Friday, February 27: Bandersnatches
CURRENTLY READING …
by Steve Steinbock
I refuse to let Facebook take over my life. Sure, I enjoy the social networking website. I’ve reconnected with old friends and old friends have reconnected with me. I’ve been able to keep up with the latest on current friends and have made a lot of new friends. But it has the potential to become a time-vacuum.
Several times a day I receive notifications that so-and-so has changed her profile, that such-and-such is now friends with what’s-his-name, and that my neighbor is mixing a martini or my sister is walking her poodle. Cool. There must be ways to control what messages I get, but to tell the truth, I don’t mind.
Near the top of my Facebook page is a box that says: What are you doing right now? Whatever I type there gets broadcast throughout the Facebooksphere for all to see. At the moment, my profile says: Steve Steinbock is resting after chopping ice from his driveway. I had originally typed is chopping ice from his driveway, but I realized that I couldn’t very well be typing and chopping ice at the same time. That was Wednesday. And as I type this, my profile hasn’t changed.
After chopping ice Wednesday afternoon, I can barely type. Ice chopping is a great upper-body workout. But it’s left my arms and shoulders so jittery that it’s a challenge to hit the right keys. I look like I’ve got the DTs, or the smoker’s shakes, or I’ve had a few dozen too many espressos.
I’ve decided that the best thing to type in the status box is that I’m reading. Can’t go wrong with that. Besides, ninety percent of my waking hours it’s true.
This brings up one of the coolest “apps” I’ve found in the Facebook world: LivingSocial: Books. By adding this to my Facebook profile, I can enter the title, author, or ISBN number to search for any book that I’m reading, would like to read, or have already read.
There are three titles under my Currently reading. . . list:
Super in the City by Daphne Uviller is a fun and fluffy first novel about a 27 year-old superintendant of a NYC apartment building. Zephyr Zuckerman is a sexy slacker Nancy Drew crossed with Walter Mitty. A hopeless romantic, a self-conscious daydreamer, and along with her gal-pals, a habitual party crasher, Zeph gets caught up in more than her share of crime, conspiracy, and sexual entanglements. I’m not quite half way through, so I’m not yet ready to recommend this book. But I’m having fun with it.
All the Lonely People by Martin Edwards is the first novel to feature Edwards’ defense attorney hero Harry Devlin. Published in 1991, it’s a smartly written and emotionally charged novel that throws its protagonist neck deep in a very personal crime. After a two-year separation, Devlin’s wife Liz returns, asking Harry for refuge from a lover who has turned violent. Still infatuated with his wife, Harry agrees. But after being stood-up by his wife, followed by a night of heavy drinking, Harry awakes to learn that Liz had been murdered. This is a powerful novel by the recent inductee to Britain’s elite The Detection Club.
The Anatomy of Story by John Truby is one of the better books I’ve read about the craft of fiction writing. Targeted to screenwriters, I’m finding that it has a lot to offer the novel and short story author in terms of developing rich and honest stories. Using examples like “The Godfather,” “Star Wars,” “Tootsie,” and “Silence of the Lambs,” Truby presents a system that is more organic than Syd Field’s “Three-Act” approach and more down to earth than Christopher Vogler’s The Writers Journey.
And Over at Murdurati. . .
Be sure to visit Murderati today, where I’m making an appearance as Friday guest blogger. The column is all about love scenes in fiction, comparing the way men and women write about the dirty deed. It should be fun.
Truby is an interesting entity. He is either loved or hated by screenwriters. I’ve rarely found any middle ground opinions on him, other than mine. Which leads me to…
I think most all the “Here’s how to do it” stuff is bunk. But that’s because I believe (and yes, I’m in the minority here) that writing is one of the few gigs where “Those that can’t do, teach” is really true.
I won’t listen to anything a “teacher” preaches unless I know that person has proven (with a body of work) that they can do what they’re telling me to do.
You don’t have to have played football to be a great coach, but I personally believe you have nothing to say about writing if you haven’t been able to do it well yourself.
Now, Facebook… oh, jeez. Again, here’s Paul WAAAAY in the minority, but I think all (yes, all) these “social networking” sites are a waste of time. And I love that term – social networking – it makes it sound like there actually might be merit in it. That what you’re doing has value or importance.
I don’t need to reconnect with people from my past. Because if I haven’t already reconnected with them like an adult – through phone calls, letters, email, in person – then I don’t need to spend precious minutes of my day looking at the Aruba vacation photos from the guy that sat behind me in Chem class, or read the Twitter “discussions” of a bunch of 40somethings texting like Teensomethings, trying to relive the past when they were skinnier and had less responsibility.
But I’m acutely aware that this is just me. Everyone loves Facebook. Authors actually believe Facebooking helps their sales, though I can point to many major bestsellers that have almost zero Net presence.
And here’s the other thing… putting yourself out on these sites, getting that validation of “I really do have friends; I really am liked!”, not only takes up so much time that could be better spent writing or reading, but you’re also exposing yourself like never before. Not just emotionally and creatively, but how many stories have we read about Facebook (and the like) being the nexus of crime; identity theft, abduction, harassment, robbery, and on and on.
Again, I am not condemning anyone who uses it, but rather stating my opinion as to why I don’t use it.
Now, I have to go Google myself.
Paul, I’ll take you one further. ALL instructional materials – from physics and history textbooks to the users guide on your cell phone – ought to be taken with a grain of salt. And when the instructional materials get preachy, the salt should be large grain Kosher salt.
I get skeptical any time someone says that everyone who came before him was wrong. Truby has a tendency to do that.
Paul, your suggestion that them that can’t sell screenplays – teach may be true. But that doesn’t mean I can’t learn something from them. Maybe I’m that rare “middle ground” guy, but I’ve found some good advice in Truby’s book that I can use without having to wave the pom poms.
Also I’ve run across a fair number of “how to” books by successful authors that are utter unreadable crap.
Paul, what did you find Googling yourself?
Upon Goggling I found my Facebook page, my Myspace link, my Twitter feed, my many online statuses, and some French guy with the same name.
I think you make great points in your comment. What I took from Truby (and I by no means, am anti-Trube), and I don’t even know if he still teaches/preaches it, was how to look at a piece of writing the same way composers look at a piece of music, the movements, bridges, etc.
He taught this at a class of his I attended in the 90’s and it always stuck with me, worked for me. I wasn’t singling him out so much as I was stating why I tend not to pay attention to the McKee’s and Field’s of the world.
And you are right – I have a couple of how-to books on my shelf, written by bestsellers, and they certainly seem to make a case for “Those that can do, should not teach.”
But what do I know? Everything I write might be utter crap. All I can do each time out is make sure that when I type “the end” I have given it my all. Then it’s up to others to decide whether they like it or not.
It’s always tough to put a price tag on any type of instruction when you’re talking about something as subjective as art.
I agree with Paul about teaching and social networking. If I were to connect with old friends and classmates, someone would have to conduct a seance.
Lately I have encountered a number of people who quote King’s book on writing and then ask my opinion. The only answer I can come up with is, “It works for him.”
“Beware of advice from the successful, because they don’t welcome competition.” – Dogbert
I will not go on Facebook. Why would I want to reconnect with “old friends” who weren’t really friends to begin with.
What’s a Twitter? No, don’t tell me.
I am way too Flintstonestech (my own term) to twitter and Facebook makes my computer crash. The what I’m reading stuff sounds interesting, though! Me? Finished Robert W. Chambers’ “The King In Yellow” and Joseph Sheridan Le Fenau’s “Madam Crowl’s Ghost and other stories.” Two not-unimportant collections in the history of the short-story (and the traditional ghost-story is close kin to the mystery tale: “what’s going on here? I’m going to find out!”)
Perving the Math
MySpace = school kids = FaceBook = Chris Hansen =
= To Catch a Predator =
J’accuse!
Hey, Steve. I stand corrected about everything I said. Check this out:
http://twitter.com/NeilDiamond
Hey! I’ve got a great idea! How about a Facebook for dead people to communicate beyond the grave?
James, You (and I) are behind the times.
Not only are dead people on FaceBook, so are dead animals. I refer to Dewey Readmore Books, the famous library cat in Spencer, Iowa, deceased.
Dewey’s FaceBook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dewey/34303826286
Dewey’s job description:
http://spencerlibrary.com/deweybio.htm
I see dead people – on my friends list. Seriously. One of the first people who “friended” me passed away over a year ago, and I haven’t had the heart to remove him from the list.
Ah facebook isn’t so bad when you can figure out how to use it in your best interest. I have my privacy settings so high hardly anyone can find me know. I was able to find high school friends and connect with Parkies ( folks from the small section of the big town I grew up in).
Plus I limit what gets posted by others. You are right what they are doing or feeling means nada to me 😉 Unfortunately as Steve can attest to, I am hopelessly addicted to the pathwords game. I should be reading…….