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From a 1977 Philosophy and Literature interview with Jorge Luis Borges:

No, what I mean to say is that I have no personal system of philosophy. I never attempt to do that. I am merely a man of letters. In the same way, for example that — well, of course, I shouldn’t perhaps choose this as an example — in the same way that Dante used theology for the purpose of poetry, or Milton used theology for the purposes of his poetry, why shouldn’t I use philosophy, especially idealistic philosophy — philosophy to which I was attracted — for the purposes of writing a tale, of writing a story? I suppose that is allowable, no?

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Seeing as Script Frenzy starts in a couple of days, I thought I'd repost this entry from my retired writing blog.

It seems that one sentence summaries of screenplays are a well know thing, and in the jargon they are called loglines. The logline, holds prevailing opinion, can be used as a litmus test to determine the structural integrity of the narrative. This seems reasonable to me, and further research indicates that I need to revise my logline substantially.

There seem to be various, but substantially similar, formulas for loglines. The most simple logline formulation includes only protagonist, protagonist's goal, and antagonistic force.

I also like this articulation of the logline formula from Joe Calabrese on the Absolute Write forums:

(A) must do (B) before (C) does (D) or (E) will happen.

ie. Luke Skywalker must destroy the Deathstar before it's completed or Darth Vader will destroy the Rebellion.

or

A sheriff must kill the shark before it kills again and ruins the town's summer business.

Check-out this interview with Alan Moore, in which the Wizard of Northampton reveals some nuts-and-bolts details of his writing process.

I have been trying to write every day. I created a folder on my computer called "Daily Writing". I name my files like 2008-06-20.rtf. In this way, I can track my goal of writing something everyday. I usually begin by writing a short diary-like entry. Second, I do free/automatic writing for a few minutes (but often I skip this). Then I write a short summary of what I plan to write for the day, such as: "Write the begging of an interview between Walter and Mr. Brown, which acts as a frame story for the John Stillcrane tall tale." Then I try to actually write that.

So far, I've written on fifteen of the last 30 days. It's not enough, but it's more than I was doing before I had a structured plan. Also, lately I've gotten more and more usable text out of each session--less writing exercise, more writing.

Here's an interesting tidbit from the writing sessions at Penguicon. During the Q&A of one panel, the writers were asked to name their influences, and two out of three mentioned Borges. (And Borges was mentioned in at least one other session by a panelist who wasn't in the room during the first.) This thrilled me. I must admit that I only recently discovered Jorge Luis Borges, LOVED his stories, and was frustrated that no one else had heard of him. Did I happen into a panel coincidentally stacked with rare Borges admirers, or is Borges having a resurgence?

(I'm trying to remember the writers on the panel. I think Cherie Priest and Catherynne M. Valente were the Borges admirers, but I'm not positive.)

I think I've just had a minor epiphany. It's no good trying to pull plots out of a void. Maybe a better way to say that is that trying to choose what does happen when literally anything can happen is paralyzing. A writer needs to create his own universe by defining what is possible and impossible, likely and unlikely. A fantasy or scifi writer does this more literally when they create a fantastical world, but I think all writers must do it to some extent. There are some thing that can never happen in a Hemingway (or whoever) story, because Hemingway's universe has constraints. I need to define my constraints.

I read Robert Silverberg's short story "The Pope of Chimps" yesterday. I found it very excellent scifi—strongly speculative near future hard scifi that talks about humanity. A remarkable story, and Silverberg makes it look easy.

Predictably, I quickly gave-up on Script Frenzy. In the course of writing loglines, I realized that I still don't know how to put together a plot, and that I should return to my short story study. So, I have. I have learned something by doing the loglines, however; it was a valuable exercise.

I'm still working on the logline for the Ghost Builders, but since I'm basing it on the Orpheus and Eurydice myth I decided to write a logline for that:

After his wife dies during an attempted rape, a renowned musician must overcome the ruler of the underworld to bring his wife back to the land of the living.

It's a bit rough, but I think I'm getting the idea. I found this article on loglines to be very helpful.

It seems that one sentence summaries of screenplays are a well know thing, and in the jargon they are called loglines. The logline, holds prevailing opinion, can be used as a litmus test to determine the structural integrity of the narrative. This seems reasonable to me, and further research indicates that I need to revise my logline substantially.

There seem to be various, but substantially similar, formulas for loglines. The most simple logline formulation includes only protagonist, protagonist's goal, and antagonistic force.

I also like this articulation of the logline formula from Joe Calabrese on the Absolute Write forums:

(A) must do (B) before (C) does (D) or (E) will happen.

ie. Luke Skywalker must destroy the Deathstar before it's completed or Darth Vader will destroy the Rebellion.

or

A sheriff must kill the shark before it kills again and ruins the town's summer business.

That went better than planned. I set a goal of one page tonight, and wrote two and a half with little effort. I know my story is about a house under construction, an architect, and ghosts. I also know that my story will be based partially on the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. My working title is "The Ghost Builders". I glanced over a couple of sample screenplays, and have a screenwriting book I'll read before bed. I also wrote my one sentence summary:

A builder comes to believe that he can force a famed architect to reunite him with his dead wife.

Script Frenzy is a screenplay writing challenge. The idea is to write a one hundred page screenplay (or stage play or radio play or comic script) in thirty days. This year Script Frenzy happens in April, which it did not last year, and therefore took me by surprise. Up until an hour ago, I was uncertain whether I would participate.

Well, I'm in. I did nothing on April 1, so I only have twenty-nine days. Better make a rough schedule.

The research for the novel is going too slowly, but it's given me some good ideas for the book. This sort of work has jump-started my creativity, and I've also had several ideas for short stories unrelated to the novel.

That's unusual for me. I was never much of short story writer, even when I briefly majored in creative writing at school. I started a story last week, but I've just been thrashing around it without real progress. I have realized that I don't know how to write a short story. To remedy that, I've decided to closely study a half dozen short stories. Now I need to decide which stories...

I read another story from the Best American Mystery Stories of the Century anthology last night. It was Jack Ritchie's the Absence of Emily. The story has a couple of interesting features. The narrator is the only suspect in the murder of his own wife. He is, more or less, an unreliable narrator. He never explicitly lies to the reader, but he does lie to other characters through words and deeds. Which is not to say that Ritchie is above throwing in a couple of red herrings just for the reader. The narrator explains that, despite owning a mansion, his wife has little money. The reader thinks, "ah! Then he has scant motive to murder his wife." However, the narrator then goes on to imply that he murdered his first wife for less money still. So, the unreliable narrator plays with the reader a little, but Ritchie keeps things pretty fair. The other interesting thing about Emily is how closely it follows a pattern with which the reader is bound to be extremely familiar. It reads like every husband-kills-wife-her-family-suspicious story that airs every night on any one of a half dozen true crime TV shows. And Ritchie works it. He uses that true crime template to firmly guide reader expectations. As a longer story it wouldn't work, but at eight or nine pages it's pretty sweet. I wonder if this story could get published today by an unknown author, or if an editor would toss it after only reading the first two pages.

If I'm going to write in the mystery genre, I had best be familiar with its history. I have read widely in the genre, but not deeply and not with any sort of plan. So, I tallied entries from several best-of lists.

• Christie, Agatha The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
• Doyle, Arthur Conan The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
• Hammett, Dashiell The Maltese Falcon (1930)
• Crispin, Edmund The Moving Toyshop (1946)
• Highsmith, Patricia The Talented Mr. Ripley (1957)
• Collins, Wilkie The Moonstone (1868)
• Bentley, E.C. Trent's Last Case (1912)
• Hammett, Dashiell Red Harvest (1929)
• Sayers, Dorothy Strong Poison (1930)
• Cain, James M. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934)
• Christie, Agatha Murder in the Orient Express (1934)
• Carr, John Dickson The Three Coffins (1935)
• Innes, Michael Hamlet, Revenge! (1937)
• Marsh, Ngaio Surfeit of Lampreys or Death of a Peer (1940)
• Fearing, Kenneth The Big Clock (1946)
• Gilbert, Michael Smallbone Deceased (1950)
• Tey, Josephine The Daughter of Time (1951)
• Allingham, Margery The Tiger in the Smoke (1952)
• Ambler, Eric A Coffin for Dimitrios (1937)
• Chandler, Raymond The Big Sleep (1939)

This list is not the least bit comprehensive. G.K. Chesterton is glaringly absent, for example, because no one agreed on which of his works is the greatest (the votes were split in effect). P.D. James is missing for the same reason. I have read both James and Chesterton extensively (and recently), so I left them off. I have read about 1/3 of those twenty, but not in many years. I had never even heard of several novels on the list, including Trent's Last Case. I'm a few chapters in, and enjoying it thoroughly. If you want to explore best mystery lists yourself, here are a few:

• IMBA's 100 favorite mysteries of the 20th century
• Several lists can be found at topmystery.com
• MWA's Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time [PDF]

Tonight I read the Lawrence Block short story By the Dawn's Early Light (from the Best American Mystery Stories of the Century anthology). I enjoyed it. The protagonist is a hard drinking ex-cop named Matt Scudder who places justice ahead of the law. I haven't read any other Block pieces, but the story is told as a flashback so I assume Matt is a series character.

Thinking about the story, I remembered Matthew Baldwin's post about the difference between noir and hardboiled fiction. By the Dawn's Early Light is certainly hardboiled by that definition, but I'm not certain if it would also be entirely noir.

I picked-up an anthology called the Best American Mystery Stories of the Century. I'm going to read a bunch of the stories, and write little critiques in order to better understand the mystery short story form.

I was a reader all my life. I got it from my parents, who both spent hours with their noses in books. My mother preferred to sit on the floor in front of a heat register (usually the one under the breakfast counter in the kitchen). I think I was around seven years old when I first decided to write a book. I remember pulling my mom off the floor, saying "we can write a novel." That masterpiece is lost to history; I only remember that it was a mystery. I was heavily into the Bloodhound Gang and Scooby-Doo at that age. I was even head of a detective club with some neighborhood kids.

I think it's time to write a mystery novel again.

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