Saturday, April 19, 2008

Are You Better off ow Than You Were Seven Years Ago?

1. When was the last time you regretted not having a rain coat with you?

2. Wasn't that feeling of being caught in the rain a warning to always have your characters constructed so as to resemble forces of nature that are similarly caught out with no protection?

3. Were Ahab and the whale co-dependent?

4. When a character wants something significant, isn't that an invitation for a person to get in the way?

5. How does it feel, being caught between a person and something you want?

6. How do Americans, with thee and thou rendered obsolete in their spoken and written language, account for degrees of familiarity, intimacy, and class distinction?

7. How do you feel about people holding doors open for you and calling you sir?

8. Will you ever forget being in a pick-up baseball game with some writers and tv people and how you didn't have enough players to make two teams and were forced to rely on some kids, one of whom called to you, Throw it over here, sir?

9. What is the difference in feelings between being the youngest in a group and the oldest?

10. How many Mozart Piano Concertos can you identify by number? The 20th doesn't count because everyone knows that one.

11. Why does street language change so quickly?

12. Which is worse, characters all sounding alike or coming through as too conversational?

13. Did Ahab enable the whale?

14. Why was Jaivert so driven?

15. If Jane Austen were living today, could she write for Desperate Housewives?

16. We ever better off?

17. If a thing is worth doing, is it really worth doing well?

1 comment:

R.L. Bourges said...

5 reminds me of my conversation with a 7 year-old yesterday who insisted she needed something. We worked out the distinction between needing and wanting. She agreed that she needed something to drink (thirsty) but really wanted apple juice (tastier than water). I agreed that in the best of both worlds one could have both - so gave her juice.)