GRAHAM GREENE ROCKS

Not exactly a progress report, but our book group read "Orient Express," by Graham Greene, which he wrote expressly to Sell To The Movies. It's a train adventure/thriller--you know, unlikely romances, daring escapes, and, of course, about nine thousand times more thoughtful than the average crap that is "written to sell to the movies." But like a good thriller, it never stops moving, even as it breaks your heart. I learned lots.

Jungian progress report

Progress report: about 200 words of various sizes, which breaks down to two or three scenes.

Weirdness progress report: As I have written elsewhere, I am basically a card-carrying atheist who spent too many years in Catholic school to really, truly, ever have it leave her. So as a result, I regularly renounce superstition, and then, about two weeks later, crack open a book on...shamanism. Or I buy candles with cool names with gemstones that are supposed to help me process stuff. I used to pretend I didn't do this. But I do.

So the latest superstition outbreak was listening to a shamanistic CD by Alberto Villoldo, who started out a scientist, and now does ritualistic rituallly rituals based on the shamans he studied with in South America. And I listened to it last night, and basically dreamed I was in a classic Hitchcock movie, with shades of...Diabolique. Was I a murderer, or wasn't I? I woke up before I could find out.

I am taking this as a good sign. Just as I am a shamanistic atheist, I am also one of those writers who spends half the time saying it's just about producing words, and the other half the time chasing the...well, the high that writing something scary/fantastic gives you. It IS about sitting your ass down and writing to you quota. But it is also about...well, the fictive dream. So last night I had one. Thanks, Alberto. May my guide animal spirit (the pink flamingo, don't you know) show me the way. Amen.

Sorta Progress Report: Seeing Diabolique

Well, I rented Diabolique because...I thought it was something like what I'm going for in this script.

And it is, and it isn't. It's been a way long time since I've seen it. So long, I've remembered it all wrong.

For those of you who've never seen it, it's about how two women, one, a tough-talking teacher, the other, her ex-nun headmistress boss, who conspire to kill a man: the headmistress' husband...who is also the teacher's lover.

What surprised me is how long it takes for the movie to get to the thriller part. What remains is just what a powerhouse actress Simone Signoret was...so willing to be disliked. So herself.

Did it teach me anything? Yes. Lots. But it wasn't the movie I remembered.

Progress Report

Title: Underneath

Update: Well, it's still about the things I think it's about...and MORE! I've been listening to my latest guru writing CD. (And while I"m at it, let me introduce myself: hi, I'm Martha, and I'm addicted BOTH to self-help books and writing advice books...until I get sick of them, give them away, and start all over again.)

I've done a logline, which seems to work.

I've done some brainstorming.

And I've written about seven pages.

What's it about? Hm. I realize that screenwriting 'bots are not perched in my computer, waiting to scoop the story up and take it to a producer, stripping me of credit. But let's just say it's about someone who doesn't want to be who she is, and gets mixed up with the wrong people because of it.

What's been working? I watched a really mediocre movie a couple of days ago, filled with good acting, and it so did enrage me, that I started working on the script again. The CD, which also has a book, has been helping, too. I'm very definitely not a Robert McKee person, though I know it would behoove me to read more Aristotle and stuff. STORY made my head hurt. Linda Seger much more my style.

What's not been working? Thinking about turning it into a novel. Which might happen anyway.

What's the juiciest part of the story? The character has problems with her eyeglasses.

No, I'm not kidding.

RAY BRADBURY: NO FEAR, NO DIE

Ray Bradbury's biographer explains why the prolific sci-fi writer (and brain crush of my youth, especially after Fahrenheit 451) just keeps on writing (Bookslut | An Interview with Sam Weller):

"But again it gets back to his mantra that he has no fear with the creative process. Procrastination comes from fear. Fear of failure, fear of your completed work not living up to the idea. He just tosses that all out the window and says screw it. If I blow it I will just write something else. He just doesn't believe in fear in the creative process and I think that has been the secret to his prolificacy. The other thing that has really dictated his ability to crank so much out is that he really looks at writing as the one true way to achieve a level of immortality because his words will be here when he is not. Every time he completes something he is one more up on death. Really I think part of the fuel behind his mad motivation has been a race against death."

And yes, it is "Salty Older Writer Guys Give You Good Writing Advice" Week at The Worst Screenplay in the History of the World.