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rain rain rain ~ thank you God! at long last a break in the hideous heat!
: D
i've been trying to write this entry since early yesterday, but keep having mishaps. maybe the good news is that now it'll be a more succint version of what i originally planned to babble on about.
about writing: was sort of organizing some files and things, piles of research, books i want to read, etc. when i got this brilliant idea (and i'm blaming it on gabriel garcia-marquez).
i was at the library, browsing quite notoriously as i generally do just before i leave, when i came upon garcia-marquez on the shelf. yes, he was crouched there, gnomelike (they're pretty narrow shelves). anyway, he recommended something of his i hadn't read and i took it up to investigate. it was a thin volume and i flipped nonchalantly ~ the way browsers do when they've no intention of purchasing. garcia-marquez could clearly sense my reticence, so he tempted me with another, more recent, book of his.
i now held the two in my hand and to be honest both were very tempting. but i have four books on my bedstand still wanting to be read (oddly three of them ~ my most recent purchases from halfprice books are all about sailing ~ no idea how that happened ~ i wasn't trying to do a theme thing). anyway, i was tempted, but determined not to bring more books home, and so i artfully declined and returned the books to the shelf.
garcia-marquez muttered something, but it was in spanish and i didn't catch it distinctly.
the point of all this nonsense is that i was surprised by garcia-marquez's books. they were so tiny, hardly novels at all ~ definitely in the novella range, even if the words on both covers advertised them as novels.
instantly i recollected my love for the novella form (did i ever really forget? prolly not, but it does get shoved to the side now and then). instantly i began to wonder what would happen if i wrote "Figfield" as a novella. instantly i realized that "The View from the Back Porch" is "Figfield's" twin. instantly i began to scheme writing them as their own novellas. each story is about how each of the two principal narrative characters in From Slaughter Mountain wind up abandoning his orginal chosen path.
how's this for a premise:
i'll still have to lead off with The Hot Spot. it's the only thing that makes sense (because of the series title). It can't be "From" Slaughter Mountain if that's not the leaping off point and somehow a major fulcrum. which means i really need to up the ante on what happens there. times ten.
more on this later. i'm too disorganized to articulate it. i think i know what i need to do and i scribled some outlines last night. this morning i wrote the introduction to The View from the Back Porch (very roughly ~ just to introduce the idea of Mishie Morse being a zealot and how Tennessee feels about that). my thoughts are very scattered ~ too much going on and i'm trying to absorb it all at once.
must. unclutter. brain.
~ * ~
and didn't i say i wasn't going to bring any more books home until i make a dent in my pile? i just ordered richard adicks's drek novel about Lewis Paine (i have to have it, of course and it was only $3.50 shipping included). i also ordered alessandro baricco's City. i liked his other book so well (Silk) that i'd like to check out his other work ~ and it was also really cheap. since i can't get maxence fermine's books without it costing me an arm and a leg, i'll be happy to read baricco in the mean time.
i also reactivated my Netflix. i have an extra-credit assignment for my reference class and it involves watching Desk Set with spencer tracy and katharine hepburn.
: D
i've been trying to write this entry since early yesterday, but keep having mishaps. maybe the good news is that now it'll be a more succint version of what i originally planned to babble on about.
about writing: was sort of organizing some files and things, piles of research, books i want to read, etc. when i got this brilliant idea (and i'm blaming it on gabriel garcia-marquez).
i was at the library, browsing quite notoriously as i generally do just before i leave, when i came upon garcia-marquez on the shelf. yes, he was crouched there, gnomelike (they're pretty narrow shelves). anyway, he recommended something of his i hadn't read and i took it up to investigate. it was a thin volume and i flipped nonchalantly ~ the way browsers do when they've no intention of purchasing. garcia-marquez could clearly sense my reticence, so he tempted me with another, more recent, book of his.
i now held the two in my hand and to be honest both were very tempting. but i have four books on my bedstand still wanting to be read (oddly three of them ~ my most recent purchases from halfprice books are all about sailing ~ no idea how that happened ~ i wasn't trying to do a theme thing). anyway, i was tempted, but determined not to bring more books home, and so i artfully declined and returned the books to the shelf.
garcia-marquez muttered something, but it was in spanish and i didn't catch it distinctly.
the point of all this nonsense is that i was surprised by garcia-marquez's books. they were so tiny, hardly novels at all ~ definitely in the novella range, even if the words on both covers advertised them as novels.
instantly i recollected my love for the novella form (did i ever really forget? prolly not, but it does get shoved to the side now and then). instantly i began to wonder what would happen if i wrote "Figfield" as a novella. instantly i realized that "The View from the Back Porch" is "Figfield's" twin. instantly i began to scheme writing them as their own novellas. each story is about how each of the two principal narrative characters in From Slaughter Mountain wind up abandoning his orginal chosen path.
how's this for a premise:
100 books of no less than 100 pages (and no more than 250 let's say).after reading fleischmann, i'm convinced you can sustain a multi-voiced piece for at least 100 pages without it getting bogged down or confusing or too obviously Faulkneresque. my problem with FSM has always been that it's looking to be a monster in terms of page length and i don't think it will sustain well jumping from voice to voice ~ especially when it's an achronological nightmare. if i write a series of shorter books, chronology won't matter. and if each book is relatively confined to one voice, then popping back and forth isn't so much of a problem.
i'll still have to lead off with The Hot Spot. it's the only thing that makes sense (because of the series title). It can't be "From" Slaughter Mountain if that's not the leaping off point and somehow a major fulcrum. which means i really need to up the ante on what happens there. times ten.
more on this later. i'm too disorganized to articulate it. i think i know what i need to do and i scribled some outlines last night. this morning i wrote the introduction to The View from the Back Porch (very roughly ~ just to introduce the idea of Mishie Morse being a zealot and how Tennessee feels about that). my thoughts are very scattered ~ too much going on and i'm trying to absorb it all at once.
must. unclutter. brain.
~ * ~
and didn't i say i wasn't going to bring any more books home until i make a dent in my pile? i just ordered richard adicks's drek novel about Lewis Paine (i have to have it, of course and it was only $3.50 shipping included). i also ordered alessandro baricco's City. i liked his other book so well (Silk) that i'd like to check out his other work ~ and it was also really cheap. since i can't get maxence fermine's books without it costing me an arm and a leg, i'll be happy to read baricco in the mean time.
i also reactivated my Netflix. i have an extra-credit assignment for my reference class and it involves watching Desk Set with spencer tracy and katharine hepburn.
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