Tad Williams

27 December 2009

I saw this extraordinary militant-gay-Christian van in Palo Alto. I couldn't quite believe my eyes. So I took a bunch of photos, then sloped off with girl to her Christmas-gift hair appointment, a date with destiny and blonde skunk stripes. That's how she would put it, I kid you not.

When we came back the van was gone. Quelle mystere!

21 December 2009

From my notebooks: the quote I have found very useful to apply in differing ways (description, metaphor, dialogue, surprising progress across a scene, just the first examples that come to mind.) “Backbone events” is some plot-thinking that’s happening in a current notebook.

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant --
Success in Circuit lies
Emily Dickinson

Identify backbone events
Strengthen those parts
1 anomalous thing is the kids are going in the wintertime – what makes that happen? – that’s a knob of bone along our spine.

By the end Mrs N will have revealed herself (presumably) – that’s a knob

Go along the line & find the things that are important to telling this particular story.
No more than you have to, just the important things.
Then after, try stringing different things between them

20 December 2009

David Beckwith said to me – Merry Birthday! And I wrote back:

I’ve never heard it called that, but that’s what it is – yes. I never found being born close to Xmas a loss. Whatever day of the week your birthday falls on, you can always, but always, find a party and people who are delighted to celebrate with you. You just stand on the table and shout – “It’s my birthday, peeps!” And a roomful of company party rises with you.

My mind runneth o’er with crap – like, I just found myself designing a cartoon label for a lightweight dog water bowl. The impulse is great but I have to direct the action. Because I need and I want to be thinking more about my plots. (There’s Odfarm 3, and Spookpic.) It’s about evolving ways of thinking. The more you pursue those ways of thinking, the more a sort of rewiring in the brain happens. Et voila! Story-Head! *

* Be prepared. In almost all cases it requires, in return, your life.

16 December 2009

Found these notes in an old file:

Trickster tales relate to an underdog culture. 2 types, roughly –

• The trickster wins out against the bigger and dumber, stronger forces
• Trickster is a braggart, not all that reliable, gets himself into trouble – sometimes wins, sometimes loses and is humiliated

The 2nd type has both kinds of stories (in some, the trickster always wins.)

Possibilities:
No sentimentality
Subversive appeal
Comic use of twists of fate, misfortunes, to one’s advantage
Twister often means well
The rudeness and aggression of others
Twister has “honesty Tourette’s”
Twister is the victim of all others’ insensitivity
Wife views him with exasperation and affection – comic foil
(Wife may also be the real smarts of the couple, in some stories)
Twister schemes, lies and gets his comeuppance
Twister is a good neurotic

The successful completion of 3 impossible tasks by Anansi, in order to win something from an arrogant and cruel “god” or power (in this tale, it’s his wife who is the brains and who comes up with the solutions for everything) (“Anansi Does the Impossible!”)