Books Into Movies

We all know that the movie is never as good as the book. Ever. Right? Hold on a sec. That ain't necessarily so.

Recent case in point: Angels and Demons. Now this is your basic summer action flick. Nothing too deep and meaningful here. But it is a fun watch. Tom Hanks is good, as always. And the movie is made just a tad bit more watchable because of the presence of Ewan McGregor, who makes everything a tad bit (or a lot) more watchable. But I digress. Most of the people I know who have read both books think that Angels and Demons was much better than The DaVinci Code. But there were still some problems with A&D. Time lines didn't always make sense. Laws of physics were broken. Etc. The movie drops a ridiculous bit near the end of the book that had me screaming "I call no way!" So, movie better than book.

On Twitter last week, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy of MST3K and now Riff Trax fame were compiling a list of movies that were as good as the books they were based on. My own imperfect list follows. The movies may not all be better than the books, but they are good movies, IMHO.

--The Lord of the Rings
--To Kill A Mockingbird
--The Godfather (in which the movie dropped an icky unnecessary storyline about a bridesmaid and her. . .uhm. . .attribute)
--The General's Daughter (read and then seen because of Jenny's shortlived Book/Movie group)
--The Secret Life of Bees
--Black Hawk Down
--The Bone Collector
--Pride and Prejudice
--Brokeback Mountain
--The World According To Garp
--The French Lieutenant's Woman
--Bladerunner
--The Hunt For Red October
--The Harry Potter movies, especially the more recent ones

I know I'm forgetting some. There are also movies that I really liked, but didn't read the book so those aren't on the list.

Anyone have some to add?

June Goals

May seemed like such a long month, yet I didn't really accomplish much writing-wise. About 25 more pages of MMG revised and 25 pages of TNN in pretty good shape for submission this month. Not a lot. But I did a whole bunch of other good stuff. Got back into the habit of writing Morning Pages daily. Started practicing banjo again, complete with sore fingertips on my left hand as I get used to holding down the strings. Really cleaned out the writing room, even the scary closet. And moved the chest of drawers downstairs so there is now room to set up bookshelves. All in all a productive month.

Plans for June? A lot of the same old/same old with a little twist:

--Rewrite of MMG with new-old structure (75/??)
--Rewrite 2nd 25 pages of TNN for CWC
--Prepare short story for submission to magazine
--Do CWC critiques (0/2)
--Finish writing room makeover

I've been flirting with the writing room redo for two years now. There has been this niggling around the sides of my mind saying that I shouldn't get a new writing room until MMG is ready to send to agents. Well, that's horse hockey, as my mother used to say. If I want a redecorated writing room, then wanting it is all that's necessary.

The extra challenge is in getting a short story to a point where I feel it's ready to submit to a magazine. Regular blog readers know I'm not comfortable with shorts, nor am I ever really happy with any of them. So this is a biggie for me.

What do you feel you don't do well that you'd like to do better? How about working on it this month?

CWC Rocks

Once again the anticipation was worse than the actuality. Everyone had the same problems with Vesta as before (and they really, really, really don't like Zack), but there were so many great suggestions that I'm excited about the possibilities. I especially like when someone suggested a change that I'd already thought of. Or when I said, "I know that I need to have this person at this event," and the whole table would bounce and say, "Yes!" Jenny said the bones are there, they just need fleshing out (which is how I tend to write). Mary said she likes the toys I've chosen to play with. How great are those comments?

Jenny posted about our critiquing in the dark. It seems crazy now that no one suggested we stop, but why would we? We still had a critique and a half to go. How could we short change Mary and Shane like that? I think it says something about why I love this group so much. Although there is friendship above and beyond our writing, when we're at CWC, it is all about the writing. There is a bit of small talk, but when it's time for business, that's it. We have Pirates and Sunday dinners and other gatherings for the other stuff.

Now it's time to start revisions of TNN so I'm ready to submit next month. Be aware of my usual shortcomings in the back of my mind, but let this one be what it needs to be at the same time. I'm just glad I'm not submitting a first draft this time around.

Anticipation

can be a good thing or a bad thing. Case in point: CWC tonight.

I'm looking forward to hanging out with the gang. Enjoy their company, their intelligence and humor.

Not looking forward to my critique. Since the last one was pretty dang bad and the submission being critiqued tonight is the end of the same manuscript, I know it will be just as bad if not worse. Why didn't I change it before submitting? Because I don't want to revise until I have all the feedback and have some time to think on it a while. Decide what I'm going to do.

From now on, I want to avoid submitting works in progress or even a completed first draft. Those are supposed to poorly written and submitting them just helps fuel my already highly tuned sense of self-doubt. Which gives me about a month to work on my second draft of TNN.

But at least I'm prepared for the worst tonight. I hope.

The Filing Cabinet Thing

Over at Jenny's blog, she talked about how Fred's death hit her and about how he left "file cabinets full of stuff."

Since Fred's funeral last week, I've thought about those file cabinets. They seem to always be on the periphery of my thoughts. Jenny has dedicated herself to accumulating her own cabinets. I'm struggling with the idea. You see, while I didn't know Fred nearly as well any of the others, I was the closest to his age. How many years did it take him to produce what is in those files? How many years did I waste not writing anything?

Intellectually, I know that I can't get back those years and that worrying about them is counterproductive. But the death of a friend isn't an intellectual exercise. It's all about the emotions. So this last week I've been trying to get out of my head and go with my gut. Let myself do whatever seems to be the thing to do at the time. Writing has not happened. At all. No new stuff. No rewrites. Not even Morning Pages. What I've tried to do is get some of the things done that nag at me while I write: clean out the spare room that is supposed to be made into a comfortable writing room, lawn work, other cleaning, etc. And I have done some of that. I also spent a whole day watching the first season of True Blood. I went out to see Star Trek yesterday. I may do dinner and another movie tomorrow.

But today I am writing. This entry--the first one in a couple weeks--is one example. Morning Pages are being made up. And the pages for rewrites are on the table next to me. I've decided it doesn't matter how much I have time to produce before I finally call it a day for this lifetime. Just that I do. That I keep doing this thing I love and not let anyone or anything deter me. That I also listen to my heart as much as my head, if not more, so that I continue to have something to write about. I want to remember that sometimes writing means doing something else. That you never know what will be the catalyst for a story or a character or a setting. That first and foremost a writer must live in the world so she can observe it, because that's what we really do. We observe and report. It's just that there's a lot of other things that go on between the observation and reporting.

I hope some of Fred's work is published. As much for his family and friends as for him. But another legacy he'll be able to claim will be the inspiration he's been to group of writers in Southern Colorado. Here's to a lot of overflowing file cabinets.

Taking Ali's Challenge Plus

Fred, a member of the Sunday Group, passed away over the weekend as the result of a stroke and the complications that followed. He was a highly intelligent, funny, odd and just plain nice man. Ali's May Challenge is in Fred's honor. It is simply to learn something new just for the pleasure of learning.

One of the last times I spoke with Fred was right after I read Dante's Inferno. Although I stated that I understood how it had stood the test of time and the artistry and craft that went into writing it (see post in archives), the mere fact that I didn't enjoy it appalled Fred. He seemed to take it as a personal affront. So, in Fred's honor, I will finish The Divine Comedy this summer. I also picked up a copy of the Poetic Eddas and will read them over the summer as well.

Rest well, Fred.

The Merry Merry Month

I don't know that anything uber-special has ever happened to me in May, but if I were to name a favorite month, I think May would be it. It's usually a pretty month. Trees and flowers are budding, the grass is turning green (before it dies in June when I fail to water it), the birds are chirping, etc. etc. It's a transitional month, and I like the transitional seasons. It might be interesting to go back and see if I am more or less productive in May.

The goals for this month are posted at the side. I've added a couple more things this month. The first is to write Morning Pages daily. Which is how they are supposed to be done, but I have been slacking off big time. I know I write more when I do my Morning Pages. It could be that they really work. It could be that Julia Cameron has completely brainwashed me. I don't care. They do the job. When I can get all the gunk down on the page--the page that is meant for the gunk--I don't have to deal with it when it's time to actually write. So Pages daily again.

The second unusual entry is to practice banjo at least twice a week. This is another creativity booster. It's fun, even though I have to work at it. It's creative, but in a different way. While it takes time and patience to improve, I am at least good enough to plunk out a recognizable tune or strum chords that I can sing along with. In other words, instant gratification. Writing does give a tangible result--"I wrote 10 pages today!"--but it's a tangible result that can't readily be evaluated. I may think it's brilliant, but it might be veering off into a deadend direction or fails to move the story at all. Or I can think it stinks, but then realize after the whole thing is done that this was the pivotal moment in the story. With music, it's ephemeral but immediate.

I'm also going to start the cleanup of TNN for submission in July (I think it's July, we're doing some rejiggering). In any case, I don't want to wait until the last minute. So we're getting that party started.

So, is there something you can do that's fun and creative but has nothing to do with writing? How about giving it a try this month?