The Writing Week part 37

Some weeks can be really great weeks, even if the writing wasn't one hundred percent consistent. This was one of those weeks.

On the down side, there were a few days when I didn't write. On the plus side, though, I: began a new project (finally), polished and sent out query letters, and had a writers group meeting. Not a bad accomplishment for one week's time.

Everything the group and I did this past week goes back to something I've been mentioning a lot recently: the need to be driven. It's too easy for me to decide that "tomorrow, I'm going to start a morning exercise routine" or "next month, I'll begin teaching myself to play the harmonica" or "I'll slack off tonight, but tomorrow is the beginning of a new writing regimen." (All of those are things I've said to myself. A lot.) This week I decided to put it into action.

The query letters were a big thing. I wrote last time about working on them, and sent out a single, lonely message. I sent out a handful this week and, while I don't want to beat a dead horse, there is one more thing I'd like to say about them now. I can't recall the site where I read this, but some of the best, yet hardest to follow advice on queries was this (essentially):

Send them and forget about them. You're likely not to hear back, but if you do, send your script and forget about that, too. Otherwise, you'll drive yourself nuts.

Too true. I've resisted the urge to check my email when I'm usually not online, but when at my computer all day, it's so easy to just roll the cursor over the email window to see if there's anything new and exciting hiding in my inbox. There isn't at the moment.

Changing topics, I find I'm embarking upon another writing experiment. Zombie's mentioned that he's done some recently, Onyx did too, I believe. We all seem to be working on things that are new for us. For me, this will be my third this year. I tried 1) not using an outline, 2) writing a cross-country journey pic, and now 3) using VOICE OVER.

Voice over is one of those things that every student I know (and many books agree) is taught not to do. At NYU, most of the faculty treated voice over like the ugly cousin who'd try to molest you if you got too close. You were told from day one to just stay away. Avoid it like the plague. Yet, I happen to really like voice over in some instances. It just really draws me into a movie and the characters when done well, I guess perhaps because it makes the writer's job a bit easier - don't know how to tell it in the action? Voice over.

I know that my next project will use it. Right now, I'm still working on writing an elaborate back story for my protagonist (another first for me). I've written a paragraph here or there before, but never the nine solid pages I've done so far. What I'm hoping to accomplish from writing the back story, besides having a much more solid protagonist and first draft when I begin writing the actual pages, is that I'll figure out who the voice over comes from. Will it be my protagonist or is it going to be some omniscient third-person narrator?

Has anyone out there used voice over before? How'd it turn out?

Trunk Music

Over at Rolling Stone, the online version of the mag lists their favorite 'crime' songs.

It's a painfully obvious list, and it seems most are on there because they have some iteration of the word 'crime' in the title. Some blatant omissions: Cash's "I Got Stripes," The Stones' "Heartbreaker (Doo Doo Doo Doo)," Ice-T's "Cop Killer" and a few others that aren't immediately popping into my head (I'd have to scroll through the Stones, Clash and Cash libraries to find better examples, and that's not happening now). Click on the link to see the full list.

More importantly, this post got me to thinking about what music is most conducive to writing. While I listen to a lot of different genres of music (and find myself listening to music most of the time), it's a little bit trickier when I need to "split my brain" and focus on more than just the music, like when I'm reading or writing. Usually for reading on the train, I usually just have the music at a lower volume, allowing me to focus on the words on the page. Writing is a bit different and I find that instrumentals work best. Jazz, particularly Mingus and Charlie Parker really get my hands typing, especially with SILENT CITY.

What do you listen to while writing?

Three points for those that get the crime fiction reference in the post headline.

Do you write with certain actors in mind?

Might not be the best idea, according to Alex Epstein, over at Complications Ensue, a pretty entertaining screenwriting blog. His advice:

Don't get cute with the character names, it'll be distracting.

One danger in writing for a specific actor is you might not make the character strong enough. Knowing that Will Ferrell can make lots of unfunny things semi-funny, you might not sharpen the gags up enough for the read.

Another is, what if they're looking for a vehicle for Seth Rogen?

I would just write the strongest comic character you can, and let them figure out who it would be great for.

Or, if they ask "Who are you thinking of?" you can tell them.

I'm not sure I totally agree, at least from a prose perspective. Hell, I've cast SILENT CITY in my head, with Ms. Monaghan, above, in a starring role (because I enjoyed her in both Gone, Baby Gone and Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang -- both modern and noir-ish stories that matched some of the things I want SILENT CITY to do, in an ideal world).

I find it helps to visualize certain people doing certain things. I think as long as you use it as a tool to further you writing, and less about hoping Will Ferrell will actually be in your movie, then you're OK. Once the fantasy starts to alter the course of the reality -- of writing, and telling a functional story, that is -- you've lost it.

On a related note, this post got me to thinking about how other people read their fiction. I know that I often "cast" actors while I'm reading a novel, unless there's already a pre-existing movie or TV adaptation that I can reference (and, of course, agree with). For example, I always picture Ed Harris as Connelly's Harry Bosch:



Do you do the same? Curious to hear some examples.

Tom Wolfe: Fiction today sucks

Noted author Tom Wolfe, on the state of fiction in an interview with Time Magazine:

"There's so little of it now that it's pathetic, and it's pathetic all over. Writers come from master of fine arts programs now. If you add up the college education of Steinbeck, Hemingway and Faulkner, you get to spring break of freshman year."

Harsh. Do you agree?

[Via Jacket Copy]

David Foster Wallace, R.I.P.

Sad news tonight -- writer David Foster Wallace was found dead in his home. From the AP:

David Foster Wallace, the author best known for his 1996 novel "Infinite Jest," was found dead in his home, according to police. He was 46.

Wallace's wife found her husband had hanged himself when she returned home about 9:30 p.m. Friday, said Jackie Morales, a records clerk with the Claremont Police Department.

Wallace taught creative writing and English at nearby Pomona College.

"He cared deeply for his students and transformed the lives of many young people," said Dean Gary Kates. "It's a great loss to our teaching faculty."

Wallace's first novel, "The Broom of the System," gained national attention in 1987 for its ambition and offbeat humor. The New York Times said the 24-year-old author "attempts to give us a portrait, through a combination of Joycean word games, literary parody and zany picaresque adventure, of a contemporary America run amok."

Published in 1996, "Infinite Jest" cemented Wallace's reputation as a major American literary figure. The 1,000-plus-page tome, praised for its complexity and dark wit, topped many best-of lists. Time Magazine named "Infinite Jest" in its issue of the "100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005."

I enjoyed Wallace's short stories a great deal, and always had him on my short list of novelists I wanted to spend more time with once I got the chance.

If you're looking for a good starting point, check out Girl With Curious Hair, a superb short story collection published in 1989.

Link roundup:

New York Times obit
The Onion A.V. Club obit
Sarah Weinman on DFW
L.A. Times' Jacket Copy book blog obit

Trailer Trash XI: Queen Kong (1976)

"Queen Kong - the Liberated Lady Gorilla!"

Yep, this movie was made. Sometimes that's the best review you can give a film.

A short history: In 1976, a pretty mediocre remake of King Kong (no, not THAT mediocre King Kong remake) was made, produced by Academy Award-winner Dino De Laurentiis. Just a short flight across the Atlantic, a bunch of Brits set to work on a parody titled... get ready... Queen Kong.

The film existed more or less as a vehicle to make PMS jokes about a giant gorilla. In the movie, an effeminate hippie named Ray Fay (Ray Fay, get it? GET IT???) befriends a giant she-gorilla and they have many zany gorilla-centric adventures.



At 0:01 - Kong! Kong! Kong! Kong!
At 0:40 - Ray Fay and the Gorilla wink at each other, setting the tone for the whole movie.
At 0:46 - Notice as the T-Rex's face squishes inward as it's pounded on. Through no small feat of suck, the monsters in this movie are somehow less realistic than the ones in the 1933 original.
At 1:04 - OH GAWD THE TEETH, I AM BLIND
At 1:05 - Love the muzak soundtrack to this scene.
At 1:08 - OH MY EYES THOSE TEETH, WHY ARE THEY DOING THAT>!>??
At 1:11 - AND AGAAAIANIANNIIN
At 1:20 - No comment on that punch.
At 1:30 - Strange monster plant = perfect opportunity for gratuitous ass shot.
At 1:38 - Yep, Queen Kong wears a bra.
At 2:35 - I think that lady getting punched was possibly the first intentionally funny part of the trailer.
At 2:50 - Just in case we forgot this was a British movie.
At 3:10 - And again. They don't want you to forget where this movie was made.
At 3:25 - The Queen Kong Song was certainly snubbed by the Academy.



The film had sunk into obscurity when a lawsuit from Dino De Laurentiis severely limited its release to a few European countries.

Strangely, though...


... the movie gained a huge cult following in Japan in the mid-90s, which has slowly spread west. Why Japan? Who knows. (Rachel, I'm looking at you...?)


"She's in one of her moods again!"

Muderati on story structure, building a second act

Alexandra Sokoloff, writing at crime fiction blog Murderati, has been posting a series of pieces dissecting story structure and the elements of a strong, dramatic story.

She's just posted her thoughts on Act 2:

Act Two is summed up by the greats such as, like, you know, Aristotle - as “Rising Tension” or “Progressive Complications”. Or in the classic screenwriting formula: Act One is “Get the Hero Up a Tree”, and Act Two is “Throw Rocks at Him” (and for the impatient out there, like Toni, the end-skipper, I’ll reveal that Act Three is; “Get Him Down.”)

All true enough, but a tad vague for my taste.

So let’s get more specific.

The beginning of the second act of a book or film (30 minutes or thirty script pages into a film, 100 or so pages into a book) – can often be summed up as “Into the Special World” or “Crossing the Threshold”. Dorothy opening the door of her black and white house and stepping into Technicolor Oz one of the most famous and graphic examples… Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole is another. The passageway to the special world might be particularly unique… like the wardrobe in THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE; that between-the-numbers subway platform in the HARRY POTTER series; Alice again, going THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS; the tornado in THE WIZARD OF OZ; the blue pill (or was it the red pill?) in THE MATRIX; or the tesseract in A WRINKLE IN TIME.

This step might come in the first act, or somewhat later in the second act, but it’s generally the end or beginning of a sequence – think of ALIEN (the landing on the planet to investigate the alien ship), STAR WARS, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARC, going out on the ocean in that too-small boat in JAWS, flying down to Cartagena in ROMANCING THE STONE, flying to Rio in NOTORIOUS, stopping at the Bates Motel in PSYCHO. It’s often the beginning of an actual, physical journey in an action movie; in a ghost story it is entering the haunted house (or haunted anything). It’s a huge moment and deserves special weight.

Obviously, this is useful beyond the world of crime fiction, but fiction in general, in any form. Here are her thoughts on creating your first act.

And, you savvy Connelly fans will find a quick reference to our favorite anti-hero, Detective Harry Bosch, in the first section of the post, where Sokoloff responds to an email about characters changing over longer periods of time (many books vs. one). Interesting reading.