Saturday, July 31, 2004

Reading Only Recipes, Writing only on Cakes

Aaaaargh! We are entertaining family tomorrow and I am cooking instead of writing! The upside is that cooking is meditative, so maybe I will dream up some new ideas. Off to write . . . I mean, cook!

Write a Letter

Despite being in my twenties, I am one of those old-fashioned types who feels that we have lost the power of written communication via e-mail. I am enlisting all of you to write a letter at least once a month, and I pledge to do the same. Do not e-mail it. Sit down with a quality pen that does not smudge and some nice stationery, and write a letter to a friend, family member, or significant other. Mail it with your favorite stamp or slip it under your lover's pillow. I think sending a letter snail mail helps one focus and really think about what is going on in his or her life. It is a good way for one on reach out to someone else. Try it, once a month. Before your know it, you mailbox will be filled with something besides junk mail!

Friday, July 30, 2004

Review My Blog on Blogarama

Please take a couple minutes to review my blog on Blogarama.com. Just go to the Web site, enter "Screaming Writer" in the "Search Blogs" box and my site will come up. Then click "Reviews" and then "Submit a review for this site." Then, go nuts! I would greatly appreciate it. I will also keep the link to Blogarama.com on the right column of my blog. It is a great site to search for other Web logs of all types. Thanks, all!

On Dialogue . . .

I have attached a piece of dialogue from my novel below. The two characters are Jake and Lois Barnaby. Jake is a city slicker turned drifter who just breeze into this tiny Midwestern town. Lois Barnaby is an aging middle-aged overweight school bus driver that gave Jake a lift to the bar that they now occupy at 9 in the morning. Let me know what you think: Questions, criticisms, accolades, and observations. All are welcome.

"See that guy over there" she pointed with an empty can. The man was the only other patron in the bar.

"Uh-huh."

"That's Razzle." She let out a garlic-laden burp the hung in the air like fireworks smoke.

Jake jerked away from the smell, then followed her calloused finger to the end of the bar. An old thin, muscular man sat with some brown liquid in front of him. He stared at himself in the mirror behind the army of half-empty bottles.

"Razzle-dazzle." Jake's dirty martini was starting to warm him up, "Who's Razzle?"

"That guy over there."

"No, what's his story?"

"He used to be mayor. Then his wife died."

"Wow." Jake said it with no emotion, breaking a stale pretzel in two.

"Then the day after there was a train wreck in town. Forty-six people died. Razzle called a town meeting to plead for calm. Then, he shat himself while giving the speech"

"Really?"

"Yeah. He never was the same after that. Most said he had a breakdown."

"Well, the irony's not lost on me."

"You lose something?"

Jake sighed into his glass, "Never mind."

Thursday, July 29, 2004

My Cousin the Writer and Producer

My cousin, James C. Ferguson is out in California writing and producing. He has worked on a lot of great comedic material, and his projects have been praised by critics and have won awards. You can check out his Web site at http://www.scalepluspoints.com/

Along with his work in the movies, James has also had a novel published called Context Clues. It is the story of an alcoholic British detective that has to piece together a mystery from the few things he remembers amid his drunken haze. 

So, pick up the book and visit James's Web site to see what he's up to. You will be hearing bigger and bigger things from him every year. I will add his site to my links list for ease of access in the future.




Battling Through the Fatigue

Despite a heaviness in my head, I did 641 words tonight. Not quite my goal, but I am happy with the results. I introduced two colorful new characters to my novel. I wish I could tell you all more but I am paranoid with this public venue of people stealing my ideas (I am not talking about those of you near and dear to me, of course. However, what I am going to do is share a snippet of my work every week. This week it was "The Stolen Grave."

I still working on developing a regimen that works for me. I am readying myself for school, so it will not seem like such a shock when it hits. I have no idea what to expect out of graduate school. It is actually pretty exhilarating.

Oh, I also thought of some great ideas while driving today. Of course, I had a pad and pen with me and I was able to scribble it with shaky hand while bracing the pad against my steering wheel. It is funny how things just come to me while I'm driving. I guess it is a pretty meditative activity. Well . .  . whatever works!


Historical Fiction

Lately, a lot of the ideas I have been getting have been in the realm of historical fiction. This is obviously has to do with my profession, where I work on history and social studies books all day. Every event I come across holds promise of being fictionalized, every person the promise of a great character. I am astounded that a lot of world history has not been fictionalized yet, especially  the ancient era. The Aztecs alone hold promise of murder, intrigue, high society, and clash of cultures. More later . . .



Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Sooo Tired

No work done on my novel today. I am trying this new thing called actually getting a decent night's sleep. My hope is that is will make me more productive and less likely to drag throughout the day. If not, it's back to vampire time. "Wolves, children of the night; what beautiful music they make."


Bad Writing

I thought I would share with you once of the worst pieces of writing I have come across in a long time. It comes from Masters of the Vortex by E.E. "Doc" Smith, a science-fiction novel from 1960. I would like to clarify: I DID NOT WRITE THIS:

SAFETY DEVICES that do not protect.
 
"Unsinkable" ships that, before the days of Bergenholm and of atomic and cosmic energy, sank into the waters of the Earth.
 
More particularly, safety devices which, while protecting against one agent of destruction, attract magnet-like another or worse. Such as the armored cable within the walls of a wooden house. It protects the electrical conductors within it against accidental external shorts . . .
Bored yet? This was the beginning of the novel. Not exactly "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times." How could Doc even think that a discussion of safety devices would hook the reader into the book? I never thought I would actually find something that literally reads like stereo instructions, but I think I did. In all fairness to Doc, he was a Hugo Award nominee and I heard this was one of his worst books. The rest of the book might be good, but I could not get past the opening.

 


The Awesome Power of Stationery

What an improvement just carrying around a pad and pen has made in my writing life. I use a 5 x 3 inch memo pad that fits easily and comfortably in any pocket. Today, at work, I got a great idea for a screenplay and wrote it down. I probably won't start this for at least a year and may never follow through on it. However, capturing the idea in the moment ensured that I would not forget it. I wrote down every detail. On a weekend when I feel particularly ambitious, I intend to take all these scraps of paper and put them into an Excel spreadsheet, so I have a readily available bank of ideas.

RFCs

When I was stuck in a computer consulting job, the environment was rife with acronyms. One of the most blatant, I felt, was RFC, which stood for "request for comments." However, at the risk of being ironic, I would like to issue my own request for comments. I encourage all my visitors to voice their views on each and every post. Further, if you have general comments on how the site could be improved, please respond to this post. Thank you!

 

Professor Kim and Other Links

Part of writing is reading and have I got a great read for all of you. An ex-professor of mine has this great blog called Professor Kim's News Notes that has "Reporting and commentary on race, class, religion, gender and sexuality in the news." it is a great place for nonfiction writers to get info and perspectives. And fiction writers, you never know where a story idea may linger. Please check this site out. You will not be disappointed. I will be adding this and other links to the right sidebar of this page. Links will be added and updated daily, so keep visiting!


Great Night!

Tonight I actually met and surpassed my writing goal. Perhaps I should inform you all of what my writing goal is. Until the end of July, I want to do at least 1,000 words a day and starting on August 1, I want to do 2,000 words a day. It may sound ambitious, but it only took me 30-40 minutes to do 1,000 words tonight. It really flowed ,and I thought the writing itself was very good.

The one thing that has worried me over the past days is that this story is pretty dialogue-heavy. I have always had a hard time doing descriptions. I suppose it is an aversion to those long-winded 19th century novels I studied in Brit Lit as a teenager, where they take four pages to describe a woman standing on a wheat-covered hill thinking of her dead husband. I keep having to go back and add description. Sometimes, I find that I leave out a key detail that I wanted to include. Like in the story I am writing, I wanted the main character to pick up a child's bible off the seat of the bus. The bible is to be an instrumental clue for a revelation later in the book and I almost left out this little, important detail.

At any rate, I am content in the fact that I met my writing goal tonight and will sleep well with the 5 hours I have left to do so. (4 hours after I finish all this blogging! Stay tuned for the next entry!)


Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Recommending Reading

Someone asked me what books I recommend for someone who is interested in writing. Though I am not as well read as most writers, here are the volumes I can offer:

  • The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White -- That's right, the author of Charlotte's Web wrote a book on writing. This should be the first book you read. More than just a book on grammar, it is a slim volume packed with short tips and stellar examples designed to make your writing concise. In the words of William Strunk, Jr., "Vigorous writing is concise." Read and reread this.
  • On Writing by Stephen King - I was actually surprised at how good this book was. Don't get me wrong; I love most of Stephen King's horror novels and stories, but I was a little unsure when I heard he wrote a book on writing. Unfortunately, I guess I was biased against genre writers, a bias I have since fallen victim to myself. This book was one of the best books on writing I have ever read. Lively and entertaining, it takes the reader through all facets of the writing experience, from grammar to (Ahem!) motivation to publication. This book applies to all writers, not just horror writers.
  • Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular by Rust Hills --A classic college textbook, this helped me a lot in undergraduate school. As a result, my professor praised my story about the ritual killing of a milk cow. Who knew! This gives one all the basics one needs to write fiction.
  • One Continuous Mistake: Four Noble Truths for Writers by Gail Sher--I have not read this one, yet; but my girlfriend swears by it. I have been into Buddhism for the past couple years so it's on my reading list.
  • The Writers Market or the Writersmarket.com--This book lists thousands of markets to submit your finished work to: book publishers, contests, consumer and trade magazines, literary journals, greeting card publishers. It also has a lot of other helpful information and articles written by the industry's "big guns." The pay Web site offers even more up-to-date listings, as well as "Favorites" folders for market search results and a "Submission Tracker" for the manuscripts you have sent. I recommend waiting until this Fall to buy the 2005 Writer's Market Online. You will get the book with all of its great articles, as well as access to the Web site for one year.

I hope these are helpful. I'm off to write!




The Planning Stage

The bad news is: I only wrote 250 words tonight. The good news is a started a book map for my lastest project. I haven't mapped out the whole plot line yet but I have enough to get me to the first turning point. Now if I just wasn't so tired . . .

Reading at Stoplights

Trying to get that in that extra read. Much to the chagrin of the other New Jersey drivers, I've started reading at stop lights. I'm little less quick on the gas pedal when I get that green, but the worst I get is a curt honk and I'm reading a lot more. I even find myself slowing down at yellow lights. This from a guy who used to treat all Stop signs like Yield signs.

Monday, July 26, 2004

Excerpt from "The Stolen Grave"

Now for some shamless promotion. Below is an excerpt from an unpublished horror story of mine entitled "The Stolen Grave." BEWARE: This except is kind of gory. Let me know what you think and thanks for letting me SCREAM!

Fred's room looked normal. His lava lamp was silently bubbling away in the corner, casting its dull red light over his heap of dirty laundry. Joe could smell the dirt, sweat, and ass coming from what he assumed was the laundry pile. Fred was still in bed with the covers pulled up over his head. He must have been having bad dreams too. Under his comforter, Fred looked even bigger than usual. He seemed to fill the whole bed. Joe broke the silence as he walked over to the bed, "C'mon Fred, I know what you fuckers have been up to." Nothing. Joe flung back the covers.

He could not decide which was whiter, Fred's hair or his pale skin. Both looked as if they had been dipped in bleach. In fact the only color was coming from the lamplight's red glow cast on the white around Fred's glassy gray eyes. His mouth was stretched and locked open in a frightful girn. His face was gaunt and caved in on one side, as if someone had stuck a straw in his ear and sucked everything out.


With the exception of his collapsed head, Fred's body was covered with a mound of earth. Joe pulled back the rest of the covers and saw that even his feet were covered. A heavy soil smell unfolded in the air. It reminded Joe of his clothes after a fishing trip. Worms squirmed out from the top of the mound. Not earthworms, but ungodly types of worms: the type that one finds in old boxes of oatmeal and on dead raccoons in the road and curled up inside the mouths of mummies. Hundreds of worms were coming to the surface all wriggling their bodies to the same sinister rhythm.


On a Lack of Motivation

Lately, I have been very unmotivated, and I am trying to find out why. I have been playing the always-dangerous blame game: "I can't write because of the housework," "I can't write because I had to bring day-job work home," "I can't write because I need to publish a blog." :)  The blame game is not fun. There is no Chuck Woolery or Wink Martindale to flash a plastic smile and give me a parting gift. Usually the blame game only ends in me hurting someone else and feeding into my lack of motivation, which is the real reason I don't get to writing every day.

My lack of motivation can be pretty astounding. If I may digress with one of the more striking examples . . . One night at 10 p.m., I found myself with 4 hours of writing time before me (Bedtime is 2 a.m). So, I go into the kitchen to get a glass of water. On the counter are two coconuts. I bought them, 2 for a dollar, at the local produce market; but had not found a use for them. So, instead of writing, I decided that I would find a use for at least one of these coconuts. I found a recipe that required coconut milk and looked up how to make it. This was quite a long process which involved me on my hands and knees trying to quietly crack open a coconut without waking my girlfriend upstairs. This was a clandestine operation that ended with me baking the fruit in the oven for a 1/2 hour. Needless to say the coconut milk I made was disgusting and I ended up buying some the next day to finish the recipe.

This coconut-milk-making process lasted about 3 hours. So, there went a night of writing. But, why did it happen? I love writing. I certainly love the finished product. I have dozens of ideas daily. But, why don't I write? It can't be fear of success, but that is a reoccurring waking dream of mine. My girlfriend thinks it is lack of exercise and sleep, and I think she has a point. But, I can't seem to get motivated to exercise, and how can I sleep when there is so much procrastinating to be done? :)

Thanks for letting me SCREAM!

Welcome to My World

Yes, that is what I aim to do: To draw you into my brain's microcosm of one, so that you may see what hell it is to have a flood of ideas, but have a lack of motivation drive you upstream like spawning salmon, fighting against the current. I know I should instead just relax and ride the wave, but alas I do not.

Let me dispense with the drama, and welcome you all to my blog. On these pages, you will find my views on writing, and I promise not to be as negative as I am today.

I will follow through with that promise right now, by focusing on telling you a little of the positive about me. I live in New Jersey with my wonderful, supportive girlfriend. I am an editor at a children's nonfiction book publisher and will be attending the New School University's M.F.A. program  in creative writing this fall. I am currently trying to write daily and failing miserably . . . whoops, there's the negativity. Ah, a broken promise--the American way . . . I can say that I have submitted a short horror story and a picture book and am waiting on the edge of my office chair for a response. I used to write only horror, but since I quit alcohol and have gotten to a better place with the support of my girlfriend and my family and friends, I am no longer pigeon-holed into a specific genre, but bask in the full spectrum of crazy story ideas.

Well that is all for my first post. I look forward to any responses. Thanks for letting me SCREAM!