Category: Navel Gazing

In the Zone

Last week, I attended the 2008 Rod Serling Conference at Ithaca College, where Serling taught from 1967-1975. I scored a pass because The Wife was a judge in their scriptwriting competition. I saw a lot and learned a lot that I didn’t know. The best part was a session where the speaker presented video clips of small- and large-group lessons given by Serling himself at various workshops. Here’s one such clip, thanks to the piracy joy of YouTube.

The keynote speech at the conference was given by the past dean of the Park School of Communication who had access to unedited clips from this series, filmed on a soundstage at I.C. after a moment, so the story goes, where they finally realized the need to capture Serling’s teaching on camera. The man who was “the head of the class” in that last clip said a few words, as well.

I’ll post a few more clips later. There’s something about them, but to say they’re “inspirational” doesn’t seem quite right. There isn’t too much that any writer hasn’t heard a thousand times over (Serling himself would probably say that). But maybe it’s the sense of universality and timelessness in these forty year-old clips.

In any case, I’m still reeling.

Insult to Injury, Part 2

Did I mention the absolutely craptastic haircut I allowed myself to get? That’s what I get for being near-exhaustion by the time I got to the barber’s. I’m only about 98% over whatever particular Andromeda Strain I’ve suffered for the past week. That last 2% is a doozy, let me tell you.

Literary, Sort of

You Are a Question Mark

You seek knowledge and insight in every form possible. You love learning. And while you know a lot, you don’t act like a know it all. You’re open to learning you’re wrong.

You ask a lot of questions, collect a lot of data, and always dig deep to find out more. You’re naturally curious and inquisitive. You jump to ask a question when the opportunity arises.

Your friends see you as interesting, insightful, and thought provoking. (But they’re not always up for the intense inquisitions that you love!)

You excel in: Higher education

You get along best with: The Comma

Bring Out Your Dead

My house is officially a plague house. I’ve now relapsed about three times, making me call off sick from work today.

You know what this means…random blogging!

1
F&SF has a blog, now.

2
The things I miss not checking out McSweeney’s as much as I used to…

Famous Authors Predict the Winner of Super Bowl XLII
by Shane Ryan

3
Went to a reading/Q&A by local author Rebecca Barry (website | blog). Didn’t pick up her novel Later, at the Bar right then, but it is on my list.

4
Irish coffee seems to be the best for getting me over whatever strain of typhoid I’ve got going on right now.

Writer’s Block Procrastination

For three days, I’d been trying to get this section of a story rewritten. For two of those days, I was sick. Still, Gunny brooks no excuses…

The point is that on the morning of day 4, I did in just under forty minutes what I’d been dreading for those three days.

So far, this quote, attributed to comics writer Brian K. Vaughn, bears out in my personal experience…

“Writer’s block” is just another word for video games. If you want to be a writer, get writing, you lazy bastards.

Yes, I didn’t write for two days and I felt stopped by 3/4 of a page of stuff I didn’t like. Yet when I finally sat down–with no more inspiration than I had before, other than the mental image of R. Lee Ermey telling me to get myself squared away–I reworked it to my satisfaction in forty minutes. On the other hand, why does it seem I have to keep learning that lesson, over and over like it’s brand new?

What Do You Say to a Mocha?

“Going down?”

Isn’t it amusing that one can frequent a particular café so much that the baristas actually start calling your name out loud just like Norm on Cheers?

Today, I buy this replacement coffee tumbler to replace one I just lost. It’s the exact same model, which causes one barista to remark, “That’s so Don!” But hey, like Nick Nolte said in Another 48 Hours, unapologetic for buying the same make and model car that got destroyed in the original movie, “I get used to things.”

Thinking Out Loud

Permit me to muse. I’m just going to think out loud about what I’m going to do with this blog (and maybe that blog, too). And what I won’t do…maybe. Probably.

1
Remember that list of short stories I read every week? It does get a little tedious, since I read so many of them anymore. Maybe I’ll just stick to doing Quick Reviews like I did on Raketenwerfer (which is on hiatus). Because there is, as others have noted after Stephen King’s fueling of the rumors of the death of the short story, a need for stories to be talked about on teh intarweb.

2
I put reference material on here. I also put reference material on my del.icio.us account. It feels like I’m violating a basic GTD/lifehacking principle if I don’t have a clear reason for maintaining both.

(To say nothing of the archive I keep on Google Bookmarks–although those are in holding and do get processed once in a blue moon.)

3
I used to keep a bi-weekly Tough Love log of how my latest pieces fared at the crit group I’m part of. Again, a little too tedious anymore. For one, the story I gave them last week was my first in about three meetings, and was a story that I wrote about six months ago. I felt guilty not having brought anything, even though I’ve been on a heavy editing spree lately. Maybe I should just junk it? The posts, not the group. No, the group is still far too valuable to me…

…which brings me to a tangent, which should really be the subject of another entry.
(Note to self: write this entry.)

4
I’ve been collecting (in two paper journals and one electronic one) my thoughts about the writing process that’s forming the basis of my own process. Do I put them all together and throw them on here?

5
I’ve been collecting (in the same scattered fashioned) others’ thoughts on the same subject. Consolidate them on here?

What to do, what to do…?