Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 500
October 19, 2015
Grabbing your reader by the ear
“If I had to put a name to it, I would wish that all my books were entertainments. I think the first thing you've got to do is grab the reader by the ear, and make him sit down and listen. Make him laugh, make him feel. We all want to be entertained at a very high level.” – John le Carre
A one-time spy, le Carre, whose real name is David John Moore Cornwell, has established himself as one of the greatest “espionage” authors of all time and he certainly has presented the stylish and thought-provoking writing he says are needed to keep a reader’s attention.
Most of le Carre's novels are set in the Cold War (1945–91) and feature British MI-6 agents—unheroic political functionaries aware of the moral ambiguity of their work and engaged in psychological more than physical drama.
Born on this date in 1931, le Carre’s most well-known book is The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, which has been a 50-year best seller and an award-winning movie.
“Like every novelist, I fantasize about film. But, novelists are not equipped to make a movie, in my opinion,” he said. “They make their own movie when they write: they're casting, they're dressing the scene, they're working out where the energy of the scene is coming from, but they're also relying tremendously on the creative imagination of the reader.”
Despite that, he’s had a number of his books made into movies and one a lot of collaborating on them as a writer. Does that make him happy? Not really, he said. “Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes.” Even when he’s not happy about it, his words come out sounding terrific.
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October 18, 2015
Finding your own 'voice'
“I just believe that young people need to be able to learn how to write in their ownvoice. Just like a musician, you pride yourself on having your own distinct sound.” – Terry McMillan
Born on this day, McMillan grew up in Michigan and earned a degree in English from UC-Berkeley before starting her writing career in her late 30s. After modest success, she had a major breakthrough with the 1992 best-seller Waiting to Exhale, credited with contributing to a shift in Black popular cultural consciousness and the visibility of a female Black middle-class identity in popular culture.
And while she drew on her own experiences for part of that book, it was the 1998 semi-autobiographical novel How Stella Got Her Groove Backthat firmly cemented her writing as a force to be reckoned with.
Terry McMillan[image error]Her work is characterized by relatable female protagonists, and she says all of them reflect a part of herself, something she thinks all writers have incorporated into their work. “Few writers are willing to admit (that) writing is autobiographical, but it mostly is.”
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October 17, 2015
Slow and steady, but 'Finish' the race
“I love research so much that I do an enormous amount; it helps put off the moment of starting to write the story.” – Alan Garner
I think there are few writers who wouldn’t agree with Garner. Gathering the info. that you want to utilize as the foundation for your stories is always a gratifying and fulfilling thing. And, of course, most writers are procastinators by nature – knowing that they should put pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard, but just dreading how things are going to start and where they are going to lead.
It took me 30 years to get all the “right” things gathered for my novel And The Wind Whispered, and then once I got going another 5 to get it written – each delay caused by my feeling that I “just needed to get a couple more key facts in place before moving on.” Finally, as every author knows, you’ve got to kick the kid out the door. In other words, get busy and write.
Today is Garner’s birthday. Born in the front room of his grandmother’s house in Cheshire, England in 1932, he grew up there and chose to set most of his books in that northwestern English county. Best known for his children's fantasy novels and his retellings of traditional British folk tales, his work is firmly rooted in the landscape, history and folklore of his native county.
And, he knows where-of he speaks. He has been noted for his “slow, but steady” writing style, which may take time but always produces winners and which has earned him almost every major writing award for honoring literature for young people. [image error]
When asked again about that “procrastination thing,” Garner said, “ Look, if you are going to write, nothing will stop you, and if you are not going to write, nothing will make you.” Got it.
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October 16, 2015
Seeing 'more' to the world
“Little kids grow up discovering the world that's shown to them and then when you become a teenager, it kind of shrinks a little bit. I think when you get past that point, one of the important things is that you see there is more to the world than yourself.” – Kenneth Lonergan
Lonergan, born on this date in 1962, started his writing career as a speechwriter for the Environmental Protection Agency and then graduated to doing industrial scripts for such companies as Fuji Film and Weight Watchers. Once he got the bug for writing scripts, he went to work on plays and had his first theatrical success with the play This Is Our Youth.
After a number of on- and off-Broadway hits, he tried his hand at a movie script, and his gangland comedy Analyze This was a boxoffice winner. He quickly showed he had the chops to do more, being a major contributor to the Academy Award-nominated Gangs of New York. Since then he’s continued to be one of the most successful Broadway and movie writers. He said he thinks people like his work because they can identify with his characters and have a clear understanding of what those characters are portraying.
“I feel like if you can describe something fully and accurately,” he said, ‘then people will be able to see it themselves – they don't need be told what to.”
Kenneth Lonergan [image error]
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October 15, 2015
Being 'immersed' in your writing world
“One of the big breakthroughs, I think for me, was reading Robert A. Heinlein's four rules of writing, one of which was, 'You must finish what you write.' I never had any problem with his first one, 'You must write' - I was writing since I was a kid.” – George R.R. Martin
Wise words from one of the most prolific and “busiest” writers in the world with his ever-popular “Game of Thrones” series – both in book form and for the HBO Television programs, who says he's been "immersed" in the Seven Kingdoms of his fictional world for a couple decades now.
“The odd thing about being a writer is you do tend to lose yourself in your books. Sometimes it seems like real life is flickering by and you're hardly a part of it,” Martin said. “You remember the events in your books better than you remember the events that actually took place when you were writing them.”
And, in Martin’s case, we – the readers – vividly remember those “book” events, too. A goal every writer hopes for, but few achieve. “All fiction,” he added, “has to have a certain amount of truth in it to be powerful.” Wise words indeed.
George R.R. Martin[image error]
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October 14, 2015
Painting a 'word picture'
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” – e.e. cummings [image error]
After I took this photo on a trek into the Rocky Mountains earlier this week, this e.e. cummings quote just seemed apropos as a “descriptive” phrase. And, since today is the anniversary of his birth (in 1894, the year in which I have set my newest novel) it seemed all the more reason to put the two together and have a short remembrance of him at the same time.
Cummings wrote some 2,900 poems, 2 autobiographical novels, 4 plays and several essays. Some of his poems are free verse (with no concern for rhyme or meter), but many have a recognizable sonnet structure of 14 lines, with an intricate rhyme scheme. A number of his poems feature a typographically exuberant style, with words, parts of words, or punctuation symbols scattered across the page, and needing to be read aloud in order to clarify his meanings and emotions. Also a painter, Cummings understood the importance of presentation, and used typography to "paint a picture" with some of his poems. While he was not without controversy in his life and political leanings (he was a staunch supporter of Joseph McCarthy, for example), there’s little doubt [image error]that he is remembered as an eminent voice of 20th century literature.
Check out Hello Poetry http://hellopoetry.com/e-e-cummings/ to see some Cummings’ poems, including many showing his unique "paint a word picture" style.
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October 13, 2015
The joy of writing words
“I always loved words. I love to sing them and speak them and even now, I must admit, I have fallen into the joy of writing them.” – Anne Rice
Rice, who turned 74 this month, was born in New Orleans, which is the setting for many of her books. She’s probably best known for her popular and influential series of novels, The Vampire Chronicles, revolving around the central character of Lestat. Two of the books were made into movies, and many were adapted later as comic books, adding to their luster and ongoing popularity.
Rice's books have sold nearly 100 million copies, placing her among the most popular authors in [image error]recent American history. She says that one of her own biggest influencers was British writer Charles Dickens.
“Dickens is a very underrated writer at the moment,” she said. “Everyone in his time admired him, but I think right now he's not spoken of enough. I claim Dickens as a mentor…He’s one of my driving forces.”
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October 12, 2015
Because ... this is what you do
“I write because I can't imagine not writing.” – Richard Price
Born on this date in 1949, Price's novels explore late-20th century urban America in a gritty, realistic manner that has brought him considerable literary acclaim. Several of his novels, including the best-selling Clockers, are set in a fictional northern New Jersey city called Dempsy. Praised for its humor, suspense, dialogue, and character development, Clockers was also made into a Spike Lee-directed movie, which got Price going on screenwriting as well.
Among his top screenwriting efforts (besides that) was his Academy Award-nominated The Color of Money, and an Emmy Award-winning segment of the HBO series The Wire. Not a writer to get pigeonholed into any particular genre, he also has written feature stories, magazine essays, and radio programs, and taught writing at Columbia, Yale and NYU.
Richard Price[image error]
“I think the definition of an artist is not necessarily tied into excellence or talent; an artist is somebody who, if you took away their freedom to make art, would lose their mind,” he said when asked what makes a writer want to write. “I write because I write - as anyone in the arts does. You're a painter because you feel you have no choice but to paint. You're a writer because this is what you do.”
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October 11, 2015
Honing our perceptions
“The miracles of the church seem to me to rest not so much upon faces or voices or healing power coming suddenly near to us from afar off, but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what is there about us always.” – Willa Cather
[image error]
[image error]Photos by Dan Jorgensen
Standing at the heart of the unincorporated village of Jefferson, Colorado, is the Community Church (which doubles as an elementary school), where Sunday morning services have been held for well over 100 years – and denominations do not matter. All are welcome.
At an elevation of 9,501 feet at the foot of Kenosha Pass, Jefferson is at the north end of South Park, and said to be the inspiration for the animated television show of the same name. And despite the show’s irreverence, the setting for its community church is anything but. As one local resident wrote, “It may not matter, but it does seem like we’re just a bit closer to Heaven when we worship up here.”
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October 10, 2015
Gotta love the written word
“I don't think you can write - at least not well - if you don't love stories, love the written word.” – Nora Roberts
The bestselling author of more than 200 (yep, that’s 2-0-0, not 2-0) novels, Roberts writes under her own name, and as J. D. Robb for the in Death series. She also has written under the pseudonyms Jill March and (in the U.K.) as Sarah Hardesty.
With books out that have spent a combined total of some 900 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list – including nearly 200 weeks in the number one spot, she was a natural choice to be selected as the first author inducted into the Romance Writers [image error]of America Hall of Fame.
Born on this date in 1950 – in Silver Spring, MD, the city where my daughter and her family now make their home – Roberts started writing to break the tedium of being snowbound during a 1979 blizzard. She loved the process so much that she finished 6 books before starting to send them off to publishers, most of who rejected her out of hand. Finally, in 1981, Silhouette Books, an imprint of Harlequin, gave her a try and she was off and running.
She treats writing as a full-time job and writes 8 hours a day, every day, including on vacations. Biographist Pamela Regis calls Roberts "a master of the romance novel form, because she "has a keen ear for dialogue, constructs deft scenes, maintains a page-turning pace, and provides compelling characterization."
“Every writer has to figure out what works best - and often has to select and discard different tools before they find the one that fits,” Roberts said. “I don't believe for one moment you can write well what you wouldn't read yourself for pleasure.”
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