Friday, 5/7/10 - Two Writers Talking

"So, you write?"

"Yeah, a little."

"How long have you been writing?"

"'bout thirty years."

"Wow!"

"How long have you been writing?"

"Formally? Only a couple of years. Before that I read a lot."

"Favorite author?"

"Bradbury. Yours?"

"No one in particular. I like a lot of the popular pulp writers - King, Koontz, Creighton. Like that."

"I would be interested to read something you wrote. Have anything you would like to share?"

"Oh, no, not really."

"Been writing for thirty years and nothing to share? Come on. What are you working on now?"

"It's not finished. It's not very good. I mean..."

"Come on, let me see it."

"No, I really don't..."



"Tell you what, you read me what you are working on and I will read you what I am working on and we can critique one another's work. OK?"

"Well..."

"Come on."

"OK, here goes... Once upon a time there was a beautiful woman..."

"Is this a fairy tale?"

"No, it's just a story."

"Oh, 'cause Once upon a time makes it sound like a fairy tale."

"Yeah, you may be right but I start all of my stories with Once upon a time. I'm not sure how I could change that. I guess I could use a date but a story has to start at the beginning, doesn't it?"

"Not really. Sometimes I start by telling the ending and then use the rest of the story to fill in the history."

"Well, that's interesting. Hmmm... Here! How about this? Upon a time, once, see? I mixed it up a little, there was a beautiful woman who lived in a beautiful house in a beautiful part of a beautiful town..."

"You like that word, don't you?"

"What word?"

"Beautiful."

"It does the job."

"When I write I try to use different words to describe things."

"Oh. Well, here, let me try it this way... Upon a time, once there was a very beautiful woman who lived in a really beautiful house in an especially beautiful part ..."



"What is this story about?"

"About?"

"Yeah, where is the conflict and resolution?"

"Oh, it's not that kind of story."

"Really? What kind of story is it?"

"Well, it's kinda hard to explain."

"Is it more about character development than about plot?"

"No, it's not that kind of story either."

"I'm sorry, I am asking too many questions, I should just let you read your story."

"No, I don't think I want to read any more."

"I am sorry, I didn't mean..."

"It's OK, you're a better writer than I am."

"No, not at all, I was just trying to understand the mechanics of the story instead of just enjoying the story itself. Please, keep reading."

"No, I think we're done. Besides, I have read some of your stories already and they're, how should I say this?, a little weird."

"Really? Which of my stories have you read?"

"I read that one about you sleeping with some guy."

"What?"

"What was his name? Ray? Yeah, you wrote a story about you sleeping with a guy named Ray."

"OK, the first rule of reading is that you should not confuse the characters with the author."

"But you wrote it with a lot of I's and me's in it. If you were talking about someone else why'd you keep saying me all the time?"

"Because I thought that writing that story in the first person would be more effective. And, just so you know, it wasn't about sleeping with anyone, it was about falling asleep while reading a book by Ray Bradbury. At the end I even talked about using a bookmark."

"I thought that was just some crazy sex talk."

"Crazy sex talk?"

"Yeah! How was I supposed to know? The whole story was a little coo-coo so I just thought..."

"I'm sorry, I've insulted you and I really didn't mean to. We are just two very different writers, that's all."

"Yes, we are very different."

"You're not mad are you?"

"No, I'm not mad."

"Good, then how about you come over here and we bookmark each other?"