A new radio station decides to play one song for its first day on the air. It plays the R.E.M song, It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine) all day. Over and over again. My roommate and I are washing our cars and we leave the station on. …
Will you still love me?
I still have stories to tell. I can't decide whether I want to tell them. You might not like me anymore. Perhaps I fail at writing well-rounded complex characters--but I do try. Do you listen to your characters? Can you be sympathetic to fictional characters if you can't manage it for real people? There seems …
The Butcher, the Baker, the Mad Screenplay Maker
The MFA program I'm applying for wants a screenplay. I've never written a screenplay, and so I thought that taking my novel and turning it into a screenplay would be the easiest thing to do. More the fool me. I've cut the first chapters. Three or five? I've lost count. Characters are deleted. Scenes relocated. …
Continue reading The Butcher, the Baker, the Mad Screenplay Maker
Who’s in the details?
I wish I had a story to tell. I can sit a draw repetitive lines for hours (that tree over there took days), but I can't sort my thoughts to make sense of anything. I can't help but wonder if something is wrong with me for spending so much time on little lines and not …
“I’m locked up in the witch’s castle!”
Okay, I'm not really locked up in the witch's castle (unless by witch's castle you mean my own insecurity). And ever since reading Gregory Maguire's Wicked my image of the Wicked Witch of the West has changed. (if you have seen the musical but not read the book--go read the book!) But that is not …
Art Every Day (Another Way to Be Crazy)
One of my favorite artist friends asked me if I'd do Art Every Day again this year. Sure! But this is all I could manage the last couple of days--little sketchy bunnies. If you are one of those souls sending art or stories out into the world, how do you organize things? How do you …
Go back to bed.
What compels some people to take on project after project, follow idea after idea, until surely they will go mad or collapse? Are you someone who takes on a project, finishes it, and then goes to the next thing? Or are you filled with notions, thoughts, and images that distract from one to the next …
What you do with what you’ve got.
Sometimes I think I need more talent, more drive, and more brains--as if I'm the first person in the history of inadequacy to feel that way. The most common thought is--if I were smarter, I'd know how to fix this (this being my writing). Other days, I think I am not a disaster and I've …
Are you focused?
"You can't just walk out of class when another student is talking," I say. He laughs and nods. "Okay." "And it would be better if you didn't keep you head down on the desk during class," I say. "I'm sick," he says. "Then you should be at home." He laughs. "Really. If you're sick. Go …
I can’t tell you what it is, but…
I subscribe to a artist newsletter, and today's edition came with this observation-- Perhaps a lot of Western Art has tipped too far toward our personal demands for private joy. Further, many artists are trying to combine casual pleasantries with secure cash flows. It's nice work if you can get it, but it may just …
Marta Bacon 