Houstonians, Mark Your Calendars
December 6, 2008
3:00-6:00 p.m.
The First Annual neoNuma Arts Holiday Salon
Other details being hammered out, but the point being, it will be like a big book signing. Not all neoNuma authors will be there, but some will and they'll be reading and signing books, and I'm looking into other attractions (maybe some music?). It should be a fun, artsy way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
~~~~~~~~
In other news . . . I'm working away on Nighthawks, now that Necropolis is out in the world. (have you secured your copy?) It's only been a year since The Fatal Gift of Beauty was published (have you secured your copy?), but I'm being reminded how much work goes into formatting a play. I haven't done that many kinds of books yet, but short of heavy graphics, I have to say that plays win the tedium race. Not that I'm complaining. I wouldn't do it if I didn't think it was worth it. It's just that there are a lot more elements to play layouts than a straight ahead prose or poetry book. Speakers, stage directions, all kinds of little cues to help the reader (especially the non-theater professional reader) see the script on stage, hear the actors, get the rhythm of a scene. The playwright does some of this, of course, but my task as editor is to make sure it all translates to a general audience.
What is fun about the process is how much time I get to spend with the words. When I first read Evan Guilford-Blake's play (based upon the Edward Hopper painting), of course I liked it. I wouldn't be telling you about it now if I hadn't. But now that I have to go through the play line by line, it's fun to see the craft of playwriting up close.
Playwriting is all about the sound, of course. In that sense, it's not all that different from poetry, except the sound has to sound like speech, and what's more, each character has to sound like an individual speaker. There can be heightened language, as in poetry, but it has to fit a character. Evan does that nicely with these characters. I can tell he heard these characters in his head and he worked hard to make sure we could hear them, too. Now, that means there's some dialect in this script. Conventional wisdom says (at least among prose fiction writers) that if you can avoid dialect, do so. Convey education or regionalism with speech patterns or other descriptive words, but avoid the contractions and misspellings that can make a reader go crazy trying to decipher words.
Evan uses dialect. He conveys characters with misspelled words. And I don't think you could get the sound he has in his head without it. "Okay" doesn't tell me the same thing about a character that "Ah-kay." does. I think (and I hope casual readers will agree) that Evan gives us these clues to the characters' speech patterns without making our eyes stumble---or if we stumble, we re-read it, get it, and get more than the simple words on the page tell us.
There's much work to be done on this book, but I'm finding it very enjoyable labor. This is going to be a fine addition to the neoNuma catalog. Keep watching this blog for announcements about availability.
-Neil
3:00-6:00 p.m.
The First Annual neoNuma Arts Holiday Salon
Other details being hammered out, but the point being, it will be like a big book signing. Not all neoNuma authors will be there, but some will and they'll be reading and signing books, and I'm looking into other attractions (maybe some music?). It should be a fun, artsy way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
~~~~~~~~
In other news . . . I'm working away on Nighthawks, now that Necropolis is out in the world. (have you secured your copy?) It's only been a year since The Fatal Gift of Beauty was published (have you secured your copy?), but I'm being reminded how much work goes into formatting a play. I haven't done that many kinds of books yet, but short of heavy graphics, I have to say that plays win the tedium race. Not that I'm complaining. I wouldn't do it if I didn't think it was worth it. It's just that there are a lot more elements to play layouts than a straight ahead prose or poetry book. Speakers, stage directions, all kinds of little cues to help the reader (especially the non-theater professional reader) see the script on stage, hear the actors, get the rhythm of a scene. The playwright does some of this, of course, but my task as editor is to make sure it all translates to a general audience.
What is fun about the process is how much time I get to spend with the words. When I first read Evan Guilford-Blake's play (based upon the Edward Hopper painting), of course I liked it. I wouldn't be telling you about it now if I hadn't. But now that I have to go through the play line by line, it's fun to see the craft of playwriting up close.
Playwriting is all about the sound, of course. In that sense, it's not all that different from poetry, except the sound has to sound like speech, and what's more, each character has to sound like an individual speaker. There can be heightened language, as in poetry, but it has to fit a character. Evan does that nicely with these characters. I can tell he heard these characters in his head and he worked hard to make sure we could hear them, too. Now, that means there's some dialect in this script. Conventional wisdom says (at least among prose fiction writers) that if you can avoid dialect, do so. Convey education or regionalism with speech patterns or other descriptive words, but avoid the contractions and misspellings that can make a reader go crazy trying to decipher words.
Evan uses dialect. He conveys characters with misspelled words. And I don't think you could get the sound he has in his head without it. "Okay" doesn't tell me the same thing about a character that "Ah-kay." does. I think (and I hope casual readers will agree) that Evan gives us these clues to the characters' speech patterns without making our eyes stumble---or if we stumble, we re-read it, get it, and get more than the simple words on the page tell us.
There's much work to be done on this book, but I'm finding it very enjoyable labor. This is going to be a fine addition to the neoNuma catalog. Keep watching this blog for announcements about availability.
-Neil
Labels: Christopher E. Ellis, drama, Edward Hopper, Evan Guilford-Blake, Jill Alexander Essbaum, Necropolis, Nighthawks, plays, The Fatal Gift of Beauty, theater, theatre
posted by Neil Ellis Orts at 8:37 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home