1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

03-05-2011 om 12:09 geschreven door Tederdraads  

Singing along with the Beatles reminds me of being 8 years old and sitting in the passenger’s seat of my father’s car and not having a care in the world (apart form being totally awed by this giant father of mine, who was God, rock idol, King, favourite writer, favourite painter, toughest dude, slickest strategist all rolled into one to me and he really was all those things- it will be hot in Heaven tonight)

Only doubting whether I should become a second lieutenant or a surgeon. John Lennon had it right however when he said: ‘Life is what happens to you, while you’re planning for something else’

So I didn’t become an officer, not an army officer anyway, and I didn’t become a surgeon, not the kind that dissects bodies anyway. So I went to study Russian, because that sounded real fancy and sounded like very difficult. But I knew it was a safe bet, it’s just an other fucking language, I can do any language. So it was a safe gamble. I’m naturally inclined to safe gambles, that’s why I win most board games and get to have jobs I don’t have the right degree for.

And then, in my second year of studying fancy Russian, I met Pavel Ocepek, my teacher of Slovene. And then it’s like the universe chooses a path for you and puts you back on it as soon as you stray a bit too much. He’s the one who made me a writer. A fledgling one, but a very eager and stubborn one. And so studying Russian, became a course in advanced writing and I'm almost about to graduate. 

Studying Russian became styding Slovene became studying writing became studying girls.

Thoroughly.

Which brings us back to the Beatles. Because the first beautiful woman I caressed came into my life with ‘A ticket to ride’ as an intro. And an excellent intro that was.

I love the Beatles.  

03-05-2011 om 11:41 geschreven door Tederdraads  

Don't know whether I have Nietzsche to thank for this, 
but I experience a blending of time, like I can travel 
through different 'nows'

I'm still picking beans with my father

he is still puzzling every passerby by saying hi to them right after voting

he is still playing records and rolling over the floor, dancing with a chair

he is still saying to a 30-something woman: you should sleep
with my son, you could still learn a couple of things

he's still saying after an event where I made the opening speech: now, ok, 
that was like The Rolling Stones were 
the opening act for a crappy band like the Pebbles

I am still going down on Y as a birthday gift to myself

we are still coming right at the same moment, flowing into each other, 
I in her impeccable, devoid of all evil, strong-willed and bright blue eyes,
she in my psychedelic green-yellow-brown all embracing hedonistic eyes

X is still riding me right after I ran 12 kms and felt superbly young and alive
and she is still saying I have the body of an ancient Greek God 
(something she didn't mean in a completely
positive way, but still) 

I am still getting applause from my class of Slovene 
right after my teacher got my letters to him
in slovene published in some magazine

I am still giving scandalous speeches at university 
which people still talk about today

and I am still being held tightly in Z's arms, 
like I don't remember if a girl ever held me that tightly

I hope everyone can feel god-like immersed 
in the sea of their favorite nows 

03-05-2011 om 00:00 geschreven door Tederdraads