I always have the fire in MY belly. But that's usually just the prelude to a chocolate chili night spent on the toilet. Blame my shitty diet. I'm on a seafood diet. Whenever I see food, I eat it. Hah! You might think that's a funny joke now, but wait a few hours, it'll turn rancid and won't digest properly.
Wait...this was supposed to be a thread about writing? Oops...
Hey, Alan! Good to see you on Substack. I'll head over and sub to your lot in a minute. Did you go to Chuck's party? Man, that's a long haul for you, LULZ! I'm guessing 2.5 hours? Okay, off to sub ya. May the Force be with you, Brother!
Hey, Chuck - I will be there! We'll have fun. I hope to road test my historical fiction novel but I can also read a short story based on Japanese folklore. I'm not part of your demographic but I've learned a lot from you about yours (my sons - ages 27 and 30). Nana
I first heard the phrase "kill the people" (meaning 'good luck and slay the audience') from Thelma Ritter in "All About Eve" and I've been using it to wish people well on their openings ever since.
But I can't use it on social media anymore due to AI bots who flag it as "incitement to violence" (I was even put in Facebook Jail for it!).
They really need to feed those bots some Mankiewicz scripts.
Heya Chuck. So I’m reading Lullaby for the first time now. I’m about halfway through and am loving it so far. The way you structure it is giving me some ideas about my own stories I’m working on. A while back you were talking about discovering the pain of characters and then writing the story around that pain.
That said, I just finished Chapter 21 with the road trip and Helen and everyone else. And I just read the part where Helen explains how she came about finding the culling song and the state of her baby. There’s so much revealed about her pain. She says people who believe in reincarnation are wasting their lives.
Before getting all your advice here I think I would have absorbed this information and connected the dots subconsciously. But now while I read I analyze it and it made me realize how she’s hurt by the idea that her child has been robbed of so much time and she believes this is the only real time we have (one life). And likely she had guilt tied to her son’s condition. It gives so much breadth to the pain behind her motivations, but also her mission to find the original book with hopes that she’ll (I assume) be able to bring back her son.
Anyway, just letting you know that pairing what I’ve learned here and reading your stuff is helpful. I mean, I’d love to see the first draft of Lullaby for my own selfish inspiration, but I know there’s no way in hell you’re showing anyone that. :D
I hope everyone gets the laughs, the gasps, and the tense silences as they read.
Question for Chuck.
Or...maybe it's a random musing.
As far as reading aloud, I'm not a very good speaker. I stumble a lot of the times. Don't enunciate too well. This makes things weird because it's highly recommended by writers/teachers to read your work aloud. But if you suck at reciting, it's gonna feel like your prose is about as graceful as a corpse doing ballet. But sometimes when you hand it off to someone else to read, they can recite it better.
In Tom's workshop students had to read their work aloud. This was also Lish's format at Columbia. After that kind of practice in front of friendly peers, the public readings were a breeze. It's better to be coached by friends -- about slowing down, about speaking louder -- than to be catcalled by strangers in a bar.
Oh god, catcalled at a bar? Imagine someone reading their story about their dead dad or dead dog, while on the verge of tears, and some drunk college frat bro yells, "nice tits!"
It was never that bad. Either people ignore you completely, or they shout for you to speak up. At Hindsight the writers were the crowd so it was much more sympathetic. The first time Tom had us read was at a sports bar where video poker and televisions blared. That was a tough crowd.
I always have the fire in MY belly. But that's usually just the prelude to a chocolate chili night spent on the toilet. Blame my shitty diet. I'm on a seafood diet. Whenever I see food, I eat it. Hah! You might think that's a funny joke now, but wait a few hours, it'll turn rancid and won't digest properly.
Wait...this was supposed to be a thread about writing? Oops...
looking forward to it
That makes one of us... I hate throwing parties.
At least you don’t have to clean up after this one, right?
Yeah, me too.
Hey, Alan! Good to see you on Substack. I'll head over and sub to your lot in a minute. Did you go to Chuck's party? Man, that's a long haul for you, LULZ! I'm guessing 2.5 hours? Okay, off to sub ya. May the Force be with you, Brother!
Same here!
Hey, Chuck - I will be there! We'll have fun. I hope to road test my historical fiction novel but I can also read a short story based on Japanese folklore. I'm not part of your demographic but I've learned a lot from you about yours (my sons - ages 27 and 30). Nana
I first heard the phrase "kill the people" (meaning 'good luck and slay the audience') from Thelma Ritter in "All About Eve" and I've been using it to wish people well on their openings ever since.
But I can't use it on social media anymore due to AI bots who flag it as "incitement to violence" (I was even put in Facebook Jail for it!).
They really need to feed those bots some Mankiewicz scripts.
I'll be there +1. Stoked! I'll bring a 2 page story to share. Cheers!
I’ll be there plus one with 2 pages to read!
Heya Chuck. So I’m reading Lullaby for the first time now. I’m about halfway through and am loving it so far. The way you structure it is giving me some ideas about my own stories I’m working on. A while back you were talking about discovering the pain of characters and then writing the story around that pain.
That said, I just finished Chapter 21 with the road trip and Helen and everyone else. And I just read the part where Helen explains how she came about finding the culling song and the state of her baby. There’s so much revealed about her pain. She says people who believe in reincarnation are wasting their lives.
Before getting all your advice here I think I would have absorbed this information and connected the dots subconsciously. But now while I read I analyze it and it made me realize how she’s hurt by the idea that her child has been robbed of so much time and she believes this is the only real time we have (one life). And likely she had guilt tied to her son’s condition. It gives so much breadth to the pain behind her motivations, but also her mission to find the original book with hopes that she’ll (I assume) be able to bring back her son.
Anyway, just letting you know that pairing what I’ve learned here and reading your stuff is helpful. I mean, I’d love to see the first draft of Lullaby for my own selfish inspiration, but I know there’s no way in hell you’re showing anyone that. :D
I'll be there with 3 pages to read.
i’ll be there with 1,000 words to read if chosen. so excited!
Good luck to you all & have a great night ❤
Sending best wishes from the UK. Have a great time everyone!
“Kill the people”, you say...
I hope everyone gets the laughs, the gasps, and the tense silences as they read.
Question for Chuck.
Or...maybe it's a random musing.
As far as reading aloud, I'm not a very good speaker. I stumble a lot of the times. Don't enunciate too well. This makes things weird because it's highly recommended by writers/teachers to read your work aloud. But if you suck at reciting, it's gonna feel like your prose is about as graceful as a corpse doing ballet. But sometimes when you hand it off to someone else to read, they can recite it better.
In Tom's workshop students had to read their work aloud. This was also Lish's format at Columbia. After that kind of practice in front of friendly peers, the public readings were a breeze. It's better to be coached by friends -- about slowing down, about speaking louder -- than to be catcalled by strangers in a bar.
Oh god, catcalled at a bar? Imagine someone reading their story about their dead dad or dead dog, while on the verge of tears, and some drunk college frat bro yells, "nice tits!"
Embarrassing as f#ck lol
It was never that bad. Either people ignore you completely, or they shout for you to speak up. At Hindsight the writers were the crowd so it was much more sympathetic. The first time Tom had us read was at a sports bar where video poker and televisions blared. That was a tough crowd.
Break a leg, everyone! Wish I could be there, but the commute is brutal. I’ll be out there soon, though. Can’t wait!
Rooting for you all from afar! Can’t wait to hear how it goes. Knock em dead! ✍️ ☠️
If there's going to be a live stream, can you please not delete it so that I can watch it later? Time difference is 8 hours.