John Falk on Keeping It Real

When I got a postcard two weeks ago announcing the paperback edition of John Falk’s Hello to All That as being “in the tradition of A Million Little Pieces,” I chuckled to myself: Hell of a time for that comparison to be making the rounds. But then I got to thinking that Falk, who’d written about his battle with chronic depression and his experiences as a Sarajevo war correspondent, probably had something to say about the art of telling the truth about your life. So I asked, and I received, and I pass along to you…

You could be drunk, in a writing workshop, or maybe just sitting on the can. The point is that great insight, that magical inspiration can hit you just about anywhere. Maybe you can’t put it into words just yet but you suddenly know, can feel in your gut actually, that somewhere in your past there unfolded a series of events that meant something, really meant something. They all fit together. You then think of all the people you knew, all the crazy, colorful scenes in your life. There is a story there, a great story. Man, this can be good, you think. You run it by your friends and family. They all agree: You really should take a crack at writing a memoir.

For most people it’s about here, or maybe after two or three trips to Starbucks with your laptop, that the whole enterprise unravels. Why? Because you just can’t capture on paper that initial inspiration. The words fall short. The details overwhelm. Your life wasn’t as coherent as it seemed and what was an inspiration quickly becomes drudgery. It’s here that the more sensible among us order that final mochachino and split back to living their life instead of writing about it.

For the rest, you dive deeper. Keep writing. Month after month. Year after year. You chase that rabbit, that initial inspiration, word after damn word. As you learn more you start thinking in character arcs, acts, conflicts and resolutions. It’s a necessary step, of course, the only way to impose that timeless story structure on what had been until now a rambling retelling of your life.

(more…)

30 January 2006 | guest authors |

A Reminder for Philadelphians, A Tease for Everyone Else

Tomorrow night, I’ll be appearing at Germ Books + Gallery (308 E. Girard, in what I’m told is the hip Fishtown neighborhood) for a 7 p.m. event with John Scalzi, whose Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies I’m eagerly devouring as we speak (well, okay, not while I’m typing, but in the free moments before and after).

As John says on his blog, “We’ll be talking specifically about science fiction films of the 70s (seeing as I’ve written a book on SF films, and he’s written a book on 70s films), but I imagine that the discussion is likely to wander afield as he and I shock and amaze the good people of Philly with our sass and wit (not to mention humility).”

25 January 2006 | events |