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@achewood "One of Your Shoes is By the Dog Food: A Tale of Things Not Worth Mentioning During Married Life," is out in September on Harper-Doubleday.

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Author Topic: Need some feedback.  (Read 13896 times)

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wombat

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Re: Need some feedback.
« Reply #45 on: October 26, 2007, 12:56:57 pm »
I'm going to derail this thread for a brief rant.

LFM, why are you in the movie business if you're a writer when the movie business has no respect for writers?  The last couple weeks, I kept seeing ads for a new movie based on a Dennis Lehane book, part of a well known series, that never mention his name, not once.  And then the last couple of days I starting hearing an ad for a movie: "Sleuth, by Kenneth Branagh, adapted by Harold Pinter."  How can they use 'by' when that person didn't write it, and how can they just make the original writer totally vanish and give credit to two other people entirely?  I had to go read a review to find out for sure that this really was a remake of the Anthony Shaffer play/movie and not just another thing with the same title.

OK, sorry, carry on.

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littlefallsmets

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Re: Need some feedback.
« Reply #46 on: October 26, 2007, 07:00:43 pm »
Mostly?

Because my strongest talents as a writer are at writing dialogue and at writing comedy.

I'd be a humour columnist for a newspaper except that I couldn't go through the ten years of being a normal journalist to get there.

I'd be a playwrite except that... hm... I don't know... live performance is too plastic and varying from night to night. Drives me nuts. At the end of the day, I sort of need one finished product from whatever it is that I wrote, be it a book or a television show or a movie or a comic book or whatever. Something about my disposition, I think.

I'd be a cartoonist except that I'm not much of a visual artist.

I'd be a dirtier version of Weird Al Yankovic except that I can't play any instruments and only sing passingly well.

And when I was in college and realized that I didn't want to be a journalist, the TV-Film department was in the same school of Syracuse University so it seemed like a good idea at the time, you know.

And maybe it's because I'm a writer with self-esteem issues and so the no-respect thing fits my mentality?

I dunno.

"American Ghosts" "American Ghost" "Heroes for Ghosts" "Hot Ashes for Dreams" "Hot Earth for the Cool Breeze" "The Ghosts of America" "Ghosts of the Revolution" "American Tune"... I like this line of thinking but I just fear that it's too on the nose... or is on-the-noseness less of a sin in prose?

"The Report on Project Turtledove" I sort of like... evokes early Vonnegut short-stories, refers to the machine that was used to bridge the gap between alternate Earths, named after one of the masters of parallel universe fiction, Harry Turtledove... but too inside?

And then there are all the names of Neil Young albums that all would sort of work:

"On The Beach" "Living with War" "Harvest"...

Hm.

"Things We Tell Ourselves At Night" does work slightly better without the "The", though, definitely. Thanks to whoever suggested that.

"Things We Tell Ourselves At Night" with the Vonnegutian subtitle "...or... The Faith of My Father" is definitely what I'll continue to use as a working title.

But there is that part of me that loves the brevity thing.
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wombat

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Re: Need some feedback.
« Reply #47 on: October 26, 2007, 07:11:27 pm »
Quote from: littlefallsmets on October 26, 2007, 07:00:43 pm
And maybe it's because I'm a writer with self-esteem issues and so the no-respect thing fits my mentality?

That's a good answer.

Isn't there a movie out right now called something like "Things we lost in the fire"?  Someone didn't think that was too long.

I still like my idea of "Heroes for Ghosts." I wish that just once I could think of a title for something of my own that I liked that much, dammit.
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jaydub

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Re: Need some feedback.
« Reply #48 on: October 26, 2007, 10:26:43 pm »
Quote from: wombat on October 26, 2007, 07:11:27 pm
That's a good answer.

Isn't there a movie out right now called something like "Things we lost in the fire"?  Someone didn't think that was too long.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being
The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag
The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil


There are a lot of long titles out there.  If Hollywood balks, they'll just trim it down like they did with "Fried Green Tomatoes".

Oh!
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep = Bladerunner

So yeah.
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theinevitable

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Re: Need some feedback.
« Reply #49 on: October 27, 2007, 01:20:37 am »
as of today, the name of my band is "The Loudhailer." I already regret this.
they rejected my suggestion of "Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo"
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Re: Need some feedback.
« Reply #50 on: October 27, 2007, 01:24:01 am »
Quote from: theinevitable on October 27, 2007, 01:20:37 am
"Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo"

This may just be a personal peeve but there seems to much... deliberately calculated quirkiness is the best I can call it, in music today. It's like everyone's looking at Zappa saying 'I want some of that, look how much I don't care that my band name is actually akward to say and our songs are the lyrical equivalent of a toddler with pixie sticks.'

Buffalo9 would be ok though.
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theinevitable

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Re: Need some feedback.
« Reply #51 on: October 27, 2007, 01:29:52 am »
oh, see, I love that shit. so much. I wasn't serious about naming the band that, though. My favorite band names are usually one word.
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littlefallsmets

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Re: Need some feedback.
« Reply #52 on: October 27, 2007, 01:36:17 am »
"Blue Harvest" would be a great name for a band. Or "Harvest Blue".

Or just Harvest, I suppose.

Like I say, if I ever got a band off the ground, I'd call it Screaming Viking so...

Yeah. Yeah.
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Doc

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Re: Need some feedback.
« Reply #53 on: October 27, 2007, 02:05:24 am »
Quote from: theinevitable on October 27, 2007, 01:29:52 am
oh, see, I love that shit. so much. I wasn't serious about naming the band that, though. My favorite band names are usually one word.
I liked it up to the point that I just got totally sick of it and just want people to make straight up, honest music. I am turning into Nice Pete is what I am saying I guess.
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AugustWest

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Re: Need some feedback.
« Reply #54 on: October 27, 2007, 03:19:42 am »
Quote from: Doc on October 27, 2007, 02:05:24 am
I liked it up to the point that I just got totally sick of it and just want people to make straight up, honest music. I am turning into Nice Pete is what I am saying I guess.

Wait, are you saying that Zappa isn't straight up, honest music? 
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Doc

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Re: Need some feedback.
« Reply #55 on: October 27, 2007, 03:27:39 am »
Zappa was about as honest as they get.
I don't like more self aware quirky stuff.
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AugustWest

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Re: Need some feedback.
« Reply #56 on: October 27, 2007, 03:32:12 am »
Quote from: Doc on October 27, 2007, 03:27:39 am
Zappa was about as honest as they get.
I don't like more self aware quirky stuff.

OK then.
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side_show

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Re: Need some feedback.
« Reply #57 on: October 27, 2007, 04:18:09 am »
Sorry LFM - this is a huge pet peeve of mine:  in proper English it's playwright, not playwrite.  Wright comes from the archaic English for crafts person or builder.  A Playwright crafts the entire world of a play, not just the lines of text spoken.  There are important distinctions between something being wrought and something being written that I am keenly aware of when working on a script.  I only have Canadian dictionaries and the Oxford on hand, but neither list "playwrite" as a word at all, and everywhere I look on line corrects the spelling to "playwright."

A close second is my hatred of the use of "a lot" as one word instead of the proper two.  LFM doesn't do this, but some of you do, and it drives me crazy.  Please stop.  You don't write "agallon" or "adozen" or "abunch" so please stop writing "alot" - it's not a word.

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littlefallsmets

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Re: Need some feedback.
« Reply #58 on: October 27, 2007, 04:22:19 am »
This only goes to show how little I've actually considered writing plays.

I don't even know how to spell what I'd be if I did that.

But I learned how to spell "a lot" early and how to spell it often. My dad's a grammar stickler type.
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littlefallsmets

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Re: Need some feedback.
« Reply #59 on: November 10, 2007, 05:03:34 am »
"How Near or How Far"...?
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