Cool. I'm all in favor of sloth, as long as it's punctuated by reading. Especially reading something I wrote There used to be a screenwriter on BS, which for a while had me indulging Hollywood fantasies. Don't know if he's still around...
1) So, how do you pronounce the journal edited by your department that is spelled "SAGETRIEB"? 2) Are you the Alex Irvine that wrote a piece on Bern Porter for the Colby Alumni magazine? Damn fine work if you did. If not, claim credit for it when possible. 3) Congratulations and good luck. That's a primo job. Here's the most recent thing I wrote that's available on-line, called "On Ripping Off Nick Hornby." http://www.habitsofwaste.wwu.edu/issues/8/iss8art3a.shtml
1. I'm not sure what it means, but if you pretend it's German, you'll be pronouncing it correctly. 2. That was me. Thanks. Fun piece to write, and what an interesting guy he was. It originally appeared in the Portland Phoenix, our local alt-weekly up here; I was staff writer there for about 18 months before getting the UMaine gig. 3. Thanks again. Primo job for sure. I mean, if you have to work for a living, what else would you rather do? Liked the essay--these kinds of tours through someone else's reading always engage me. I have to defend How to Be Good, though. Could be you have to be in the middle of a troubled marriage to really like it.
Here's hoping I don't have to go through what it takes to really like it! Actually, as I've always said here, I didn't hate it, and I would often wind up defending it. My main problem w/ HTBG is that I'm not 100% convinced by his narrator, but some of the characterization is still pretty good (kind of a feat, when you think of it: an unconvincing 1st person narrator doesn't get in the way of the creation of other characters). And that scene where the narrator and her daughter go to church, I'm convinced, stands up to anything Evelyn Waugh ever wrote in terms of satire on religion. I don't think it's as good as his other novels (excluding the most recent, which I won't get to read until December at the earliest. So, to draw upon the immortal words of countless English soccer commentators, I would have to say that my response is more "he could've done better with that one," as opposed to the more common bigsoccer opinion, "Oh, Dear! The less said about that, the better."
So National Novel Writing Month started today. Is there anyone else out there doing it this year besides myself? This is my first attempt. I'd like to "win" and get to that 50,000 word mark. I'm off to a good start as I busted out 2000 words real quick tonight after work. I'm sure the pace I had tonight won't be there next week as from what I've read the second week is the hardest. It's been quite some time since I wrote prose. I know my writing is crap, but it was fun to do it, which is really the point I guess. I like my ideas and the characters I've created. If I do make the 50,000 word mark I'm not sure if I'll go back and edit and do a rewrite. That may take the fun out of it. Has anyone ever completed it? If so, did you go back to it, or just leave it as is?
I just finished a memoir and it took me over 4 years. The book runs 85,000 + words and I hope to get it published sometime next year. I would bang out 1 to 2 thousand words in a day and then I would leave the thing alone for three weeks or so, anyway it worked for me. I would encourage you to stay with it, find your own pace and do not get discouraged. Good luck.
--I'm also trying it for the first time. I was intrigued by their "it doesn't matter if it's crap, just write" philosophy. After a few days of writing I've definitely got the crap part down to a science. I'm just trying to force myself to write and get as close to 50,000 as possible. I don't care how bad it is but I've never written this much before and I want to see if it's something I can accomplish. Maybe next year I'll aim for that elusive combo of quality and quantity. Until then: crap, crap, crap.
I don't think I'm him, but I *am* finishing up my first draft of a screenplay (hopefully by Thanksgiving - I'm in a play that opens next Friday that has me pressed for time). It's been a tough transition for me from journalism to screenwriting - I still tend to describe too much, rather than suggesting. But the dialogue's okay. RS
Could be worse. I'm still adapting to the transition from freelance journalist to classroom teacher. I went from one job that was all freedom (jeans and a hoody for work clothes and writing up the article with a beer and a pizza) to my new one with tons of structure (lots of pointless meetings, shirt and tie, no beer while working, and the worst...WORK STARTS AT 7:10 AM!!! I am having fun with it though, and I can't wait until June so I can have more time for my personal writing). What play are you doing? Anything to do with soccer? And more importantly, with both of us gone, does the Gazette have any competent soccer writers left?
Bump. Only 25 days left until the start of NaNoWriMo! I think I'm going to prepare by reading nothing but P.G. Wodehouse novels between now and then.
Irvine is a noted author of science fiction/fantasy/historical fiction. Freestyle and I both have a large amount of journalism bylines covering sports in the DC Metro area (both in past careers). I know there are at least a few more.
I just wrote my first comic book, too. Check it out: http://marvel.com/catalog/?book_id=5293 If you Google around, you can find some reviews and see if it's your kind of thing. Also, my novel about Batman comes out on Halloween... http://www.amazon.com/Batman-tm-Inferno-Alex-Irvine/dp/0345479459 ...but my favorite of my books is still The Narrows... http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345466985/ ...whew. That's enough horn-tooting for one post. Or maybe ten.