Tag: writing

Bookish Movies

Working in a library, I often find myself asking “The Book or The Movie?” more often than other other arena. With my friends I can usually tell if they mean the movie or the book, but working in a library has made me realize just how many movies based on books or writing there really are. I’ve started getting into the habit of borrowing one book related movie for every other kind of movie I borrow. I’ve decided that any book or writing related movie can be put into one of three categories.

  1. Adaptations:
    These are the most common ones that come up. This is basically any movie that has a book or written version of it somewhere. Increasingly, the trend seems to be for Hollywood to make movie adaptations of books (and even short stories) rather than taking a risk on a story that has no previous following. These are probably the most popular version of Bookish-Movie: Jurassic Park, IT, Ready Player One, or any number of YA trilogies that make the bestseller list.
    Now, naturally, just because they’re popular doesn’t mean they’re necessarily good. These days, every fan of the book approaches even the trailer of a book adaptation with a certain amount of cautious hope. The true test is often how ‘faithful’ the book is to the movie. Major plot overhauls, forgotten characters or overlooked thematic elements, or movies that only take the title and not much else. Sometimes, regardless of an authors involvement, the ‘faithfulness’ of the movie comes down to the studios. These are the most accessible, but also most prone to disappointment.
  2. Books about Writers:
    These are stories where a writer is the main character. Rather than a biopic (discussed next), this tends to focus specifically on the writer and their struggles with the creative process. There can be a lot of crossover in this regard (writers seem to enjoy making their characters writers, since it’s something they understand). The Words is a good example of this, focusing on a writer’s struggle to be seen by the publishing industry and the risks he’s willing to take to ‘make it’.
    These are often overdramatized. No one would want to watch a man struggling in front of his computer for two hours, trying to figure out how to make a paragraph flow better. Still, these can sometimes be uplifting movies when an author gets to take his work to the world and they get recognition they deserve.
  3. Author Biopics:
    The last category is movies about specific writers. These are movies that can be hyper realistic documentaries, like Salinger, or they can be dramatized versions of an author’s life, such as Tolkien. These can be sad at times, seeing all the struggles a person goes through (especially dramatized for Hollywood) can be difficult. Still, learning the histories of writers and seeing how it relates to their writing can be interesting. In addition to the story of the author, these movies also tend to reveal a lot of the story of the book. Knowing the lives of our favorite creators can help us appreciate their stories even more.

What are some of your favorite bookish movies?

The Mini-Writing Retreat

For the last few months, I’ve been trying to think of ways to go on a writing retreat. It sounds quite appealing: arrive at a picturesque location, enjoy some shop talk with other storytellers, maybe hear an inspiring lecture, then buckle down with some well-deserved writing time! Whether it’s three days, a week, or more, the prospect of being in a self-imposed creative exile certainly sounds like the path of a true artist. Sadly, that’s not always available. Even three days is a long time when you don’t have the resources. Even if you can sacrifice a whole weekend for a writing retreat, you still might feel compelled to do errands, not to mention that you’d have to be able to easily seclude yourself from the day-to-day if you can’t afford to physically distance yourself from the distractions you love. These past few weekends, I started doing Mini-Writing Retreats. While the romantic notion of going away for weeks at a time locked in the struggles of creating is not feasible for me at the moment, I can usually find an open day in my weekly schedule. So, I’ve started committing myself to my writing time again. If you’re interested in creating a Mini-Writing Retreat for yourself, here’s how mine usually goes down.  

Before: The days before I like to take care of things like food shopping, cleaning, and other little chores that might distract me. If I have the time to make a few meals I’ll do that and make sure the dishwasher is empty. Nothing throws off your rhythm like the temptation of something you “have to get done.” Plan out your meals and a couple of snacks so you don’t drift over to the fridge every five minutes to browse (and if you’re like me, grab something sweet to look forward to at the end of the day). Prepare to go social media dark for the day of, to ensure that all your distractions are limited, if not completely gone! 

Day of:
5:30- Wake up. I know some of you are already rolling your eyes, but trust me. The silence of the very early morning is the best time to get in the mindset. Make yourself a pot of tea or coffee, make some breakfast (not just cereal), and enjoy a bit of relaxation before the retreat truly begins.  

6:00-8:00- Writing. Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of editing, but commit some time to your work in progress. Actual work, not just mood boards or Spotify playlists. Put on some meditative music or something else instrumental to help set the writing mood if that helps.  

8:00-9:30- Break and Walk. I like to get some steps in and let my brain work out any story problems I might encounter in those first hours’ worth of work. There’s a trail near my apartment that takes a little over an hour to make a loop of, so I’ll do that followed by a shower and getting dressed in real clothes (sweatpants are only acceptable for so long, even if you don’t plan to leave the house).  

9:30-1:00 Writing. Get back to it! This is why you’re here!  

1:00-2:00 Lunch. Break out one of those premade meals and sit with it away from your writing space. Let your mind relax a bit and give yourself a proper lunch break. Some light reading is suggested or even a quick writing lecture on YouTube to further inspire you. Set a timer, though. Can’t fall too far down the black hole. 

2:00-5:00 Writing, writing, writing! 

5:00-5:30 dinner. Pop out another pre-made meal and give yourself a quick dinner break to mull over your last few story problems.  

5:30-7:00 Last Writing Sprint. Wrap up whatever you’re working on.  

I usually like to wind down afterward with a nice, sweet treat and a movie. After all, you just worked a full day!  Congratulate yourself on an excellent writing retreat and start thinking about when you’re gonna do your next!  Have you ever given yourself a Mini-Writing Retreat? Have you ever been on a professionally hosted writing retreat?  

The Charlatan

I like the idea of someone who pretends to be a complete fraud in order to be taken seriously. The idea of a true wizard being a street magician is interesting to me. The only way that a person isn’t under heavy scrutiny for doing the impossible is to prove that they’re actually a fake is an interesting conundrum when you can actually do it, but can’t explain how. I played with this idea a little bit today with “The Charlatan”. Enjoy!

The CharlatanDownload

The TBR

If you’re any kind of bookworm, you probably have a TBR Pile: The To Be Read Pile. The endless waterfall of books that you are going to read soon. Maybe it’s a list on your phone. Maybe it’s a section of your bookshelf. Maybe it’s a literal pile on your nightstand, looming overhead until you finally read a few to reduce the risk of the tower toppling over and smothering you in the night. Maybe your TBR Pile is all of your bookshelves.

You can probably guess which one is mine.

I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump these last couple of weeks, but I’m hoping to get back into the swing of reading regularly again. So, in the spirit of that, I decided that this time I’m gonna be posting some of my current TBR Pile to maybe keep me accountable to finally reading some of them! So, here’s a sampling of my current TBR Pile that I’m hoping to work through in the future.

  1. The Way of Kings – Brandon Sanders
  2. The Sword of Shannara – Terry Brooks
  3. The Lies of Locke Lamora – Scott Lynch
  4. Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
  5. What the Dog Saw – Malcolm Gladwell
  6. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet – David Mitchell
  7. A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir of Lady Trent – Marie Brennan
  8. Darwin’s Radio – Greg Bear
  9. The Aeronaut’s Winglass – Jim Butcher
  10. Armada – Ernest Cline

Alright, hopefully that’ll be some motivation for me to actually read through some of these! I’ve put a moratorium on buy new books until I get through some of my current ones, but I also work at a library, so getting my hands on those materials would be less challenging than it used to be (I’ve got my eye on Kaiju Preservation Society by Scalzi, but I’m holding off for right now).

What books are on your TBR Pile? Do you have a real pile near your bed or is your pile somewhere else?

Razor Sharp Focus

It’s so easy to feel like writing is something that can just be jumped into. We like to think of it like sky diving, a story idea taking us up and then we free fall as the words pour out of us in a smooth, endless string that eventually forms a story. Trying to keep that focus can prove to be the most challenging part. In an age of endless texting, social media notifications or the dreaded ‘just one quick video for ‘research”, it is so easy to drift off from a blank writing document. I think–like many writers joke about–most of my chores around the apartment get done in the time that I had set aside for writing (“Just gonna do the dishes real quick”). Even grabbing a fresh cup of tea is a potential disaster for distractions on the way to and from the kitchen.

If I have a good stretch of time off during the day, I like to try and set some of it aside for writing. To stay in the habit I’ll write a little each morning before work (usually not much), but if I have a day off (from library work or volunteer work), I’ll carve out a good chunk of time for writing. To make the most of it, I do everything I can to settle into the space before getting to work.

I always start with a fresh cup of tea. It’s usually very meditative and slows my pace long enough to think about where the story is and where I think it should go during the next few steps. I’ve always found the process of tea very calming: having to wait for the water, the feeling of a tea mug, the warmth of the boiled water, and all the smells that come from that first, fresh pour. I’ll also grab a snack so I’ll have one less excuse to get up at some point during my writing session (recent snack of choice? Peanut Butter Pretzels).

Something that I do struggle with is my mind wandering. I’ll put on music if there’s a certain mood that I’m going for, but I also enjoy listening to a few podcasts while writing. Some of my favorite podcasts to write to come from the McElroy brothers since I can kind of tune in and out without missing too much of the story. I jokingly call it the Golden Retriever Effect (ya know, like when you turn on the TV for your dog so they don’t feel like they’re alone? Kinda like that).

Making the most out of the time available is very important. Focus can be really hard to master, but giving yourself a conducive writing space is the easiest way to find your rhythm and stick with it. Forming a mental bubble around your space is more than just a good writing practice, it’s a survival tactic to keep your focus on what’s important!

What rituals/things do you do to make your writing space the most efficient it can be?

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