Writing, Media & Blogs: December 2003 Archives
It's been a slow holiday season here at Master of None, mainly because I've been taking advantage of the vacation to do a little writing on the side.
What really got me motivated is an excellent book by Stephen King called On Writing.
I can't recommend it highly enough; I read the entire 300 page paperback in one afternoon. The book contains a short biography, and then Mr. King gives a bunch of style tips and tons of examples.
Most of it isn't revolutionary, but he really got me thinking. I don't think I'm cut out to write novel-length fiction, but I whipped out a rough draft of a movie script yesterday afternoon that has real potential. I'm showing it around to some friends in the industry right now, and I'm pretty excited.
I also just finished Wolves of the Calla, which was pretty good. My favorite Stephen King book is still Wizard and Glass, though.
Next on the stack of books: The Brothers Karamozov.
In Candace's comment on "Banishing the Ugly" she brings another metaphor to mind.
Humbly, Michael. It's nice to at least feel understood, even more so to feel that one's words resonate with another.Words are the bait, and ideas are the hook. What does anyone want more than to know and be known? As Paul wrote, knowing is the essence of love.
1 Corinthians 13:11-13I wish I could tell you everything I'm thinking (whoever you are). I wish you could know every stray thought that flitters through my mind. I've loved before, and felt the deeply painful need to know and be known, to lay myeslf utterly bare before some other miserably flawed human being and to be loved in return for exactly who I am. It's a longing that sex offers to fulfill, but cannot. God's perfect fellowship will complete it someday, but even when Adam walked in the Garden with his creator God knew it wasn't good for him to be alone.When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
I know a lot of beautiful women, but what catches my eye more quickly and surely than a pretty face is a knowing glance or tiny smile that tells me she gets it. Some off-hand remarks or inside jokes -- some strung-together words -- that show we're on the same page, that prove my thoughts aren't bouncing off the surface but penetrating the dark, secret place wherein she hides.
Wise counsel; subtle wit; easy laughter; sly, sparkling glances that scream I know! -- these are love to me.
Words are the bait, ideas are the hook. Take a look around, you might find something you like.
Candace muses on why she writes, and she speaks for more people than just herself, whether she realizes it or not.
Writing jerks the hopes and dreams of our imaginations into the Real World and shoves them into people's faces. It's hard to say whether words or weapons have done more to set the course of history, but maybe the distinction isn't that important. "The pen is mightier than the sword" misses the point: words are weapons, and every strung-together collection is another battle waged to banish the Ugly and to conform the world to our peculiar vision.
Eugene Volokh reiterates why he doesn't allow comments on his site. I agree that they can be a hassle (imagining the volume of comments he'd have to deal with), but I'd like to point again to a new comment paradigm I described several months ago, to widespread acclaim apathy.
