Movies About Writing and Writers

I love this post by P.J. Parrish in The Kill Zone entitled What writers can learn from movies about writing.

In the post five movies are highlighted, Wonder Boys, Throw Momma From the Train, As Good As It Gets, Adaptation, and Deconstructing Harry. It's a fun article to read if you've seen these movies and P.J. Parrish does a good job of making them relevant to actual writers.

The line that is mentioned for Throw Momma From the Train is a favorite of mine and i'm glad it's pointed out so well in the post.

I think the better question is, why are movies about writing and writers so mediocre and/or bad? I've seen Wonder Boys and had to force myself not to yawn. I hated Throw Momma From the Train despite the fact that most of my friends loved it. The fact that Jack Nicholson's character was a writer was unecessary and was really only there for him to provide a memorable line. I fell asleep during Adaption and still don't know how it ends and I've never seen Deconstructing Harry.

Penguin Pinching Pennies

My avid reader (the one) has sent an article and a quick review which I will post for him.

The article is found on Boing Boing and is titled Penguin's insane policy on electronic galleys for authors. It goes on to describe Penguin Publishing rather antiquated paradigm for distributing galleys to agents and authors.

To deal with this, Penguin (and a few other places), have set it up that you can buy a PDF file for $250-300 to send the book to foreign publishers. That cost is often borne by the author or the agency. Ridiculous. To get around it, agents have tried to approach at negotiation. But, when making a deal in the six figure mark, even at auction, agents still can't get that one little guarantee. We're talking BIG books and BIG agencies, but nope. Won't go into contracts (even though I'm sure there are exceptions, the point stands). What's more, Penguin will laugh off the idea of getting around it by making an author's advance, say, $20,300. Or $250,300.

It's a fun article to read if you think its entertaining to see how publishing houses are pushing back against the changes in the publishing world, a topic we explore here religiously.

Our reader, my indispensable brother who sends ideas and articles often (for a smattering see here), wrote regarding the article:

Thought this was interesting.  I don't buy their argument, but it is worth noting that the one book that leaked, still went on to be a #1 best seller.  Much like the movie and music business, the big businesses, always say that piracy and "digital" has caused them to loose money, but in reality, you see data like this. People will buy good things, and eschew the crappy, whether it's been pirated or not.

I think he should be the writer with prosaic phrases like: People will buy good things, and eschew the crappy, whether it's been pirated or not. I couldn't say it any better.

I've recently been involved in buying and selling houses. I've been impressed to find that since the last time I bought a house, three or four years ago, our real estate agent has embraced technology. Gone are the endless, highlighted forms that must be signed and dated. Now there is a dotloop document that gets e-signed quickly and passed back and forth even quicker. Sadly the financing folks  haven't yet followed suit. It's only a matter of time I predict, just as I imagine it will only be a matter of time for Penguin too.

More on the Writing Group

As I mentioned last week, there is a genre smorgasbord in my writing/critique group.

We have two writer's whose specific writing genre's I don't know. Then there is one Victorian murder mystery writer, another who has a background in zombies and horror but who is writing a WWII era murder mystery (I think) and a gentleman who is writing a compelling, high-landeresque, gruesome fantasy. Then there is your's truly who is writing a thriller/mystery centered on conspiracy theories.

So it was with great attention I read this article in the WSJ on murder's in the Victorian era, Bloodied Minded Victorians by Alexandra Mullen. Naturally I sent the link to the story to my writing group friend, but I link to it here because the author's position is that the fundamentals of today's murder mysteries started during this era.

Fenning's sad tale, like many of the other murder cases recounted here, was quickly adapted into fabulously melodramatic fiction. This is the final piece of Ms. Flanders's puzzle: how writers—from hack journalists to highfalutin novelists—eventually used such raw material to shape the narrative expectations for the mysteries and thrillers that we read today.

Then there is the fact that so many of the murder's that were popular to read about and follow in the press were so lurid and horrific.

• Most evocative for fans of the great sleuths of the mystery novel are the middle-class murderers, quietly going about their nefarious business in country houses and suburban villas. Who savagely murdered the 3-year-old Francis Kent, last seen sleeping in a room with his nursemaid and later found "thrust down the outside privy, his throat cut"? 

• There are unsolved violent crimes, such as the Ratcliffe Highway murders in 1811, in which a whole family (including a baby in his cradle) was massacred in their house. 

At first, this was a bit shocking then I thought about some of the horrific modern day massacre's and murders and I decided maybe things haven't changed so much.

It's a terrific little article about the nascent stages of the murder mystery and how they came about in the Victorian era. But it was the books suggestion portion of the article that really made me take notice, particularly the way that "avoirdupois" is used so adroitly.

The Woman in White (1860)

By Wilkie Collins

Collins's story is sensational in all senses of the word, but the bravura effect comes from the way Collins drew on his time watching a trial: the novel imitates the collection and evaluation of often contradictory documentary evidence, diaries and witness accounts. And there's the first master-criminal to boot, the charmingly evil Count Fosco, as large in avoirdupois as he is in ego. 

Writer's Continually Stun Me

I don't know where writer's come up with their ideas. I've said before in his arena that some writers and author's ideas are amazing to me. Vernor Vinge's novels, or Hugh Howey's Wool are good examples of authors who have ideas that are just mind blowing to me.

My critique group hosts only three or four other writer's but it's stunning to me that they are so creative. One writer is working on a mystery in 19th century London. Another, who has a background in writing about Zombies, has a novel start that takes place in the WWII era and stars a WAC. Finally, one writer has a story, similar in nature to the Highlander series, but is so intriguing that I, who never fall for stuff like that, find myself reading it eagerly and wanting more.

I'm a tad worried that I'm out of my league. These are deep, deep books with some really well thought out plots, themes and stories. Then again, that's sort of the point of joining a writing group . . . to push oneself beyond the normal boundaries we are used to. As I said yesterday, so far . . . I'm marking it as a success.

If Not "Rousing" a Success Nonetheless

First meeting of the new critique group. It was successful, although not completely so.

The unsuccessful parts? I thought we were meeting near my house. We were not. I found out 20 minutes before the start of the meeting that we would be meeting 20 miles away near downtown Houston, not in the burbs. I had decided to work from home so that I could skip the commute. I ended up commuting anyway.

One of the members didn't show. We were already down from 5 to 4 since Michael was at a writer's retreat. One of our members had to fill in for a neighbor mom who went into labor. She was stuck caring for the kiddos. Then, as it turns out, one member got the time wrong, she showed up at 1:30, thirty minutes after we had left. So all told the entire critique group consisted of me and Lindsay (but it was a quorum nonetheless).

Actually, there were two members who had the time wrong. I thought it started at 11:00. Nope. 11:30. But, that was to my favor as I was running late anyway.

Those are all the negative or pieces that we need to work on.

The positives?

Having a deadline made me write more and get more done on Vapor Trail.

That alone cancels out all the negatives.  We'll try again next month. I'm sure it will be more successful even still.

I'd File This in the Great First Lines Folder

No, it's not pithy or reverent. It's long and the reader has to have some contextual background to understand it fully, but this first passage from Executive Orders by Tom Clancy, the book I started reading this weekend, is a great first line:

IT HAD TO BE THE SHOCK of the moment, Ryan thought. He seemed to be two people at the same time. One part of him looked out the window of the lunchroom of CNN’s Washington bureau and saw the fires that grew from the remains of the Capitol building— yellow points springing up from an orange glow like some sort of ghastly floral arrangement, representing over a thousand lives that had been snuffed out not an hour earlier. Numbness suppressed grief for the moment, though he knew that would come, too, as pain always followed a hard blow to the face, but not right away. Once more, Death in all its horrid majesty had reached out for him. He’d seen it come, and stop, and withdraw, and the best thing to be said about it was that his children didn’t know how close their young lives had come to an early conclusion. To them, it had simply been an accident they didn’t understand. They were with their mother now, and they’d feel safe in her company while their father was away somewhere. It was a situation to which both they and he long since had unhappily become accustomed. And so John Patrick Ryan looked at the residue of Death, and one part of him as yet felt nothing.

Clancy, Tom - Executive Orders

Truth be told though, it's not the first passage that is compelling me to read on . . . its the entire story. I want to know what happens down the line.

More on Apple

To continue with the saga about Apple's pricing structure and the court case (see here, here and here) then I recommend this terrific article (pro-apple) that is in today's WSJ by Gordon Crovitz called A Judge Convicts Apple of Competition.

It's a great article (with a terrific title) but the best line in the article could be this one:

The ruling against Apple means that any company trying to provide a new service that requires negotiating with multiple parties to get access to content (like books, music or video) is at risk of antitrust prosecution. That includes Apple, which is planning to launch new offerings such as iTunes Radio. Other innovative consumer products that required the kinds of multiparty negotiations Apple had with book publishers include Netflix, Hulu and Pandora.

It's a worthwhile read whether you agree with the ruling or you don't, and I don't.

I am a convert. Originally I was anti-apple (see here) but having done just a bit of research and looked into the little bit I have, I think Apple has sure gotten a raw deal. They treated their book publishing business no different than any other app they had. They were busting up a monopoly not contributing to one, and they were forcing no one to do business with them. Where's the illegality?

Do I like the model? Not particularly, but then there are dozen of other sites where I can put my work. I don't understand the other side of the argument anymore, and have yet to find anyone to convince me that I'm wrong on this count. One more passage from today's article that speaks to me?

Company 2 entered a market in which Company 1 had a 90% market share—then Company 2 was found guilty of antitrust violations. Only in America. To the infamous antitrust prosecutions of technology companies such as IBM and Microsoft, add the Justice Department's July 10 "win" against Apple relating to sales of e-books.

Good News and Bad

I was forwarded an article, that I can't believe I missed, by an alert reader. This article, Self-Published Book Success Stories by Heidi Mitchell relates several different stories, of varying success from authors who have had to find routes outside of the traditional publishing model.

The most prescient passage is this:

Readers don't miss a traditional publishing house, says Ann McIndoo, who runs an author-coaching business. "The author or the topic or the brand drives the sale. When you go to the bookstore, you want Stephen King or a book on How To Knit. It doesn't matter who published it."

I have been trying to find a way to express that sentiment for years. I think publishers are like airlines. Why do they take themselves so seriously. They're broker's . . . middlemen . . . a service person or bus boy . . . they take things from the client to the producer. They are neither.

Nevertheless, the article is worthwhile to anyone who is stuck in the publishing process. Some great stuff just like the posts I have written here, or the one about Hugh Howey and Wool, here, or the article (the great article if you want success stories), here.

Every now and then some success stories are needed. It let's you know that one is on the right track. These do that too.

That Being Said

Yesterday I wrote about inspiration for interesting novels, in that case I thought of a creating a thriller or mystery set in a dirigible. There really are so many much closer to home.

I was speaking to a co-worker today and he thought a novel that explores or re-imagines the Trayvon Martin tragedy would be worthwhile. We began to brainstorm some ideas.

Trayvon was actually casing a house on the way to his step-mother's and when confronted by Zimmerman, not wanting to go to jail with pot in his system, he starts fighting him and the gun shot occurs. 

Not too much there if you ask me. It's a bit less than fanciful. Could have actually happened that way if you ask many.

Zimmerman stages his own wounds after having murdered Trayvon Martin because he was bilking Trayvon's step-mother out of her social security checks and Trayvon was on the cusp of figuring him out. 

That's a tad better if you ask me. I've actually heard several callers to the local radio call in shows bring up the possibility of the staging of the wounds already, so again, not too mind expanding.

Zimmerman was sleeping with Trayvon's step-mother and Trayvon ran into them in flagrante dilicto as he came to the house. Zimmerman and the step-mother decide to keep it all quiet after the media fire-storm in unleashed. 

I like this a bit more. It's becoming more believably absurd and funky. But personally I like the one that includes the media.

The step-mother pays Zimmerman to kill Trayvon telling him that they will split the life insurance money, but in the media frenzy that builds up the racial differences, the mother must take a side against Zimmerman. During the court battle there is a second battle under the surface between Zimmerman still trying to get his half of the money without letting it out that they were in cahoots. 

In every case there would have to be a protagonist who is slowly uncovering the truth behind the murder and then trying to convince the others, those involved in the avalanche that the story produced, that what he has found out is true.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that so many stories are so many places, that just a bit of thought reveals dozens. Either that or I need to have more lunches with that co-worker.

Inspiration

Inspiration finds me at funny times and in funny places. I saw a post from Dark Roasted Blend today on Airship Dreams. I scrolled down a bit (a bit out of order) and ran across this picture first.

Then I saw this one and inspiration took hold. 

When I put these two pictures together in my mind some pretty neat ideas come to mind. It makes me realize the way a fantasy or sci-fi writer must begin working. I've always wanted to write like Isaac Isamov or Vernor Vinge. World Building is something they excel at. 

Nevertheless, these two pictures inspire some pretty interesting ideas about a novel based in the future. It could even be something similar to Night Over Water by Ken Follett. A plot that involves a murderer loose on the dirigible. People being pushed overboard or found dead in their luxurious cabins. The problem is that it would all be too similar to one of my favorite episodes of Archer, Skytanic.

Then I saw this picture and things got even more interesting. 

Add this picture to all the others and you have a really interesting take on The Poseidon Adventure. This could very well be this years NaNo idea. 

Thanks Dark Roasted Blend.