Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 5
March 31, 2025
Screening Room: ‘Gazer’
Gazer sidles up to its story cautiously, mirroring its main character’s questioning nature.
March 30, 2025
Writer’s Desk: Keep Moving
According to screenwriter writer David Koepp, who has knocked out screenplays for everything from blockbusters like Jurassic Park to nifty little ghost stories like Presence, momentum is key to getting anything done and done well: You want to just execute it and have it done, so you can then go back and read it to see what’s …
March 22, 2025
Writer’s Desk: Keep Looking Around
Some books turn out exactly as the writer imagined. Not many, though. Shelby Foote understood how crucial it is to never ignore something good, even if it doesn’t fit with your plan: I can’t begin to tell you the things I discovered while I was looking for something else… Follow that digression. See where it …
March 20, 2025
Reader’s Corner: The Didion Box Set
The new Joan Didion Collection from the Library of America is a monster, but in a good way. It packs together an incredible seventeen works, ranging from her best-known collections of essays and reportage (The White Album, Slouching Towards Bethlehem), novels (Run River, Salvador), and later works (The Year of Magical Thinking). It’s pretty much …
March 16, 2025
Writer’s Desk: It’s Your Book, Find It
Nobody else can or will write the book that you can write.
March 9, 2025
Writer’s Desk: Stay Flexible
There’s nothing wrong with planning out your writing. Some people need it. Organizing things can keep you from introducing things in your first chapter that can kill plot possibilities for the conclusion if you’re not looking ahead. Also, knocking out a detailed outline is a fantastic way to procrastinate getting any real writing done. But …
March 4, 2025
Nota Bene: A Prayer
From William S. Burroughs’ “A Thanksgiving Prayer”: Thanks for the last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams. A film of his reading the full piece, from Gus Van Sant:
March 2, 2025
Writer’s Desk: Go Out on a Limb
The legendary improv comedian, screenwriter, and underestimated director (yes, standing up for Ishtar) Elaine May had a motto which has been repeated in different iterations for decades: The only safe thing is to take a chance. According to her long-time comedy partner Mike Nichols, this wasn’t as contradictory as it sounds: If you stay safe, …
February 23, 2025
Writer’s Desk: Challenge Yourself
Orson Welles spent most of his career scrapping for money, fighting with producers, and generally trying to balance fifteen spinning plates while doing a magic card trick at the same time. It was an exhausting way to make art. Still, when indie filmmaker Henry Jaglom was complaining to him one time about not having the …
February 16, 2025
Writer’s Desk: Listen to Everything
Part of a writer’s job is capturing the world around them. This includes paying attention to physical things from landscape and weather to clothing and food. But it also means listening to people. All of them. Go ahead and eavesdrop. It’s research.
