A decision was made….
January 15th, 2010
Writing
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A decision was made to go to the woods because of a desire for a deliberate existence and for exposure to only the essential facts of life, and for possible instruction in its educational elements, and because of a concern that at the time of my death the absence of a meaningful prior experience would be apprehended.
Hilarious! What he was butchering was :
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of nature, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
And other good tips found here
- The words derived from Latin are the enemy—they will strangle and suffocate everything you write. The Anglo-Saxon words will set you free.
Clarity. If it’s not clear you might as well not write it. You might as well stay in bed.- Simplicity. Simple is good.Writing is not something you have to embroider with fancy stitches to make yourself look smart.
- Brevity. Short is always better than long. Short sentences are better than long sentences. Short words are better than long words.
- Humanity. Be yourself. Never try in your writing to be someone you’re not. Your product, finally, is you. Don’t lose that person by putting on airs, trying to sound superior.
- You can solve most of your writing problems if you stop after every sentence and ask: What does the reader need to know next?”…One thought per sentence…There’s no sentence too short to be acceptable.
Pen folks online
January 15th, 2010
Treats
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I was looking for pen stuff when I found Leon’s blog online – he arranges all the pen meets – and Ruby who loves paper and takes beautiful pictures.
Supernatural + Plotting
January 14th, 2010
Writing, screen
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I am so hooked on Supernatural I’m reading fandom essays on the show. This meta about the brothers and the plotline of Supernatural has very useful writing advice.
A character’s motivation is rooted in plot and plot spins directly out of a character’s needs and desires. So plot and characterization are like a snake swallowing its tail, where one ends the other begins. And Sam and Dean’s relationship with the story and their conflict tiger roles illustrate the circular-nature of this debate perfectly. More than anything, this story is about two brothers who are fundamentally different but work together all the same. And I think the same is true for how Sam and Dean are tied to the plot and how their characterization is dealt with. Each are accomplished in different ways and delivered through different means, but somehow they compliment each other and are used in tandem to forward the story.
Q&A on Writing
January 14th, 2010
Writing
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From reddit IAmA *New York Times* Bestselling Novelist thanks to keyist
How long did it take to get your first book published? At what point (if ever) did you quit a day job to pursue novel writing full time?
Took me ten-plus years, which is pretty typical. There’s a saying in this business: “It takes ten years to become an overnight success.” I quit my day job about the time my second novel came out.
IAmA NYT novelist as well — good for you, I have the same career track, only it took me about 15 years to reach true success. I’ve got 30+ books out and I still haven’t managed to quit my day job. That insurance coverage is powerfully addictive stuff.
Almost every successful musician, author and actor that I know(and I know more than a few) has been at it for ~10 years at the bare minimum, with ~15 being more common. It is perhaps one of the hardest things for young artists to grasp that success takes a long time and along the way you might not have any reassurance that you’re even on the right track. Just gotta keep at it, keep getting better and do what is best for your work.
How do you write? I suck at writing. For example, say that I’m trying to write about winter. I’d write: “The weather is cold and the ground is covered with snow”. Exciting, huh? How do you get the creative juice flowing? What’s the process of writing a single good sentence like? Do you write whatever’s on your mind first, then come back to revise each sentence? In contrary, do you give a lot of thought on each sentence before writing it? I want to know how to write, but for the life of me I just can’t.
Everything you need to excel in fiction-writing can be learned. Except for loving it. If you don’t love it, you probably won’t succeed. As for books to improve your mechanics, I’d recommend Gary Provost. He’s got a number of How-To books on the subject.
Creative juices: It’s like anything else. The more you practice creativity, writing, plotting, etc., the better you’ll get at it. Later, I’ll be posting some brainstorming tools that have helped me.
Because I’m always on a deadline, I now edit as I write, but that’s a skill that took many, many years to develop. The best way to do it is get everything down on paper without worrying about how it sounds, or looks, or whether you’ve misused a semi-colon, then go back and re-write. Writing is rewriting.
You can do it. It just takes dedication and a willingness to suck at it until you don’t suck at it anymore.
~
I really like this found here:
Chekhov was, by profession, a doctor. He also became one of the best drama and prose writers ever (in the west, he’s best known for plays, but his prose is brilliant, too).
About having two professions, he said “Medicine is my lawful wife and literature my mistress; when I get tired of one, I spend the night with the other.” Anyway, I guess I’d say you should do both. If your writing takes off and you get famous, you can quit your day job.
The other option, I’d say, is to become a high school English teacher or an English professor. That way you’d have all summer to write. But trust me, poverty sucks and it really sucks to have debt collectors calling you; and it sucks when you start trying to time which bills you pay because you can’t pay them all. It double sucks when you have a family.
More on Supernatural
January 11th, 2010
elsewhere, screen
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I love this long post about Sam Winchester (the character).
“When The Levee Breaks” is another example — we had Sam’s version of events, for about twenty minutes. However, it wasn’t so much Sam as Sam’s sub-conscious (Sam’s brain and body were going through detox) experiencing wild withdrawal symptoms. Sam wasn’t himself; he was too busy conjuring his biggest fears to both absolve and accuse himself before taking on the role of judge, jury and executioner, again for himself. We learned about what Sam feared the most; but little was uttered about exactly WHY Sam was convinced drinking demon blood to go after Lillith (to save the world) was not only an option, but the only option.
It is why I fear showing “The End” while leaving Sam’s motivations –and entire experience– for later will only set up a disappointing and/or anti-climatic explanation that will not satisfy or even explain Sam’s troubled thinking to us or to Dean. It could be a gross disservice to a complex character. I’m not spoiled, and I absolutely don’t wish to be; but future titles give me hope we will see more of Sam from the inside when season 5 resumes.
Convention videos! Woohoo! Big plus: Misha Collins is extremely entertaining – hilarious!
Supernatural
January 9th, 2010
screen
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Over the New Year holidays, I saw Supernatural Seasons 3, 4 and 5 and am hooked. Season 5 is incredible. I love the wars between Angels and Devil. The series is getting extremely exciting – the demons are scared of being finished by Lucifer after he finishes with the humans. Castiel is trying to find God to clean up the mess but he’s no where to be found. I have a hunch that the so-called anti-christ child created by a demon in Ep 6 is Jesus being tempted into evil (if it’s that easy to give birth to a demon child, the entire series would be crawling with anti-christs).
Educating Rita vs An Education
January 7th, 2010
radio, screen
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In ‘Educating Rita’, Rita is a hairdresser by day and an open university student by night. Rita is not just seeking an education – she yearns to wear the dress that an educated person wears: the type of person who could speak cleverly, enjoy music, art or even provide a erudite commentary on Literature or Art. In short, Rita wants to be different from the people around her. She seeks this from Frank, an alcoholic lecturer who is sick of the culture and academia that Rita seeks and wants Rita to retain her charm, her spontaneity, her real self just the way she is. Frank thinks very little of Literature (ie, that capital L literature) because it has nothing to do with real life; it is empty.
In ‘An Education’ – a film based on a memoir/essay of Lyn Barber, the quarrel with the enjoyment of concerts, theatre, jazz and art is similar. Jenny thinks that attending these things, having the glamour of an older man courting her meant she would be thought of as sophisticated. (Jenny wasn’t completely naive. She knew things have to be paid for with money, or with her virginity.)
Unlike Rita who eventually learns from Trish’s (her glamourous room-mate who enjoys classical music, poetry, theatre) suicide that the dress of an educated person is nothing but a facade hiding the emptiness of her life, Jenny considers her escape to Oxford as a right decision from troublesome real life of a cheating boyfriend, of parents who claim to know everything.
Both stories have different ideas about education. ‘An Education’ never resolved Jenny’s question to her headmistress: what is she, a woman, to look forward to after being educated? When marriage stopped being an option, Jenny decides she really wants to go to Oxford where she could read English. It seems to me that the writers all agree that education is a right escape just because it is perceived as a better goal than getting married, having babies, wasting her brilliant talent. I don’t agree it is a better goal. It’s just the paths we choose to take. I much prefer how ‘Educating Rita’ handled it. Rita wasn’t sure about getting married and having babies early – not that she thought it was a poorer option but that she wanted to be someone else for a change – an educated person – because her life was getting her down. On achieving her goal, Rita discovers that she loves idea of education so much that she didn’t want to question what she learnt and she was wrong – she had to question what she learnt, and not merely accept authority.
Both characters realise at some point in their story that they are reading too much into the choices of entertainment: for Rita, a dress; for Jenny, a pretend sophistication. Yes, entertainments are what they are but to dismiss it, to rubbish such things because it doesn’t reflect real life? Jenny had problems with real life and successfully escaped into Oxford. Rita says that the tutorial hours are her escape from real life. Yet the writers want me to think real life is the tops and that artistic creations should show real life in it? I’m unconvinced.
Almost Project 365
January 2nd, 2010
Pictures
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20100101 A Change
I rearranged the room to avoid plotting problems. It didn’t work.
Painting from life?
December 31st, 2009
elsewhere, radio
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Listening to Van Gogh: Seeing Red on BBC it occurred to me how different his paintings were to his life. Van Gogh lived an isolated life and his intense relationships with Theo and Gaugin hinted of loneliness yet his art was not lonely. They were complete and happy to me.
Hopper who was not lonely, had friends and a supportive wife in Jo knew loneliness so well.
Barbara Novak tells a story about a party she and O’Doherty threw in the Sixties, towards the end of the Hoppers’ lives. Edward and Jo were the first to arrive. They sat down next to each other on a settee, and as the other guests – many of whom were the most successful artists of that new generation – piled in, they thought the Hoppers seemed happy and left them alone. Halfway through the party Novak turned to look at them and saw that a large empty space had been left around the Hoppers’ sofa. It was an image straight out of one of his paintings: even in a crowded room, they radiated isolation – together.
‘We don’t know what she died of,’ Novak says when I ask about Jo. ‘I think she died for lack of him. And,’ she adds, ‘he would have died for lack of her. It really was a folie à deux.’
Chestnuts Does Christmas – Like A Hard Candy Virgin
December 31st, 2009
theatre
5 Comments
The first time I saw Johnathan Lim was in 42 Waterloo Street Emerald Hole and after that brilliant performance, I attended almost everything he was in. Most times, I’ve come away thinking he was so underused in the shows – he could do much more. At the end of tonight’s Chestnuts, I finally figured out why. In those shows, he was just doing one person. His talent is his ability to rapidly change from one person to another. That’s why Chestnuts is brilliant for him. There could be a thousand other people onstage and he still owns Chestnuts. Nobody could do what he does onstage.
Most of the references were brilliantly put in. I’m quite happy that this year’s show is not only laughing theatre and movies. Including theatre/movie references makes it feel exclusive especially when there isn’t time to explain – I don’t like comedy to be full of in-jokes, even when I get it. That said, I very much enjoyed and admired Scrooge (excellently done by Tan Shou Chen – how come I’ve never seen him in anything?) being warned by Pineapple Tart King Wee Bak Chuan in his yellow pajamas (how on earth did they get the golden pineapple?). The language jokes were well delivered and the comedy never stops to let the audience catch their breaths. (It must be one joke per line in the script!)
The musical numbers were extremely well done. I was worried about Pondon News Asia – I never liked the two characters very much – but I absolutely loved Judy Ngo as the civil servant and later as the chinese waitress who could only say ‘Yes’ ‘No’ ‘Merry Christmas’. The lines in the civil servant bit were not as funny but Judy Ngo delivered superbly. It’s an awful pity the next thing she’s in is a Goh Boon Teck show – I would love to watch her act. Judee Tan as Ris Low brought the house down when she sang her version of 12 days of Christmas. The audience was roaring with laughter. She deserve a prize for this bit and Jonathan Lim a prize for writing it!
I love the musical parts that came later. Although the sketch portion of the Chinese waitresses was overlong, it more than made up for it by having the two break into song (龍的傳人) to counter the influence of Western caroling (God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen). The last sketch featured Madonna heavily in the Nativity play (heh). While I love recognising Madonna’s songs, I thought the intermingling of 龍的傳人 and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen much more enjoyable.
Chestnuts, when it is good, is brilliantly funny (yes, there were some average years). When it was mainly a two man format, I didn’t mind at all if there was not a lot of acting. It wasn’t that kind of show. This year, a whole lot of actors were involved, that’s when I thought that the comedy made it very hard to appreciate the acting. I like to watch good acting so I’m quite happy that there were tickets for me to watch it again. I am looking forward to watching Judy Ngo, Tan Shou Chen and Judee Tan in other shows.
~*~
Ris Low’s version of 12 days of Christmas:
12 months probation
11 day Safari*
10 ad sponsorers
9 English Lessons
8 khaki jins
7 credit cards from 6 different people
5 leopard preens
4-giveness
3 piece bigini
2 polar disorder
and a [thinking pause] diploma in hospitality.
*thanks to commenter ‘ris low’ 
