Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Securite Sociale, here we come.

Again.

More lessons in waiting, for Louis, and in grasping/desperate use of french, for me.

Found this while pottering around online this morning:

James Cameron, on writing process,
"At the beginning of any writing project is the agonizing period of nebulous ideas. Trying to will a world into existence. I circle around it, nibbling at the edges, writing notes [sometimes for years].
Then slowly a change happens. Without warning, it becomes easier to write a scene than to write notes about the scene. I start sticking words in the mouths of characters who are still mannequins, forcing them to move and to walk. Slowly their movements become more human. The characters begin to say things in their own words.
The curve inflects upward. The pace increases. By the end of this period I’m writing ten pages a day. The curve becomes almost vertical as the thing seems to come alive. I become a witness only, a court reporter getting it down as fast as I can."
http://writersroutines.tumblr.com/post/15342862090/james-cameron

I relate, though obviously with less world-renown to show for it (as yet). With my current project I'm at the point where characters are just starting to say their own words. I still have to come up with parts of conversations and set up the meeting points, but once they get going, they get going. Love that moment.

Time to get ready to go, much as I'd like to stay here and pretend French bureaucracy has nothing to do with me. But then there's the upcoming medical bills, so off I go. Sun is shining but I'll be taking my jacket today, just in case. What I probably need, more than a jacket, is a fluent french speaker with nothing better to do than save my butt. Volunteers?

1 comment:

  1. Turns out I don't need to jump through that particular beaurocratic hoop after all. What a lot of photocopying for nothing. Too the sand pit we go, while the sun still shines.

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