here's to those wacky slide rule guys.
Continue swimming naked.
Darin and I have been seeing movies lately, although he's been to see far more than I have been--he's been to see South Park, American Pie, and Big Daddy without me.
On Friday, though, Fernando swung by after work and we went to see Run Lola Run, which is a fun movie from Germany (yes, that's what I meant) that takes a single episode in Lola's life--her boyfriend Manni's just lost 100,000DM belonging to the mob and needs Lola's help by noon--and runs through it. When she doesn't like the outcome of one scenario, she runs through it again, changing just a little something every time. Each reality bleeds into the next just a teeny bit, which is cool, and even better, the realities of various people she runs into get changed too (which, as Patrick points out, makes this movie wildly different from Groundhog Day).
Spoiler in next paragraph:
I could have done without the deus ex machina of the casino--just what we need, more people thinking gambling can solve their problems--and the portrayal of the mob as capricious deities, but oh well.
The movie made me nostalgic to make a visit to Berlin, though how I can be so nostalgic about a place I haven't been in 13 years and was only there for a few months anyhow is beyond me.
I recommend it. Actually, both: the movie, and visiting Berlin.
I'm sitting here doing the critiques for the submissions from Mystery Writing class. Only 5 this week, which is a lot less than last week. Still, it's quite a bit, since I read every one twice and try to write up macro and micro comments. Macro: "The story's unclear" or "I think you should get right to the party scene, rather than give us a lot of back story in Chapter 1." Micro: "You have a couple of page-long paragraphs you might want to cut into smaller paragraphs" or (an actual quote) "Watch the tense changes!" One writer kept switching between present and past for no discernable reason. It made me crazy.
(Insert obligatory Hannibal tense thrash.)
I found myself wondering who in the hell I think I am to give any of these people writing advice. I mean, as I plan out the next several chapters, I don't get to the dead body until Chapter 5. I guess I have to go through several books and figure out how many of them with amateur sleuths find the dead body after, say, page 1. And there were so many errors in the submission I made two weeks ago I was ashamed of myself.
Yes, I'm at low ebb in terms of thinking I have a clue. All of my writing friends have clues. They keep me around because I am amusing. At least, I hope that's the reason.
Still, I guess all I can do is try to be honest and tell the writer what's working for me, whether I'm interested or not, and where I got lost. (There's one piece that's incredibly short and I had no idea what was going on. What's an encouraging way of saying that?) I think I come off as too more-knowledgeable-than-thou for my own sanity, though.
I'm handing out another submission tonight, Chapter 2, 11 pages. Makes me feel like a bit of a pig, considering I have one submission in my hand that's two pages long. But on the other hand, that's why I take classes like this, to find people to read my stuff and give me feedback. No reason not to take advantage of it
I met Tiffany over in Hollywood yesterday for a root beer float and some chicken tenders. She ordered a float and that sounded so good I got one too, instead of getting coffee. I haven't had one of those in years.
We met over by the Daily Planet (ObNote: how many times have they been sued by DC?) on Franklin and got something to eat a few doors down. We discussed how the new house is going and how she's changing the focus on her career from research to clinical work in anticipation of having a family--evidently it's easier to keep life to 9 to 5 (or even less) with clinical work. With research, she'd be working at home, not getting anything done, not taking care of the baby, and generally grumpy. So much for thinking that research is necessarily that much easier.
My half of the conversation pretty much came down to "I like string."
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Copyright 1999 Diane Patterson
Send comments and questions to diane@spies.com