Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
Who is Jerry Cassidy?
In the next few weeks, with just one chapter in the bag and a road map for the rest still under construction, I am planning to launch a small viral campaign revolving around one of the primary questions my novel will raise: Who is Jerry Cassidy?
Nothing flashy. I intend to open a Facebook account in Jerry’s name to showcase his background, create character depth, spark interest, and get people asking the question. Get some fun stuff on there too. Favorite books/authors? Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, The Contortionist’s Handbook by Craig Clevenger, and The Patriot by Derek Fincher…
Maybe a Twitter account too, eventually. I need to find Jerry’s voice, and I think status updates and some twats should help me discover it. Probably a baritone.
Nothing flashy. I intend to open a Facebook account in Jerry’s name to showcase his background, create character depth, spark interest, and get people asking the question. Get some fun stuff on there too. Favorite books/authors? Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, The Contortionist’s Handbook by Craig Clevenger, and The Patriot by Derek Fincher…
Maybe a Twitter account too, eventually. I need to find Jerry’s voice, and I think status updates and some twats should help me discover it. Probably a baritone.
Monday, October 11, 2010
The One About the Chicken with Agyrophobia
If you look around and check this place out, you can tell that this story is in the works. Has been for some time. I have a starter chapter and even the original short story from which this tale was conceived. But that’s it. When I start to get started, I start to get stuck.
My narrator is both this story’s largest asset and heaviest burden when it comes to planning. Derek Fincher is my acclaimed graphic novelist who is afflicted with a gruesome memory disorder brought about by his being addicted to the bottle for the better half of a lifetime. His condition provides a narrative device that grants me full control of both time and space. Derek moves involuntarily and uncontrollably through time because his lack of memory allows him no concept of it. He takes Billy Pilgrimages. But this literary freedom comes with its own set of drawbacks (draw of setbacks?).
Mo’ money, mo’ problems.
With a narrator that breathes anarchy into a storyline and lays waste to chronological order, how does one piece the story together? All the king’s horses and all the king’s men, amiright?
Anyway, I’ve been trying everything. Timelines, process maps, colored index cards, the works. I essentially have 3 storylines to thread together and the challenge is to layer them so that they seamlessly tell the best story possible with all of the appropriate arcs and climaxes while not running away from the reader. Up until now it’s felt like telling a joke and part way through realizing that I failed to mention some crucial details in the beginning that need to be there to get to the punchline. The priest wasn’t walking through the desert, he was actually riding a camel. The doctor he was with, yeah, it was actually a nun. The chicken? Well I forgot to tell you that the chicken was diagnosed with agyrophobia*.
That being said, I’ve finally managed to put together a comprehensive scene list with a scattered, yet reasonably coherent order. I call it my “script.” Has headers and everything. And I put it on PowerPoint so I can present it at your next office meeting. I’ll bring my own laser pointer. And then I’ll drive your cat crazy.
* Agyrophobia is the fear of streets or crossing the street. Get it? Get it!?
My narrator is both this story’s largest asset and heaviest burden when it comes to planning. Derek Fincher is my acclaimed graphic novelist who is afflicted with a gruesome memory disorder brought about by his being addicted to the bottle for the better half of a lifetime. His condition provides a narrative device that grants me full control of both time and space. Derek moves involuntarily and uncontrollably through time because his lack of memory allows him no concept of it. He takes Billy Pilgrimages. But this literary freedom comes with its own set of drawbacks (draw of setbacks?).
Mo’ money, mo’ problems.
With a narrator that breathes anarchy into a storyline and lays waste to chronological order, how does one piece the story together? All the king’s horses and all the king’s men, amiright?
Anyway, I’ve been trying everything. Timelines, process maps, colored index cards, the works. I essentially have 3 storylines to thread together and the challenge is to layer them so that they seamlessly tell the best story possible with all of the appropriate arcs and climaxes while not running away from the reader. Up until now it’s felt like telling a joke and part way through realizing that I failed to mention some crucial details in the beginning that need to be there to get to the punchline. The priest wasn’t walking through the desert, he was actually riding a camel. The doctor he was with, yeah, it was actually a nun. The chicken? Well I forgot to tell you that the chicken was diagnosed with agyrophobia*.
That being said, I’ve finally managed to put together a comprehensive scene list with a scattered, yet reasonably coherent order. I call it my “script.” Has headers and everything. And I put it on PowerPoint so I can present it at your next office meeting. I’ll bring my own laser pointer. And then I’ll drive your cat crazy.
* Agyrophobia is the fear of streets or crossing the street. Get it? Get it!?
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
For My Birthday
The following is an email I sent to myself on the eve of my birthday this past March:
There it is. Documented on the internets. Now, I just have to execute.
03/10/2010 01:33 PM
Future, wiser Jake,
Here it is, no more excuses, my definitive vow: I am going to write a complete novel before I turn 24. One year from tomorrow, I will finish the draft of my novel. I promise. I'm going out tonight and I'm buying you a birthday card and I'm writing this in there. Starting tomorrow, I am giving you a full calendar year. Despite our job, the CPA exam, another busy season, hundreds of hours of television on dvd I own or you will own, and any unforeseen life-altering events, we are going to finish our manuscript for a novel tentatively titled Ginger Smoke. This is my dream. You have to do this.
Past, younger Jake
There it is. Documented on the internets. Now, I just have to execute.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Ginger Smoke
Ginger Smoke is the tentative title of my forthcoming, future New York Times best-selling novel. It is also the name of the protagonist's 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454. Here is the long and short of it:
The One-liner:
Ginger Smoke is the story of two struggling alcoholics, a graphic novelist handicapped by a memory disorder and a cagey confidence man with a secret, that have to conceive their own support group to remediate their broken lives.
The Short Synopsis:
DEREK FINCHER has been living in the past, one where he was a soon-to-be-father and the acclaimed author of an award-winning graphic novel, ever since he was diagnosed with the profound memory disorder, Korsakoff syndrome. Now he leads a life that he can’t remember to forget and he’s losing everything: his marriage, his prized muscle car, and his will to live. That is, until he meets JERRY CASSIDY, a cagey confidence man that may or may not have the perfect plan to resurrect the lives they lost. Together they conceive their own support group and a unique form of therapy that will force the two to confront their addictions and their deepest secrets, and will eventually push both of them to face their self-induced deaths.
The Pitch:
If Fight Club and Memento had a baby, and it was raised by alcoholics, it would grow up to be Ginger Smoke.
See you on the shelves.
The One-liner:
Ginger Smoke is the story of two struggling alcoholics, a graphic novelist handicapped by a memory disorder and a cagey confidence man with a secret, that have to conceive their own support group to remediate their broken lives.
The Short Synopsis:
DEREK FINCHER has been living in the past, one where he was a soon-to-be-father and the acclaimed author of an award-winning graphic novel, ever since he was diagnosed with the profound memory disorder, Korsakoff syndrome. Now he leads a life that he can’t remember to forget and he’s losing everything: his marriage, his prized muscle car, and his will to live. That is, until he meets JERRY CASSIDY, a cagey confidence man that may or may not have the perfect plan to resurrect the lives they lost. Together they conceive their own support group and a unique form of therapy that will force the two to confront their addictions and their deepest secrets, and will eventually push both of them to face their self-induced deaths.
The Pitch:
If Fight Club and Memento had a baby, and it was raised by alcoholics, it would grow up to be Ginger Smoke.
See you on the shelves.
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