Thursday, August 21, 2008

Raymond Chandler, descriptive ninja

Google Notebook of research can be found here.

I have taken to wearing a Mirado Black Warrior (my favorite brand of pencil) in my perpetual pony tail at all times. It's mostly symbolic because I generally have enough writing utensils handy not to have to pull one out of my pony tail and brandish is like a sword, but it gives me a ninja feeling to do so, so I do it often and for no reason at all. It's mostly a reminder to myself. I feel it stuck up there and remember that I should write down that last bit of dialog I'd imagined before it leaves my head completely. I lay down at night and it jabs into my pillow. "Ah yes, I think, I should be writing." It's like a wedding ring...that constant visual/tactile reminder of your commitment.

I'm awaiting the delivery of a laptop, so I haven't been writing too much as yet. I have about half of David's first chapter written. There are some holes that need to be patched in the narrative, though. Claire's chapter has four really solid introductory paragraphs and I've also written a major moment for her. It's very exciting. The bits that I've actually written are solid. They're perhaps not as descriptive as I'd like them to be. I started reading some Raymond Chandler last night and was just humbled by his descriptive chops. I mean, DAMN. The man is a descriptive ninja. On the 5th page, I run up against this:
"Then she lowered her lashes until they almost cuddled her cheeks and slowly raised them again, like a theater curtain."
That's some good stuff. I hadn't expected it to be good stuff. I was surprised. I had intended just to skim through the The Big Sleep, but I may end up actually enjoying it for it's own merits, not just reviewing it out of research obligation. It's very MarLo.

1 comment:

LoveRundle said...

Saw you on Writers.net so I thought I'd take a look at your blogger. I carry my pencil behind my ear and always forget it's there because I have way too many pens or pencils on my desk to need the one behind my ear.

Hope you get your laptop soon.