Paige Hawthorne: Blog

Not to be confused with Epistrophe.

Diacope — take one word or phrase, put something in the middle, and repeat the phrase.

“Run, Toto, Run!”

“Bond, James Bond.”

And one that’s been around for a while …

“To be … or not … to be.”

You’re welcome,

Paige

Despite petitions, lawsuits, marches, boycotts, hunger strikes, threats of physical violence, membership resignations, sit-ins, walkouts write-ins, runouts, stoppages, and protests in the streets, the unthinkable has happened. Again.

For the sixth year in a row, the Big Clit finds me listed in the Author of the Year column. Yep — time for my annual humiliation. Why not double-dip it? I’m in that Lifetime thing too.

Plus, one of my stories limped into contention in two or three categories. Unfortunately, only one of my remaining three readers is able to figure out how to vote.

Once again, no one will be shouting, “Habemus Papam!” in my direction.

Paige

To click on the SOL Home Page, bad news strikes again. I’ve gone against my better judgement — and countless reader-pleas — and allowed my Research Department to unearth, and post, a major update of “Part 2— The Real Housewives of Sausalito, Mississippi”.

The 35,000-word addition can be found in Chapter 348, if any of you masochists are up for more punishment. Come to think of it, it’s in Chapter 348 whether you read it or not.

Fair warning … this (very) naughty spoof of religious zealots is unedited. It is too … something … for the delicate sensitivities of normal editors.

Proceed at your own risk,

Paige

In Tracy Daugherty’s riveting biography — “Larry McMurtry — A Life” — he cites McMurtry’s philosophy of writing. One example, in a letter to his friend, Ken Kesey, McMurtry said, “For me the novel is character creation. Style is nice, plot is nice, structure is okay, social significance is okay, symbolism worms its way in, timeliness is okay too, but unless the characters convince and live the book’s got no chance.”

At a posh Georgetown party, he overheard a famous Washington, D. C. hostess say, “Good God … I’d rather fuck him than read him.”

Another observation, “I consider it a process of discovery, writing a novel. But I always start with the ending,” he said. “I get tremendous surprises.”

In 1986, McMurtry was invited to speak at a small college in Uvalde, Texas. Yes, that Uvalde. He was staying at the Holiday Inn, where their marque read, “Welcome to Larry Mcmurty, Author of “Terms of Endearment.”

During a lunch break on campus, he learned he’d just been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for “Lonesome Dove.” The next day he was told that the hotel had upgraded their marque — “Catfish Special, $3.99.”

Paige

The “New Yorker” recently profiled a talented hyphenate named Scott Frank. He’s a script-doctor, screenwriter, and director. He wrote “Little Man Tate” when he was 19. A few of his many other projects are “Get Shorty”, “Minority Report”, and “The Queen’s Gambit”.

When called in to rescue a film (to rewrite the script), he charges $300,000 a week.

Insiders say that most writers can do either story or character. Frank does both. And, like Lee Child (Reacher), he forges the story to fit the character.

He also believes in that Billy Wilder observation — “If you have a problem in the third act, the real problem is in the first act.”

Frank has an interesting take on the concerns about Artificial Intelligence and its ability to take over the writing field — as magnificent as it is, “It can’t make an audience care about the character.”

Frank is also a consultant to the Sundance Screenwriters Lab. His advice — “Stop watching movies and start reading.”

Paige