Monday, April 21, 2008

Oh God

I was up until 5:30 in the morning, writing.

This wouldn't be a bad thing, I'm all for sacrificing sleep on the altar of the Muse, no matter when she demands it. Except that the boyfriend decided to wake me up at 9 am to ask me if I wanted to turn off the television and maybe take my cramped fetal position to the bed as I'd yet again fallen asleep on the sofa.

But staying up until the wee-er hours of the morning can do good things. I read the first seven pages of Isabelle Allende's "House of Spirits", saw Albert Finney do a remarkable portrayal of a grown, sexy, entirely fuckable man who acts for breathless moments so like a child throwing a temper tantrum that his performance made you feel perverted and dirty for having just a moment before wanted to screw his brains out, and perfected my Cher imitation after six continual plays of "Jesse James".

And then I listened to some of the things I said. I have some of my best sentences in my talking with others. Sometimes I think I should record myself full stop, all-the-time. I'm a fucking genius in the shadow of a tall lanky boy with an accent. I'm like a machine gun fully loaded with witty ammo, my throat a gold-plated chamber, and no bullet ever had it so good. I think about some of the shit I've said to get a man into my knickers and wish that my brilliance had come foresight included. After thought of the non-post-coital kind isn't as fun really.

But somewhere between the end of the Nuggets vs The Lakers playoff game (see yesterday's post for my full confession) and waking up on the sofa I realized two things: 1) That I should try to write with a few different voices to see what the result is and 2) That I might have inexcusably wrote my own version of Orwell's Animal Farm except instead of animals I've got a bunch of Orwellian vegetables on my hands and I'm wondering if my story has gone to pot of the green THC enhanced sort.

The more I think of it, the more I want to bitch slap Hunter S. Thompson for making me believe drugs were good for writers. Needless to say I'm doing some of my own loathing right here in Paris France you lying motherfucker.



Motherfucker is one of my favorite words. I'm glad I used it today because really, it's the little things that keeps me going. Motherfucker makes me want to watch Tarrantino movies. It makes me want to cut my hair into a pageboy, slick it down with pommade, and frame my face with fingercurls. Then, I'll lay down in a squeaky bed with a spring like a knife in the back in a little six room hotel in Monmartre, turn to my lover and in my zick French accent say, "I vould like a amburger, mon chéri, mon puce." We'd rush down to the street, me in a wifebeater under a black Chanel dress without bra or panties to find a place to devour blueberry pancakes and drink cafè au laits brought in cups big enough to boil socks in. We'd sit close and whisper, and it'd be all the more harder for me to scream in the instant he's hit by the delivery boy on his moped and instantly killed.

But then the scene will cut to a man in an dark alley. He's monstruous with a voice as big as God. His shoulders are so wide you're almost certain the brick walls of the alley are flexing to accomodate the bulk of his muscles. He's the kind of man a moped would prove invincible. It'd crush itself against the wall of his chest like a Coke can and its little wheels would roll around as if they had instead belonged to a tricycle. Cigarettes never got wet in the rain for him, oh no! And a few scenes later he'd be my lover and we'd be on foot in the maze of the Marais streets, my breasts unbound and bouncing - the delicate mousseline soie of my little black Chanel dress tattered and ripped up exposing a sweaty and quivering expanse of thigh. A few doors short of his grimy apartment, we'd find ourselves unable to stop ourselves, the smooth stone of the building facade rubbing up and down my back as we fuck with sensuous tango inspired movements.

Later on over bad instant coffee in his hell hole of a home he would find a soft spot in that hard muscular body for me and confess his secrets, but my reluctance to confess my own will weave a less fragile fabric of a story than my dress. I'll look down at the lip of the mayonaise jar I'm drinking espresso from, unable to meet his eyes. In the next scene I'll be in an all night bar on the rue des Martyrs pushing a guy's skull through a jukebox for trash talking my favorite Rosemary Clooney song. As the jukebox short circuits from the damage, I'll reach towards his mouth and grab the still lit Gaulois from his lips and smoke it without using my hands as I pay the check and walk out into the sunset.

All the while you'll be wondering what's my secret. Then you'll see me, entering a grand entrance of a bourgeois building. I stop to dig through my mailbox and pull out a pair of faded Levi's with the buttonfly that I shimmy into. Next a bra that unsnaps in the front to be worn under a crinkled Cure t-shirt from their tour for the album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. I'll brush my hair with thirty strong even strokes from root to tip until it's as slick as wet grass. You'll be with me every step of the five flight climb of stairs where I will open a heavy wooden door, reach down to caress a large excited to see me black dog, and stand up to kiss a handsome and rather thin man in a suit and tie lovingly and wish him a nice day.

Don't judge me yet motherfuckers! How do you know if in this particular piece of Tarrantino, that maybe perhaps during the process of getting through words to film that he didn't strike up an acquaintance with a volume of short stories by O'Henry and this isn't the twisted sort of ending you were expecting? See, motherfuckers! How do you know if the man I'm kissing after having had at least two men in me in one day isn't my brother?

Well, this has been fun. But Hunter S. Thompson, I still owe you a bitch slap.

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Saturday, April 19, 2008

Anthony Burghess

Today I bought The Kingdom of the Wicked. I almost didn't because my only concept of Burghess is entirely from Kubrick's film based on his novel A Clockwork Orange. But I wanted to read something he had written as ACO is one of my favorite films. So I bought it.

I regret it already. The very first paragraph is the author talking to you. It feels preachy and insinuates you are too un-cool to get him. I'm hoping the novel will redeem itself later on.

But this goes to show how important beginnings are. If this book had been full retail price, I wouldn't have bought it. I would have opened it up and read that first paragraphy and perhaps never attempted a read of anything Burghess wrote. I know many people whose opinions I respect who insist he is a brilliant author. Still, I might never have known this if I had read that first paragraph before going to the till.

Beginnings prove to be everything.

So I've decided to start keeping track of books with good beginnings, to do a bit of personal research, and to see if I can cut the mustard with my own beginnings. Otherwise, my career as a writer might end before it ever umm, well you know.
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Lebron James

Yes, as in the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA player Lebron James. I'm quite a fan of basketball.

So I'm watching the Cavs vs. The Wizards. Gibson throws back a ball at James, who leaps up as if he legs are actually flesh covered springs, palms the ball, and dunks it so powerfully, I think I heard the china shake in the cupboards. And this is hours AFTER the games has already aired, in another country.

Overrated someone dare call this exceptional version of a man, a man that proves by his existence alone that evolution is a continual process in the human race. James had a grace normally accredited to prima ballerinas, not 6 foot 9 inch, 250 pound, NBA basketball players. He is science. He manipulates physics and masters geometry by proving that there is not angle from which he cannot sink a ball into a basket.

But despite this impressive physique, he is still a boy. You see it in his eyes. He has an innocence and he is an everyman. So confident in his skill that he willingly gives away a shot that could easily be his, because he believes in teamwork.

Today, I created a character in my head and only I, and now any one who ever reads this will know that the source of my inspiration was Lebron James. Many would never believe that this champagne chugging, Chanel wearing, aspiring writer would ever watch a basketball game.

Well now you know one of my secrets. Sorry it's not a dirtier one.
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Books Recently Bought

The Art of the Novel - Milan Kundera
A Biography of Misia Sert
Step - Jerzy Kozinski
The Kingdom of the Wicked - Anthony Burgess
House of Spirits - Isebelle Allende
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Friday, April 18, 2008

Friday, Cooking and New Writers Books

It's 1h30 pm, and while I wait for my parmentier au canard to finish cooking, I've been leafing through the book I have waited for about two months for, The Modern Library Writer's Workshop by Stephen Koch (see Books for Writers for a link to amazon.com). The very first chapter is full of quotes of writing, its perils and angsts from noted authors such as Toni Morrison, Isabelle Allende, Tom Wolfe, EL Doctorow, and Faulkner.

Get up and get writing it says. Start at the end of the paragraph. What you don't know is it tells you this in the very first paragraph of the book. As a novice, it consoled me to know it doesn't work the way it seems to in movies or did for Stendhal and Kerouac where a budding author, with no real experience sits down and writes a novel or a screenplay in a matter of days (or in Jack's case, 16 hours). Writing is hard and apparently it is supposed to be, so I suffer less for not knowing exactly how everything is supposed to go.

It sure ain't easy.

While I have been rewriting for the past couple of weeks, I have been reading a great deal of odd little books. At the moment I'm going through Jerzy Kozinski's Steps, a biography on Misia (a muse to Latrec ET Renoir), and Celestine (the Diary of a Chambermaid).

I'm now one-of-those-writers, one of the ones who believe that reading in your down time is a great practice. I highly encourage it. I also encourage listening to a lot of Chopin.

I gave my last rewrite for a fragment from my novel to a dear friend last night who is a brilliant writer, perhaps the one I encourage most to write because he has a gift and I think something soft and important to scream out into the world. I'll let you know what he thinks.

I'm also on a self-imposed deadline to write something worthy of reading at group tomorrow.

So I'm indoors with a clean house (yay), yummy lunch to eat, and I'm going to make Southern Fried Chicken for dinner with mashed potatoes and green beans and have fruit for dessert. Today I am channeling that beautiful voice writers from the southern states of the United States seem to have.

For a glorious moment perhaps I'll have an epiphany of Twain, Faulkner, Williams, Harper Lee, or Langston Hughes.

Wouldn't that be just-oh-so-heavenly, I say in my best imitation of Scarlett O'Hara.

My, wouldn't it be just lovely? I ask in my best Blanche Dubois.

Which means apparently I'm going to channel a British actress who twice played southern belles, Vivian Leigh.

If only I could be as gorgeous. Guess we can't have everythin' now, can's we?
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Tuesday, April 1, 2008

A Cast of Characters

I've been going to the writing group at Shakespeare and Co for about a month now and have met some darling characters, for whom writing is essential, obligatory. I am always amazed by what I notice when I'm there. A new poster, a new book, a new corner previously undiscovered. It makes you feel like a writer just to walk into the place. It gives a purpose.

So today we're wishing Sylvia a Happy Happy Birthday. If you don't know, Sylvia is keeping Shakespeare and Co running, while her darling father keeps the spirit alive.

The world needs more people like this.
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Passion: An Amazing Video of Isabel Allende Speaking

It made me want to run out and buy everything this woman has ever written. Wow.

It made me proud to be a woman.

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Friday, March 28, 2008

Painting Scenes

The other night my friend D. and me put some paper on the floor and started painting away. I painted pictures to inspire me, for my book.


I'm not a good painter - in fact I have no idea whatsoever how to actually paint.
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I Was Wrong...Dammit

I wrote a previous post about Gabriel Garcia Marquez, one of my biggest influences as a writer, claiming him to be the father of magical realism (in literature). Well, wasn't I surprised to be completely wrong. The actual father of magical realism in none other than Miguel Angel Asturias.

His books seem difficult to find in France, which is odd since he actually wrote one of his most famous novels El Presidente while in Paris. I only managed to find The Mulatta and Mister Fly, but it was PHENOMENAL.

I do not use this word lightly. The way it was written changed my life.

The writing is provacative, clever, and masculine in a way that Hemmingway is said to be and isn't. This is a story about a man whose fly is always down who is a pervert. Even his wife thinks that he is a pervert.

The main benefit of reading this (I'm on to Ben Okri next) is it proves that magical realism doesn't have to be about supernatural things. It can also be about odd every day things, that take up a life of their own.

I've added Asturias to my mandatory reading list. You should too.
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Sunday, March 23, 2008

Meeting New Peoples

So I have been going to the writing group.

I've met a few new souls, some older and younger and cuter - though let's be serious. Never date a writer. I wouldn't date me. My boyfriend is part cheerleader, patron, psychiatrist, moral supporter, editor, and idiot who doesn't read enough to "get" me. Who wants that thankless job? Yes there are bouts of blisfull moments where convinced that good sweaty sex will help writers block I say great things like..."are you playing with your cell phone? wanna play with me?"

But most of the time I'm...siting on the couch and not in bed at 6 am because I'm trying to write, but end up watching pirated torrents of Gossip Girl instead or...not spending any quality time with you because I'm having coffee with other writers, most of whom trash talk Paris like she's the slut that slept with their best friend.

I sound like a prize don't I? If only you knew how good of a cook I am. Whoever said the way to a man's heart is through his stomach was a fucking genius.

But the books I've found. The reading I'm going to do.

It IS going to make me a better writer. God dammit.

It better.
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Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Outlines

There are millions of ways to make an outline, but here is how I've been doing mine for my writing.

I make a general chapter online, as easy as possible with what I think will be the key events to happen in the chapter.

For example, if Uncle Joe is gonna die, that's a key event.

Chapter One General Outline

I. Uncle Joe dies

Beneath this I simply list questions I'm going to ask myself that are important to this event:

Chapter One General Outline

I. Uncle Joe dies
- How does he die
- When does he die
- The shirt Uncle Joe is wearing
- Mysterious doctor visit he didn't tell anyone about when he got home

I outline all the key events and anything I can think of that will help me develop and detail the event and then take note of anything I might need to research.

After the general chapter outline, I make a very detailed outline of each "number" on the outline, each key event.

Chapter One - Uncle Joe Death Scene

I. Uncle Joe goes to the doctor
A. The night before
a. Is very worried
b. Has heart pains

B. The day of
a. Is nervous
b. Has suspicions he has heart problems

My general outline for my first chapter has six parts - so I will develop six outlines.

It works well for me thus far, but I haven't gotten very far. I'm not even past the first detailed outline yet!

If you try this and it works for you or doesn't, I'd love to hear about the process.
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A Trip to Office Depot

I decided to re-write my novel.

Or at least the first chapter. I was using highlight on MS Word to highlight passages that I thought needed fixing or perhaps even deleting. When I saw most of the first chapter was highlighted and that I made more edits on my drafts on that one chapter than all my other chapters combined, well the decision became easier.

But first I wanted to get organized. I wanted to make an outline for the chapter, find a way to deal with the massive amounts of print outs I was accruing, and keep my notes and research together, so I bought a big binder and different dividers and sticky tabs and a million other things.

I am really organized now, and to be honest it was completely worth it.

I bought numbered tabs to represent the chapters, tabs I can write on for any additional materials, and some clear slips to hold my outlines so that I can find them easily and stay true to my outline.

I'll get into outlines (or rather how I came about mine) in the next post, but I really like them for keeping me on track.

For the first section I have a tab for my research. For this part I have four colored tabs (red, blue, yellow, green) that tell me by their color whether a page has notes, phrases, things I want to research further, or if something is essential to my story. The next part is for my general chapter and my detailed outlines. Each chapter and any drafts or revisions are also kept - the drafts being kept in one clear pouch to keep them together.

Writing the chapter with my outline has really helped keep me on track. I know where this chapter is going, what I want to accomplish and how I want to set the story into motion. The first chapter seems to be the hardest, the one with the most mistakes at least - having all my notes and everything I need at the ready has helped me with my dreaded Writer's Block.

Not to mention, I do so love to highlight things with a real marker.
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Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Holy Bejesus

I have a good excuse for not writing in this blog. I have been writing elsewhere.

I met a girl who responded to my post for a writers group.
I went to a writers group meeting at Shakespeare and Co.

The night before the group meeting I stayed up all night and wrote a chapter.
It was well-received and I was damn proud of my very first chapter EVER.

Yes, ever.

Then there were readings and glasses of champagne and a night bus to Amsterdam and a night bus back to Paris.

In a week and two days I've written SIX chapters.
It's now a book.
I really like where it's going and the story it tells.

BUT...

Now I have writer's block.

*#Y*Y$HIJ)(EH#IBI$E BIJ

Now I see the holes and the need for editing.

84y983y938y503ihnoiejg0h8e*Y*(^$Yiuhw

Isn't this glorious?

So I've cranked up Til' Tuesday's Voice Carry and had a bowl of Coccoa Pops and am ready to see where this goes.

*#T872g48hr40h7T657GVWRJ=-0I83Y4732
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Friday, March 7, 2008

You

You.You were in my dreams last night. With the same problems you have outside of my dreams, so I shouldn't say it was a dream. It was a reality that happened entirely in my mind while I was sleeping. But it was the same bullshit, I won't lie to you. My being asleep didn't make me less conscious of how much bullshit you've got crammed into you. You're an impacted colon with legs. But that didn't make you less desirable.

It might have been why I wanted you in the first place. See, I like complication. I like having a reason to throw my hands up, to bitch and moan, to kick and scream about things that don't seem as important when the garbage is stinking up the house or you've got to really take a pee. But when none of those other factors are in play, it's like opium for my soul knowing I've got you to contemplate over, to feel a twinge in my heart for as I cry salty tears into my morning tea sweetened with sugar substitute.

In my dreams you lived in the same town you do now. In a log cabin. You're still impossibly tall with legs as thin as matchsticks down to the blue sneakers you always seem to wear. Your hair has a will all its own and you're hands are just as beautiful; elegant and carved so that I hear symphonies when I look at them.You still had that girlfriend and I still felt badly for telling everyone that she cheated on you, but I was trying to explain you, or rather why you're so venomous and so sad and so aloof. If you had seen them nod their heads and mumbles their "aahhhs", you wouldn't have been so mad about it. Everyone needs some pity points when they won't open their own mouths to defend themselves. I couldn't let everyone think I only had the hots for you because you're good-looking and moody and a graphic designer.

But in this dream I completely forgot about that time when we crossed the Seine together and we were so close a gust of wind couldn't have squeezed past us. When I couldn't see the dark of your eyes from the darkness of the night and I realized it just wasn't worth it. How I walked for hours back home knowing I could have gone up those steep stairs, or at least they were steep in my mind for poetic reasons, as was your bed very squeaky and your jeans very easy to pull off in the heat of moment. Your lips tasted like rosewater and your hands, as carved from marble as they might be, were as warm as my skin and couldn't be blamed whatsoever for my shivering.

I admit I forced myself to sleep a little longer in that blissful, mindless place where I had forgotten all those things and you were worth it again and it was exciting again and I wanted you enough to run you down the quais and over the ponts and through the Marais as if you were a marathon.
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Thursday, March 6, 2008

Sometimes a Bad Blurb is Worse Than No Blurb

I looked down today and noticed this:

"One of a glittering constellation of contemporary Latin American novelists...He is the author of a classic on the grandest scale...the most obvious comparison is with Homer's Odyssey..."

Did this reviewer read another book and then accidentally submitted this as a blurb for Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 100 Year of Solitude? The Odyssey? Most obvious? I thought that title would be forever held by James Joyce, for Ulysses.

Who writes these things anyways...one of a glittering. When this book was first published in 1967, it was a revelation. GGM didn't win the NP4L because he was one of many Latin American writers, he won it because he was the Latin American writer. He created a new genre. Yes South America has given up Coelho, Borges, Neruda and others, but when you think of magical realism, do you think of anyone other than GGM?

Phrases like, "references Homer", "parallels the Odyssey", etc would have made sense. This blurb writer seems like he didn't bother to even read the book. It sounds like the opening paragraph of a paper you had to write for a book you didn't even bother to get Cliff Notes for or rent the movie or read.

Now here is a real blurb.

Reality and fantasy are indistinguishable: a Spanish galleon beached in the jungle, a flying carpet, a cloud of yellow flowers, an iguana in a woman's womb, are more than guerilla coups, banana company massacres, and the coming of the steam-engine...As an experience it is enormously, kaleidoscopically, mysteriously alive...

Wow.
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