The Process of the Epstein Brothers

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“We worked only two hours a day,” Screenwriter Julius said of he and his identical twin brother Philip’s routine. The concept of concentrated brilliance was foreign to producer Jack Warner, who believed in a full day’s work – or at least a full day’s presence – for a full day’s pay.

“One day, we came in at 1:30 or 2:00 and Warner was furious. ‘Read your contract!,’ he said. ‘Bank presidents get in at 9:00 and you’re coming in the afternoon?!’ We had a half-finished script in our office and sent it to him and said, ‘Have the bank president finish the script.’

“A year or so later, we came in at 9:00 and sent him a scene. ‘The scene is terrible,’ he told us. Philip said to him, ‘How is it possible? It was written at 9:00.’

‘I want my money back!’ Warner yelled. My brother told him, ‘I’d love to give you your money back, but I just built a pool. If you’re ever in the neighborhood and feel like a swim…’

*Excerpted from Lax and Sperber’s Bogart

Writing Process: Writing in Tongues?

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It’s just a half-realized thing. I can see it. Or feel it. That’s a better way of putting it. The thing is half obscured but there. I look the other way and pretend I’m thinking about something else. Something mundane. And then it flares out, a word or phrase or image, or just bits of those things. And so I continue to pretend to think about dinner, even think the phrase “Nothing going on here.”

It pops out, suddenly in the clear, an image, dialogue too, but’s it’s slippery and goes off again. I can’t chase the thing. I can’t think about it, not directly. I just have to sit and think about not thinking. And then it’s there, electric and brilliant, and I write.

It’s strangely intense, like I’m no longer me. I stay with it as long as I can, hammer away, even if it’s turning into nonsense, because maybe it isn’t, until it’s no longer and my brain only wants to think about dinner.

Title Change Needed: No Longer “Anori”

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Over ten years ago, I decided upon Anori as the title for the first book of The Cx Trilogy. Meaning ‘wind’ in Greenlandic, the word is an apt metaphor for a number of themes of the book, including the acceptance of change. I was happy to learn recently that a Greenlandic wind turbine company used the name.

I was less happy to scroll through the film titles on my Air Greenland flight to Ilulissat and find a romantic drama of the same name.

And so that was it; no more Anori for me. My replacement title is Em, who is the clone of the main character, Dee.

It’s early yet, but I like the concept for now.

Lying about My Likes

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I claim that I am making a comment on social media when I post images of dead animals. I tell everyone to not like these posts and only wish there were a dislike button.

The truth is that I like it when people like what I say about not wanting likes. Which is the same as liking likes, or disliking being ignored. (Please like this post.)

I’m Just Saying, Mother

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Hello? Yes, mother? What’s that? You’re worried about me? Okay, me too. But…I’m worried about you too. I get that you’re into this knowing life thing, growing babies, losing your figure and all that, but that doesn’t mean…That’s what I’m saying. There’s dark matter and things like that. No, you don’t know about that. You don’t.

Greenlandic painting in Ilulissat

I know it’s not fair. You taught me about life not being fair, remember? But all this goddess stuff, I mean, it’s like father being strong and smart. He gave up on that a long time ago. Anyway, yes, my point! Watch out for Hubris, okay? And always being in control. It’s a bad look. Just saying. Love you too, Ma.

It’s True. Nobody Cares

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Nobody cares if I have a breakthrough in the narrative. Nobody cares if I nail the dialogue or a description. Nobody cares if I write one word or a thousand.

Nobody cares what I do today. Huh.

Escape Route

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Cases of beer and champagne made the halls narrow, the wives arriving in anticipation of a cup win, one commenting that there was no way the captain would sing Karaoke at the Equivocator’s house. And no one would ever visit the Finn’s place except the Finns. I realized that the black-suited reporters were all old-time Republicans and ducked outside.

Pen and ink sketch, Goya

The space was open at the center with winding corridors and passageways off to the side. I found a bathroom under the stairs with a view of the valley, but it was packed, some of them my former students. I pleaded for them to leave, but it was a big joke and they took pictures of me as I crapped in my hands.

Writing Advice: Five Pages Per Day & Don’t Drain the Brain

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I’ve read a number of books by writers about writing, and two things have stuck with me over the years. Ian Fleming attested to writing five pages every day before noon so that he could spend the rest of the day swimming and drinking. (I substitute swimming with hiking.)

And Ernest Hemingway was clear in his autobiography, A Moveable Feast, to not drain the brain so that he always had something to start with the next day. In other words, if you go too far one day, you might not get anywhere after that.

What To Do With Thomas Hardy

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Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, considered to be his greatest work, offers poignant and magnificent prose: She might have seen what had bowed her head so profoundly – the thought of the world’s concern at her situation – was founded on an illusion. She was not an existence, an experience, a passion, a structure of sensations, to anybody but herself. To all humankind besides, Tess was only a passing thought. Even to friends she was no more than a frequently passing thought. If she made herself miserable the livelong day, it was only this much to them – “Ah, she makes herself unhappy.”

And yet the story is plodding, indeed even interminably slow. The internal struggles of Tess, which many consider to be a strength of the book, is really more of an impediment for today’s reader. I would even venture to say that the antiquated vocabulary such as “swarthy” and “maladroit” create barriers as well. This isn’t to say the reading isn’t enjoyable just that he does require a substantial effort. Maybe he needs some memes.

Silence is Golden

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There is nothing like shutting up about the writing process – whatever that is – and writing instead, clattering away on who’s knows what but what seems to work right now.

There are pauses between the bursts, leaving me staring dumbly, hands dangling apelike, not thinking about writing but trying to remember the next bit and chase after that before it goes. Yeah, back to that.