Centrifugal Force

Posted on June 22, 2007 by Fritz Bogott

This is my first time keeping strictly to Syd Fieldâ€™s four-chunk formula of Act I, Act IIA up to the midpoint, Act IIB from the midpoint to the reveal, and Act III. When I wrote the outline for the Pismo story, I was just taking for granted that the four-chunk thing would work for meâ€”it seemed reasonable, but it was still basically an act of faith.

I have to say, though, that both last week while writing the midpoint and today while writing the reveal, I felt the chunk-break transitions so strongly that it almost seemed like I should stick my arms in the air and yell “Woo!” I hope at least a little of that exhilaration manages to trickle through to the readerâ€¦

Week Three Carrot After All

Posted on June 22, 2007 by Fritz Bogott

After missing my Week Two goal last Friday, I was in such a state of pessimism that I didnâ€™t bother setting a carrot for this week: I figured Iâ€™d just take what I could get. As things worked out, though, I have just wrapped up the second half of Act 2 and am ready to write the reveal and roll into Act 3 tomorrow. (None of this is a coincidence: Rachel has been taking care of the girls almost full time all week to let me get caught up.)

So: A Friday celebration! Fortunately, there was a ready-made one waiting for us over at North House: A barbecue and contra dance that the girls theoretically slept all afternoon to get rested up for. The beauty and glee that characterize my family life right now are in bizarre contrast to the cynical vulgarity of the Pismo storyâ€”but youâ€™ll find out all about that as soon as I can get a decent edit put together.

Midsummer Migration

Posted on June 21, 2007 by Fritz Bogott

We’ve now driven three hundred miles north to Grand Marais Minnesota, to get the girls here in time to help prepare for the annual Solstice Pageant at North House.

I did yesterday’s writing in a wooden gazebo overlooking Lake Superior. Mostly this had the effect of underlining how immune I am to my surroundings when I’m working. For all I knew or cared, I could just as well have been writing in the basement of a chemical factory, or within sight of a recently-burned-over parking lot. Of course, emerging into an absurdly beautiful setting works as a nice surprise and reward when I’m done.

Father’s Day

Posted on June 17, 2007 by Fritz Bogott

When my daughters were first born, friends used to ask me how parenthood was going. My standard response was, “Parenthood is easy but not if I have to do anything else at the same time.”

It seems that project is exactly similar: Writing is easy but balancing it against the rest of my life is difficult. It’s not that I’m easily distractable; it’s just that I have a series of commitments (husband, father, handyman) that rank higher in priority and urgency. This is how I want it, of course– I wouldn’t want my career to supersede my family.

The project is likely to be similar in another way too– just as the generosity of my extended family makes the parenthood juggling act possible, so it will probably go with this project.

Today’s case in point: We’re down at my parents’ house for Father’s Day and Rachel and my parents have taken over everything else while I have hacked out my first scenes in four days. Ahh, that feels better.

No Biscuit

Posted on June 15, 2007 by Fritz Bogott

Got sick, fell behind. No guitar-restringing or cowboy yodeling this evening. Alas.

Apophenically Speaking

Posted on June 13, 2007 by Fritz Bogott

iPod owners all eventually become subject to a pronoid form of apophenia, in which they become convinced that that the shuffle-play feature can read their minds.

Speech-recognition software users all eventually become subject to the paranoid version of this, in which they become convinced that the software is mocking them.

My father auditioned an early (1992-ish) cut of speech-recognition software intended for medical-transcription use. Whenever witnesses were present, the software interjected the word ‘testicle’ at least once every ten words. When witnesses were absent, this behavior completely disappeared. We eventually had to purge the word ‘testicle’ from the dictionary. Thereafter, if the dictation at hand required use of that particular word, the user was forced to spell it.

The software has improved immeasurably since then, but the curse has not lifted entirely. I have felt the clouds gathering for several days, and I quit today’s dictation session early when I spoke the words ‘pulled taut’ into the headset and the words ‘Pol Pot’ appeared on the monitor.

If mine were a more rational mind, I would doubtless ignore errors like these as statistical anomalies. But I am an engineer, and thus an implicit believer in black magic.

Week Two Carrot

Posted on June 9, 2007 by Fritz Bogott

Every week needs a carrot, so:

If I finish the first half of Act Two by Friday evening, I’ll allow myself to re-string my Silvertone. (Few things are more satisfying than new strings.)

Week One Done / Act One Done

Posted on June 8, 2007 by Fritz Bogott

This is the end of the eighth day of writing, so I ought to have finished my sixteenth scene of the Pismo story by now. As it is, I’ve only finished fourteen scenes, so technically I’m two scenes in the hole. But it’s Friday, and the fourteenth scene was the conclusion of Act One, so I’m going to declare victory: One week complete! One act complete! On to Week Two and the first half of Act Two!

Diabolical Chicken

Posted on June 4, 2007 by Fritz Bogott

I finished drafting my allotted second-and-a-halfth scene late this afternoon, and then set out to use our newly-built fire pit to make a wood-fired pollo alla diavola similar to the one described in Cucina & Famiglia, a charming and useful cookbook co-written by Stanley Tucci’s mom. The diavola is supposed to refer to pepper and not to chicken-charring flames from hell. I knew this, but had to re-learn it the hard way.

I went into today thinking that the scene-drafting was going to be hard and the troll-editing was going to be easy, but I was wrong. Evidently the step between first draft and next draft is a doozy. I will now go and open a bottle of beer (homebrew, but more on that later.)

Tillin’

Posted on June 3, 2007 by Fritz Bogott

In the middle of writing today’s second scene, I found myself staring out the window a little too long, so I went and put on my usual mismatched pair of beat-up running shoes and went out to till up a section of the back lawn for the girls to use as a garden plot. It’s at least several weeks too late to be starting a garden, but we’ve been suffering from horrible rototiller karma all spring (broken rototillers, immovably-huge rototillers, friends who almost lent us rototillers…) and the girls really want to put seeds (or leggy marigolds from the trays on display outside the supermarket) in the ground. So: Breaking up sod with a rototiller. When I got back from that, I found a comment on yesterday’s post from pilgrimtinker asking me to post the troll story. I’ll be happy to do that, although it will expose you to my pitifully-small word-counts, continuity problems and other early-draft ugliness. I went back and took a look at the current state of the first troll story scene, and it needs work before I’m willing to expose it, so that goes on the docket for tomorrow: Draft two and a half Pismo scenes, clean up troll scene, post troll scene.

On the plus side, I opened up yesterday’s Amazon package containing an inexpensive Bluetooth headset recommended by the Dragon people: blueparrot Bluetooth VXI Roadwarrior B150 Wireless Headset. “Proven by truck drivers in noisy environments. Blocks engine, wind & other background noises.” I have been trying to psych myself up to cutting out the longhand step and drafting directly by voice. But draftin’ while truckin’? That’s for me.