Author: Writer guy

Yes, I have the memo

Writer guy

I had a pretty good day at the PC. I’ve got about six pages for the next book so far. Of the last three writing sessions, I’ve yet to have a single heads down writing day for book two. Heads down writing means no phone and I eat lunch at my desk, and no web surfing.

But the Internet is always calling. And I do so very much need to know about the latest and greatest on cnn.com and elsewhere. Right.

Over the last few days, there were distractions with the web site, because tech guy wanted my input on a bunch of things while he interfaced with Spike on the graphics. That’s tech guy’s phrasing not mine. I don’t ask why. I just want it to work.

It’s going to be fun to see how many balls I can keep in the air before dropping one.

Big Fish

Writer guy

Tim Burton is an impressive talent whose films have run the gamut telling stories about some great and almost ridiculous, but still great characters. Big Fish is different. This is a film with a touching theme that cuts right to the heart of what makes us human, and it does it in such a brilliant and entertaining way, you don’t even care how hard he yanks on the heart strings. And he does tug. I heard tears behind me at the right places.

This is the big work, the kind every writer would love to have their name on, because not only does it work thematically, Tim Burton makes it work visually, and its fun. But don’t think this is just a comedy, it’s deeper than that.

Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney are great character actors, and there is lots of great acting in this movie. As far as the talent, everyone is exceptional in this except Billy Crudup. His performance was a little too sterile and detached for me. If my dad had a terminal illness, I think I’d be a little more emotional about it. However, a plus side to that, because Billy Crudup appeared detached, Albert Finney’s performance seemed even better.

The story is essence about a man’s attempt to understand with the colorful legacy of his father. It’s a legacy that as a boy he loved, and as a man he tried to reject, only to realize that what he was rejecting was himself. Like it or not, most of us aren’t so different from our parents. And maybe, just maybe, there’s a reason for that.

Where did it all go wrong?

Writer guy

This was the first day in the long time that the only thing I’ve written was the blog. That may be a point to consider for me. Sometimes irrelevant details get in the way of the whole picture and when the problems flare up. In those moments, I should take a step back and try and budget time for the big things first, like writing, rather than inverting priorities just because something urgent to push one problem to the head of the line. Most of the time urgent problems linger for awhile anyway, and I waste time trying to micromanage something that can’t be managed because it was out of my control in the first place.

Anyway, if I let myself focus on the problem too much, I wind up with another one, which is I don’t get done all that I would like. One problem or another got in the way of writing this book for years until I was in a place where I couldn’t take the problems anymore. Not writing became it’s own problem. In the end, not writing was harder than writing. I just went with writing.

Space oddity

Writer guy

Dinner with the professor and the wife Friday was fantastic. She had some good ideas about the screnplay though, we didn’t discuss it much. The wife and the professor connect in a positive way and it’s obvious that each is interested in the opinion of the other. It’s always nice when they people you respect, respect each other. Of course, I respect and admire the professor too. Not to put words in their mouth, but I’m going to go out on a limb and speculate that the professor thinks what I’m doing with the book is a little crazy because the odds are long. But I think the odds of becoming a tenured professor at a major university are longer. They have to publish to get that far anyway, plus teach a full course load and that’s just what I know about. I’m sure there are other endless requirements to get tenure. All that sounds a lot harder than what I’m doing.

Most of the time, I don’t think about the odds. The odds aren’t in my control. Sometimes, you just gotta believe anyway. No matter what, you gotta believe.