What are you reading, right now...

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #31
    Re: What are you reading, right now...

    Originally posted by The Road Warrior View Post
    I keep trying to outline, but it takes off some of the shine and impetus to write, so I tend to think, well okay, the first draft is exactly that. I know that there aren't many writers who do this, if the book "101 Habits of Pro-Screenwriters..." is anything to go by, 1/10 of the contribs doesn't outline, neither does Alex Garland apparenty, except in the sense of a basic road map, (see his q and a entry in Moviemakers' Masterclass, Faber &F). I figure it's finding out how you work/write/think. And that's what really matters!
    I've always had a problem with outlines too, but the thing that works for me is not to become a slave to it. I've outlined my recent piece but only after, like yourself, rolling it around my head and jotting ideas in a notebook. I did actually employ the index card method, but I've found the piece took on a life of its own when I actually sat down to write. Some of the index cards didn't even make it to the page.
    Last edited by Twofingeredtypist; 02-13-2012, 04:34 PM.
    @MacBullitt

    Comment


    • #32
      Re: What are you reading, right now...

      Not to turn this into a Stephen King thread, but I have a similar opinion to his latest works as others on here. However, I haven't read his latest, but Full Dark, No Stars was the best fiction he's had published in the last decade or so.

      And it's kinda funny, but I didn't see the last couple of pages of this thread til now, but on the way home from work today my mind wandered to The Stand and a couple of scenes from that book stuck in my head.

      Oh, and if anyone hasn't read The Stand, yet, don't bother with the "unedited" version. The one originally published is better than the 'director's cut'.

      HH (who still has his original paperback that referenced a Howard the Duck comic--in subsequent publications, I think they changed the reference to a Superman comic book; I guess the publisher figured they needed a comic book character that was better known)

      Comment


      • #33
        Re: What are you reading, right now...

        Originally posted by Twofingeredtypist View Post
        I've always had a problem with outlines too, but the thing that works for me is not to become a slave to it. I've outlined my recent piece but only after, like yourself, rolling it around my head and jotting ideas in a notebook. I did actually employ the index card method, but I've found the piece took on a life of its own when I actually sat down to write. Some of the index cards didn't even make it to the page.

        just a minor and further deviation...

        yes, TwoF, have deployed ever-elaborate outlining systems in past, have 'worked in my head' since, but switch back to detailed outlining every so often (just to explain - always did lay out a basic road map, on paper, and like you, always deviated from it).

        But recently, I wrote an idea down in story form, just to investigate, with questions along the way, sort of like talking to yourself, why this, what about that, or whatver raised its ugly head, but... it feels now as though, again, the impetus has been rocked a little by doing that.

        And names, when to come up with character names? ... upfront, during, I find this tricky. May begin a sep. thread on onomastics/Names.



        -back to books, and away from Mr King, and screenwriting, some interesting posts here, a wide selection of fiction and non fiction ->


        @HH
        nb, I'm stuck with The Stand, director's cut, HH, so too late for me, but makes sense, tinkering by authors seems to go wrong, even when they plead numerous reasons to the contrary.
        Last edited by The Road Warrior; 02-15-2012, 01:57 PM. Reason: to sep' road+map, conflation error. Pedant's tic.
        Forthcoming: The Annual, "I JUST GOT DUMPED" Valentine's Short Screenplay Writing Competition. Keep an eye on Writing Exercises.

        Comment


        • #34
          Re: What are you reading, right now...

          Originally posted by haroldhecuba View Post
          HH (who still has his original paperback that referenced a Howard the Duck comic--in subsequent publications, I think they changed the reference to a Superman comic book; I guess the publisher figured they needed a comic book character that was better known)
          That's interesting. I must check my ancient copy of The Stand to see if it has that reference.
          @MacBullitt

          Comment


          • #35
            Re: What are you reading, right now...

            Originally posted by Twofingeredtypist View Post
            That's interesting. I must check my ancient copy of The Stand to see if it has that reference.
            It's towards the end of the book. One of The Dark Man's guards is reading it when one of the good guys goes by. I'd have to dig it out of a box of books to see for sure.

            HH (who is probably going to do that anyway 'cause I've got this itch to read it again)

            Comment


            • #36
              Re: What are you reading, right now...

              Originally posted by hscope View Post
              You have duplicated my own experience!

              However, I just read the Kennedy novel, 22/11/63, and it's up there with his very best.
              Agreed- just finished "11/22/63" by King a month or so ago and it's his best work yet. It has everything- could not put it down.

              Comment


              • #37
                Re: What are you reading, right now...

                Currently reading War and Peace. As with The Road Warrior and The Stand, it is a long-term project. But I just started over recently, after having first started many years ago.

                RE: A Confederacy of Dunces. A wonderful book. I have read it six or seven times.

                "The fact that you have seen professionals write poorly is no reason for you to imitate them." - ComicBent.

                Comment


                • #38
                  Re: What are you reading, right now...

                  I'd like to read Kafka again, it's been years since I read The Trial, or Metamorphosis. I don't think I nearly began to appreciate Kafka, too young at the time, but was fascinated by it.

                  @ComicBent. Tried to read War and Peace a long time ago but work got in the way, had just waded through all of Dostoyevsky for my sins, so was very good on the rarely abandoning a meaty classic front. Got further with Anna K, then began last year to chip away around a few works which I've always wanted to return to - you know - the heavyweights. W and P being one of them. Our local library has the Oxfore ed. but get the feeling it's best purchased as it will take a lot of time.

                  Ulysses, Joyce, had it once, read + abandoned it, but have read Dubliners, Finn. Wake, and Portrait, since and may try Ulysses again...

                  Proust, read some of the earlier books, 1 or 2 out of the 6 it's often divided up into. But this could require encampment on a deserted island to get through....

                  My favourite novel used to be Crime and Punishment, I've read it around 4 times, with 2 new translations knocking about it could slip up to 6. We'll see.
                  Forthcoming: The Annual, "I JUST GOT DUMPED" Valentine's Short Screenplay Writing Competition. Keep an eye on Writing Exercises.

                  Comment


                  • #39
                    Re: What are you reading, right now...

                    Recent reads:

                    Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. Fantastic Man Booker Prize winner about Cromwell. Really a stunning book.

                    Rin Tin Tin by Susan Orleans. Also enjoyed this, though it was overly long and a bit repetitive.

                    George Pelicanos. The Cut. Great crime writer/novelist who became a writer for The Wire.

                    Unbreakable, the Louie Zamperini Story by Laura Hillenbrand. Very inspiring, pick it up if you thing you're having a crappy day--unless you were shot down, drifted in a lie raft for forty six days and were then picked up and imprisoned by the Japanese and brutalized daily for two and a half years...you're not.

                    Comment


                    • #40
                      Re: What are you reading, right now...

                      Michel Houellebecq's The Possibility of an Island and Paul Haggis' script for CRASH, which I've read a couple of times before but learn something from every time.

                      Comment


                      • #41
                        Re: What are you reading, right now...

                        Eugene Vale's Technique of Screen and Television Writing.

                        Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabbler.

                        The sections on Hedda Gabbler and A Doll's House in Henrik Ibsen's From Ibsen's Workshop.

                        Also, I'm reading some chapters in Larry Brody's Television Writting from the Inside Out, about logline, leavebehind and outline.

                        Comment


                        • #42
                          Re: What are you reading, right now...

                          Just read Stay by David Benioff all the way through for the first time last night.

                          I see why that script created a bidding war, now.

                          Great story and characters. Creative storytelling method. But...

                          No voice. The writing was just bland. "Sam goes here and then does this and sees this person and leaves the room."

                          It was kind of eyeopening. Benioff, this highly respected, sought-after, A-list juggernaut doesn't worry an inkling about voice.

                          It's all story. ALL STORY.

                          Comment


                          • #43
                            Re: What are you reading, right now...

                            Originally posted by ComicBent View Post
                            RE: A Confederacy of Dunces. A wonderful book. I have read it six or seven times.
                            Absolutely agree... and isn't the story behind getting it published pretty compelling, too? I can see giving this several more reads; the sign of a rare book indeed. Wish I read it sooner.
                            Last edited by tucsonray; 02-21-2012, 09:24 AM.
                            Seven years dungeon --- no trials!

                            Comment


                            • #44
                              Re: What are you reading, right now...

                              Just ordered -

                              Tales from Development Hell (New Updated Edition): The Greatest Movies Never Made?

                              A compulsively readable journey into the area of movie-making where all writers, directors and stars fear to tread: Development Hell, the place where scripts are written, actors hired and sets designed... but the movies rarely actually get made!

                              Whatever happened to Darren Aronofsky's Batman movie starring Clint Eastwood? Why were there so many scripts written over the years for Steven Spielberg and George Lucas's fourth Indiana Jones movie? Why was Lara Croft's journey to the big screen so tortuous, and what prevented Paul Verhoeven from filming what he calls "one of the greatest scripts ever written"? Why did Ridley Scott's Crisis in the Hot Zone collapse days away from filming, and were the Beatles really set to star in Lord of the Rings? What does Neil Gaiman think of the attempts to adapt his comic book series The Sandman?

                              All these lost projects, and more, are covered in this major book, which features many exclusive interviews with the writers and directors involved.

                              Comment


                              • #45
                                Re: What are you reading, right now...

                                Starting to get into audio-books.
                                Forthcoming: The Annual, "I JUST GOT DUMPED" Valentine's Short Screenplay Writing Competition. Keep an eye on Writing Exercises.

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X