Serdar Yegulalp's Blog, page 135
August 17, 2016
Big Page, Little Screen Dept.
Back from various real life runnings-around. Something that lodged in my head along the way was a complaint someone had about a Crichton-esque SF-tinged thriller currently cluttering up airport bookstalls: "This read like it was written to be filmed." I didn't think that was an accident.
August 9, 2016
A Brief Pause
For the next week or so I'll be mostly incommunicado as I deal with real life. Were this a more heavily trafficked blog, I'd say talk amongst yourselves.
Well, you can do that if you want. Nothing stopping you.
Inspired By A True Story Dept.
In trying to describeAlways Outnumbered, Never Outgunned to friends, I've sometimes fallen back on the old "X plus Y" trick so common to those pitching a project to a prospective reader, producer, editor, or other authority. In my case, I cited three major sources of inspiration for the project: Martin Scorsese'sGoodFellas, James Cameron/Kathryn Bigelow'sStrange Days,and Alejandro Jodorowsky'sThe Holy Mountain. No, really.
This in turn provoked another discussion: what I mean when I say somet...
August 8, 2016
For Me And Me Alone Dept.
I just write what I wanted to write. I write what amuses me. It's totally for myself.
— J.K. Rowling
It's so hard to poke holes in a sentiment like this, because on the face of it, it seems completely correct. What self-respecting writerdoesn't write "for themselves" first and foremost? I know I sure don't. But all the same, I'm noticing a distinct difference between those who write "for themselves" and connect with others, whether en masse or not, and those who write "for themselves" and e...
August 7, 2016
If I Were Them Dept.
An older one, worth getting caught up on.
My fellow author Christian aka Leo King posted another one of his little video blogsabout building sympathy for your characters. This time around he discusses the "everyman moment", where you put your character in a situation that inspires the reader to say "I'd do that if I was them." I like this idea, although I propose an extension to how it's to be approached.
August 6, 2016
Better People For Better Worlds Dept.
When I was younger — we're talking in my late teens, early twenties — I got into a argument-of-sorts with a then-friend that went along these lines. Most people, the overwhelming majority, do not want to use their minds. They want their newspaper to do their thinking for them, their TV to do their dreaming for them. They refuse to accept responsibility both for their intelligence and their imagination.
August 1, 2016
The Big(ger) Picture Dept.
Much busy-ness this past weekend (Always Outnumbered on the brain),but something worth talking about:
The Big Picture | Not Even Wrong
There are a lot of beautiful, wonderful, and useful things one can learn from physicists and mathematicians, but our expertise is in something very far-removed from the question of how to live a good life in the face of significant challenges. It seems likely that one motivation for books with this defensive attitude about science is the current ugly environm...
July 28, 2016
I'll Tell Me What To Do Dept.
Last time around, I mentioned how one of the reasons I'm so twitchy about the turning of spiritual guidance into dogma is the way such things can be seized upon by powers-that-be to reinforce their status quo.
July 23, 2016
The Mind At The End Of The World Dept.
You don't have to dig very deeply to find rank pessimism these days. Between reports of ocean acidification and the melting permafrost, it isn't hard to find people who put very low odds on the human race surviving the century. Maybe even the next few decades are a tough bet.
Confronting this stuff, as a single and relatively powerless human being, is paralyzing and depressing. It reminds you that you are not only merely one person among teeming billions (who pays attention to one grain of sa...
A Power Greater Than Itself Dept.
A casual statement by my friend Steven Savage stuck in my mind: "There's something to how writers are more than writers, and fail themselves by only being writers."
