The missus and I went to see "Doubt" last weekend after it did so well at the Oscars.
Sitting through the movie, I was positive that Philip Seymour Hoffman's character was innocent ... until the very last scene of the movie. Talking to Lisa afterwards, I found out that she had the complete opposite experience - thinking he was guilty until the last scene, when suddenly she felt as if he had been wrongly accused.
We talked about the movie for several days, arguing our points and discussing key scenes in support of each argument. We still haven't figured it out.
Now that's great writing.
Break On Through
Today I met with 3 different clients, volunteered at my kids' school for 2.5 hours, walked the dog twice and broke through a roadblock in the book I'm writing that had been puzzling me for several days.
Sounds like a lot of multi-tasking, eh?
Not really. I read the following article on "single tasking" and realized that this is what I've been doing unconsciously for several months now: when I'm writing, I don't check email or answer the phone; conversely when I work on client jobs I don't jot down ideas for writing (or worry about walking the dog). Each part of the day is devoted completely to the thing I'm doing at the time.
I've set aside a minimum of 1 hour per day, every day (except Saturday, which is filled with Karate classes and too much caffeine) to work on the book. Several weeks ago, I had 30 pages completed after working for about a month and was feeling pretty good about my progress. But after a very tough reading of the thing, I ended up cutting about 15 of those pages and starting over on several chapters.
Now the goal is 10 pages per week and, so far at least, I've been able to stay on track ... mostly by just sitting down every day and cranking away. Some days I will sit there for hours and end up with a few sentences. Some days I crank out three or four pages in a few hours.
If you want to break on through that roadblock, "single task" your way to a writing regimen that gets you staring at that blinking cursor for at least an hour, every day.
Sounds like a lot of multi-tasking, eh?
Not really. I read the following article on "single tasking" and realized that this is what I've been doing unconsciously for several months now: when I'm writing, I don't check email or answer the phone; conversely when I work on client jobs I don't jot down ideas for writing (or worry about walking the dog). Each part of the day is devoted completely to the thing I'm doing at the time.
I've set aside a minimum of 1 hour per day, every day (except Saturday, which is filled with Karate classes and too much caffeine) to work on the book. Several weeks ago, I had 30 pages completed after working for about a month and was feeling pretty good about my progress. But after a very tough reading of the thing, I ended up cutting about 15 of those pages and starting over on several chapters.
Now the goal is 10 pages per week and, so far at least, I've been able to stay on track ... mostly by just sitting down every day and cranking away. Some days I will sit there for hours and end up with a few sentences. Some days I crank out three or four pages in a few hours.
If you want to break on through that roadblock, "single task" your way to a writing regimen that gets you staring at that blinking cursor for at least an hour, every day.
Douglas Kearney (Poet)
I worked with Douglas Kearney in several ad agencies in Minneapolis many years ago. A very talented poet with a love of performance, he has recently won the coveted Whiting Award (one of those awards you don't actually apply for ... it just seeks you out). Previous winners include Jonathan Franzen, Tobias Wolff and Jeffrey Eugenides.
Congratulations Doug!
You can find Doug online here, where he has made samples of his work freely available for download.
Congratulations Doug!
You can find Doug online here, where he has made samples of his work freely available for download.
Procrastinate to Create
This is a great article about procrastination, and how it focuses attention on our strengths, allowing ideas to germinate into genius:
"If Leonardo [Da Vinci] seemed endlessly distracted by his notebooks and experiments — instead of finishing the details of a painting he had already conceptualized — it was because he understood the fleeting quality of imagination: If you do not get an insight down on paper, and possibly develop it while your excitement lasts, then you are squandering the rarest and most unpredictable of your human capabilities, the very moments when one seems touched by the hand of God."
Ira Glass on the Art of Storytelling
This is a long but rewarding video of Ira Glass (host of "This American Life" on NPR) discussing how he approaches storytelling.
To Summarize:
View The Video Here:
To Summarize:
- Narrative is like a freight train ... readers and listeners want to be carried along by it
- Avoid "fake gravitas" and focus on the small things that make us human
- Occasionally step back from your narrative and tie the events to some greater theme that encapsulates your plot points
View The Video Here:
