NaNoWriMo Did Me In?

I attempted National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) for the first time this year.  Last year, I just did random writing every day I could manage, but this year I actually wrote the draft of a novel—50,000 words plus.  And I started from scratch (I had previously written about 400 words on the idea, but I didn’t use them) – I had an idea, that’s all.
 

Three weeks in, I had to stop to work on some financial reports I do as treasurer of our writing group—lost four or five days of writing; but I made that up.

Still, the month rather “did me in.”  I have not been here.  I missed you, blog!  And I missed the sense of sharing something with my friends.  But I’m back, with new ideas—just in time for the holidays!

Meanwhile, I have been reading:  Finished Felice Picano’s book Ambidextrous.  Now I’m rereading The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath; and a biography of Plath to learn more about her.

Both books quite interesting—and I’ll be saying more about them!  Also watched the film A Good Year, with Russell Crowe, Marion Cotillard, and Albert Finney.

Also saw Kill Your Darlings, in the theater.  This experience was reminiscent of a year ago when I saw (finally!) the film of On The Road.  But more of these later.

Listening to music, as always; mostly, the four-CD collection “Bebop Spoken Here.”  But then, for some reason, I decided it was time to catch up on Rock—so grabbed “Bon Jovi’s Greatest Hits” at the Sunnyvale library.  Not to abandon Jazz, though—I picked up “Tommy Dorsey’s Greatest Hits” at the same time.  Now I’m back on Bach’s Christmas Oratorio.  It’s been an incredibly busy December—nine meetings/events in eighteen days! 

But now, some peace and quiet, hopefully:  I’m taking time off work.  Today is my last work day until Monday, January 6, 2014!

Anticipating “Kill Your Darlings”

(Yes, I've been doing NaNoWriMo -- but I had to post this!)

Perhaps this week, or next weekend, I shall get to see the new film “Kill Your Darlings,” starring Daniel Radcliffe as the young Allen Ginsberg.  This film is based on an incident that shook up New York City in 1944, involving the young college student who had brought together Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and William Burroughs—the three writers who would become known fifteen years later as the core writers of the Beat movement.  Kerouac and Burroughs wrote a novel about it, which was never published and remained hidden away until after their deaths.  The young college student, Lucien Carr, spent some time in prison but eventually became a well-respected editor for the UPI news service—and fervently avoided any further notoriety during his remaining decades of life.

The basic story:  Kerouac had dropped out of Colombia University; Ginsberg was or would soon be expelled.  Burroughs, about ten years older and related to the founder of Burroughs Corporation, had come to lead a fairly seamy existence, the dark-horse of the family.

A friend of Burroughs, also in his thirties, had become infatuated with Lucien Carr when Carr was still in elementary school.  David Kammerer pursued Carr for seven or eight years.  Finally one night, in a park in upper Manhattan…

But that would be a “spoiler.”

In any case, the story provided material for a number of would-be literary works.  Carr worked very hard to persuade his friends not to publish their own works relating to it.  But everyone connected with it, including Carr, is dead—and the story has reached the screen.

I’ve seen mixed reviews—but I’m looking forward to seeing the film myself.  It’s playing now at selected theaters.  I hope to see it before Thanksgiving.