Jonas David's Blog, page 60
February 1, 2017
Real life
I’m having trouble concentrating on the fictional worlds I create, when the real one I live in is in such turmoil.
It’s hard not to think ‘what’s the point?’ Who care’s what happens to a pretend person I made up when there are real people in trouble everywhere?
But we can’t all do everything. That’s what I tell myself. The world needs art even more when it is in pain.
That’s how I try to justify it. But it’s still hard.
January 31, 2017
Several short sentences about writing, by Verlyn Klinkenborg
I got this as a gift last year, and am finally finishing it now after a long hiatus of distraction.
This is unequivocally the best book on writing I’ve ever read.
Each page–each sentence–is a useful insight that most ‘how to write’ books would stretch out into an entire chapter.
It is a joy to read, humorous, inspiring, encouraging and endlessly helpful in such a clear and straightforward way that you will find yourself wanting to bookmark every page.
This is the first, and so far only book on writing I would recommend to any aspiring writer.
Get it!
January 30, 2017
Replay, by Ken Grimwood
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The worries I wrote about in my previous posts on this did not come to be, and the book ended up being less infuriating than Harry August, but also less interesting.
Jeff Winston is living twenty-five years of his life over and over again. Each time he dies of a heart attack at exactly the same day and time, at age 43, and wakes up at age 18 to do it all over again. The things he chooses to do with his lives, however, are rather simple and mundane.
He makes a lot of money in one life, by placing bets and buying stocks based on his foreknowledge. But he doesn’t do anything particularly interesting with that money. Doesn’t travel anywhere interesting, or fund any interesting research or start any crazy projects. He just lives a life as a rich man, then dies.
One life he reconnects with the ‘one that got away’, living another normal life with a woman he loves, and starts a family.
After the repetition starts to get to him, and he is distraught that not only will he never see his daughter from his previous life again, but that she’s been completely erased from existence, he lives a life of debauchery, drugs, endless meaningless sex, and eventually isolation. But still, nothing particularly interesting. He stays inside the US, and predictable parts of Europe. No exotic locations or experiences other than drug trips and multiple-partner sex.
When he finally meets another ‘replayer’, who is trying to do something, with big plans that have global scope, he ‘disagrees with her methods’ ie, disagrees that she’s doing literally anything beyond the normal, and gets mad at her about it.
I’m puzzling over the point of this book. It is really well written, and full of nostalgia and melancholy, but I’m not sure exactly what it is trying to say. It seems to be making a point that no matter what you do, life is full of pain that you can’t prevent, so don’t worry about what you’re going to do next, and just enjoy the moment… I think? ‘Don’t question it, just appreciate it’ is another thing it seems to say.
Claire North did a lot more interesting things with the concept in her book, but still seemed to have a somewhat similar message, in that the character who was after answers was the villain.
There isn’t really a villain in Replay, other than time, I suppose, but it has the same feel–that questioning and seeking answers is a waste of time, or is in fact harmful, and you should just enjoy your life and love those around you while you can.
I suppose this is a good message–but when I’m reading a book about a guy who is impossibly living his life over and over, I’m sorry, but I want answers! I’m not going to nod and smile and heave a sigh of relief when he decides to just live his life with his wife and kids and enjoy the moments. That’s not what I want to read about, nor do I imagine it is what anyone who would pick up a book with this premise wants to read either.
Over all this is a very will written book packed full of nostalgia and melancholy. The tone is very consistent and perhaps it is more directed at older people looking back over their lives and pondering their decisions. I recommend Claire North’s book higher for the much more interesting things she does with the concept, but Grimwood’s version is much less irritating in the way the story is framed.
January 29, 2017
Will AI ever write fiction?
With all the advances in AI showing seemingly creative potential, I wonder if in some distant future, AIs will be able to scan the whole of human writing, and determine what makes for the perfect story–and start churning them out.
I’ve always been a proponent of AI, and see it as more helpful than harmful in the long run, as well as very interesting. But this idea… somewhat disturbs me. Not that I feel threatened that an AI might write better than me, or think that an AI producing fiction based on some algorithm somehow cheapens the art, but because I just know that the publishing and film industry would use it to put human writers out of work.
We already have a hard enough time surviving by being creative, we don’t need a machine that will work endless hours for free taking our few paying jobs!
January 28, 2017
Character questions
What would your character do if approached by a drunk in a bar? Lost in the woods with no food or flashlight? Locked unjustly (or justly) in solitary confinement? If they were told they just swallowed poison?
This is an exercise I was just doing recently with my sister, and it’s fun and also informative. Trying to imagine your character in different situations (even if completely unrelated to the story, or even impossible for the world the character lives in) can help you get a clear idea of who they are, or let you know that you don’t really have an idea who they are at all.
Try it out, you might learn something about your protagonist!
January 27, 2017
Everything is temporary
It is so easy to take things for granted. But any of the things you enjoy in life could vanish at any moment. Not only that, but they almost certainly will vanish or change at some point before your death.
Do you love your job? You won’t always have it. Or even if you somehow do keep that same job until your death, you won’t always have the same boss, the same coworkers, the same responsibilities, the same office, the same hours–all the things that add up to make your job one you love. Your circumstances are temporary, so appreciate them while you have them.
Do you love writing? You won’t always be able to write the way you do. Your circumstances will change, you’ll get other responsibilities, you’re tastes will change, your schedule will change–something will happen to make it harder, and these circumstances that are helping you be so productive will end. Enjoy them while you can. Make use of them while you can.
But the bad things are temporary, too.
That boss that makes your life hell will move on to some other job. The writer’s block will pass. The pain will stop. Keep hope, and endure.
January 26, 2017
What is the meaning?
More and more I want to write something that has meaning, that has some positive effect on the way people think or act. Shouldn’t our creations be more than pretty flashes of light? Shouldn’t they say something from within our hearts? Speak something to the world?
Don’t sacrifice meaning for the sake of entertainment. Entertainment without meaning is empty calories.
I know you have passions, beliefs, thoughts you want to express to the world. Put those in your story, explain them via excitement and intrigue and even a few explosions.
Don’t let your action be empty!
January 25, 2017
It’s happening again…
The book I’m listening to, Replay, is laying the groundwork to really piss me off.
After living his life over several times, the protagonist, Jeff, sees a movie out in theaters that he’s never heard of before. It is a huge blockbuster that he definitely would have heard of or seen before in his previous lives, so he knows something is up. He tracks down the writer of the film, Pamela, and finds out that she is like him, living her life over and over. He finds out that her objective is to change the minds of the world, to alter the global consciousness with the ideas in her movies, and hopefully awake them to their own repeating lives.
And what does Jeff do, upon finally meeting someone who can understand the depression and confusion of living a life over and over? Upon finding someone who can identify with his pain? Upon finding someone who has the ambition and will to try and make a change in a world that erases any impact they have on it?
He tells her her idea is dumb and pointless, and that she can’t change anything and shouldn’t try, and then throws a tantrum and goes back to being a hermit and doesn’t talk to her.
THIS IS THE PROTAGONIST
Why do you force me to dislike your protagonists so often, writers? Is it some impulse you have? Or do you just expect the reader to like them no matter what they do, because you’ve made them the focus of the story?
Get it through your thick heads. I want to read about Pamela trying to change the consciousness of the world ten-thousand times more than I want to read about Jeff telling her she can’t do it and sulking in the woods.
Why can’t you understand this? What is so hard about this concept??
The book has been good so far, so I hope this is just a way the writer is trying to illustrate the futility of trying to change anything in the repeating worlds (analogous to trying to change anything in the real world, maybe, if you’re a cynic) but still, it would make me like the protagonist a lot more if he was the one trying to change things and being shot down.
January 24, 2017
Can pantsers write mysteries?
I’ve always wanted to write a murder mystery. I’m a big fan of Columbo, Poirot, Jessica Fletcher and all the other sleuths. I’ve often felt the desire to create my own detective, but am held back by the perceived complexity of writing a mystery, and my own improvisational writing style.
In other words, I feel like a pantser can’t write a good murder mystery.
If I, a hardcore pantser, were to write a mystery, I probably wouldn’t know who the killer was till halfway or more through the book. With all the clues and motivations that are required, I feel intimidated and unsure I’d be able to pull it off.
My character would be awesome though!
But I think most people are drawn to murder mysteries by the idea of being able to solve them, and I am not sure how good at that I’d be…
Any pantsers out there write mystery? How difficult is it?
January 23, 2017
The end is near!
I finally know how my novel ends. Yes, this sounds crazy considering that I’m 4ok + words in, but it’s just how I work. I have a general idea of how things will go, but never any details until I get there. Well, I’m close enough now that I can see clearly what happens, and am racing toward it with excitement!
The light… go toward the light…
I’m almost home…
