One of my favorite books over the summer was Hollywood Animal. Naturally, Hollywood and most elitist book reviewers didn't like the book. However, the book is fascinating and so well-written, it gets my vote for this year's best (so far). My favorite part of the book was Eszterhas describing a morning ritual of vomiting before writing because of the pressure he put on himself.
I went to New York to discuss it with Alan Pakula. He hated the script and gave me the best writing advice I ever got from anyone.
"Forget the research," he said. "Go back home and use your imagination, make it up. Don't lean it on great lines and great characters you've heard and seen, just make the whole thing up."
I went back home and did exactly that. It was the most fun I'd had writing anything. It was the most fun I'd ever had writing a screenplay, the greatest natural high I'd ever felt. Out on a high wire every morning, way out on an edge, playing God, just . . . making . . . it . . . all . . . up.
And, after nearly three years of my morning ritual, I stopped throwing up.
Disclaimer: I'm not a published novelist, but I will rant anyway.
In the age of Tom Clancy and the hard sci-fi of Steven Baxter, I think writers have forgotten how to spin a good yarn. I was just reading The Consciousness Plague. I couldn't finish it. Mainly because the dialog went something like this:
"Say, Bob, did you know that 30% of memory loss occurs in adults between the ages of 25 and 85 who have a history of reading crappy fiction that's used as an outlet for the author's research?" inquired Frank as he sipped is overly hot coffee from the cup he just purchased at McDonald's with the money left in his pocket by his girlfriend before she was murdered.
Frank's gaze became perplexed as he twisted his handlebar mustache his wife has been trying to get him to shave off since his partner was killed nine months ago. "I know. But our mystery goes deeper since these authors continue to get published and even have best sellers. For shame."
I always try to finish books, but this one was too much. It's like the popularity of The Da Vinci Code. Sure the ideas are compelling, but the core story is a hollow shell for Dan Brown's research. I know it's possible to write well-researched fiction, but I'd be more forgiving of the impossible if the story was unique, well-written, and empty of clichés. For instance, Ray Bradbury, whom I worship as one of the best writers of the twentieth century, wrote The Martian Chronicles with no basis in science, but one of the best sci-fi books ever.
A note to writers: write with your heart and use your head to edit.
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Unrest by Parkway Drive