Be Kind to Your Audience

I listen to a lot of books on tape (CD) due to driving too much for work. This week is a YA oriented anthology "Zombies v Unicorns" every other story is either a zombie story or one about unicorns. The stories  are okay I guess, but one thing annoyed me.

So for the Zombie story, Children of the Revolution, the protagonist is a college student in England who is being 800 pounds to watch the five adopted children of a famous actress (sorta Angelie Jolie) for one night. The kids are in a closed space and the girl is not allowed to have face to face with them. This "mystery" goes on for 80 percent of the story. The girl does not know what is wrong with these kids. So over an overwrought section, she frees them and they bite her.

The part that annoys me is that this is set up as a surprise, as a long reveal, but we know the reveal. They are zombies. How do we know the children are zombies before the writer reveals it? Because we are reading a zombie story is a zombie anthology. Did the author not know where this story was?

Where is the fun reading a twist y ending tale when you know all the twists before you crack open the book? This is lazy writing. Find a way to write it where it is still interesting and surprising, even though we know what the creature is. We are readers who read zombie stories, we have read a lot of them, please be kind to us and not expect us just falling off the turnip truck.

...wait for it....

For years, one of the ways I use poetry open mikes is to hear the current work of writing in front of an audience, it is part of the editing process. So last night I tried a piece with a good punch line and one I thought funny. It went really well, but here's the thing, the audience was laughing to themselves when I got to the set up for the punchline, they laughed at the punchline too, but they got the joke before I laid it on them.

The question I have for myself is should I fix it or is it fine as it is, a laugh is a laugh whether it is where I want it or not? Should I allow the audience to be smarter than me or should I find a way to surprise them. I think I am leading to the former because the audience is smarter than I am.

Inspiration thou name is icky cookie concept

I realized I have not written any of the series I have been doing such as the Grand Fiend or the Short Order Mad Man and I had no ideas so I wasn't thinking of it or worried. Now I read this http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/07/candy-corn-oreos_n_1865397.html

How can I not write a short order mad man story about this? Just need to make it weirder, though I don't know if  I have that power. Candy Corn Oreos seem like a torture implement from some lost civilization, lost because they made Candy Corn Oreos.

I will be in a slam tomorrow so I have to work on prepping for that but I hope to write this Oreo monsterpiece today.

Movies About Writers: Colette

A movie about writing is impossible, and a movie about a writer is almost worse, some form of unsatisfactory voyeurism. But still, there I go, watching movies about writers, even writers I don't care about. I have two books on our shelves by Colette, I have not been able to read much of either. I have Creatures Great and Small, which is a collection of dialogues between her cat and her dog about what they see of the human world. This seems like a slam dunk for me, but the book mark I found in my copy shows I made it 25 pages. I have no memory of even that many pages. There is another book of hers I have called Claudine's House that has a cover so unsettling, I am afraid to read it for fear that I will upset people walking by. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/1843914158/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

I got a dvd from Netflix and the bonus material has this 30 minute film about Colette made for the French State Department back in 1951 or so. It's not bad. Maybe because its so short. There was a time near the end that I was hoping the details were not lying and this wasn't full length. How do you make writer's compelling to watch? Their job is to ignore the world and focus on the blank page (god I wish I didn't write that sentence, the blank page....oh how droll, how dripping with portent, bleh....)

The answer is have a vain writer of failing health talk from her bed. There was a good amount of shots of where she used to live and the photography and the narration are lovely. Makes you want to live in 1888 Provence. I liked how Colette said she didn't want the movie made because who wants to see what she looks like now. Of course, that comment was filmed, so of course Colette wanted to see herself filmed.

There was a strange conversation between her and a man who I found out was Jean Cocteau, where they talked about idleness and the way she made book writing look easy. It was an odd, stilted exchange. I didn't know what to make of it. My favorite part was Colette looking at the produce her maid brought in from the market. The Maid was obviously uncomfortable with the fakeness of the exchange being done for the camera, as she was leaving, she caught herself giggling and quickly left.

Here is a few minutes of the film, the quality is poor, the one I saw was much better preserved.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F452Uxq4_7Y&feature=related