Don Roff's Blog

Broke my screenwriter's cherry in a big way while attending a development meeting with a major company. Still vibrating. They loved the script and only want a minor polish (B-story stuff). Now, in screenwriting terms, "polish" over "rewrite" is huge with regards to time to the revisions and how the company feels about the work. A good day. Their suggested changes will actually enhance the characters and story in a whole new way. Exciting stuff. Now it's time to escape the world and get busy...

Ah, the first day of the first month of the new Zombies: A Record of the Year of Infection 2013 calendar! It's going to be a fabulous year indeed, folks. 




Think you can still find a few 2013 calendars--if you want one--here: http://www.amazon.com/Zombies-2013-Wall-Calendar-Infection/dp/0789325667

"In my work as an author, I traffic in fiction. I do not traffic in lies. Although I’ll admit the distinction is a nice one, and perhaps not easy for the layman to make, with fiction, with art, with writing, it’s important that even if you’re dealing with areas of complete outrageous fantasy, that there is an emotional resonance. It is important that a story ring true upon a human level, even if it never happened.” ~Alan Moore

“At the top of the mountain we are all snow leopards.”                                              ~Hunter S. Thompson

Struggling with my current WIP, I've been thinking about this very thing. So Chuck comes along, hammers it into eloquent words, and posts it on Facebook. Thought I'd share. Take it to heart, writers. 



"What is the issue that is eating you up? What is the personal fear that you can’t resolve and you can’t tolerate? Are you getting old with fucking NOTHING to show for it? Then, write Invisible Monsters. Are you worried that your brain or talent isn’t capable of creating anything interesting or unique, and you’ll die and rot and be forgotten – failing everyone you love? Well, then write Diary. My point is, use the story to explore and exhaust an issue of your own. Otherwise, you’re just dicking around, playing 'let’s pretend.' If you can be ruthless and honest about your own fear, you express something that other people can’t express. You can resolve your own anxiety – through research, discussion, experiment – and that freedom is what brings you back to writing.
What could you never talk about in a million years? Then, write about that." ~Chuck Palahniuk

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."
~Jack London

The good folks over at AudioGO put together a little Q&A for me regarding the audiobook adaptation of ZOMBIES: A RECORD OF THE YEAR OF INFECTION . Give a listen, er, a read, won't you? 

Here's an excerpt: 

What do you think of the audiobook? Do you have a favorite part? 

One advantage I have as a listener is that I wrote the book over three years ago. I’ve written over a half million words since. So, the book, when I first listened to it, was almost a fresh experience. I went right along with the story the way a new listener might. Some portions of the book I could remember writing, others were completely alien. My girlfriend and I drove out to a dark, lonely, country road and listened to the entire thing. By the end, we were so freaked out, we locked the car doors and sped away into the night. The story felt like it had just happened to us, that there was no more humanity, only the empty road ahead, and whatever terror waited for us beyond. 

Here's the link:  Q&A with ZOMBIES’ Author Don Roff

On October 24, Molly M. Ulmen and I shared our three-year anniversary of being together. Back in 1993, Molly and I met at Walla Walla Community College, appropriately enough, in a British Literature class. We became instant friends. Now, lucky for me, we’re more than friends—and we’ve been having fun ever since. Here’s to many more years with my best friend, and my love, Molly.

Clowning around with the fireman standee at Hot Mama's Espresso in Walla Walla, WA (yes, an actual place) while taking a break from writing. With the serendipity between the t-shirt I chose to wear today and my axe-wielding, cardboard companion, I couldn't resist.

So, I read books. Why? Because (A) I love to read. (B) Good writers are good readers. There you have it. And so, reading today, I picked up Roald Dahl's Danny the Champion of the World at the Walla Walla Public Library. Dahl's humorous prose is indisputably masterful. Few authors are such a consistent joy to experience book after book.


Author Roald Dahl doing what he does best (in his writer's shed)
In the back of Danny, there's an interview with Dahl that was conducted in 1988, two years before his death. The bit I want to share is below. The reason I'm sharing it now is because of something I've been wrestling with recently as an author. I'm at the 3/4 part of a new, speculative YA novel. In retrospect, this has always been the hardest part of a story for me, whether novel or screenplay. Though I've written and revised a story beat sheet for the book, it's still been tough. The last week has been like a word grudge match. False starts and stops. Or on a few days, not starting at all. Yikes!

However, after reading the interview, I found the following reminder helpful and did exactly that. 

Tomorrow morning, when I pick up the pen again (or in this case, keyboard), I know where to begin: an exciting part I stopped at today just as it was going well. So without further delay, what Dahl said, with a nod to Hemingway.


HOW DO YOU KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING WHEN YOU ARE WRITING A NOVEL?

One of the vital things for a writer who’s writing a book, which is a lengthy project and is going to take about a year, is how to keep the momentum going. It is the same with a young person writing an essay. They have got to write for four or five or six pages. But when you are writing it for a year, you go away and you have to come back. I never come back to a blank page. I always finish about halfway through. To be confronted with a blank page is not very nice. But Hemingway, a great American writer, taught me the first trick when you are doing a long book, which is, he simply said in his own words, “When you are going good, stop writing.” And that means that if everything’s going well and you know exactly where the end of the chapter’s going to go and you know just what the people are going to do, you don’t go on writing and writing until you come to the end of it, because when you do, then you say, well, where am I going to go next? And you get up and you walk away and you don’t want to come back because you don’t know where you want to go. But if you stop when you are going good, as Hemingway said… then you know what you are going to say next. You make yourself stop, put your pencil down and everything, and you walk away. And you can’t wait to get back because you know what you want to say net and that’s lovely and you have to try and do that. Every time, every day all the way through the year. If you stop when you are stuck, then you are in trouble!


Though "quitting while you're ahead" may seem counterproductive, it's actually not. You save time instead of wasting it. So whether you're a professional author or beginning writer, it's good to either be reminded of the above sage wisdom, or learn it. 
Oh, and by the way, if you dig my stuff--my books, my posts, or me personally (and how could you not?), Like me here at my Facebook author page. Thanks!