No. I’m actually not talking about the name of a Depeche Mode album. I’m talking about the lubrication we artists and creative types often require before diving off the deep end. That device of loosening up the gears comes in a variety of flavors, but you might know them as drugs and alcohol. Modern pharmacological … Continue reading Some Great Reward: Boozing the Muse
I’m on a short hiatus from working on my feature, script “How to Eat Pho,” as the script is in the hands of two other writers, one I quote here as saying: “I’m gonna give this script a Brazilian." She's right. The work needs some serious revamping. So, while “Pho” is getting an intimate “shave" … Continue reading Yucky nasty sticky stupid first drafts
Having gotten through the "season of giving," I've come home with a small stack of contemporary novels I've borrowed from my sister, and several CDs of music another family member burned for me of new bands he is listening to. As I started to listen to the music and browse through the chapters of a … Continue reading Have You Properly Masticated Your Art Today?: Problems with Art as a Consumable Supply
Interviewer: How much rewriting do you do? Hemingway: It depends. I rewrote the ending of Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, 39 times before I was satisfied. Interviewer: Was there some technical problem there? What was it that had stumped you? Hemingway: Getting the words right. – Ernest Hemingway, The Paris Review Interview, … Continue reading Revision: What a Slow Agonizing Pain in the Tuckus!
If you step into my work space/office, one of the many things you will notice is a large black file cabinet, hailing from probably the 1960s and having been used by who knows how many disgruntled secretaries with carpal tunnel and bad beehive hairdos. I bought the thing at a used office supply store down … Continue reading Coffee stained napkins and stickie notes: the big black file cabinet as my Wunderkammer
Nicole Elmer 