Inside The Writer's Head

Writing by Committee

 I have a muse, who’s very nice and I have an editor who is . . .um contentious. I have been struggling with rewrites for the past week and the editor keeps changing things on me then when I feel overwhelmed, the muse trys to comfort me.

“ Hey it’s my turn now, you promised. “ the editor berates the muse. 

“You’re not helping matters with all these changes and critizing Alisa’s work.” the muse quietly reminds the editor.

“I’m doing my job to make it better. I only want the work to shine.” 

“That word is misspelled, you need to fix it.” the grammar nazi (GN) arrives and points to a word with a bright red line under it. 

“I’m aware of that, I’ll get to it later.” I reply to the nagging. The GN remains patient for exactly eight seconds- a record.

“ You may be too tired or forget later, why don’t you correct it now.” GN is doing an excellent impression of  Sheldon the anal retentive character on “The Big Bang Theory”. The editor agrees. I stop to look up the word and correct it but lose my train of thought in the process.

“Nice going, you know she can’t work with you hovering like this.” my muse is a little peeved now.

“ Grammar is part of the second draft work.” GN insists.

“WILL YOU SHUT UP, I’M TRYING TO WRITE.” I bellow out loud. Silence reigns while I type a full paragragh until another word is high lighted in red.

“That word is-” at which point I sigh in exaspearation. It’s time to get a drink.

Movie Review- More Than Enough

Enough Said

(Enough Said 93 mins. PG-13 (crude language and sexaul content.)  Cast: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gandolfini, Christopher Nicholas Smith, Kathleen Rose Perkins,Tracey Fairaway,Catherine KeenerToni Collette,Ben Falcone,Eve Hewson,Tavi Gevinson. Written and directed by Nicole Holofcener.Fox Searchligth Pictures)

All summer long we have been assaulted with testoterone loaded smash em up blockbusters that often weren’t worthy of the amount of money thrown at them, either in production or at the box office. Thank God, now that the adolescent  season is over we can get back to real cinema. 

Enough Said is one of those movies as enjoyable as a warm Sunday afternoon.  Eva (Julia Louis Dreyfuss) is a divorced mother working as a masseuse and worried about her daugther leaving for college soon. She meets Albert (James Gandolfini) at a party and they start dating. One of her clients and budding friend  Marianne (Catherine Keener) seems perfect except for her rants about her boorish, fat, ex husband which causes Eva to doubt her romance with Albert. The whole cast is note perfect. Dreyfuss surprised me with the depth of her performance as she always struck me as lightweight and snarky in her TV roles.Gandolfini showed he could play a sweetie as well as a mafioso. The film is sharp and funny as it depictsß the messiness of making a relationship work.

Reality Needs Better Advertising

It’s late October and here in the Northwest we’ve had temps in the mid 60’s. The weather has been strange and extreme all over the place. This cliamte change really has me worried.

“Stop worrying. It’s not climate change, think of as a seasonal adjustment.” Wiley the court jester piped up. “ Instead of denying it or speak of it as doom and gloom we need to look at the upside of global warming. Two words: winter picnics. Take advantage of it.”

“You sound like an advertising agent.”

“Hey if spin is good enough for the tabacco industry and the government, it’s good enough for the denial of science.” Wiley proudly nodded. 

“I don’t know why I bother talking to you. It’s like listening to Michele Bachman or Rush Limbaugh.” I replied.

“Hey, take that back. I’m sardonic not crazy.” 

Inside the Writers Head

The original title of my blog. Now you get to experience the effert to write a novel. Kind of like childbirth. You've been warned.

Writing is not easy. Writing a novel is mountain climbing. I wake up and look at the work ahead with a mixture of excitement and dread. I have been handed a 1500 piece jigsaw puzzle with only a general idea of what the end result should look like. I'm overwhelmed and the best advice I'm getting is to just get the words on paper, don't stress, work on it bit by bit. But when I sit down my muse tells me "You don't have to write something perfect. Just write something amazing."

Fuskashima Legacy

If I were you I wouldn't eat any fin-if there is any from the pacific. Apparently there is little marine life anyway. But don't worry I'm sure the crippled nuclear power plant can withstand the next typhoon to hit it.

Fish is out of my diet thank you.

Worth it?

When I started doing aikido the plan was to get a black belt and teach. Isn't that what you do with your knowledge? Pass it on. I learned skills from the martial art like patience, self control and calmness that I never learned in school. Being able to literally and figuratively see around the corner alone has saved my ass so many times.

I got the rank and the first reward was a trip to Japan- a life long dream- to train with the big kids. After that things pretty much went nowhere. I felt I had been left by the roadside while everyone got to go to the prom. That's OK I'm used to being left behind. But it wasn't. Such abandonment was half my inability to join in and the other half was not fitting in. I didn't know why.

The cause of a life on the sidelines was revealed one day by the dry, clinical bible of mental affairs, The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychological Professional. Otherwise known and despised -or revered as the DSM. If this weighty tome says you are mental, you are. I tripped over the entry about Asperger's Syndrome and like a pilgrim finding wisdom in a parable, I had the answer.

While I had been imagining the instructor's were plotting behind my back to block my attempts at teaching or further advancement- the word sensei was hardly ever uttered in my direction- the truth was simpler. I guess I just wasn't cut out to be an instructor as I barely knew how to interact with people. If that is true, then the years of agonizing struggle to learn this craft was for all the wrong reasons.Like reading subtle social cues, whatever they are, I have no idea what the real reasons are. Where I was expecting great insight maybe even enlightenment, the real benefit was entirely personal and amounted to a gushy example of overcoming great obstacles, whatever.  

I'm ready to give up as I am now convinced those stories of epiphany and metaphorically reaching the top of the mountain are highly exaggerated. For me the reaction wasn't  "Oh my God!" but rather "This is it?"

Somewhere in all this disappointment there is an intersection where these two discoveries give me pause. Perhaps as I floated along the river of discovery, I was progressing but didn't realize it as the current was too subtle to notice and I don't get subtly very well. I my case a blunt instrument would work better.

The Real Nobel Prize Winner

Bad Cop

It's seems to a bad time for blacks to go to cops for help after being in an accident and don't call  911 either.

The Court Jester

The scandal to hit the last Miss America Pageant wasn’t on the stage but in the minds of those disappointed with multi- culturalism. Despite PC racism is still a persistent problem. Like a bad rash it just won’t go away.

It’s worse than that says the Court fool. The one voice in a medieval court who dared to speak the truth. This fool doles it out with scathing sarcasm.

But you don’t understand, the pageant is suppose to celebrate and glorify beautiful women. Women who are pure, wholesome and white. Multi-culturism is just a pretty word for minorities. If they would just sit down and shut up, we won’t have to confront our ugly distaste for people who are, you know- different. How dare these uppity foreigners think just because they were born and raised in this country they’re American. They’re not- look at her- dark skinned, a weird sounding name you can’t pronounce, it’s un-American.

We haven’t heard the last of the Jester and his jibes.

Time For a New Congress

The following is being passed around the internet, which means it won’t be taken seriously by the real powers that be. With the government shutdown perhaps we should take matters into our own hands and see how far the country can be run without government interference.

However noble and reasonable this idea, Congress would never vote on a measure that reduces it’s own benefits. Maybe the courts or a presidential act might do it. A general public vote would definately work. It is time to enact some restraint of  runaway power.

Congressional Reform Act of 2013 1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they're out of office. 2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose. 3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do. 4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%. 5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people. 6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people. 7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void effective 12/31/13. 

The American people did not make this contract with Congress. Congress made all these contracts for themselves. Being elected into Congress means serving the people and should be regarded as an honor and a civic duty not as a career for personal lifelong entitlement. George Washington served the county as General and President then quietly retired to his farm in Virginia without special treatment or pension. 

Reddit Explains Healthcare

Start with this link at Reddit and I'll add my observation on the whole "GOP hates Obamacare " debate. 

As the top comment mentions, ". . .It makes it so insurance companies have to spend a certain percent of their revenue on actual health care, which essentially caps their profits at a certain percent." 

This is the crux of the resistant from the insurance companies who have been conspicuously silence during this debate. As a recent Time article pointed out the health care business is making tons of money and don,t want to see The Affordable Healthcare Act become law. Americans pay far more for health care than many other countries but get less for it. Why? Because no one is controlling the costs. Free market and all but health care is not a commodity to sell on the open market like cars or produce. 

The fact is most countries have some form of national health care that more or less works. There are flaws but some flaws are better than someone dying because they couldn't afford to seek medical help. Like you and me.

I'm a Bit Pre Occupied Right Now

Writing is easy: just sit at a typewriter and bleed. -Hemingway

A cartoonist is someone who does the same thing over and over but never repeats himself.- Charles Schultz

That pretty much sums up the last couple of months for me. When I’m not on a hot streak where the words pour out of me, I’m  squeezing as hard as I can to get anything out because of mental constipation. Hey, if you think this is easy, you try it pal. 

Thus I have been neglecting the blog as well. I switched over to the dvorak keyboard recently and it has slowed down my writing while I get used to it. It must be the change in the weather, the alignment of the stars, or the drinking but my brain has been sluggish.

Ironically my novel stays in my frontal lob piecing itself together bit by bit with little effort from my (conscious) self. Creativity is a strange thing.

The world is an even stranger place where even The Onion can’t keep up with the insanity. Let’s see the government has shut down because of the petty tantrums of wealthy powerful people blaming the other for being pig headed, scientists sadly conclude that humans are responsible for the climate change while the deniers still think the earth is flat and Iran and Russia are negotiating for peace in the middle east. WTF!!?

The old phrase “why can’t we all get along “ has been drowned out by the gunfire from fanatics demanding to get their way with intolerance on a breath taking scale. Here’s a thought experiment: whenever these extremists tout revolution ask them this- what will you do when the revolution is over? What will the world look like and what makes you think it will last? 

Bring chaos to the world, deny the physical reality around you and dream of an utopia that doesn’t account for human behavior and we’re all doomed.

Me, I’m going back to my writing. It’s safer and the world of imagination is easier to understand.