GalleyCat: Blogging 101

Pretty interesting thoughts from GalleyCat on blogging today. Have a peek:

Blogging is a tough business, and it's only getting tougher--projected drops in advertising could soon rewire the blogosphere.

Even book executives are pondering the future of this mysterious art. Debbie Stier, Associate Publisher at HarperStudio, confessed that she never imagined what sort of mental gymnastics authors endured following her digital evangelism:

"First of all, it's really hard. Do you know how many times I told authors, without batting an eye, 'Blog Blog Blog.' I feel so guilty now that I've discovered how hard it is to be 'on' when someone says 'go.'"

After a few weeks in the driver's seat of a blog, Stier is looking for blogging advice from the Internets. GalleyCat suggests this RSS feed primer from Yen Cheong. What do you think? Help Stier and her authors answer the question: "What makes a good blog?"

I agree. Blogging is much harder than people think. And I find that a lot of people revert to blogging as some kind of lazy journalism that doesn't require work. But the best blogs are not only linking machines, but also provide unique and original content, not to mention salient and thoughtful analysis of what is going on in and around their field of coverage.

Blogging is fresh in my mind because Zombie, Cake Man and the other members of the League and I have had a few discussions about this here blog and what we want to see come out of it, both in terms of content and design. It's a tricky balance to strike, I'll say that. You want to present material in a clear and effective form but you also want to be as original and trend-setting as possible. I think, personally from past blogging experiences, the hardest part is when you know the material is there and up to snuff, but you're still waiting for that onslaught of audience to finally kick in. It can take weeks and even months for your blog to finally appear on the radar of others that matter and in turn, generate traffic. Patience, like in many other areas, is the key.

What do you look for in a great blog? Which ones do you visit regularly?

On a related note, here's a post about blog-generated poetry.

The Writing Week part 40 - Why Did I do That?

This week, like so many recently, has been about re-writes, primarily. I actually spent the week working between three projects, which reminded me just how much I enjoy having multiple things to jump between. Working on multiple projects simultaneously offers so many important freedoms to a writer, particularly the freedom to explore multiple ideas and themes at once, as well as work with multiple characters and genres; it also allows the freedom to experience writer's block on one or even two projects. I'm often at my most productive when, if I freeze on an outline, I can jump to a separate script, and work through my writer's block on the first project that way. It really can be quite liberating.

So, this week's scoreboard featured: the post-Apocalyptic spec's final re-writes for the time being, the character background for the protagonist in my voice over experimental spec, and re-reading and editing my comic book style spec. Three projects all very much alive in my head now, all at different stages, all drawing attention last week.

I can't quite remember which night it was - I believe it was Saturday - I sat down and opened my comic book spec for the first time in nearly a year. The following are the actual first two sentences after the FADE IN: (NAME OF) CITY.

A middle-sized city on the rocky North-Eastern coast of the United States. The city is actually situated on an island, about a mile from the mainland.

I was horrified when I read this. It's not the worst writing in the world, but it is nowhere near the first thing I'd want a producer or agent's intern to read after digging the script out of the pile on his or her desk. So, with a few tweaks, that line became:

A mid-size city on an island off the rocky North-Eastern coast of the United States.

Fewer words. Big change. It just feels much more readable, more streamlined, less unnecessary. In short, I think it reads more professionally. (It might still need work, but it's oh so much better.) This is just one example of cutting back. The ScriptXRay article we linked to a while ago mentioned micro-descriptions. The original phrasing I used isn't exactly the same, but it does the same damage in a different way. It uses more words than necessary and stalls the reader from progressing. (As a whole, though, the 57/101 pages I've re-read so far have been overwhelmingly encouraging. I took my sweet time with this script, and for the most part, it shows.)

Isn't reading old scripts fun?

How does this stuff get published?

Every year, the Bulwer-Lytton Awards recognize horrible first sentences in novels. Over at io9, the sci-fi blog points out that the winner sounds strangely similar to another, painfully bad first sentence. You decide:

Joe Schulman won the Bulwer-Lytton in science fiction for this stinker:

Timothy Hanson, Commander of the 43rd Space Regiment in the 52nd Battalion on board the USAOPAC (United Space Alliance Of Planets Attack Carrier) and second in command to Admiral L. R. Morris of the USAOP Space Command, awoke early for breakfast.

Meanwhile, David Sherman & Dan Cragg's novel Starfist: Wings of Hell, forthcoming from Del Rey in December, begins with this line:

Captain Lew Conorado, the commander of Company L of the infantry battalion of Thirty-fourth Fleet Initial Strike Team, settled into the chair behind the desk in his office and sighed.

I don't know about you guys, but I'd definitely read something titled Starfist: Wings of Hell. How could you not?

The Simpsons - Beavis and Butthead Did It Already?

So, did everyone catch last night's Simpsons? Did the first act, where Bart was gathering/stealing golf balls to sell back to golfers for a profit (in a zany montage) ring familiar to anyone else?

I'm 99% sure this was already an episode of Beavis and Butthead. Further research pulled up this TV.com description of the episode I recalled (Yes, it's called "Mr. Anderson's Balls:")

While searching for a missing kid, Beavis & Butt-head stumble upon a golf game with Mr. Anderson, then follow him around the golf course to steal his golf balls and sell them to other golfers.

MTV has the full episode available for viewing on their website.

This reminds me of the South Park episode where Butters gets frustrated because The Simpsons have already used every zany plot he can come up with.

After 19 seasons, has The Simpsons exhausted its own story wells? So much that they're recylcing 14-year-old Beavis and Butthead gags?

Trailer Trash XIV: The Thing With Two Heads (1972)

"They transplanted a white bigot's head onto a soul brother's body!"

And when that happens, y'all can guess that antics ensue. You'd like to think that this is one of those movie premises they only could have gotten away with making several decades ago, but that's not a true statement at all. If they were to shoot this now, it would probably just star Snoop Dogg and Rob Schneider.

The real star of the trailer you're about to watch is far and away the hilariously terrible costume. In 1972, special effects had not yet progressed past having two guys stand really, really close together and throwing an extra-large coat over them.



At 0:06 - When did it ever seem like a good idea? To whom? Did ANYONE think this through?
At 0:26 - Wouldn't just about EVERYONE suspect that they wouldn't care for the idea much?
At 0:36 - Trust me, you'll never get tired of seeing them run around like that.
At 0:48 - Isn't his white head further back than it's supposed to be?
At 1:30 - Note the wicka-chicka-waka soundtrack. Yep, another movie from the 1970s.

Three facts about 'soul brother' Rosey Grier: 1) Grier was a two-time Pro Bowl tackle for the New York Giants and the Los Angeles Rams. 2) Grier was the Robert Kennedy bodyguard who wrestled the gun away from the senator's shooter and broke his arm to subdue him. 3) Grier is also the author of Rosey Grier's Needlepoint for Men:


Rosey Grier: Unquestional badass, macrame master.


"Now you KNOW you got to go!"

Ballast and The Pleasure of Being Robbed - Filmmaker discussions in NYC

These both look great - I wish I were able to make either screening this weekend!

BALLAST followed by Q&A with writer/director Lance Hammer



Saturday and Sunday, 10/4 and 10/5 at the Film Forum
After 8:00 PM shows

A young boy drifts through the spare flatlands of a wintry Mississippi township and a middle-aged man sits in his rural home, frozen in grief after his brother’s suicide. These striking images set in motion a riveting story of three people trying to reposition their lives after experiencing a traumatic loss. Lance Hammer has been compared to the Dardenne Brothers, for the assured hand with which he tells a delicate, quietly unfolding story using understated means and non-professionals from the Mississippi Delta. “The one indisputably great film at Sundance ’08… (This) poetic and profound movie transcends categories and announces the arrival of a major new filmmaker.” — Peter Travers, Rolling Stone.

THE PLEASURE OF BEING ROBBED followed by Q&A with writer/director Josh Safdie



Saturday, 10/4 at IFC Center
After 6:20 and 8:20 PM shows

The story of a young woman whose compulsive curiosity leads to bold, elaborate acts of theft, Josh Safdies THE PLEASURE OF BEING ROBBED is a beguiling blend of casual comedy and subtle, unsettling mystery. The film, the debut feature by 24-year-old New York writer-director Safdie, was the Closing Night film of the 2008 Cannes Directors Fortnight and the only film from the U.S. to play in that section.

Discussion and screening with writer/director Mike Leigh (Naked, Secrets & Lies, Vera Drake)

To top off the Museum of the Moving Image's Weekend With Mike Leigh screening series, on October 19th the Scandinavian House at 58 Park Avenue will host a screening of the new movie Happy-Go-Lucky followed by a discussion with the award-winning writer/director Mike Leigh.

If you aren't familiar with Mike Leigh's work, I'd recommend adding the dark drama Naked to your Netflix queue.

Tickets are available here.