Writing, reading, and arithmetic. I was recently invited to a fun meeting of “artists”. There were musicians, poets, graphic artists, filmmakers, and me a writer (and I guess a filmmaker). I’ve never really considered myself an artist: I’ve had a real job, I pay taxes, and I’ve gotten older. I have always read a lot, and now I write a lot. I’m not sure I’m that good at it, I still “tell” too much and don’t “show” quite enough. I’m better at short prose than novels, and I’m OK at screenplays. I’m not famous, but the reviews of my stuff has been pretty good except the critic who pretty much said I was racist, I’m not so I didn’t care.

In school they taught the three R’s: reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmatic. Interesting how they misspelled two of three right at the start. I think of myself as a writer these days, had I spelled it ‘riter spell check would have caught it. I believe the best book about how to write is On Writing (A Memoir of the Craft) by Stephen King. King is my favorite writer along with Edgar Allan Poe. Right now, I’m towards the end of a short film shooting script based on one of my short stories, and I’m starting my card “story points” for a full length film adaption of a separate story. So I’m pretty busy, and a bit tired.

I’ll keep you up on my efforts, but here are some quotes from Stephen King a real expert. For the writers among the artists and the artists amongst the writers take heed.

“The road to hell is paved with adverbs.”

“When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.”

“Writing is a lonely job. Having someone who believes in you makes a lot of difference. They don’t have to make speeches. Just believing is usually enough”

“You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair—the sense that you can never completely put on the page what’s in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page”

“Description is what makes the reader a sensory participant in the story. Good description is a learned skill, one of the prime reasons why you cannot succeed unless you read a lot and write a lot. It’s not just a question of how-to, you see; it’s also a question of how much to. Reading will help you answer how much, and only reams of writing will help you with the how. You can learn only by doing”

“Murder your darlings”

How does one such as I comment after Stephen King? I’ll try based on my experience. Murder or kill your darlings is a frequently used admonition in screenwriting. It sounds very ominous and threatening, but I’ve always interpreted it to mean that if I think that line or scene is essential, I just might be wrong. So, kill your darlings and keep on writing. Peace.