Rainy Saturday on 1 Cup of Coffee

I was thinking about Elmore Leonard today.  More specifically about his rules of writing.  The one about never writing about the weather, not to put to fine a point on it.  Why?  Because it's still raining.  We're not going to be swept away - yet - but's it's been coming down steadily for days.

Yesterday I was out in it for quite a bit.  Waiting for late trains, transferring at different stations, and waiting at cross walks under trees so soggy and a storm with such force that there was no cover.  Don't mention umbrellas.  I'm not an umbrella guy.  I did wear a hat on Thursday though.

I'm in a position where people come to me.  It's odd, I'm not used to it, but in the rain it's kind of nice.  My office is dry.  It also has a lot of windows and this week, everytime someone came to see me, s/he commented on how hard it was raining.  At one point it looked like a blizzard it was coming down so hard.

#4 summed it up nicely though.  He's 9, for perspecitve.  "Wow, it's still raining Dad.  It's been raining for days.  But we didn't get any before that for a long time, so I guess this is good."

It is good.  "Rain will make the flowers grow."  We often use the expression in life that, "It never rains, but it pours."  I'm seeing that in a very visual way.  A screen writer's way.

You may see it a poet, or painter, or a photographer (or even an astronaught...).  It doesn't matter.  As long as you do see it.

"I was wrong. We were so wrong."

Wow, so it's been since the beginning of the summer since I've written in my studio.  That's good - I've been out doing which, of course, is critical to writing interesting things.  And paying for your life before you become a Nora Roberts, Lee Child, or the man I will miss, Elmore Leonard.

This is the last week of vacation for my children.  So far they have a pretty good attitude about it but I suspect that has far more to do with denial then any new found Zen enlightenment.  What can't be denied is that the film, "Prometheus", was not very good.  Expensive?  Sure.  Good pedigree?  Absolutely.  But, and it's a really big but, it failed to deliver.  Part of the problem is that it's a prequel and prequels always start at a distinct disadvantage.  Perhaps the best prequel ever was Tom Clancy's "Without Remorse" and I had to re-start it several times.  It just kills the magic of the universe when you explain it away.

Album cover from 1974?

The other part of the problem?  It was two completely different movies.  On the one hand it was an "Atlas Shrugged" style discussion of life, origins, and meaning.  On the other hand it was a gory "Alien" movie.  On all counts, it was a stiff, unemotional, highly predictable film that - in the spirit of every Dodge product built since I've been alive - looks great but quickly falls apart.  I was reminded very much of Alien 3.

Fortunately that wasn't the extent of our day yesterday.  It was the quintessential summer day with highs in the mid 80 and almost no humidity.  We celebrated with an expedition on the boat and a kettlebell class.  The movie was far more painful than the class.

If you think this blog post was plodding along somewhat randomly, you should skip "Prometheus".  I said that already?  You noticed?  Definitely skip it.

"Hey Ray, do you ever wear one that says 'undercover'?"

It's funny how after blogging about not writing about weather I've wanted to start every entry with a comment about our bizarre weather.  I wonder what Mr. Leonard would think about talking about not talking about the weather?  I can see it going both ways, he writes with great humor - not the Garrison Keeler kind, but the satirical, quirky, "Out of Sight" kind.  His books are always better than the movies but Michael Keaton's t-shirt in that film, my oh my.

It's Tuesday and, despite the lead in, I won't be talking about the importance of a good hat - although Dr. Seuss certainly considered them vital.  Instead, I want to recommend the index card.  Say what?  You know, those little 3x5 cards that you took notes on for you research papers before there were

What?  It's funny.  REALLY funny.

iPhads.  Maybe you were verbose and had to use the 4x6 cards.

I used the cards in high school because my teachers required them - there was a checklist that had a due date for 3x5s.  I also used them for games and crafts (airplanes mostly).  Never used them for writing even though I'd read about how useful they could be.  The whole idea seemed silly.  Why write out the idea of the story instead of just the story?

I'll tell you why.  Because it isn't silly.  It's genius.  As in ACME index cards being shipped to Wylie Coyote Super Genius genius.  I started using cards this year while working on screen plays and I'm convinced that had I used cards twenty years ago I could have finished at least three of my books.  They let you not only capture ideas, but map your story.  You can also map your characters with them.  They make sure you include all of the necessary clues and that if you inserted something early, you remember to use it later.  They are a checklist for each scene allowing you to track which characters are doing what where and when, the nature of the conflict, and the final resolution.  You can identify what's been written and what hasn't.  You can rearrange your plot and see how it reads with the party in the first act and the break-up just before the kayak trip instead of the way you originally wrote it.

And when you are all done, you can flip them over and write down your favorite recipes.  Win/win.  To think you thought that the cards were silly. 

"You're kind to strangers and children, and when you stand in the snow you look like an angel."

I'm going to upset ElmoreLeonard.

Tuesday dawned overcast and muggy.  Not a hot muggy, but the chilly kind that creeps into your bones and leaves you wondering if you are dying of malaria or just a bit too hung over to reach for a blanket.

Elmore says, in his wonderful little book, that you should never start with weather.  It's a good rule.  It shouldn't be broken very often.  When you're writing a novel.  Or, in the case of my 1991, a novella.  I just read Heat Lightning and it was book-ended by weather.  

Groundhog Day - it was about a weatherman, not the weather

Didn't have to be.  If I ever get hired to write the adaptation (which would be cool, I thought it was reasonably well plotted) I would leave the pages of meteorology out. 

FADE IN:

EXT. CITY STREET - NIGHT

Lightning without rain.  A MAN, late 30s, in black - face sweating.  He waits in the shadows beyond a streetlight.  His fist is clenched on a silenced pistol held against his thigh.

...

Showing versus telling.  In the book, that took a couple of pages.  Then there was a man walking a dog.  Then the assassination.  Then the body clean up.  There was plenty of action, but it was held up by the weather.  Throughout the book there was a great deal of effort spent on weather.  I kept waiting for the weather to be a factor – you know, a major storm that upset the fishing boat or a power outage or something.  It never happened.  In “Fargo” the weather was a factor, almost a character, but it didn't get a lot of description.  You don’t need to write about the weather.

It’s small talk in real life.  On the page, where everything is magnified, it shows that you don’t really have anything to say or that you are afraid to say whatever it is.  Call me a conformist, but my advice is that unless you are writing poetry, the best guideline is to leave out the weather report.  Note the word "guideline".  Naturally, you may have a very good reason to write about the weather.  That’s great but make sure that everyone else thinks it’s a really good reason too or you’ll get some polite nods but no commercial success with the piece.

BTW – today is the first morning of my vacation that it hasn't been raining.