Archive for December, 2009

Dog’s Breakfast

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

How many of you out there are writers as well as readers? Here’s a little something for those of you trapped inside a rewrite. It’s an email I sent yesterday in which I describe my current project:

“Writing is a bit of chore right now because I’m over my head somewhere in the middle trying to make sense of it all. When details don’t resound one with another, it all starts to look like a dog’s breakfast. Regurgitated. Maybe that’s what they mean by ‘dog’s breakfast’. I saw that today — a little dog standing over his expurgated meal. We would never do that, would we? We’d flush it away pronto. He probably ate it up again after I walked on. Maybe that’s what I should do. I’m certainly standing over it, looking at it. Been doing it for weeks. What a life.”

Don’t feel sorry for me. That little dog taught me something. I won’t soon forget him standing there so unashamedly over his half digested mish-mash. It’s just a first draft, he’s telling me. No need to be judgmental. Be a writer! Be a man! This is the writer’s job, eating it all again.

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Why We Need Stories

Sunday, December 20th, 2009

There’s nothing mysterious about our love of a good book or a blockbuster movie – but what about television (at its worst) and pulp fiction (at its most trashy)? The low end of the spectrum also attracts great numbers of fans. I think that’s because of our essential need for ‘story’.

The essential nature of a story is the unfolding of character.

Reading books and watching films provides us with the unique opportunity to watch a character suffer, act, and grow. Now, here’s the essential ingredient of our watching experience: objectivity.

We get to experience living through another person’s life without being blinded by fears and conditioning, as we are in our own lives. Stories provide an all-important distance from events that let us appreciate their significance

Stories allow us to be ‘in the moment’. Okay, it’s someone else’s ‘moment’, and we know that. Instinctively, we know that being alert to every moment of our own lives means a life not wasted. But managing objectivity in our own lives takes a lot of discipline. Which is why living vicariously through another person’s life is so highly appealing. We’re getting a hit of an essential experience.

From Homer’s “Odysseus” to J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” to reality television’s “Dog the Bounty Hunter”, they all provide us the chance to vicariously suffer, act, and grow.

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New Moon

Sunday, December 13th, 2009

I went to see New Moon at a theatre here in Mazatlan, Mexico. The film was in Spanish, so I understood very little of the dialogue – and there was a lot of it. Yes, it’s an angst-ridden story, depending as it does on Bella’s inner torment. Not great cinema material.

But what struck me about Bella was how her character, insular as it is, dictates the story. She is the plot. All the action (or inaction) is a direct result of who she is. She represents the story’s potential. This is why, in any story, we attach ourselves to the protagonist. And why in good stories we fall in love with her. She’s to blame for everything, all the good and all the bad that comes to pass. And that’s the way it should be.

Bella is a good character because: a) she knows what she wants; b) she wants it badly; and, c) she wants it badly enough that she’ll risk trouble to get it. Think of it – she jumps off a cliff just to get Edward’s attention, imagined though that attention is.

She also has endurance. A good character has to be a long-distance runner. You know what they say about Art: it’s 2% inspiration and 98% perspiration. A good character is like that – not morally perfect, but hellishly determined. We live vicariously through her determination to do or die.

While New Moon may not be high art, it does provide a character worthy of the price of admission.

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Fight for the right to see

Monday, December 7th, 2009

We’re talking about books and movies helping us to ‘see the truth’. At least, that’s what’s happening to the protagonist during the story’s climax – she’s seeing the big picture. She’s starting to see the truth of her life.

What more can a person ask for? From truth springs appropriate action. Our lives can’t really go too far wrong after that.

So, why don’t we fight for these kinds of experiences in our own lives? One thing we can do is read books and watch movies more critically. We can anticipate and then identify the sea-change the hero is going through. But what about ourselves? We’re the heroes of our own lives, aren’t we? How can we fight for a better view of things in our own lives?

Some people climb mountains. Literally, they do. They love the awesome view from the top. Some call it a religious experience. Well, there are other activities less physically dangerous than mountain climbing that can provide a vantage point for glimpsing a bigger picture. Truly religious people know all about it.

They fight for their insights by going inside. Monks get very good at it. Is it really that much different than the forced introspection of a protagonist faced with a ‘change or die’ moment?

We’ll talk more about this in the coming weeks and months.

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