How They Scored

While reading Henry Miller tonight -- I'm almost to the end of the Rosy Crucifixion, which I have inhaled, along with the Tropics, in order to give energy to my voice in "How They Scored" -- I had the idea that I can skip the entire trip down the mountain. What a bore! Instead, end the current chapter 12 with Bianca popping out of Seth's room, and then cut to the boat. There you can have one last conversation, with Denny -- because I have an intuition that Bart stays behind with Don to lay plans for Dreedle -- while Greg tries to make time with some hikers. Then the whole trip home in two pages -- no, one! The point is to get to the end. I see it clearly. The conversation with Denny can set up, to some degree, the ending, the thing about where your home is. But not too much of that. Lightly, lightly.

So, that day on the train was a bust in terms of writing my book -- aside from getting to read as much of "Sexus" as I wanted to. I got most of the way through it. Now I'm staying at home today, Saturday, instead of going to Bob's house, because Cris isn't here and it's less hassle than getting over there, given that I have to stop early AGAIN. This time because I have symphony tickets and I have to get dressed and meet Anna for dinner beforehand. OK, THINK ABOUT THE BOOK.

10:10 -- getting a bit of an early start, for once. Just read a little from the middle of "Sexus." It makes me aware I'm not doing much with these characters at the moment. I have to think more about their inner lives -- or, rather, I should say I have to allow them space to lead their inner lives. In general, I have to spend a great deal of time on characterization. The sex stories matter only if you know the person telling them. Anyway. I'll finish the chapter I was working on last Sunday when I had to stop, and then I'll try to get right into the next chapter, introducing the Bianca character.   2:30pm -- I did about 2100 words and I'm going home. Cris hasn't called me yet but I'll just go home anyway. Bob is having some kind of "debauchery" here and I'm at a good stopping place.

Saturday morning -- once again, 11:15, though I have to say I managed to get to my desk before 11:00 at least. I spent the last 25 minutes nostalgically reviewing photos and news stories in my "Dear Prudence" -- I mean " Bangalored " -- folder. Having met with Elise a few days ago to talk about what the book needed before she felt comfortable putting it out there, it's been on my mind. But last night while I was falling asleep I got a halfway good idea for how to do the next chapter, which is chapter 6. After this weekend, there are 8 weekends before Thanksgiving. If I keep up a pace of 5000 words per week, that's another 40,000 words, which would bring me close to 75,000. But if I can average closer to 6000 words per week, that's a lot closer to 90,000 for a first draft -- and that would be much better. But since my current average per week for the first 7 weeks is 4738, I will need to push myself and also take as much time off work as I can. Since my n...

Friday of a long holiday weekend. I should have come straight here to the office after leaving work, but I felt some resistance. In fact, I spoke of it last night to A.: I said "I actually don't want tomorrow to be Friday because I don't feel like working on my book already." After I left work I went home, took a shower, tried and failed to nap, and left the house; but even then I drove around unwilling to go straight to my writing office. Nevertheless, I drove up the block, and there was no parking place, and I felt vaguely hungry, so I finally drove to Noe Valley and had something to eat at Pomodoro, a chain Italian restaurant on the corner of 24th and Noe. It's cheap but good, and neighborhoody enough that I don't feel bad about going in there wearing only a t-shirt (while I would never wear just a t-shirt to Bar Bambino). After eating I felt more like working, so I came to my office at Bob's house. I have a couple of hours to make a few notes, and then...

Early start -- 10:50, anyway. A sunny, warm day with a cool breeze -- perfect summer weather. Me in my little green cave (the office is painted green; when I finish this book, I want to repaint it so it's not quite as underwater-feeling). I feel like starting something fresh. Instead of doing the scene about Bart's first time, told at the party -- which I am having trouble getting a feel for -- I want to attack from a different angle, write a dialogue scene between the travelers. Above all, change the tone. The idea will be to show some character traits through dialogue, with a little exposition along the way. It's also important to introduce a constant sexual tone, not just from the narrator, but from the others. I'll read a little Henry Miller to prepare.

I was listening to the sports radio program this morning and I thought, I should have a character -- either Greg or Don -- just talk like Gary Radnich, where everything is a sort of catch phrase or sports cliché offered in an ironic tone. It's a good template for an aggressive man who needs to be in control. Somehow I feel it's better for Greg than for Don because I feel Don doesn't exert power that way. I put a few words to the end of chapter 2 and this afternoon wrote a paragraph about Bart to begin chapter 3. I thought he would be a stronger character to continue with than Seth. And I quickly decided that I could begin with a sex story about the first time he got laid. But I need to figure out a little about that. When I wrote the sentence "he real reason he stuck around long after the faculty had run out of things to teach him was that it took him that long to get laid" I drew a slight blank and I realized I had to do some thinking about it. However, the bit I...

5:15 pm -- I got though the part about picking up Shaun and I found myself basically giving his whole backstory. The chapter is up to 6000 words and I feel it needs another sex scene; I think what I need to do is get them to Chelan -- which I am changing the name to Lausanne for some reason I haven't really thought out. However the next thing that has to happen is that they have to meet Bart and Seth. Since that would feel like too many new characters I think I'll remember what happened in Catch-22 and just let this be the Shaun chapter. I can bring in Seth and Bart at the end, maybe, but I don't need to talk extensively about them and fully introduce them as characters. So I guess the next thing to do is to wrap up this chapter with some action or dialogue that helps illuminate Shaun. And ideally it should foreshadow or indicate some crucial character trait of his that will become important later. To do that will take some thinking. Up to 12,271 words. About 2800 today, 60...

Another thing to remember: oblique dialogue. I'm not actually sure how to go about writing oblique dialogue, since I almost always write standard, natural dialogue, but I'll have to figure it out. Not only will it lend the writing more style, it will help me be more interested in the sound of the language. And the interpersonal relations between the characters might be suited for oblique dialogue because it will show how they can only approach each other indirectly. I haven't read any Don DeLillo in preparation. Perhaps I should, but I'm already doing enough reading. I'm feeling antsy about the project already. This is a good sign; it means I have some pent-up energy and will make progress the next time I sit down. I've been trying to write just a few notes every day, to keep the project in the front of my mind, and the anxiety shows it is working. The first chapter was a piece of cake, but it's actually not like the succeeding chapters. I think that once I ...

This morning I thought: Remember your idea to approach some of these chapters the way Heller approached the chapters in Catch-22: each chapter highlights a different character. This was emphasized, to a misleading degree, by naming chapters after the character. I don't have to name the chapter after the character. But I can privately think of it as Shaun's chapter, Denny's chapter, etc.

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

I had an insight on Saturday when I was working on HOW THEY SCORED that the name of Hap's character and his strong sexual nature suggests a link to Henry Miller, whose motto was "Always happy and gay" (back when gay meant merely ebullient). This is potentially very helpful. It not only gives me a handle on his character but on the narrative voice I can use in the book -- a copious realism that is just as likely to veer into a philosophical issue as into a description of direct and enthusiastic screwing. And there's so much in the Miller oeuvre that I can read him for hours on end, if I want to, and never get to the end of it, while soaking up the Millerite voice for use in my own book. This also has the advantage of imbuing my usually inert first-person voice with more energy. One of the best writing experiences I remember was the evening I went to see Stanley Kubrick's "Killer's Kiss" at the Castro, and came home so full of energy that I wrote the f...