Public Enemies

Tweet So I went to see Public Enemies last night. I had high hopes; after all, I've yet to see a Johnny Depp film I didn't enjoy (in my universe, the two Pirates sequels don't exist). Oh, Hollywood, how you continue to let me down. Was it not enough that you buried the Indiana Jones franchise last year? You didn't twist the knife with all the "hilarious" family sequences in Transformers 2?

Kudos to them for the casting of Depp as bank robber John Dillinger. I don't know much about the man in real life, but Depp portrayed him as a charming Robin Hood type, robbing banks but never their customers, ever mindful of his adoring public. Unlike his somewhat violent and thuggish associates, Dillinger would prefer to use the fear engendered by his various machine guns and pistols, as opposed to the bullets they fire.

But exactly what was Michael Mann thinking in casting Christian "I haven't opened my mouth properly to speak since 1999" Bale as Melvin Purvis? I used to simply adore Bale back in his American Psycho days, but since then, he's lost some of his sheen. The fact he seems to play the same character over and over doesn't help, and in this case, it feels like he's reprising his 3:10 to Yuma role, in which he was out-classed and out-acted by Russell Crowe (there's a sentence I never thought I'd find myself typing). In that film, he played the reluctant lawman escorting Crowe to prison, while in this film, he plays a reluctant agent in the fledgling FBI attempting to get Dillinger into prison. In both cases, his co-stars outshone him in every way, portraying their criminal characters as lovable rogues. Bale, on the other hand, portrays his with all the charisma of a mouldy Stilton.

My other two problems were the clunky narrative (please, leave the 'skipping about with little exposition to explain what's going on' to Quentin Tarantino) and the constant shaky cam. It does not make a film feel more realistic - if I were running in real life, my brain would automatically compensate for the fact that the world around me would appear to be jumping about. In a film, this doesn't happen, so instead it simply looks like you dropped a film camera into the monkey enclosure at London Zoo and asked them to tape something.

And it's so long. My right knee actually seized solid with the herculean effort of sitting still for all that time. I mightn't have minded if I'd enjoyed it, but all I could think was "Nice to see Depp taking on a proper role, instead of his 'Woohoo, look at me, I'm CRAZY!' casting of late, but pity about everyone else"...

One Word

Tweet A couple of months ago, Demi Moore posted a link to a website called One Word. As the title would suggest, you're given one word and sixty seconds to write something. The aim, much like the very good Write Or Die, is to simply get you writing without much thought about what it is that you're writing. After all, that blank page is often the killer for creativity - that blank page can seem like a mountain too high to climb, and the words simply refuse to come.

So today's word was "lazy". Below is my sixty second splurge on the word.

Lazy. Not doing anything. Not able to do anything, not willing? No motivation or just no desire? Or is laziness true happiness? The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide? The ability to put aside the stuff we think we need to do in order to do the things we actually want to do? Is it a shirking of responsibility, or taking control of our own destinies?

Flash Fiction #2 and #3

Tweet More flashes written in response to challenges on the EditRed website.

The Oldest Trick
Emascula the Great waved the wand above his assistant. The audience gasped and cooed with delight as she pulled the swords from her body, tossing them to the floor with a clatter. She posed, apparently unscathed. Emascula smiled cheerfully, but sighed inwardly. These cretins were so easily fooled. Parting them from their money was the oldest trick in the book.

Dragon's Teeth
"How long did you say it would be until the harvest?"
"If the weather holds out, these will be ready for you in two weeks".
"Just two weeks? My, that is impressive. That should give us plenty of time to get them armed before the King's last stand. Though I forget, what is it that you've been sowing?"
"Dragon's teeth".

Flash Fiction #1

Tweet This was written in response to a writing challenge on EditRed a couple of years ago, but I wanted to repost it here. It's called "The Joker".

The darkened room holds the game in its silent clutches. Flames crackle and dance like frenzied showgirls in the fireplace. The table creaks in time to the sighs of the players. Concentration hardens the faces that loom from the shadows, solemn and focused. A flicker of light caresses the edge of a silver blade. It splits the darkness, and meets its target. Cards are thrown into the air. A heavy chair falls back, spilling the player onto the cold stone floor. The cards scatter harmlessly across the heavily pocked surface of the table. Only one lands face up.

The joker.

Topical - Michael Jackson

Tweet When I started this blog, my intention was to stick to the topic of writing. The process, the product - whichever. I had wanted to keep politics or current events out of it, which is why I never intended to write a post about Michael Jackson. However, as the world and his wife seems to be chipping in their two cents, I thought I might as well follow suit.

Now, before I begin, let me state that I am sad that he's gone. I wasn't that bothered initially but after re-watching some of his old videos lately, I do feel how much of a shame it all is. He made some truly impressive music and he was a real trendsetter in his time. Despite this, I have not wept or wailed as I never met him and never felt that he made an impact on my life, beyond my liking the music he made.

However, I can't decide if I'm more disgusted or disheartened by the number of sick jokes doing the rounds. Jokes about celebrities are all well and good but I really don't like to hear them when someone has passed on - it smacks of cowardice, since the deceased can hardly defend themselves. And in a way, this is why I wish that the media in general would just let the poor guy rest. He already made a song asking people to leave him alone - why is this so difficult for anyone to do? Can't people stop raking over his life, or his final days, looking for stories they can sensationalise in order to shift magazines or newspapers?

I had a rant on Facebook about this the day I heard the news. Out of laziness, I'm going to use some of it again here. All the histrionics displayed by his so-called "fans" annoyed me somewhat. His passing is very sad, yes, but it was NOT the day that "the music died", as proclaimed by a hysterical American on the news. Music is a universal thing, it won't 'die' just because someone who made it their profession died. You wouldn't say that literature died when Roald Dahl did, for Christ's sake! Acting didn't die with the demise of Laurence Olivier!

My biggest gripe is not that people are upset, but rather I want to know where were all of these distraught "fans" when he actually needed the support a few years ago? Hiding in the woodwork, that's where! No one wanted to stick up for him with all of those allegations flying around, no one wanted to associate with someone who had all that hanging over them, but now he's gone, everyone wants to be seen to be 'grieving'. No one wanted to hear his music when he released his last album, but look at his record sales now. One word for that - pathetic. For Christ's sake, pull yourselves together! If you never actually met him, or had any personal connection with him, then it's hardly a personal tragedy. It is sad, and it is a shame because he was incredibly talented, but these things happen. Be sad he's gone, but be glad he left such an awesome back catalogue of work.

If these people were truly fans, and truly wanted to do something useful, then instead of keeping their O2 tickets as a "souvenir" of something that never happened, why don't they get the promised refunds and donate the money to a cause close to Michael's heart? Maybe the allegations about him were true, maybe they weren't, it isn't my place to say, but at least the guy wanted to see change happen.

I'm ignoring the newspapers, and I'm ignoring the reports about his final days. I've seen the footage of his rehearsals and that's how I'm choosing to remember him - as a supremely talented entertainer who just happened to have a sad life. I suggest you do the same.

What is a good short story?

Tweet I found a post on Emma Newman's blog on what makes a good short story. As short stories have so far been my weapon of choice, I thought I'd give the matter some consideration. After all, I've read far more than I've ever written, and in some ways, I prefer the short story to the novel for its brevity. Short stories are far more difficult to sabotage - a good idea in a novel is all to easy to hijack and turn into a ridiculous flight of fancy (ever read Dreamcatcher?), but with a short story, you feel compelled to do the idea justice as you're with it for such a short period of time.

I've read some brilliant stories. I think my favourite short story ever written is Chivalry by Neil Gaiman - it's delightful in every possible way. It's also the first thing I ever read by him. It's short, it's to the point, and yet he manages to capture a little snapshot of an idea, complete with characterisation and a sense of place.

Yet ultimately, I like stories that grab the attention with a wonderful first line, stories that transport you to another person's reality or imagination for a short time, and stories that take me away from the mundane constraints of everyday life. A good short story, for me, should be like a little holiday.

Tradition vs Technology

Tweet I just read a very interesting post on Zoë Westhof's Essential Prose blog about the benefits of uni-tasking, but it's gotten me thinking in a slightly different direction.

I'm always fascinated by what processes other writers follow to actually get the words out of their head and onto paper/screen. Some writers write longhand on those yellow legal pads that you see in American films but never in the UK, others keep fancy journals from places like Paperchase specifically for the creative act, and others just boot up their laptop and dive into Word. I must admit, I'm usually the latter - typing makes writing feel easier. Don't like that passage where it is? Cut and paste it somewhere else. Not sure how long your piece is? Check the word count. Want to change your formatting? Easy, just a couple of clicks.

Though it's not that easy. Computers are wonderful inventions (when they work) but because of the way they perform multiple functions, it's all too easy to become distracted. You can "quickly check your emails", pop onto Facebook or waste time Twittering about seemingly insignificant stuff. All that time you waste doing unnecessary things is time you could have spent writing - and you just know that you'll tell people you simply don't have time to write these days. You do, you're just spending it on frivolity.

So every now and then, I will sit down with a pen and paper and write longhand. I've got a rather funky A5 spiralbound notebook with a manga design on the cover that I keep for just such an occasion, and the pages are covered with electric blue scrawl (and the occasional doodle). I find the quality of what I write is usually dubious at best, downright awful at worst, but at least I’ve produced something concrete, something I can physically hold in my hands, and which I can edit on the computer at a later date. Pen and paper provides a limitation that forces you to do what it is that you sat down to do in the first place.

Of course, the other, more mundane, advantage to pen and paper is that its not subject to random crashes, power failures, incompatible software or Windows tantrums…