diverted by blog
Usual morning notes: Rubicon, Alexander the Great.
Kimmie was beavering away making the chocolate cake for her sister Susie's 50th wedding-anniversary barbecue this afternoon. A trained cake decorator, she was piping ornamental chocolate squiggles on the outside of the massive cylindrical cake, already thickly iced with chocolate. She made her own cake-plates by wrapping cardboard discs in gold foil.
Meanwhile, I'd digressed by reading an absorbing blog, Confessions of an Author by "Amanda Mann" (a pseudonym). Excellent! This is what the writing world needs more of: honest (I hope and trust) reportage of the life of the published author. "Amanda" seems to suggest, through her Bridget Jones-esque suffering, that being a published author is not so different from being an unpublished one: a via crucis of self-doubt, self-abasement, and self-flagellation. (She refers to herself as a "D-list author".)
Not that all published authors' experiences are anywhere near the same, I'm sure. Even the successful have their problems (Jeffrey Archer--criminal conviction; Salman Rushdie--contract hit taken out on him by theocratic regime; J. D. Salinger--fingered for child molestation in kiss-and-tell memoir; etc.). In fact, everyone has his or her problems.
In the world of television, I've been very successful by most people's standards--not financially, but creatively, by putting my own series on the air in substantially the form that I envisioned it. The show (The Odyssey) was widely watched and is watched to this day in places like Spain and Russia, and I'm sure elsewhere.
But neither I nor my writing partner Warren Easton really fit in with the TV world. Our minds did not think like the minds of those around us. People have different ways of dealing with the intense competition, stress, and inhuman working conditions of the industry, and not all of those are healthy. I never felt I belonged. I didn't want to belong. I remember seeing a documentary featuring James L. Brooks, writer-producer of hit TV shows and movies such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Broadcast News, andThe Simpsons. He said that he thought that the writer is always alienated from the production, is always an outsider to it. If he's an outsider, then I feel I'm in OK company (if you can have a company of outsiders--maybe like Monty Python's hermits' conclave).
Another interesting observation comes from Roger Penrose, the mathematical-physical genius behind the string theory of fundamental particles and the physics of black holes (one excellent book: The Emperor's New Mind). He said that as he went through school, he thought that as he progressed further into areas that interested him--mathematics--he would associate with people whose minds were more and more like his own. But he found the opposite: as he went deeper into advanced math, he found that his colleagues thought less and less like he did--so much so that he wondered that they were even able to communicate with each other.
All this by way of saying that our individual experiences are unique. But I really do appreciate "Amanda's" reports of her authorial life, even if I don't want to imitate it, exactly.
Kimmie was beavering away making the chocolate cake for her sister Susie's 50th wedding-anniversary barbecue this afternoon. A trained cake decorator, she was piping ornamental chocolate squiggles on the outside of the massive cylindrical cake, already thickly iced with chocolate. She made her own cake-plates by wrapping cardboard discs in gold foil.
Meanwhile, I'd digressed by reading an absorbing blog, Confessions of an Author by "Amanda Mann" (a pseudonym). Excellent! This is what the writing world needs more of: honest (I hope and trust) reportage of the life of the published author. "Amanda" seems to suggest, through her Bridget Jones-esque suffering, that being a published author is not so different from being an unpublished one: a via crucis of self-doubt, self-abasement, and self-flagellation. (She refers to herself as a "D-list author".)
Not that all published authors' experiences are anywhere near the same, I'm sure. Even the successful have their problems (Jeffrey Archer--criminal conviction; Salman Rushdie--contract hit taken out on him by theocratic regime; J. D. Salinger--fingered for child molestation in kiss-and-tell memoir; etc.). In fact, everyone has his or her problems.
In the world of television, I've been very successful by most people's standards--not financially, but creatively, by putting my own series on the air in substantially the form that I envisioned it. The show (The Odyssey) was widely watched and is watched to this day in places like Spain and Russia, and I'm sure elsewhere.
But neither I nor my writing partner Warren Easton really fit in with the TV world. Our minds did not think like the minds of those around us. People have different ways of dealing with the intense competition, stress, and inhuman working conditions of the industry, and not all of those are healthy. I never felt I belonged. I didn't want to belong. I remember seeing a documentary featuring James L. Brooks, writer-producer of hit TV shows and movies such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Broadcast News, andThe Simpsons. He said that he thought that the writer is always alienated from the production, is always an outsider to it. If he's an outsider, then I feel I'm in OK company (if you can have a company of outsiders--maybe like Monty Python's hermits' conclave).
Another interesting observation comes from Roger Penrose, the mathematical-physical genius behind the string theory of fundamental particles and the physics of black holes (one excellent book: The Emperor's New Mind). He said that as he went through school, he thought that as he progressed further into areas that interested him--mathematics--he would associate with people whose minds were more and more like his own. But he found the opposite: as he went deeper into advanced math, he found that his colleagues thought less and less like he did--so much so that he wondered that they were even able to communicate with each other.
All this by way of saying that our individual experiences are unique. But I really do appreciate "Amanda's" reports of her authorial life, even if I don't want to imitate it, exactly.
Labels: The Odyssey
posted by paulv at
1:27 PM
2 Comments:
Hi Paul,
I'm looking forward to catching up with your blog and seeing how you write about the genesis of your work. 'Amanda' has brought me to blogging of late, being a member of my writing group; I love her style too and hugely appreciate her comments on my own historical novel in her latest blog. What's fabulous is to see the different ways in which writing affects people's lives and how it weaves its way into life... Sunday morning and kids call but will catch up on your blog later this evening - always interested in those writing historically.. Jacqui
By
Anonymous, at June 19, 2005 2:36 AM
Hello Jacqui--I'm delighted you've stopped by. I've clicked on your blog and will be checking it out in due course. It is so interesting that such a private act as writing can be opened up a bit in this way.
By
paulv, at June 19, 2005 8:10 AM
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