Time to Write

Dennis Lehane's method writing

Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Shutter Island, Gone, Baby, Gone) is one of my favorite contemporary novelists. He told the Irish Times what it was like writing about paedophilia in Mystic River:

I hated being in there, I hated it. Climbing around in that head, it was awful. But Mystic River was looking at a tragedy in which the victim is the hero. The hero of the story is Boyle, because it’s in him. He won’t act on it, but it’s clearly in him. So he does this sideways move where he sees this guy with a child, and he beats the guy because he wants the child. That’s the secret of the book.

So, writing that story, I had to get into the head of a guy who’s attracted to a child. There were days and days and days when I would write certain Dave Boyle scenes and I would be wrecked afterwards, ruined. I just couldn’t work, couldn’t function. All I could do was eat and sleep for days on end.

I've avoided certain projects because I just don't want to live in them for an extended period. Some years ago I was interviewed regarding writing a book in collaboration with a woman who had undergone a horrendous experience--she was kidnapped, raped, forced to take drugs and take part in a crime and arrested before eventually being cleared. The producer interviewing me noticed before I did that I really didn't want to spend six months re-living those experiences with her and I didn't get the job--fortunately!

Lehane also talked about how his preoccupations color his fiction, as in the gothic surrealism of Shutter Island:

I knew when I was writing it that the political thing was there, and I told myself, don’t even write to it. Just know it’s there, and play with it as much as you can, when you can. I guess I was so angry about the Patriot Act and all this fear-mongering that came in after 9/11, and I just said, ‘This is a new McCarthyism, we’re swimming in it. If you want to call it anything else, you’re bulls***ting yourself. And what happens when you start to watch what you say? Ultimately you start to watch what you think. And you start a systematic breakdown of the freedom of your own mind. And that’s what I wanted to play with. That’s what I was doing.

Lehane's newest is Moonlight Mile, featuring the same pair of investigators as in Gone, Baby, Gone and three of his other novels. I've just bought it and am looking forward to reading it.

 

 

A genius still writing in his 80's

Maurice Sendak is known world-wide for the picture books he wrote and illustrated, such as In the Night Kitchen and Where the Wild Things Are, and now he’s come out with the first book he’s both written and illustrated in 30 years. It’s called Bumble-Ardy and he told Vanity Fair he was inspired by Giuseppe Verdi:

His glory was in his 80s. A new librettist, Arrigo Boito, came into his life, and he said, ‘Look, Verdi, you can compose better than you’ve done.’ The two operas they collaborated on, Otello and Falstaff, are brilliant.

Dave Eggers, who wrote the Vanity Fair article, says Sendak took comfort, too, in the composer’s famously difficult disposition:

Verdi was malcontent and brooding, and that made me feel better. You can’t write masterpieces in your 80s and be happy too.

The new book is about a pig whose parents never give him a birthday party the first eight years of his  life, and then they’re eaten. He goes to live with an Aunt who throws a party for him on his ninth birthday and it goes totally out of control.

Sendak says, “This is obviously the work of a man with dementia, but I’m very happy with it.” 

(It's never too late to start writing! Not sure how to go about it? Go to www.timetowrite.com and pick up one of my free "Getting Started" guides to writing novels, short stories, or screenplays. Also get my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon and other online and offline booksellers.)

 

The future of children's books looks like this

If you want to get a glimpse of the future of books for younger kids, you might want to have a look at TouchyBooks. These are books for smartphones and tablets, and they all feature interactive elements. They are created by a combination of writers, artists, and tech experts. They include animations and original music scores.

 

They also have a cooperation arrangement in which publishers, content owners, and writer/illustrators partner with them to turn their material into this kind of format. The revenue sharing is 50/50 (it’s not clear from the site whether or not there is any upfront financial obligation for the content providers).  Publishers Weekly reported that Touchybooks have had more than 700,000 downloads of their app, and a catalogue of 70 titles, both new and classic titles. They are going for 200 titles by the end of 2011 and also will be releasing a software program that will enable illustrators and publishers to make their own interactive books to sell in app stores.

I’m not a sales rep for them, I just think it’s useful for authors to know where things are going—and if you happen to be an author/illustrator or a writer who has an illustrator to team with, it could be worth finding out more. Here’s a very short demo video:

 

 

How Francis Ford Coppola records and develops his ideas

The New York Times cites a statement by Francis Ford Coppola about the origins of his next film, a gothic romance/horror called "Twixt Now and Sunrise" (uh, would that include twilight?). It all started with a nightmare:

But as I was having [the dream] I realized perhaps it was a gift, as I could make it as a story, perhaps a scary film, I thought even as I was dreaming. But then some loud noise outside woke me up, and I wanted to go back to the dream and get an ending. But I couldn’t fall back asleep so I recorded what I remembered right there and then on my phone. I realized that it was a gothic romance setting, so in fact I’d be able to do it all around my home base, rather than have to go to a distant country.

He also said that he always writes a short story as a first step toward a screenplay. He said this one will have "the imagery of Hawthorne or Poe," and will start Val Kilmer, Elle Fanning and Joanne Whalley. It will be a low-budget--$7 million--affair. 

(For tips on screenwriting, see my other site, http://www.ScreenwritingSuccess.com) 

Time to write: Spend time on your strengths

  It’s important to do everything well enough to create a book or screenplay worth reading: plot, characterization, dialogue, description. But most of us do a couple of those better than the rest. If you can strengthen your weak points, great. However, it’s more important to capitalize on your strengths.

An example I use frequently is the work of Elmore Leonard. He writes crime novels with vivid characters and dialogue. The plot often feels secondary, but his people are great. That’s why I enjoy reading his books even though crime fiction is not my favorite genre. Leonard is hugely successful.

A contrasting example is Mary Higgins Clark. Not a good stylist and I find her characters thin, but  she’s terrific (at least in her early books) at keeping you on the edge of your seat to find out what happens next. Her chapter endings propel you into the next chapter and suddenly it’s four o’clock in the morning.

Choose a genre that displays your particular talent. If you are superb at dialogue, don't write an action/adventure piece. If comedy is your forte don't feel you have to become a master of drama.

What do you do best? That’s what deserves the majority of your time.

(For help using your time most effectively, get my book, "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done." You can find it at Amazon and other online and offline book sellers.)