A couple things kept me awake last night:
1. Stick is coming out the day after tomorrow (well... at midnight). Stick is coming out and I do not even own a single copy of the book. I lost the one and only copy I had. Oh well. It's what was supposed to happen. I don't care about that.
2. I want to quit being a writer again. Oh well.
3. The Wall Street Protests:
This is a true story.
As I said yesterday, regarding how I write a novel, I tend to stew about things for a very long time before I actually do them. And I really do not like talking about WIPs (Works-In-Progress), but I started writing this novel on July 7 and it seems like I have been right at the end of it for about 95,000 words (which is how long the novel is).
It never takes me 3 months to write a novel, but when I finish writing, I am finished. There is no such thing as a draft in my universe. I don't care how anyone else writes, and going to conferences so you can hear people TELL you how they write is a waste of time.
Everyone writes their own way.
I do not draft.
Ever.
Did I mention that I do not care to know how other people write?
Among the reasons this novel has taken 3 months to finish are the revision jobs I have had for two different books and two different publishers.
I enjoy that stuff very much. It's been tough.
There has also been bullshit business stuff. I can't express the level of my revulsion at all things bullshitty and businessy. My friend Michael Grant, I think, is a good businessman. He is like a general in the army of dealing with that shit. I faked a battlefield injury and waved a white flag a long time ago.
I realize this is a long intro to a true story.
So, anyway, I have been stewing about this recurring character in the book I've been writing since July 7. Yes, July 7 was the day the first line came out of my hands. The first line is not really the first line, because there is a one-page prologue before it, but the first line kicks ass and made me write this 95,000-word (and still inching along) novel.
So I have been stewing about this character and why he exists and what he really means to everyone in the scope of all the everythingness that I tried to box inside the pages. And some time ago, I decided that because I was so obsessed with this particular character that I was going to have him tattooed onto my flesh.
I know that is a revolting idea to some people, but I do not care about that either.
My friend Matthew expressed a "Bullshit!" call when I said I had this character tattooed onto my flesh. But I really did it. I'm telling the truth.
It is my job to tell the truth.
The artist who did the tattoo is absolutely brilliant.
The tattooing took several hours, and while she did the work, the artist and I had a great conversation about this particular character, why he keeps popping up, and how he relates to the everythingness of where we are at the moment.
I am not going to talk about that. It would be like letting you read the book, and maybe nobody ever will. But I will include a bit of our conversation here:
T: Are any of your novels used in academia?
(T is obviously very intelligent, and also very well-read)
ME: Actually, one of my novels has been used in some college literature courses, and others as recommended readings in MFA programs.
T: Oh.
ME: But the way my books are really used in academia is that I would never have been able to pay for my son going to college if I did not write books.
T: Ha ha.
(T also gets my jokes)
ME: I do not understand how people do it. It's like they are trying to make it impossible for brilliant middle- and working-class kids to go on to college and develop their brilliance and invent the shit that will save the world and exponentially grow economies.
T: The elitists are winning the war.
(to be continued)
8 comments:
Speechless ... but laughing. :o)
If this is the one-page prologue I think it is, I was just talking to someone about it yesterday and trying to describe it (which was impossible) in terms of why (even though so many agent types seem dead set against them) all prologues don't suck and how some are actually pretty amazing and are almost their own works of art.
Anyhow...funny. My one (and only) tattoo also came from something I'd written and I too had a fairly mind-blowing conversation with the artist. I think it's interesting when things like that converge.
College is expensive. That is one of the great truths in my life.
Unfortunately I'm only a good businessman for a writer. Which is like being a good writer for an illiterate.
I have my own plan for paying for college. It consists of reminding my kids that Steve Jobs dropped out.
Re: "The elitists are winning the war"
Priceless.
After watching the upsets in the cup, (who would have believed Ireland and England would lose and in the same day?) you gave me my third good laugh of the day.
And as for prologues, In The Path of Falling Objects had me going back again and again to reread it just to make sure I understood what happened and every time I reread it the book changed and the world tilted. That's an example of a kick-ass prologue. I don't know why agenty types don't like them either.
Oh no you don't.
I'm not buying the whole "Yeah, it's a tattoo" thing.
It's a Manifestation. Your character wants out.
Stigmata.Smith-style.
Fuck.
(not because of the tattoo, because of the state of equality in our society)
Why is it that even those of use who know what's up hate to have to talk about it? Or is that just me?
Anyway, the reason I gave you shit about the ink is that I have one tattoo. I was in tenth grade, at boarding school. I'd been shipped away from home by my evil aunt and uncle after my mom died (this is not a book, this is my life), and somehow, my roommate turned out to be cool.
Anyway, we stayed up late most nights, chewed dip, talked shit, recording fake radio broadcasts ... and one night, we gave each other tattoos. By fucking hand.
That means a sewing needle, wrapped with thread, and dipped in indio ink. We had to stab each other thousands of times.
Mine is on my right ankle. It's supposed to be a cross, but it looks more like a plus sign. And it has the word FREE above it, and the word WILL below it.
Yes, it's a Rush song, and yes, that's my real name, but it also meant more to me than the song at the time, because I was a very angry young man, and I wasn't having shit when it came to adults telling me what the fuck to do.
Sorry. That's all. Tattoos that are not my tattoo are actually pretty cool.
And I'm buying Michael's book tonight. I'm mad at George R.R. Martin anyway over the fourth ASoIaF book.
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