%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |  "Putting on the Game Face" |
  This blog is a doorway into the mind of Percy Goodfellow. Don't be shocked at the lost boys of Namby-Pamby Land and the women they cavort with. Watch as his caricatures blunder about the space between audacious hope and the wake-up calls of tomorrow. Behold their scrawl on the CRT, like graffitti on a subway wall. Examine it through your own lens...Step up my friends, and separate the pepper from the rat poop. Welcome to my abode...the armpit of yesterday, the blinking of an eye and a plank to the edge of Eternity. Note: This blog is my journal. I've no interest in persuading anyone to adopt my views. What I write is whatever happens to interest me when I start pounding the keys. |
| Day in the Life of a Grump Today was the first day of registration at New Horizons Academy. I actually got a real live student sign up. I have a friend who said he was interested and I expect to see his name pop up in the next couple of days. That would give me a least two and that is enough to test-drive the course….actually one would be enough if he sees the course through to completion. While I was developing it I took it….at least as far as writing the first draft play. It was like getting one of my old trucks up and running….When you turn the key and it comes to life that is a high… So was seeing the name of someone actually interested in taking it. Today I began work on getting my equipment out the shed that collapsed under the snow load two years ago. I know its taken me a long time but this week it was nice (for Wisconsin) and I got the two trucks and two log loaders out. I thought they were what was still holding a portion of the roof up and expected the whole thing to collapse when I got everything out. Surprise, surprise….the back half is still standing….not that I would recommend anyone going in there. This afternoon I worked on my ‘Stude” and reattached the front fender and took it for a test drive. When I work on something I put it back together before moving on to something else. That way there is always a truck sitting there and not a pile of parts scattered hither, tither and ‘yon. When I got back inside I had a call from the town clerk….We had a close election for 1st Supervisor and the incumbent lost by two (2) votes. He is demanding a recount….I think he got the idea from what is going on in Madison….where by the way the pendulum swung back yesterday in favor of the Republican…. It isn’t over ‘til its over….or something like that. Anyway I have to go in tomorrow and do a recount….Is that dumb or what….we have an electronic voting machine. After closing the polls it does all the number crunching and prints out the report. On the machine the two candidates had exactly 50 votes each. There were however seven paper ballots and seven absentee ballots…I think it was seven, maybe it was six. If a person refuses to use the machine they can insist on a paper ballot. So after closing we opened the paper ballot box and the absentee ballots and that decided the election. I wonder what the process for the recount will be…..I guess we will read the 14 out loud and that will constitute it…. Glad it didn’t end in a tie… My daughter wants me to buy some property in Georgia. Move down there…I hope my wife doesn’t get on that kick…I like it on the old family farm…I can be an old grump and nobody seems to mind. Down South you have to try too hard to be polite. |
| Retraction: Oppps! I spoke too soon….The Democratic Candidate won by about 250 votes. Its is being alleged that it was the old multiple voters going from precinct to precinct trick….This happens in Wisconsin. In order to encourage and make it easy for legitimate voters to vote it is possible to register on the day of voting. The voter provides an ID, claims they have moved to a new residence, shows a bill or someone in the polling place says, “I know him/her they just moved in down the street.” Then the voter moves on to the next precinct and the process repeats itself. In Milwaukee during the last general election over 1400 new addresses were returned, occupant unknown. Sorry if I misled anyone. |
| Reaching for a French Fry. I’m always amazed by our little Township on Election Day. I worked the polls yesterday and there was a huge race for a seat on the Wisconsin State Supreme Court. The outcome will decide whether the Democrats or Republicans have a majority. Now the point is not the position of the party I support but rather that the Township seldom errs in predicting who the winner will be….Last night’s count was no exception. The race was painted as a proxy contest for Governor Walker and if this was true it was a vote of support for the Republicans. The nation saw that what transpired in Madison was not the view of the majorty. It was a very close race….I think the difference was the democratic lawmakers leaving the state, union excesses and the unwillingness by the Teachers to pay into their health care plan. The vote was close and when it is, the excesses of one side vs.the other come into play. Hey, I have friends in both parties, in unions and out and an absolute respect for the teaching profession, and often I cross over. In this case however, I think the Democrats went too far and shot themselves in the foot. If they don’t wake up to the mood in the Country to control spending they are going to get badly beaten in the next presidential election. The people want the Government to get spending under control and it isn’t happening. I wonder what it’s going to take to send the message to our State and National Governments? To say the issue is over the unions right to collective bargain is a bunch of rhetorical malarkey. It is my view that unions, once necessary to protect the worker, are now largely responsible for sending jobs overseas and the more heated this struggle becomes the more jobs will be lost. Unions are depending now on the State and National Governments to keep them solvent and it looks to be a move of extreme desperation. They have already all but insured that their children will not have the jobs they currently enjoy and like a political leader that will go unnamed, blame everybody but themselves. It’s a darn shame what is happening….we are strangling the goose that laid the golden egg and the base of citizens that pay taxes is diminishing every day. People no longer want to buy property not because of the cost but the taxes which in my case went up $800 last year…General Electric didn't pay a dime. If the system shuts down under the sheer weight of its own inertia….like the Soviet Union did….there isn’t going to anything left for anyone. And we won't have anyone to blame but ourselves. Oh and by the way....those who have struggled all their lives to look out for their interests will be much better postured for what follows than those who haven't. My caution to the voters is....don't drop your hamburger reaching for a french fry. |
| A character is more than a stuffed Blouse (Shirt) An interesting thing about a drama is that you “create” a character and an actor becomes that character representing your creation to the audience. There is however much more to it that that…. When a writer “births” a character, like a child it goes through stages….Infancy, young adulthood and maturity. A character has to grow into themselves and not be thrown into the frey too soon. I have read novels where a character was born, and matured as the story progressed and I can almost feel it….(Its like a ten year old being handed an AK in Africa) and it reads like the author is not sure about the identity of who this character is because he/she isn’t. The point is don’t launch a character before the fully emerge and reveal themselves. There are a number of exercises recommended by playwrights for doing this and they range from doing sample writings outside the context of the play the characters will be appearing in. This is a good idea. Here at WDC however the writer has an added advantage….There are numerous contests where an emerging character can be launched before using them for record. I use a sensual prose contest to test fire my characters and really get a sense for who they are. As I use them from one vignette to the next I can tell by the views if the general readership is drawn to them or yawns. Sometimes they eclipse the main character and that can be both wonderful and disconcerting. If you are a controlling person it is disconcerting because you have already made up your mind where the literary endeavor is headed and don’t want the hassle of an unruly actor….I mean think about it when this happens. The Central Character gets upstaged and the supporting character gains in prominence…..This throws things wacky because suddenly the story and the very structure of the play is changing before your very eyes. Not only does the emergence of a strong and compelling personality alter the playing field but often the character wants to tell the writer how to coach. Disconcerting is too mild a term. I have a character, Manny Hardin who has stolen the show from Frank and Beth in my series the Car Builder and Real Estate Agent. I mean he came along in a bit role and began to gain momentum and soon overtook the back story of my flash fiction, sensual prose, vignettes. Whenever I post I get feed back on him and no two are the same….Readers love him, hate him, find him disgusting, root for him, malign him consider him exploitive of women or find him some kind of compelling enigma. He took me in new and unexpected directions when I started giving him a freer reign. This has happened to me before in my novels….I start off with someone I think is the central character and somebody else comes along and steals the show. I love it when this happens because it reveals to me the natural course of the story that I simply wasn’t aware of to begin with. I lose control of my work and something unexpected and wonderful takes place that I never anticipated happening. Yes it creates problems but the revelation it brings with it is a real high. So a character carries the action, tells the playwright the story and shows the playwright the natural direction in which the drama is inclined to go. As a writer you have to be ready when this begins to happen and rather than let it frustrate you….have it inspire you. If this happens in a first draft you have to take counsel with yourself and go back to the drawing board and start afresh and waste some of all those wonderful words you labored so hard and long over. Don’t go on with some half baked uninspired story line when you discover that something better is out there. And don’t get mad at a character when he/she shows you how badly you missed the boat to begin with….just write a new version, probably from scratch without trying to cut and past all that old material that has been overtaken by events. |
| The Grapple Hook Analogy Writing the class for the One Act Play has been a very revealing experience. I wish I had known ten years ago what I do now. All literature involves telling a story and perhaps that is the common denominator but from that point things start to get a bit more complicated. One of the points I will be stressing in the class is an analogy that applies not only to just stage plays but to writing in general. This is that a story has a beginning and an end and the journey is to get there. Duh! (Are you deliberately boring me Percy, or trying to insult my intelligence?) The analogy is that in writing the author is like an adventurer leading a group of followers and they come upon a chasm. The writer is the adventurer, the audience are the followers and the chasm is the story that's being told. The Adventurer has a grapple with a long rope and he keeps throwing it across the divide until it catches on the other side and he ties it off. Then the writer nimbly scrambles hand over hand to the other side and decides if he/she is there. The single rope span signifies the first draft. If it is successful there comes a sigh of relief and work starts on turning the thread of that draft into a bridge that the audience can cross. This is a great analogy because the inexperienced writer thinks they are almost done when the first draft is completed. This is completely false because there is still a whole lot left to do. Even if the draft gets the writer's seal of approval there are still a lot of potential pitfalls. First is the story line itself…It has to be matured… certain things that worked need to be expanded and embellished...things that didn't ruthlessly deleted. These include the arraying of the conflicts so they build from beginning to the climax at the end. Next is the focus close enough to the Central Character’s (CC) life changing event for the drama to arrive at the right moment…, not too soon or too late. Another is the development and maturity of the CC as they get roasted in the fires of adversity. Last but not least is the climax and a sense of closure for the audience….There are many more but these spring to mind as I watch the sun come up. As you push the story to the end of a first draft it will mature and head in unexpected directions and sometimes getting there on the first draft shows little more than a dead end…. Is the playwright ready go back to the beginning and buy a new rope and grapple? And what if the playwrights preconceived notion of how the production will play out reveals that the true path the drama should have taken another direction? Is He/she prepared to end the obstinate struggle for control and follow the natural flow of the story? I haven’t even mentioned the influence of the characters yet and what happens as they mature….I will reserve that for tomorrow I think. The point is that this course is designed in two phases in order to bridge the gap and then build the bridge. Learning this valuable lesson is huge in the development of anyone aspiring to be a writer.
|
| One Act Play Course. I have already had several inquiries by members at WDC into taking the One Act Play Course. I find this reassuring because I was hoping to test it out in May on one or two real live students. The reason I am not hugely optimistic about the interest the course is likely to generate is because WDC is not exactly a bastion of the Theater. Still, when I inquired into the position of teaching the course, I realized my own limitations. While I have written full length and one act plays, had them read on stage, entered them in contests and enjoyed moderate success and read books and attended classes on Drama I have never had one of my plays produced. So you can understand why I was not overwhelmed by my self importance and qualifications to serve as the “Dramaturge” at New Horizon’s Academy…Now actually this is a benefit rather than a liability because it got me looking beyond myself. In the course of this research I happened upon a book called “The Playwright’s Process….Learning the craft from Today’s Leading Dramatists, written by Buzz McLaughlin. Buzz has all kinds of degrees and has held many prestigious positions in the craft. However, I was interested not so much in what I know, or what Buzz Knows but in what successful dramatists know. What was unique about Buzz’s book is that he didn’t hole up in some library doing research and write it, but that he got off his duff and went around and interviewed some of the top dramatists in the profession. The list is impressive and I will list the playwrights he talked to. Edward Albee, Lee Blessing, Horton Foote, Athol Fugard, John Guare, Tina Howe, David Ives, Romulus Linney, Emily Mann, Terrence McNally, Arthur Miller, Marsha Norman, John Patrick Shanley, Wendy Wasserstein, Michael Well and Lanford Wilson. The course I developed is based upon those interviews. It is not what Percy Goodfellow thinks, or what Buzz McLaughlin thinks but what the most successful playwrights in the country think. And what they think was remarkably consistent and kept cycling back on the same themes…These themes are the lessons that guide the student in the writing the One Act Play which is the requirement of the course. What I have added into the process are the nuggets of these themes in a given outline. This technique forces the student to insure the right ingredients are in the pot. While the culinary skills vary from chef to chef, just as writing skills do from author to author this insures that the principles at least are front end loaded. The course expands the given outline into characters, a story line and three scenes which the student must create…further the initial draft is completed halfway through the course which gives the process time to do a comprehensive second edit to really get the drama into some kind of shape. I can speak from experience that a first draft of anything in literature is only the beginning of a long and convoluted process still to follow. Yet many feel when they get to the finish of a first cut they are approaching the end of the journey and when they discover they are not there yet, become discouraged and unwilling to devote the time and energy still needed to bring their creation to closure….Well a second edit isn’t exactly closure but it is much further along than a first draft and this course provides a second refinement iteration. The link to the Introduction of the One Act Play Course is
|
| Writing E Class Sensual Prose It is possible, indeed with little loss of visual intensity to write sensual prose and never leave the E classification….I have been experimenting for almost a year now with the technique and have decided to tell my army of readers  how to do it.Keep in mind that my interest in erotica is using it to give impetus to an interesting tale and push it to the next threshold. It is based upon the supposition that our sex drive is the motive force behind artistic excellence…passion if you will. In order to weave the passion into the tapestry you use sensual prose making it as graphic and sensual as you possibly can….pull out all the stops and use the most powerful and proscribed words you can think of… just don’t show it to anyone at this juncture. When you finish go back and edit out all the bad words and offensive imagery using mostly “unwritten” inference, graphic but benign prose, metaphor, euphemisms , analogies and all manner of workarounds. These are used to plug the holes where you have infused the passion leaving the passion sealed inside with none of the overt trappings. Sounds simple doesn’t it….well it isn’t but it is doable and inside the vessel you have created the passion simmers, rumbles resonates and spreads throughout the work. For example you might have a story moving nicely along and suddenly get to the bedroom scene. Instead of stopping write the scene in all its gory detail…then begin denuding it of the objectionable words phrases and visualizations. It might be all that is left is something like this. She held the door slightly ajar and began tapping her foot impatiently; then pushed it fully open and gestured inside with her thumb. A double bed revealed itself, with the coverlet pulled back and at the foot laid a nightgown, prominently displayed. “Are you suggesting what I think you are?” he asked… “I’m not suggesting anything….I’m telling you that the time has come to say goodbye to “friendship” and embark on a new relationship….” She unbuttoned the top two buttons and stepped out of her shoes…. “I love you Frank and want to be the mother of your children…isn’t that what we both want?” “Of course, but…….” “No butts…this is the way it works and it’s time we got around to it.” “You want me too….?” “Yes, that’s exactly what I want…what are you afraid of anyway…Everybody else seems to manage it; why can’t we?….Come now, when we kissed was there any doubting the attraction…? “ “I love you Laura…I want you so bad…” “I can see that,” she answered shaking her head…“you’re about to split the seam in your britches.” He blushed….“I’m so sorry…” “I’m not…step inside….there’s plenty more to see…Have you ever wondered what’s underneath this blouse…?” Now this scene could progress through the whole act of intercourse and not reveal any more graphic detail or vulgar language than what you see above. What it accomplishes is that it amps up the story without leaving the reader out in the cold. This approach is not going to attract the hard core readers of sensual prose but who needs them anyway? It will draw in readers from the mainstream and give them a sense for what is happening without getting too deeply into their comfort zone. A writer needs to figure out how to do this deftly and the whole subject is so laden with baggage that nobody has a very good handle on it. |
| Excellence The run time for the stuff I write is about a month. I get views for about thirty days and then it slows to a trickle…then for the next six months I get a slower trickle before it drops off to almost nothing….Unless it gets picked up on the random read generator and a few more crop up. I have been here now for two years and a typical write has 30 views the first month, 40 the first six months and 50 the first year….something in that ballpark…I haven’t done the actual statistics nor do I intend to… I think views are the best indicator if something you write (as I’ve said before) is working, although I have friends here who don’t agree. Having burried what I’m about to say in the above statement, I 'm going to make a statement that violates one of my cardinal principles…(hush now don’t want to awaken the wrong folks) This is to never say something that I’m uncomfortable seeing posted on the church bulletin board. It has to do with one of my favorite cousins who has a passion for art and sadly, no aptitude…. You can see why I hesitate to say this because he will know who I’m referring to if he ever reads this blog and it will hurt his feelings because we are friends. Still I don’t think there is much chance of this happening because nobody reads this blog anyway. Anyway the reason I bring this up is for a number of reasons. I like to define things that many people think are difficult to define…Like Leadership…My definition is that Leadership is knowing best and getting others to do it. Thus you can see it has a two component definition and anyone trying to define it in a single component will fail….thus the difficulty in defining it. This leads to the point of this blog….It is the word Excellence…It suffers from the same malady as Leadership…..It has a two component definiton and thus has that elusive and amorphous quality. Excellence is Passion plus Aptitude….You can’t achieve excellence without passion but passion isn’t enough. You have to have aptitude….Nor is aptitude alone enough….you have to have passion. My cousin has the passion but not the aptitude and everyone knows it but he is such a nice person nobody has ever gotten up the nerve to tell him. Me neither….I am as bad as everyone else….I have however done something that my relatives haven’t….I have told him where his aptitude lies. He is resonance oriented rather than light oriented….I.e. he needs to be a writer and not a drawer….The things he describes are absolutely beautiful. I see this all the time….I see it here on WDC….Several examples come to mind which I won’t use because it might get back to some extremely passionate and appitudinal writers….(I made up that word) They are simply caught up in the wrong things and are not matching their aptitudes with the strength of their talents…. I probably said too much but if they happen to read this and confront me I will swear I wasn’t referring to them….I already have some evasive answers up my sleeve…. The point to this baring of my soul is to simply say that if your aptitude is not in alignment with your passion then maybe you ought to realign….duh! I say duh! Because it’s obvious to me and these are intelligent people I’m talking about…why hasn’t it dawned on them yet after walking around on this planet for a not miniscule period of time is the perplexing questions of why we are always the last to know. Now I suppose everyone who reads this will think I am referring to them and will be totally off base… I am referring to nobody who has ever responded to this blog… |
| Pickup of my Dreams An old truck drives like an old truck. I have four (4) old trucks from the 1950’s and they all drive the same….like an old truck. The engines are flathead engines that had a design life of about 50K miles. The transmissions never wore out and the two speed rear ends have an annoying habit of popping out of range when you are driving at a top speed of about forth (40) mph. This begs the question then why Percy, do you have 4 such trucks and the answer is that I simply like the way they look. They have a classic look that knocks my socks off and I love to get them to running, listen to the resonance of the motor and they are simple enough so after you rebuild one you know all there is to know about them…Still they drive like an old truck. I love the way a modern truck drives….They have a modern suspension, steering, breaks, transmission and rear end. You touch the key and they crank and they move off effortlessly and come quickly to highway speed without sounding like they are about to fly apart… So what do you think I did last year….Yep! You gussed it….When I found the classic truck of my dreams, a 1946 Studebaker, I decided to put the body on an S-10 Cheverolet pickup truck chassis. My S-10 has a 5 speed transmission and drives like a sports car and that Old Stud rides on it like it came that way down the assemble line. I love to drive it….I have the look and it loesn’t drive like an old truck. The body was in remarkably good shape after all these years….Sure there was rust but it was surface for the most part although it was eaten through in the places where they all rust out. That is why they made welders and sheet metal. Cutting out the old rusty panels and putting in new ones is not rocket science. There are a few holes in the fenders and the running boards need some work and the bed is in need of some rehab but all in all the body is pretty fair. I first saw a ‘46 Studebasker in Hot Rod Magazine and thought it was the most beautiful pick up I’d ever seen…And now I have one…. I must tell anyone new to the rehabilitation scene (Not Restoration…Rehabilitation) that putting an old body on a newer doner frame and drive train is the only way to go. I bought my S-10 for just under a thousand and the ‘46 for the same price. It took another four to fix the S-10 and move the ‘46 over on top. I will do the remaining work and should bring her up to speed for another two. Not bad for the pick-up of my dreams. |
| Ranting and Raving For a long time I felt like my blog was a private journal….I mean nobody ever commented and the views on my blog are hard to interpret and one day all kind of squirrely things started happening and it’s never been the same since… Not that I’m complaining mind you…I don’t care if anybody reads it but I’m always glad when someone drops by for a gander. I have been working on my New Horizon’s stuff and that seems like a never ending task plus I try and keep up with my short story writing. Last night I was out in the shop and I elbowed this piece of wood I had holding up the hood and it dropped on my head….ouch! My dad always said I was hardheaded and he knew what he was talking about… My wife just came in and asked me if I wanted a cup of coffey….do I have it made or what….Today we took a walk….It was still in the forties but no wind and even with all the snow and ice it was evident that spring was in the air…The Robins are back… I am amazed that there are half a dozen supermarkets in the area that carry meats but only one that offers real quality… This one little grocery store only sells Black Angus Beef and it is simply delicious…I don’t know where these other places get their beef but it tastes like road kill or dairy cows that came to the end of their service lives. Another deficiency is good places to eat out….I guess this is Northern European country these Germans, Polish and Slavs will eat anything as long as there is plenty of it… The obesity up here along with the drugs and alcohol is a national embarrassment. How do people allow themselves to weigh four to five hundred lbs? My wife is a nurse and they need a crane to hoist thises people into the beds (Hoyer Lift) I like food, don’t get me wrong but I like it to taste good and the portions to be small. Then settle back for some good conversation and not roll out of the seat half in the bag… That’s why we like to eat at home… We can get a good cut of meat, I can cook it right on the grill Linda can whip up some vegetables… I can tell this blog is really going to catch fire… but you know excelling in life just isn’t that hard….If you’re willing to work, have a sense for quality and can provide it in a product you don’t need to have the government take care of you. The excess is killing this nation….government, booze, drugs, sex…what ever happened to the old Greek adage…nothing in excess…not that those Greeks ever subscribed to that notion… at least they understood what it meant. I better quit while I’m ahead… before everyone realizes I’m much more jaded than they ever imagined. |
| The Two Tube Theory I was out tonight walking the dogs…It is still cold…First I had to fill the wood stove…I am about out because it has been a long cold winter…Started in October and the snow is still on the ground. That’s where the last of the wood is too, frozen solid…I have to take a sledge hammer and bust it loose and then into the wheelbarrow it goes for the trip to the stove. Once the stove is filled I go into the garage and get the cat bowls…I have three walk ons….ugly cats but they really like me…or maybe they remember what it was like to be hungry and I bring the food… Anyway once that chore is done I walk the dogs and on a clear crisp night the stars are bright and the moon is shining. I got to thinking as I looked up into the sky about what a long trip that twinkle of light had to reach my eye. It started out thrown from a nuclear furnace and traveled a long time to get here. And what assurance did it have that I’d be looking up when it did. Think about that trip across space at a velocity we can hardly imagine, all those silent nights until it twinkled into my eye. A poet on WDC got me to thinking about being connected. That just because we don’t get much feedback we sometimes think we aren’t. I have this pet theory that we are instruments of God Creation….Tools if you will…In the beginning was the WORD….I believe that…a resonance or a vibration…and the word was GOD….he came vibrating like a bumble bee…and said, let there be light….Talk about a big bang! But you know it takes more than talk to create the universe and he must have had a bag of tools and I speculate that one of those was life and he uses life in all its wondrous form to the purpose of his creation…pretty heavy don’t you think? Sometimes we don’t really know how we’re being manipulated but we are…pecking away like little chickens doing his work and not even realizing it. Think about it. When do we sense God’s presence….When we're really hurting or when we're really elated….That’s when we get on his frequencies…Think about it this way…Imagine life is a tube inside a tube. The outer tube leads to a dimension where God is and the inner tube is the world we live in. In the outer tube are holes drilled about a third of the way down and the inner tube has a hole in the middle. For the holes to align the tubes have to be turned right and the inner one needs to reach high or fall low… In that way the holes align and the spirit passes from one to the other….Like a frackin valve. Now I can prove this by pointing out two gospel hymns that were surely inspired by God….The words are so powerful and evocative that there is no way they simply came to mind. One is the battle hymn of the Republic…It is almost euphoric…Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord…he is tramping out the vintage where the grapes of wraths are stored…it goes on and on, from one breathtaking image to the next without pause for about five stanzas…The woman who wrote it was on a definite high… Then there is the other that comes to mind . It is born of the lowest of lows…It is equally as evocative and powerful but it comes from the bottom of the tube….the orifice we can only attain when we are about to hit rock bottom….Amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me…I once was lost but now am found was blind and now I see…. Mankind has gotten too comfortable…we bob about through life like the a half filled reservoir on a commode….Seldom are we flushed and seldom do we over flow we just bob up and down a little…As our technology enable us to raise up the scale of Maslow’s needs we no longer experienced the highs and lows that our creator intended and the regular communications that once existed in a stressed out human species balanced on the precarious edge of extinction were lost in the shoals of our comfort zone….and that is where we spend most of our lives, thinking we have it made…cut off from our creator. I used to have a prayer….spare me lord from harsh testing…until I woke up one night to the chilling words….“Why? are you tired of talking to me Percy?“ |
| How a Stranger met his Wife I love to write…and my writing is important to me….but that isn’t all I do. When my wife doesn’t have designs on my time I work out in the shop rehabilitating old trucks….I used to do all my own work but now the heavy stuff is getting to be too much and I have a friend Bill who runs a shop in Adams who helps with the work I am no longer inclined (capable) to perform. Anyway today….Friday is the day I pop in on Bill…he was very busy and he told me to hang loose…that he had some things to take care of… and so while I waited I got to talking to a nice older gentleman (My age… ah-hem, ah, hem) and he latched on and started telling his tale of woes….I must have a sympathetic face….boy is that deceptive….He told me his passion now was Christ and that he was depressed ever since his wife died two years ago….Listening is not one of my strong suits and I’m sorry….life to me is too precious to be preaching the gospel all day and grieving over a wife dead two years….I’m sorry but life is something that is intended to be lived in the present and some reflection on the good times is wonderful and I have a smidgen of faith myself but I subscribe to the Greek adage…nothing in excess…. Anyway he asked if that 40 Ford Sedan was mine and I told him it was… “How do you ever find time to work on that?” he asked… Duh! Does it look like I’m working on it…(I didn’t say that) “I have Bill putting in the flathead engine,” I told him… “That’s got a flathead?” he replied….“I didn’t see one when I looked at it…” Bill walked up and said, “Does Bob have a flathead….(Not a pinhead) Its over here on the test stand….Want to hear it rumble?” The guys eyes got wide….“I used to build flatheads….As a matter of fact I worked in a diesel shop for forty years…” “No kidding,” said Bill, turning the key as it rumbled to life… “Wow!” said the Gentleman, walking around stroking his jaw listening to the resonance…“How do you ever find the time…?” “Every day I do a little bit,” I answered….“Don’t you have an old vehicle sitting around?” “Why I have a ’55 Chevy Pickup in my garage….its been sitting there the last fifteen years….The muffler had a hole in it and I was going to get around to it and then the tires started going flat and I’m sure the gas has soured in the tank… I think I’ll call the salvage guy and get him to haul it away….Haven’t been out to the garage in a while…” “You spent a career in automotives and have a ‘55 Chevy sitting out there…Why don’t you make it go room, room room!” “I’m afraid its too far gone….but that truck sure has some memories…my wife and I took a trip to Canada camping, after the kids left….was that ever fun….You did that engine all by yourself….?” “I assembled it…sent it out to get bored….just like this ‘40 Ford in for the engine to be installed..” “Maybe I ought to go out to the garage and see if I cant get the old Chevy to running….” “That’s’ a good thought I told him….You know if you did a tire a day in four (4) days you’d have the tires fixed….and in four more days you could bleed the brakes and see if they still worked….then you could drain the tank and put some fresh gas in….while you had the battery charging….All it takes is a task a day….just think that in a year that adds up to 365 tasks… “ “What do you do for a living?” he asked. “I’m retired” “So am I….so what do you do all day long?” “I work on my trucks and I’m a writer…” “What do you write…” “Romance novels….”(My stock answer) Ever been published? “No.” “Why not….?” “I guess I’m not romantic enough….” “Talk about romance, let me tell you a story of how I met my wife….. “ |
| Spin Offs I find that the classes I take at WDC offer an unexpected benefit. It never fails that I get something out of them even if the instructor and material are not so great….As a matter of fact that seems to be more the rule than the exception…. That doesn’t disturb me because I believe the onus is on the student to learn and not on the teacher to teach…..Some people want to be entertained by the teacher and lets face it there are some charismatic teachers we all had in life that taught us a lot and also had a big influence, but these were the exception more than the rule. No, if I fail to learn in a class I don’t blame the teacher and without failure, even in the most half baked of classes, I learn a nugget or two…..Its just like I read a novel or poem or short story and invariably take away something I didn’t have before….. This however, isn’t the unexpected benefit….When you read you expect to get something out of it, however what I find is that a class often launches me in an unexpected direction… For example one class I took required writing a short story based on a prompt of the Spanish Inquisition….I wrote a novel off of that short story. In another one of the short stories launched me into the Car Builder and Real Estate Agent series that has led to some unexpected consequences…. Its almost as if some hidden hand is guiding me into a vista of creativity I never would have found otherwise. In this One Act Play class I am going to be teaching I get the feeling there will be more developing from the experience than helping a few students write a drama…..I’m not sure what it will be but I’m sure there will be some pleasant surprises that will lead me in directions I would otherwise never have taken….Even if the initiative bombs….like my Heat Beneath your Wings contest, It will not have been in vain. I continue to learn about drama and aspects I never realized before…. For example I learned that the Central Character needs to have a life changing experience and the whole purpose of the play is to show that event….the crisis that shaped it the culminating moment of action and the aftermath that followed. For another that each crisis needs to build on the momentum….For another that of the eight or nine unique plots that have been defined only one is really suited to a one act drama. Maybe I intuitively knew these things but the importance is etched now with a boldness and clarity I never saw before…What we do leads us on and on into new and unexpected venues and not only does our writing get better at WDC so we get to see others with talent and exercise our own unique skill sets. I don’t want this to sound like a testimonial….but it seems for everything I write, the product opens the door to half a dozen more new ideas and as these come to fruition they spawn exponentially and there seems no end to it….how cool is that? |
| Formative Events A person has formative events that take place in their lives. Say one every five years. A drama focuses on one of those formative events…ideally the most formative of all in a person' lifetime. Since these don’t happen all that often people are naturally interested when they see them beginning to form in their own lives or in the lives of others. To satisfy this interest they read novels, go to the movies or go and see a theatrical production. These artistic devices use the imagination to trick awareness into believing, that reality is taking place….and allow a reader or audience to vicariously have an out of body moment... to where they experience the life shaping experience of someone else. If the experience is good the drama is called a comedy. If it's bad the drama is a tragedy. A Drama is a literary construct designed to draw each and every member of the audience out of themselves and allow them for a brief period, to live the event through the eyes and emotions another. It is like the Tsunami of a person’s life. You go to the theater to see the big wave coming, to watch it wash over a central characters existence and see how they emerge from the experience. The trick is periodically show the wave coming to hold the interest of the watcher as they see it coming and prepare to deal with it…first comes a glimpse and then another,….These glimpses are conflicts and they should build the same way the wave does, surging and looming ever larger and closer...like those old Godzilla movies where you see him intermittently over the skyscrapers. The climax is the wave crashing down…In a one act, that should come the end of the second scene or start of the third. If the climax comes to soon…or if it so obvious the it can be anticipated the audience or reader imaginatively clomps down on it and becomes prematurely satiated…and quits paying attention. That is bad. If the climax comes too late or never arrives at all, the audience is left frustrated and unfulfilled. That is not good. It has to come at the appropriate time. It has to be a snapshot of that hugely significant event in the Central Characters’ life and what led up immediately before and what followed immediately after. That's why people go to the Theater and what they expect to see is such an event. In writing a play you have to ask the question... Will the audience catch a glimpse of that wave….will they see Godzilla towering over the tops of the buildings coming ever closer and closer? The answer one usually gives themselves is “Yah-Ine or Ja-ein” it’s a German way of saying “Yes and No.“ (Ja?…Nein...get it?) It means a writer is scratching their head and slowly responding... "I hear what you're saying but perhaps it isn't as well evidenced as it could be...duh! |
| A willing suspension of identity. Remember in school your English teacher explaining…“Willing suspension of disbelief?“ Well what they never got around to saying was that a writer has to be able to “Willingly suspend their Identity” Then the writer must be able to assume the identity of their character. For example the writer might be by nature a kind thoughtful person who teaches Sunday school…but have to create a character who is a serial killer. Now this gets scary because a writer has a sense that if he writes too well about something the reader will attribute this to his true character…..“ Obviously anyone who writes this well on a subject that is taboo or criminal must be a pervert or a criminal in their own right. That such writing reveals at the very least, latent tendencies for that type of behavior…. Who wants that label?. For example if a male writer writes comfortable and well from a female perspective they must have latent homosexual tendencies….or if he writes about taboo subjects like incest or child molestation that he must at the very least have fanciful thoughts regarding such behavior. It the writer is skilled enough and the literature is compelling enough the reader is gong to think…hey….this guy can’t be making this up…it resonates to closely to be make believe…. And how would he able to express it so clearly if he wasn’t one of "them…." Well let me state emphatically that a writer doesn’t have to be one of “them.” What the writer must do is assume their identity for the period it takes to express their character…This is an internal rather than an external process…success will confirm the readers assessment of character and failure will convince the reader the writer doesn’t know what they're talking about. Nobody needs the ladies at the church whispering…have you read Percy’s latest novel? I knew there was something strange about his family…..but who would have ever believed that his father was gay? Like an actor who must do more than parrot lines …who must become the character, a writer must be able to slip freely into and out of a character and operate easily in the world he creates. My advice to writers is don’t write it if you cant take the heat of seeing your prose posted on the church bulletin board, amen....end of sermon. |
| When I was designing my course, The One Act Play, I initially intended to name the play, the characters and provide a basic plot outline. I reasoned that there was so much ground to cover that providing some of the creative infrastructure would get the student launched in the right direction. As I went along however I decided against this approach....as did one of the ladies who looks in from time to time and gives me advice in words I understand. So one of the things I won’t be doing is anything that involves the creative process. If the student can’t come up a story or some unique characters, they're going to have a struggle as a writer. When I say “Come Up” I mean formulate a story line or have one spin off of some material they have already read. Shakesphere, had some pretty thin story line materials and look what he did with it. As for characters… well they’re all around the writer and if someone can’t see them, they just aren’t looking… Now let me interject a caveat here that will give everybody some hope. There isn’t much “thinking up” that goes on anywhere…Most of what is written are variations off a theme that is already well know… Hesiod, a contemporary of Homers, said there were three types of minds; those that can think up good stuff, those who know it when they see it, and everybody else. Occasionally a genius has a brain cramp and comes out with something new and profound…Einstein did it with E=MC2. I think of “The Gift of the Magi” as the same sort of thing. There're a lot of physicists out there who can grasp the meaning of Einstein's formula. (I'm not one of them) As as a writer, however, I can look at the story line of "Gift of the Magi" and say “Oh my Gawd! He sold his watch to buy her a comb set and she cut her hair to buy him a chain for his watch." Is that a great story line or what? A great writer on a clear day might stumble onto something truly “Good.” But I remain convinced that most of the time ALL writers tread water in the same pool looking for something half-baked, they can adapt to their needs. I'm including a link to my Introduction of the One act Play."Introduction to the One Act Play"  [E] |
| It Keeps Getting Deeper When I started getting ready for my One Act Play class I’m going to do for New Horizons Writing Academy, I had no idea for the scope of what I was letting myself in for. I figured I’d write half a dozen lesson plans and that would be the extent of it. Then I got to looking at the classes some of the other instructors had set up and I stepped back and said, “Shazan!” This is nothing like some of the other classes I’ve taken on WDC. This was taking E-Schooling to a whole new level. In addition to the lessons was the need to do the class pages….These included a Home Page, a Classroom, a Student Lounge, a Group a Welcome Letter and a few other things I can‘t recall off hand. In order to prepare these pages you needed to be knowledgeable in ML-Write. You better get on the stick I told myself if you expect to be ready come May 6. Once I got far enough along on these School pages to realize they were doable I went back to the lesson plans and research. One of the questions I asked was “What are the ten (10) things (Ingredients) that are most necessary to the cooking up of a good drama. I mean this was an introductory workshop course and there was no way in eight (8) weeks to include everything….so what were the 10 biggies. Once I had that sorted out I asked the next question….Self “How does your mind go about learning things….to which I replied, by looking at examples. Ah-Ha I said….remembering my struggles with math and my dependence on example problems to explain what was going on….What I need to do is take the 10 biggies, put them in an outline, have the students expand that outline with a story line and get through a first draft. What I need to show is how I wrote the comprehensive outline from the given on and from there went on to write the play. As this strategy began to firm in my mind I dawned that in addition to the lesson plans, I needed to write a Dictionary of Terms, Some Rules of Thumb, A Comprehensive Outline and a Sample Play. These references needed to be linked to the lessons for easy referral. This begged the question how was I going to present the Lessons and the answer that sprang to mind was in the Memo from the Publisher the students were role playing as Romance Novel Writers, between assignments, drafted to write twenty-two One Act Plays being marketed to High School and College Drama departments. Is this getting convoluted or what? Now I don’t expect any taking the course to write a Broadway Play but on the other hand I have no real idea for who will be taking the course. There are some writers here at WDC are more than capable of blowing my socks off. And what if one of them got on a roll and cranked out something exceptional…Stranger things have happened….I won’t be holding my breath, but if you hand someone all the right ingredients and they have a sense for what they’re doing…you just never know. I always expect the worst and plan for success….It kept me going in an unforgiving profession for twenty-seven years and why should I stop now? It could turn out like my contest where I got over 250 views and no takers…I dealt with that with no ill effects…As a matter of fact I am over extended already and the Winter is coming to an end….I can’t wait to get to work on the Shop apron with all that body work that has been piling up. Plus this new CPAP mask is working great….Got some deep ZZZZs last night and here it is midnight and I feel like painting the barn. My wife is looking over at me with that squinty look into the light on my nightstand. She cooked me a great meal tonight….Think I’ll hit the sack. Oh, anyone who might be interested in the course, here is the link to the introduction "Introduction to the One Act Play" [E] |
| A Just Carrying On I got my new CPAP mask today and it is much quieter than the old one plus it doesn’t leak, creaking, snorting and sucking all night. I hope it works….I have been crashing at lunch and going into a death stupor. It takes an hour to come back to life when that happens and I am cranky as heck. The hospital did a sleep study couple years back and said I had sleep apnea big time and if I didn’t do something about it I was going to wind up like Reggie White….Anyway I’m trying. I worked on my 48 Studebaker today, cleaning it up in preparation for the body work. I also have to hook up the wiring….When we did the chassis swap the S-10 wires were clipped and have to be reconnected to the Stude, components….mostly lights. The again ninety percent of a car’s electrical system has to do with lights. If you look at a Hot Rod wiring diagram you have a wire from the alternator to the battery, one from the battery to the coil, another to the ignition switch, one to the heater fan and one to the wipers… a couple to the gauges… Maybe I missed something but everything else is lights. On today’s cars you can add electric windows, cooling fan, and computer and heavens knows what else…I guess the choke has one….and there are a myriad of sensors…but lights are still the big user of electricity. Honey is my big female golden doodle…She is the most lovable dog on this planet but she got her brains from the Golden Retriever end of the pool. That means dumb…Poodles are smart…Goldens are dumb. Even my black Lab is smarter and they aren’t exactly the rocket scientists of the AKC. My wife feeds them both at the same time and the lab usually finishes first… She walks over to the door and barks and the Doodle stops eating and runs to see what’s going on…The lab proceeds over and eats what’s left of her food…This has been going on for two years…every night and Honey still hasn’t figured it out. Tonight I am going to knock out another lesson….I already have them done in draft but they need to be formatted using my ML Write Template I have created for them. Boy are my students ever going to be impressed seeing them all painted up the same like toy soldiers. I hope they prove to be as instructive as they are pretty. |
| Bouncing Like a Ping-Pong Ball I am taking a House of Sensual Prose (HSP) Course and the Instructor is a good writer. I think I mentioned her use of an emotion line, followed by a desire line and then a dialogue line….A thousand words….that is a good number…I have been working with about 900 and an extra few would be welcome. Well for this assignment the requirement has to do with non (physical) attachment relationships like between friends and brothers and siblings….something non-contact but which does require emotion and good dialogue and the use of the senses. To make sure I get everything I am going to use an outline which is something I don’t normally use in flash fiction and see how that pans out. The reason I am using an outline is to make sure I alternate the emotion, with the need with the dialogue and the sensory imagery….I am not good at this and need to work on it. Also it will give my readers who steer clear of sensual prose something they can look at. For those who are not aware I have been writing a serial of sensual flash fiction based upon the weekly quickie prompt for inclusion in the Weekly Quickie Contest. This series called the “The car builder and the Real Estate Agent,” has over 25 vignettes. It has evolved central characters from Beth the Real Estate Agent to Manny Hardin an organized crime figure. Manny has these trials for his girls which is a vehicle to the prompt but in addition there is a submerged story line that runs concurrently that explains in a clue here and a comment there why these trials are necessary. A couple weeks ago I decided to enter a Horror Contest and used a vignette with a terror rather than a sensual theme….It got the infamous…gee whiz, we hated it get lost response. However it did open the door to a new genre of contests. As the serial has moved along there has been enough revealed so an astute reader can begin to speculate on what Manny’s secret is and why he is going to these inordinate lengths to scare off his female candidates….At this time he has a particularly smart and stubborn one called Shaundra. She is modeled after a female soldier in one of my units in Germany who was a real pain…until we ran an escape and evasion exercise and she got caught and interrogated by the Military Intelligence Unit that was also participating….They tried every legitimate psychological trick in the book on her and got nowhere…The commander showed me the tape and shook his head in disbelief and admiration. She outperformed everybody and even though she continued to be a “pain” I always walked in a certain awe of her after that. She was a black girl from the projects. .. I’ll write some more on this tomorrow and where the Manny Hardin series is heading….Also remind me to relate the story of the Vietnamese Union at Dan Nang in the last days of the drawdown…my second tour. Also I will post again the Link to the Introduction to the Drama Class I will be Teaching in May. "Introduction to the One Act Play" [E] |
| Screen Plays and Stage Plays For some reason my blog is taking off again….It seems to run in cycles…It will creep along and suddenly surge…Since my writing is consistently of a very high quality, I’m not sure why this happens. Since nobody has said “No” from the “Head Shed” I 'm going to post a link to the introduction of my playwriting course, The One Act Play. I’ll put it at the bottom of this entry so as not to tempt my vast readership from clicking and missing the rest of this interesting rant. I got to thinking today about the possibility of suggesting a screenwriting course….What I mean is that if this Playwriting course flies why not a screenwriting course… Actually they have much more in common than say a novel writing course…Sure there are differences, like a live interfaced between the presentation and audience….and the fact that the stage still respects the authors final say on scripting….and the importance of resonance over special effects….but the two have more in common than they will ever have at issue. I even have an instructor in mind who would probably never have the time write all the class pages and lesson plans but who might be persuaded if the package was at hand....for him to teach the course….What a benefit that would be to everyone….anyway its just a thought. Right now I have a full plate getting ready for May. When the guys who put the S-10 frame underneath my 48 Studebaker pickup were hooking up the feed tube for the gas they didn’t weld it and this evening when I went to fill the tank, I noticed gas dripping out the seam. Tomorrow I'll have to remedy that. Today I was supposed to take my ’40 ford Sedan in and get the engine installed. I have a flathead built and ready to go on a test stand but the snow is deep and I was too lazy to get my trailer pulled out and the car loaded. Instead we went looking for a new CPAP mask for me to wear at night. My old one is way beyond the end of it’s service life and leaks and makes all kinds of squealing, sucking sounds. My wife who is normally affectionate is complaining that I get a new one…They don’t sound quite so awful when they're new. So here is the link to my class…..I think it will benefit anyone who takes it, regardless of their enthusiasm for drama. "Introduction to the One Act Play" [E] |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
Love it! Especially the safety measures for us homo sapiens...
