problem.” (And I believe you need somebody to point them out, whether it’s a first reader, an editor or a writers’ group.)
Now the fun part. Moving from where you are to where you want to be.
I remember the first band I taught. They sounded awful and it was my fault. I asked a director friend of mine to listen to them. When the rehearsal was over, I said to him in frustration, “Everything is wrong. Nothing is right. What do I do?”
“Isolate problems,” he said. “Fix the most obvious problem first, then tackle the others one at a time. That’s it.”
When it comes down to it, he’s right. That’s exactly what you do.
And I wasn’t kidding. The journey – learning and applying what you learn - really IS the fun part! Maybe I’m weird (a given), but when I discover something about my writing I didn’t know before, and how to make it better – that’s exciting. That means I’ve taken one step closer to becoming a better writer; not necessarily a published writer, but a better one. And I can live with that.
Now Playing = Tales From Topographic Oceans - Yes
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Publishing Crap
It happens all the time, but it still gets under my skin.
You pick up a novel that looks somewhat interesting. It’s by an author you’ve never read, an author who has several books to his/her credit. It’s worth a shot, right? And so you start reading.
And it’s crap. I mean not just bad, but so bad you want to join the Save the Trees Foundation and picket the publishing company until the author of that pile of debris takes a vow to flip burgers from here on out.
I won’t tell you the author or the publisher, but they’ve both been around for years. I kept reading the book, hoping it would get better or at least not get any worse. I’ve only thrown one book across the room in my life and it was better than this one. I started to heave it, but thought the action would use too much precious energy. Besides, I was in the basement and I was afraid it would hit one of my bookcases, thereby infecting a great work such as The Sound and the Fury or Pride and Prejudice or one of my beloved Nero Wolfe mysteries. (My sf books are all upstairs. If anyone breaks in, they’ll have to sift through all the general fiction first, and by that time, Bullet will probably have his teeth sunk into some very painful portion of their anatomy.)
I couldn’t believe someone actually published this. So naturally, I marched up to the computer and started a new story.
Of course, it’s crap too.
But it won’t be forever. It’ll get better. I’ll figure out who the characters are, what they want, what’s at stake, who has the most to lose. I’ll let the characters speak, let the story tell itself in the way it wants to. I’ll work out the setting, the descriptions, the details. Then I’ll agonize over the language, spending time weighing one word against another, finding what I hope is the right flow.
And when I’ve gotten it as good as I can get it, I’ll send it out.
And when it comes back, I’ll do my best to heal the cuts and bruises and send it back out into the world.
All because some lousy book made me mad.
I guess that junk is good for something.
Now Playing = So Long, So Wrong – Alison Krauss and Union Station
You pick up a novel that looks somewhat interesting. It’s by an author you’ve never read, an author who has several books to his/her credit. It’s worth a shot, right? And so you start reading.
And it’s crap. I mean not just bad, but so bad you want to join the Save the Trees Foundation and picket the publishing company until the author of that pile of debris takes a vow to flip burgers from here on out.
I won’t tell you the author or the publisher, but they’ve both been around for years. I kept reading the book, hoping it would get better or at least not get any worse. I’ve only thrown one book across the room in my life and it was better than this one. I started to heave it, but thought the action would use too much precious energy. Besides, I was in the basement and I was afraid it would hit one of my bookcases, thereby infecting a great work such as The Sound and the Fury or Pride and Prejudice or one of my beloved Nero Wolfe mysteries. (My sf books are all upstairs. If anyone breaks in, they’ll have to sift through all the general fiction first, and by that time, Bullet will probably have his teeth sunk into some very painful portion of their anatomy.)
I couldn’t believe someone actually published this. So naturally, I marched up to the computer and started a new story.
Of course, it’s crap too.
But it won’t be forever. It’ll get better. I’ll figure out who the characters are, what they want, what’s at stake, who has the most to lose. I’ll let the characters speak, let the story tell itself in the way it wants to. I’ll work out the setting, the descriptions, the details. Then I’ll agonize over the language, spending time weighing one word against another, finding what I hope is the right flow.
And when I’ve gotten it as good as I can get it, I’ll send it out.
And when it comes back, I’ll do my best to heal the cuts and bruises and send it back out into the world.
All because some lousy book made me mad.
I guess that junk is good for something.
Now Playing = So Long, So Wrong – Alison Krauss and Union Station
Sunday, January 02, 2005
Job Hunting, Miss O’Connor and Writing Without Teachers
I’ve never minded working hard
It’s who I’m working for- Gillian Welch
I sent resumes out to two companies last week and inquired into a third. Two of these companies I think I could work for and one I’d love to work for. Although who you’re working for may ultimately be more important than what you’re doing, I’d love to find anything connected to writing or supporting the arts in general.
Right now I’m reading The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor. The woman was brilliant. There’s something about the way she combines the Southern mentality, Christianity, and finding/rediscovering your place in the world that really connects with me. I’m also reading Understanding Flannery O’Connor after each story I read. I think I’m becoming a better reader – I usually know what the author in Understanding is going to say before I read the passage about that story. Growth happens in small steps.
I’m also reading Peter Elbow’s Writing without Teachers. Elbow talks a lot about freewriting (which I already do). Don’t think, just write. When you freewrite, you allow your subconscious to flow and move, you don’t stifle it and you don’t edit. You can edit later. Too many times I’ve looked at the freewrite as a basic structure of a story that’s already in place. What I haven’t done is allow for different points of view (not character POVs, but different ideological POVs), different interpretations of what I’ve written. I haven’t allowed the element of conflict to germinate so several of my stories have seemed static and feel manipulated. Speculating. Dreaming. Exploring. I haven’t done that enough. How to fix it? Cook those differing ideas more, let them mix and blend with each other, even if it takes many drafts. Understand that you’ll revise later. Probably a lot.
My friend Marjorie has some great new stuff on her website and some great links. Check her out at http://www.marjoriemliu.com.
Now Playing = Everybody Loves a Happy Ending – Tears for Fears
It’s who I’m working for- Gillian Welch
I sent resumes out to two companies last week and inquired into a third. Two of these companies I think I could work for and one I’d love to work for. Although who you’re working for may ultimately be more important than what you’re doing, I’d love to find anything connected to writing or supporting the arts in general.
Right now I’m reading The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor. The woman was brilliant. There’s something about the way she combines the Southern mentality, Christianity, and finding/rediscovering your place in the world that really connects with me. I’m also reading Understanding Flannery O’Connor after each story I read. I think I’m becoming a better reader – I usually know what the author in Understanding is going to say before I read the passage about that story. Growth happens in small steps.
I’m also reading Peter Elbow’s Writing without Teachers. Elbow talks a lot about freewriting (which I already do). Don’t think, just write. When you freewrite, you allow your subconscious to flow and move, you don’t stifle it and you don’t edit. You can edit later. Too many times I’ve looked at the freewrite as a basic structure of a story that’s already in place. What I haven’t done is allow for different points of view (not character POVs, but different ideological POVs), different interpretations of what I’ve written. I haven’t allowed the element of conflict to germinate so several of my stories have seemed static and feel manipulated. Speculating. Dreaming. Exploring. I haven’t done that enough. How to fix it? Cook those differing ideas more, let them mix and blend with each other, even if it takes many drafts. Understand that you’ll revise later. Probably a lot.
My friend Marjorie has some great new stuff on her website and some great links. Check her out at http://www.marjoriemliu.com.
Now Playing = Everybody Loves a Happy Ending – Tears for Fears
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)