April 2009 – The Dilettante's Field Manual

Saved by poetry

I work a full-time gig putting in plenty of extra hours. I’m not saying this to whine, only to point out that it takes time and effort to do a job as well as you can, and jobs are what pay the mortgage. I also turn out a script or two, squeezing in time atContinue reading “Saved by poetry”

Where does it come from?

That’s a question about creativity raised by the film “Starting Out in the Evening.” It follows an aging and mostly forgotten literary novelist who is forced from his routine when a young graduate student enters his life, ostensibly to research her thesis. It is a wooden and stilted film with some (mostly) unintentional awkward moments,Continue reading “Where does it come from?”

Hiking with kids

The hearth killed more poets than alcohol, according to William B. Yeats. But like Jim Harrison, I prefer intense domesticity. Or maybe that’s just what I say because that’s what I have and I’m of no mind to change it. I fully believe that any writer has to master the skill of capturing a senseContinue reading “Hiking with kids”

Creating a sense of place in screenplays, fiction and comics

Any story needs a sense of place. This is what keeps a narrative from happening inside of a void. A sense of place is different from setting. Setting is merely a point on the globe. A backdrop. A sense of place has sights, sounds, smell, dirt that feels a certain way when crumbled in yourContinue reading “Creating a sense of place in screenplays, fiction and comics”