Now With More Monkeys!
Posted by Moose on January 22nd, 2007. Filed under: Writing.I woke up this morning thinking about the definition of aplomb. Dreaming about dictionaries is either a good sign or a bad one, but I don’t give any consideration to signs until after my second cup of coffee. And by the time I’ve had two cups of coffee, I’m too wired to care.
I didn’t know if I’d enjoy this fiction writing thing. I thought I’d be slogging through my words, slugging cheap red wine and bemoaning this wretched artist’s life, the one with all the cheap wine. But it’s kind of fun. I can’t imagine my glee will last, especially if I get to the point where I need to make sense. The day I can’t sit down and think, “How to fill up 850 words today? Oh, I know! I’ll introduce a talking monkey!” (Next up, a yodelling orangutan.)
My characters tend to talk a lot and get very little done (sound familiar?) but my dialogue is getting far less stilted. “Far less stilted” does not yet qualify as “brilliant” but with a yodelling orangutan to round out the ranks, brilliance can’t be far away. I’m actually rather proud of myself. Instead of thinking, “Oh, this is so hard. Woe is me!” (as per usual), I think, “What poorly behaved animal can I inflict on my characters today?” It’s like a playground. More accurately, a zoo. But not one of those lame zoos that feature a moth-eaten cow wearing a pair of cheetah ears – a fun zoo, with water slides and enough time in the morning to make yourself eggs and toast. It’s not really a zoo that will yield finely turned and insightful prose, but every morning I get to sit down at my computer and think, “I’ll be brilliant tomorrow. For now, talking monkeys!”
Someone please remind me of this freewheeling joy when I finally go back and reread what I’ve written and begin bemoaning all the time I wasted writing about delirious donkeys.
Ooh, delirious donkeys. There’s an idea.
January 22nd, 2007 at 2:31 pm
Here’s (said while raising my glass of cheap red wine) to brilliant dialogue!
January 22nd, 2007 at 8:38 pm
I, for one, think there are far too little books in existence boasting dialogue with and about and because of zoo animals.
January 23rd, 2007 at 3:17 am
Monkeys are the best! As are donkeys! As are moo cows! (As are moose!) Heck, I once co-wrote a diary from the point of view of a Schistosome (“Over the last two weeks, I’ve turned into a handsome cercariae…” Looking back, it was pretty warm and fuzzy considering schistosomes are nasty buggers.)Whatever floats your boat, woman!
January 23rd, 2007 at 3:21 am
Forgot to say, I woke up this morning from a dream in which you and me, and a variety of other posters on your site, were having a book club discussion on the latest PostSecret book. In a lounge at the dorms at Barnard, no less.
January 23rd, 2007 at 8:14 am
Continue to write with aplomb and never look back. Although writing with a feather seems a little old school…
;^)
(a plume…ah, nevermind.)
p.s. Speaking of talking monkeys, have you ever read Ishmael? Something about talking monkeys seems to inspire fiction with lots of dialogue…
March 2nd, 2007 at 5:13 am
[...] March 2nd, 2007 at 12:13 pm (Random foliage) A few weeks ago Moose woke up pondering the definition of aplomb. Today, as is usual for people who think alike, I awoke considering the different uses of the word “broody”. It’s funny how you can hear something for so long and not wonder. And then finally one day wonder about what you’ve heard and then wonder why you hadn’t wondered before. In my world, the term broody immediately conjures up the image of Mr. Darcy sulking in the corner of a room, brow furrowed, unsociably dour. And yet here, broody seems to be used mostly to describe a woman ready, in the emotional sense if not also in the physiological sense, to have a child. I know, they do a lot of things ‘differently’ here. But, in this case, the use actually makes the most sense to me. Ready to breed. Broody. It works. [...]