Aaron C. Bennett's Writing Journal

Dagon Want You!

The Rising kept up the pace. It was a very enjoyable read. It was almost too intense from the start. I felt breathless while reading it. The parallels to Ketchum are eerie. The character of Frankie was very good. I liked how we get inside her head and see her change. I thought the diction was pretty good at first, although it did slip a few times. Overall I think Keene captured her very well. I think Keene did a good job of maintaining a terse tone throughout. He did a good job of introducing challenges to each character's wishes. Each section shows conflict. The endings to each chapter leave the reader searching for more. The end result is, the reader feels propelled through the book. You're not so much reading as getting carried along.
I couldn't help seeing parallels to 28 Days Later (as well as many other zombie movies). While many of the elements were not fresh, they were dealt with very deftly. I liked how the showdown at the compound played out. I wanted the military guys to bite it, at least the assholes. It wasn't just a slaughter, but they didn't just come in and kill all the zombies. It seemed more like reality. That leads into the end--reality. I seriously thought I had been gypped out of the last chapter on first reading. Now I realize how striking that ending is. You don't really know the fate of Danny. You get a good inkling, but nothing is certain. You get the feeling that the end is hopeless, but Keene doesn't show it to you. I think that is more striking. Any ending he would have written would have been bad. If they would have survived and made it into the mountains, it would have seemed trite. You would have been able to see it coming from a mile away. It would have let the reader off the hook. Keene leaves the reader up there on that hook, bleeding and squirming. If he would have shown an end to all the humans you had followed, the end would have been to great of a letdown. People would have hated the book. You don't follow these people all this way to see them all die. You can see them fail, but utter failure and death might have been too much.

I just started The First 5 Pages. It is a pretty good book so far. Much of it is review, but the exercises and examples are good. They really impress why you shouldn't do X thing in your writing. I like books like this written from an agent or editor. They help from the market standpoint. In most cases, good fiction is saleable fiction. With that driving force, writers are more inclined to fix their writing. I've actually had people argue for bad writing as "that's just their style." Bad writing is bad writing. If that's your style, don't expect me to read it. If you take that attitude, how are you ever going to improve?
I really liked how blunt he was about adjectives and adverbs. I've read it in about every writing book, but Lukeman really drives it home, and explains succinctly why you need to avoid those overuses. I also loved his discussion about the sound of your prose. I have not written poetry much lately. I think my prose has suffered. Worrying about every word forced me to look at the language more. I think I'm going to try and write a short poem every day to keep myself in that habit. I also might take down the ton of poetry books I have and revisit those old favorites with a an eye for the language. I love the mood of the cemetery poets, Benet, Poe, etc. His comments on comparisons are very apt. Stephen King remarked about a man waiting for something like a man waits for a turkey sandwich. What does that even mean? I love Anias Nin for those off the wall comparisons that work so well you can't imagine it any other way.
I took a taste of Ketchum Peaceable Kingdom. Man does he have his chops. He can scare the hell out of a reader in a few pages. Have it twist unexpectedly from genre norms: just enough to keep it fresh, but not enough that would warrant too much explanation. I see why he recommended that I write more shorts. The command of language and effect are all seen there.
I had my normal Friday movie night. I saw Once Upon a Time in Mexico. I liked it but it showed a few too many signs of big-budget deterioration. It did manage to keep most of that Pulp Western feel to it. Rodriguez continues to grow as a writer and director. I think he should have left the score to Los Lobos again. It didn't have that sexy Latin feel to it that Desperado had. I was also put off by Enrique Eglesias. He seemed to have been added only to appeal to the younger kids. He also doesn't appear to speak or understand Spanish. I thought that was kind of odd as the other Mexican characters speak Spanish when talking to each other. After talking to Erica afterward, I realized that they should have dubbed more. The language seemed natural to me, but I know many Spanglish speakers.
I also watched Dagon. I love Lovecraft, but many times his ideas don't translate well to the screen. I liked this take from the story. It brought in aspects from other Lovecraft stories that were little treats for the fans. Again, much of the dialogue was in Spanish without subtitles. This was Castilian Spanish, and the feelings were expressed pretty well. I didn’t have to translate anything like I did in _Mexico. It walked the line of camp, without getting too bad. This is a great B-movie offering. It managed to work in the Lovecraft mythos without looking too hokey.
Next up was Whale Rider. This was a great movie about a Maori girl. She is the "chosen one" who will lead her tribe, but her grandfather has a hard time seeing this because she is not male. It is a good heartfelt story that doesn't get bogged down in chick-flick stupidity. I loved the Haka and other war chants. They didn't subtitle them, which is probably good. I love the fact that such an intense war chant is really talking about a hairy guy and the sun rising in the east. I can see how normal American viewers wouldn't get that though. It was refreshing to have a tale like this come from the Maori culture.
I also saw Grand Canyon on TVOntario. I really wish American stations had movie nights like that. They also include interviews between the movies that are very informative for writers and film buffs. This movie did a great job of showing how F-ed up life is. It also shows that through it all, there is hope for the future. The acting, writing, direction, cinematography were all superb. This is just a great movie.
All righty. I think I need to stop procrastinating and write my own story. The deadline cometh.