A WARNING: Dear Guest! Don't gnash your teeth everytime you meet a spelling or a syntax mistake! English is not my first language! So, please, be clement and keep in mind that, beyond the form, it's the content which truly matters!
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Discipline and method
Today I did a little planting. Bought sereval rosiers (rosebushes) which I potted on my terrace, together with a few perennials : White delphiniums, purple hemerocallis (daylilies), red crocosmias, rosy-beige alceas (hollyhocks), yellow-orange kniphofias, blue lupins and suchlike. Should look good.
I found a title for the film script I'm currently working on: L'exilé. Will write it in English of course, but I believe it will have a greater impact if the title remains in French. As I said in a previous entry, the story takes place in French Indochina.
Here is the way I chose to proceed:
Phase 1: Research.
I've just read 2 travel narratives, both written in the late nineteenth century and offering a vivid picture of French Indochina as it was in those days. It's full of details about day-to-day life which I listed carefully and which will help me build a proper setting.
Phase 2: Backbone.
I will now work on the layout, establish a flowchart, i.e. define the scenes and arrange them in a way which would hold the public's attention from start to finish.
Phase 3: The proper writing. The funniest and most pleasant bit.
It all sounds terribly technical and I never wrote like that before. But I came to realise that it is necessary, lest I should "spread myself too thinly".
Unless you're a prodigy, discipline and method are essential. On no account one should neglect phase 1 and 2. Do so and you will inevitably "upset the balance".
The postcard (above) depicts a young Annamese (Indochinese) girl. Bought it on ebay. I think one of my characters (probably the American journalist) will fall in love with her...
[2 comments]- Evening jog and reading
Nothing much to say. I spend most of my evenings reading by the fire (or in bed). Christelle is now 7 months pregnant. We agreed on a name: James. It's not particularly original, I know, but we like it nonetheless.
Today the weather was ok and I felt the need to go for a ride on my motorbike. Paid a visit to an acquaintance who runs a bookshop downtown, then I did a little cross-country. It always instils a sense of freedom in me.
Otherwise I go jogging at least three times a week, to keep fit and "oxygenate" my brain. Always after work, preferably after dark. I admit I became addicted to it and I feel crap when I stay home.
I'll take some pics of the nearby sport grounds where I usually go. It is suprisingly green and well kept. Surprisingly, cose, like my place, it straddles the line between country and town. Always empty, to my great delight (I'm agoraphobic)!
[9 comments]- Resorting to literary agents
- Ok. Regarding my film script entitled A French Summer, I've decided to do like J. K. Rowling when she started out and resort to a literary agent. I bought The Writer's Handbook for the purpose. I spotted about ten agencies which look fairly serious and do not require reading fees. I'll try my luck with them.
Nigel, Lox, Bryan: Have you read the script? What d'you reckon? And what about the spelling or syntax?
Nigel: can I send you my covering letter for correction?
[2 comments] - An imaginary land...!
Regarding my new script (see previous entry), I think I'll go for a British colonel (and not a French one) who decides to settle in French Saigon as a place of exile. The journalist would be American, writing a book about western colonies in the Far-East. And the girl would remain French.
Now, you know I'm an e-bay fan. Keep buying ancient artefacts and coins. Today, while browsing through the world coins category, I found a curious copper (or bronze) coin dating 1907. It is a British cent depicting king Edward VII on the obverse and bearing the legend Newfoundland on the reverse. "What the deuce is that", I exclaimed! Thought it was some kind of fictitious, fantasy name. Then I realised, consulting my dictionary, that it was the English name for Canadian Terre-Neuve. I was surprised and a trifle disappointed. I was hoping for an imaginary country, such as Peter Pan's Neverland...!
Then an idea struck me. What if... What if I were to buy the coin and offer it to my son Brinsley, pretending it is the sole evidence brought back by a scholar who had found and visited that mysterious country? What if I were to write a diary about it? The scholar's diary, getting inspiration from my collection of travel narratives (see previous entry). I would write it bit by bit, day by day, and I read it to Brinsley at bedtime.
How does that sound to you, my friends?
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