June's Nearly Monthly News
Welcome to June!
Summer is here in Los Angeles (does it ever really leave?), and I'm balancing deadlines against the feeling I still get—despite not having been on an academic schedule in ages—that Summer is supposed to be my time off. Apparently, that ceases to be a thing between graduation and retirement. Who knew?!
So I am working, and a new job has me feeling very "Hollywood" this month. For the first time, I've been hired do to a "punch up," on a script. In non-Hollywood speak, this means I've been hired to do a polish pass on another writer's script to make it funnier.
On the surface, it feels like this should be simple. Everyone already likes the characters, the set-up and the plot, so the heavy lifting is done, right? But as I worked through the assignment, I realized that my challenge was—without altering any of those fundamentals—to change the reader's experience of the story.
So I found myself examining literally every aspect of the script: dialogue, action, blocking, prose, and finding ways to tell the same story differently. Asking myself questions like: Can I change the action to heighten the feeling of this scene? What if it was in a different location? Should there be more characters? Fewer?
It's actually easier to do this with someone else's script than with my own, but I highly recommend it as an exercise in self-editing. Whether in screenplays or prose, it's easy to under-write important scenes because they bring so much of their own energy with them in our heads. But all the reader has to go on is the words on the page. So take a step back (or bring in a fresh set of eyes) and make sure that you're telling your funny or exciting scenes in a suitably funny or exciting way.
I never intended this to be a craft-oriented newsletter—there's no shortage of writing advice out there, and I know not everyone reading this is a writer—but that's what I've been thinking about this month, and I thought I'd pass it along.
From my Desk
I'm taking a break from teaching and there are no new releases this month. In case you missed them earlier:
"What Sleeps at the Heart of Aurora Station" is available to all Sunday Morning Transport subscribers.
"Requiem for a Dollface" is available on the Uncanny website and podcast to everyone who doesn't mind mixing psychological horror with children's toys.
"L'hiver est assis sur un banc" is free to all who enjoy a bit of the old gods with their homages to modern French poets at The Deadlands.
And there are still a few cabins left on the Writing Excuses Retreat and Cruise this September aboard the Liberty of the Seas where I'll be an instructor this year. I'd love to see you there!
What I'm Reading
I was ensconced in my window seat on a plane to Boston earlier this month when the woman on the aisle started the new book she'd bought to read on the plane... and discovered she'd already read it. So had the woman in the middle seat. And so I acquired a copy of Beach Read by Emily Henry. Delightful and engaging with a good mix of fun and feels for summer.
From the Cutting Room Floor of the Duolingo Dystopia
This month in Spanish, Bea has a very good question:
Caption: Bea from Duolingo says: "Why do you drink the cafeteria's contaminated water?" in Spanish and English.
And That's the Nearly Monthly News!
I hope summer is treating you well (or winter, if you're in the Southern Hemisphere) and you have fun plans to look forward to even if your student days are long past. Questions? Comments? Drop me a line. Otherwise, I'll see you in July!