Writing-oriented gear

As part of my "sporty nerd" wardrobe I'm assembling for Comic-Con, I bought a baseball jersey that says: "My muse is a mean, mean muse".  It is too cute. Now the question - do I wear it with the black fedora or the Panama hat?

Writing craft: Building toward moments

I read a comment online recently - can't recall exactly where or what the context was:

I thought one of the primary steps in writing was knowing which moments you were going to build to.

This comment stuck with me because it's very much how I approach writing. I don't start writing when I first get an idea. I let the idea simmer in my brain and become a story (an idea is not the same as a story, but that's a topic for a later entry). I think about who the characters are and what makes them tick and what happens to them and how it's all going to end. In one case, I even knew what the very last line of the book would be before I started writing.

I don't outline, but I do have the general story arc in my head. I know how it starts, and I know how it ends. And in between the start and the end I have an idea of the milestones along the way.

The milestones are often major events in the plot. Or they can be moments when nothing much seems to happen but a character has a turning point that changes the course of his arc over the rest of the book.

But just as important as those big moments is how we get to them. In between those moments, a lot of work has to be done. The characters have to get from milestone to milestone in a believable way - and that's not just the plot but the characters' emotions and psychology. Character X can't start behaving in a way that totally contradicts everything that's been established about him just so he can make the plot go the way the writer wants it to. (I see this in books, and movies too, and call it the Character Arc Loop-De-Loop). Likewise, the book's pace and setting need to build to the moments. With some exceptions - such as a fight-for-survival thriller that takes place over one night - the book needs to breathe. It needs to give the readers an anchor, a stake in the story and the characters' fates.

A character's big life-changing event will have more impact if the reader understands about the character's life before the big event. This will make the event resonate more. What's been lost? What's been gained? Where does the character go from here? And why should anyone care?

The big moments should grab you - the builds in between the moments help ensure that the big moments do grab you.

My Simpsons avatar

It does kinda look like me...

The Great Gig on the Web

I was looking for some background music while I was writing and stumbled on 4EverFloyd, an all-Pink Floyd internet radio station. You can listen to the station via the Web or on iTunes. They even play requests!

It's not perfect - the songs are played individually and so you can get some odd little fragments (i.e., part 3 of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond") and there are no solo tracks.* But it's fun for when you want some Floyd but don't want to commit to one of their albums in its entirety.

 *I like Pink Floyd solo albums and I am not ashamed. Well, except for Fictitious Sports. No one likes that one.

Not going to be writing my own version of À la recherche du temps perdu any time soon

So the other day I ate a madeleine, but was not instantly transported down the halls of memory for seven volumes of books.  Perhaps the madeleine was inferior? Or was Proust overthinking it a bit? It is a mystery.

Review: Shark Attack 3 - Megalodon

My review of the craptastic giant shark movie Shark Attack 3: Megalodon is up at Horrorview.com. Check it out.

Readerville closes its doors

The fine book-and-reading Web forum Readerville has closed its doors. My diminished amount of free time means I hadn't spent much time there in the last year or so, but the site was invaluable for the wonderful writers it introduced me to - so many books I never would have read had it not been for that site - and wonderful people I met.

Readerville will be missed.

Books into Celluloid: Nightmare Alley

My latest Books Into Celluloid column is up at BookBalloon, taking on Nightmare Alley.

(Oddball trivia: William Lindsay Gresham, author of Nightmare Alley, was the first husband of Joy Davidman Gresham, who would later go on to marry C. S.  Lewis. Both Nightmare Alley and Lewis' Till We Have Faces are dedicated to Joy, which considering how different those books are, is a bit strange.)

Save the date: Comic-Con San Diego

Oh mais oui, next month will be that geek extravaganza Comic-Con. 

Last year I went to Comic-Con for the first time ever (as a present to myself for my 40th birthday) and had a very good time that included:

• Scoring a couple of the EC comics reprints, which my good friends Erik and Gerry then got signed by Al Feldstein, one of the last surviving creators of the EC comics
  
• Attending the Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog panel and the Mystery Science Theater 3000 reunion panel
  
• Seeing the ever-wonderful Ray Bradbury
  
• Scoring some rare lobby cards for the movie Pink Floyd: The Wall
  
• Getting autograph and photo with current top-ranked imaginary boyfriend Nathan Fillion
  
• And let's not forget the simple joy of communing with like-minded nerds
  

Of course, Comic-Con being so crowded and with so much going on, I completely missed out on runner-up imaginary boyfriend Hugh Jackman and caught only a glimpse of yet another imaginary boyfriend Bruce Campbell; missed the live Dr. Horrible performance; missed so many other things.

What will this year's Con be like? Who can say? All I know is that I'll be there - all four days - Thursday July 22 - Sunday July 26. I'll be wearing a hat (black fedora or straw panama, depending on my outfit) and most likely will have a big grin on my face. 

Review: Phase IV

My review of the 1970s sci-fi thriller Phase IV is up at Horrorview.com.  Unusual film, very deliberate (both in the smart sense and in the slow sense) but oddly affecting. Check it out.

Now that's what I call writing: Cormac McCarthy

If ever a book warranted a second reading, it's Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. It's all too easy for a reader to get lost in the Faulkner-on-LSD syntax and vocabulary and overlook the story itself. 

But with a second reading the ornate language becomes familiar and it's easier to enjoy the book (as much as such a bleak, violent book can be enjoyed).

There are so many passages that I love, that border on crazed poetry. Sometimes it will be one line:

He is broken before a frozen god and he will never find his way.

Or whole paragraphs like this:

He rose and turned toward the lights of the town. The tidepools bright as smelterpots among the dark rocks where the phosphorescent seacrabs clambered back. Passing through the salt grass he looked back. The horse had not moved. A ship's light winked in the swells. The colt stood against the horse with its head down and the horse was watching, out there past men's knowing, where the stars are drowning and whales ferry their vast souls through the black and seamless sea.

And here's probably my favorite passage in the book:

And they are dancing, the board floor slamming under the jackboots and the fiddlers grinning hideously over their canted pieces. Towering over them all is the judge and he is naked dancing, his small feet lively and quick and now in doubletime and bowing to the ladies, huge and pale and hairless, like an enormous infant. He never sleeps, he says. He says he'll never die. He bows to the fiddlers and sashays backwards and throws back his head and laughs deep in his throat and he is a great favorite, the judge. He wafts his hat and the lunar dome of his skull passes palely under the lamps and he swings about and takes possession of one of the fiddles and he pirouettes and makes a pass, two passes, dancing and fiddling at once. His feet are light and nimble. He never sleeps. He says that he will never die. He dances in light and shadow and he is a great favorite. He never sleeps, the judge. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die.

Word count odometer: 100,000

Yeah, baby! And the words just keep on coming!

Getting ideas, doing research, and more

It's been a busy week but a fun one. 

Friday evening I went to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena - in the current chapter I'm working on, two of my characters will visit the museum and I wanted to see it for myself. Also, it's very close to my place of employment, so it was downright disgraceful that I had never walked a few blocks and paid the eight bucks to see some amazing works of art. It was wonderful. I loved the Impressionists, particularly Monet and Boudin, as well as works by Toulouse-Lautrec and Van Gogh. I liked the modern works much more than I thought I would, though I confess I just don't "get" Kandinsky. However, now that I've seen the actual paintings rather than just a picture in a textbook, I do "get" Rembrandt.  Not only was this evening valuable research, but it's got me inspired to jump into the next chapter.

Sunday we were at Knott's Berry Farm for my friend Gerry's birthday. Now, I adore Knott's Berry Farm - we went all the time when I was a kid - but for some reason while we were in line for the Log Ride I got the idea of a murder mystery set at a theme park.  It's just an idea - I've found that it's not enough to have an idea for a book, you need a story and characters to bring that idea to life. I think that'll come, though, and perhaps one day it'll happen. It could be a real hoot.

There are few things more fun in writing than getting the idea for a book. What makes it so exciting is that you never know when it will happen or what will bring the idea on. (You can usually tell when it happens to me because I'll let out a Lucy Van Pelt-esque cry of "THAT'S IT!") The twofold trick is to recognize the ideas when they come, and then to come up with a story and characters that can bring that idea to life.  Of course, not every idea will pan out into a story, and some stories turn out to be non-starters. But even non-starters have their value - you can put them aside and revisit them later, elements from them can be adapted into other stories, or they can simply be good old-fashioned practice with your writing. It's all good.

Homophone of the week

Read and giggled at on The Onion's AV Club comments section:

"I would argue that he is simply uncomfortable with the sexual morays of the 70s."

I say, better the sexual morays than the sexual piranhas or the sexual sea cucumbers.

Neil Gaiman on George R. R. Martin and "entitlement issues"

Excellent post by Neil Gaiman over at his journal, addressing fan angst over the long wait for the next book in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series.  Read it now.

I freely admit that I'd love nothing better than to see that A Dance With Dragons is available for pre-order (for real this time). But I'm in agreement with Mr. Gaiman. We'll get the book when we get it - and no fan of the series wants Martin to rush the job or slap together something just to shut the fans up. That does the series no favors.

Martin has both the curse and the blessing of having a highly enjoyable, incredibly detailed and complex, and well-loved series that's not finished yet. We don't know how it ends. Depending on his creative process, Martin himself may not know how it ends, or he may know how it ends but not exactly how he'll get there. It will happen when it happens, like all art, and it will satisfy the readers or it won't. 

And if the fans get too tired of waiting, they could try writing their own books.  Why not? They'll learn that:

• it's fun!
  
• it's not as easy as it looks!
  
• even writers need to take a night off to recharge, get some sleep, read, or watch Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus
  

Heck, even though tonight is one of my writing nights, I'm taking it off. Why? I'm tired, I'm frazzled from work, and I know myself well enough to know that any writing I do tonight will be garbage. Sometimes that's what has to be done and writing is always better (and more fun) when it's a "want to do" not a "have to do". 

Look at my library

Added to the "Writerly and Readerly Stats" at the bottom is a thingamajig that shows you random covers grabbed from my library, courtesy of LibraryThing. Kind of neat, isn't it?

Excuse me while i geek out

I try to refrain from unduly excessive nerditry here, but this is just too cool. 

Coming to DVD! 

Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus! 

Watch the trailer!

Guess what's at the top of my Netflix queue? It's like God made a movie just for me.

Now that's what I call writing: Michael Chabon

This is from Michael Chabon's novel Wonder Boys (essential reading for any writer). I think most writers can sympathize with this situation:

I had too much to write: too many fine and miserable buildings to construct and streets to name and clock towers to set chiming, too many characters to raise up from the dirt like flowers whose petals I peeled down to the intricate frail organs within, too many terrible genetic and fiduciary secrets to dig up and bury and dig up again, too many divorces to grant, heirs to disinherit, trysts to arrange, letters to misdirect into evil hands, innocent children to slay with rheumatic fever, women to leave unfulfilled and hopeless, men to drive to adultery and theft, fires to ignite at the hearts of ancient houses. It was about a single family and it stood, as of that morning, at two thousand six hundred and eleven pages, each of them revised and rewritten half a dozen times. And yet for all of those years, and all of those words expended in charting the eccentric paths of m characters through the violent blue heavens I had set them to cross, they had not even reached their zeniths. I was nowhere near the end.

Two thousand, six hundred and eleven pages? Yikes!

Word count odometer: 90,000

I do love it when the word count odometer rolls up another 10,000 words. (No, I haven't stayed up every night this last week writing - I was able to incorporate a chapter I'd been working on separately,  hence the big bump in word count.)

To celebrate, here's a little musical fun!

Kelly's big score

Recently got the Employee of the Month award from my employer (thanks!) and decided to do my bit to help the publishing industry in these tumultuous economic times. Went to Vroman's and came home with:

Comfortably Numb: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd - Mark Blake (Like I need another Pink Floyd book, but this one has some fun stuff I haven't read before.)

Mistress of the Sun - Sandra Gulland (I really enjoyed Gulland's Josephine books, so I'm looking forward to this.)

American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis (One of these days I'll man up and read it, just so I can say that I have.)

Disturbing the Peace - Richard Yates (So good to see his work in print again.)

The Postman Always Rings Twice - James M. Cain (Never read any Cain before)

The Continental Op - Dashiell Hammett (Loved Red Harvest, figured I'll like this)

After Dark, My Sweet - Jim Thompson (Never read any Thompson before either)

The Choirboys - Joseph Wambaugh (My friend Gerry's been nagging me for ages to read this)

Jake's Wake - John Skipp and Cody Goodfellow (Haven't heard of this before but I liked Skipp's work with Craig Spector so I'll give this a shot)

A Dirty Job - Christopher Moore (Read this before and liked it, and it's my book club's pick for May)

Now that's a fine haul!