The Conversation Begins
“So we’re here for a good riddance Ed party, aka going away party, and also a welcome back to town Kelly party since he’s in from NYC for the weekend .... and of course we’re perhaps overconfidently using an ipod to record our conversations because, well, that’s what we do because we think the world will be interested in our “brilliance” ... but I’ve got a big idea we can all work on together via the Internet wherever we are something to keep our creative energies flowing.... I mentioned last year, and I want to get started on it finally .... remember .... `the book of a thousand authors` .... or at least that’s the name you came up with when I first mentioned it last year Sags”
“That you did Ed .... although I prefer you stop calling me Sags, I know it is based on my last name and makes sense, but I like to think nothing about me is saggy and go with my actual name, James .... James Sagamore works better for a history teacher than the less-than-dignified ‘sags’ ..... and anyway, are you actually going to sit down and write something this time? Last year you suggested the idea but it never came through...”
“Yeah Saggers, I already have some ideas...”
“Wait, what is this idea again?” Maria intoned, “I remember something about this...”
“And please cease all Sag-derived naming of me....”
Nick (a.k.a Meade for his last name, Belmeade) chimes in, “well, it’s basically this.... one author starts out writing a chapter, or at least an intro, then another author writes the next part, then another author, then another, till eventually this mix of all these writers contributing becomes the story.”
“Yeah, so that’s why Jimbo came up with the awesomely catchy title of “The Book of a Thousand Authors.”
“Ed, I’ll broaden my request .... no sag-based names and as well no “good-old-boy” sounding versions of my name. I am James.”
“A year in London and Sags sophisticates himself into wanting to be called James .... well we’ll see if this next year I’ve got coming up studying in Italy turns me into an Edmundo. “
“So Ed and James, enough about the names, getting back to the idea .... how are we gonna start this off? We have here silently listening but not yet commenting Mr. Kelly Johns; you’ve written a novel and are talking to agents, that makes you our ‘resident expert’, and you and ‘James’ had started a play before, and Maria, long time since you wrote screenplays and songs but this’ll be a great creative venue where you can use those skills again. And no doubt Elise, with all the literature you’re read, and all the more in French, your international flair will be fun .... maybe we’ll make it into a musical someday and you can use your music skills with this too! And actually we have people so far in this group that have been all over the world.”
“Well, one idea I had to start out with, I’m not real certain about how it’ll grab the reader though... is if we write a story about a group of people trying to do what we are doing and write a story together. It’ll be like a story within a story. If we weave in some of the events that happen in their lives, and as well describe the process and emotions they are going through as each tries to write, and each of us is writing from our own perspective it could be interesting. We’ll collaboratively write a story about other writers collaboratively writing a story. But we’ll make it a huge group of people writing, and we’ll make our characters way interesting, all over the globe .... y’know, maybe have some in a big city like NYC, and others in small towns, and others writing from overseas ... and our book will describe how those authors do what we in fact are doing ourselves. What do y’all think of that idea?”
“Well, I mean, we’re creative people, but I’ve got loads of work for grad school. It’d be so so tough to find the time to think of ideas to write,” Maria states.
Then finally Kelly speaks up saying, “Expressing the ideas clearly and chronicling it as a full book is a difficult task. However, short entries might not be too bad for people to post when they get inspired to put in their two-cents. A thought on that based on Kerouac. You know, he wasn’t necessarily so brilliant as people would say. He just had a good memory, and when he got home every weekend he chronicled his own absurd, obscene and/or just plain interesting experiences. We have some fascinating discussions, and we meet some interesting people, so use your own experiences as ideas. But y’know, it’s still a novel, so if there’s an imagined scene where the shady looking guy you see outside your office having a smoke every day, well if he turns out in the story to be an undercover agent or something, it’s still a novel, we can take some liberties.”
“That you did Ed .... although I prefer you stop calling me Sags, I know it is based on my last name and makes sense, but I like to think nothing about me is saggy and go with my actual name, James .... James Sagamore works better for a history teacher than the less-than-dignified ‘sags’ ..... and anyway, are you actually going to sit down and write something this time? Last year you suggested the idea but it never came through...”
“Yeah Saggers, I already have some ideas...”
“Wait, what is this idea again?” Maria intoned, “I remember something about this...”
“And please cease all Sag-derived naming of me....”
Nick (a.k.a Meade for his last name, Belmeade) chimes in, “well, it’s basically this.... one author starts out writing a chapter, or at least an intro, then another author writes the next part, then another author, then another, till eventually this mix of all these writers contributing becomes the story.”
“Yeah, so that’s why Jimbo came up with the awesomely catchy title of “The Book of a Thousand Authors.”
“Ed, I’ll broaden my request .... no sag-based names and as well no “good-old-boy” sounding versions of my name. I am James.”
“A year in London and Sags sophisticates himself into wanting to be called James .... well we’ll see if this next year I’ve got coming up studying in Italy turns me into an Edmundo. “
“So Ed and James, enough about the names, getting back to the idea .... how are we gonna start this off? We have here silently listening but not yet commenting Mr. Kelly Johns; you’ve written a novel and are talking to agents, that makes you our ‘resident expert’, and you and ‘James’ had started a play before, and Maria, long time since you wrote screenplays and songs but this’ll be a great creative venue where you can use those skills again. And no doubt Elise, with all the literature you’re read, and all the more in French, your international flair will be fun .... maybe we’ll make it into a musical someday and you can use your music skills with this too! And actually we have people so far in this group that have been all over the world.”
“Well, one idea I had to start out with, I’m not real certain about how it’ll grab the reader though... is if we write a story about a group of people trying to do what we are doing and write a story together. It’ll be like a story within a story. If we weave in some of the events that happen in their lives, and as well describe the process and emotions they are going through as each tries to write, and each of us is writing from our own perspective it could be interesting. We’ll collaboratively write a story about other writers collaboratively writing a story. But we’ll make it a huge group of people writing, and we’ll make our characters way interesting, all over the globe .... y’know, maybe have some in a big city like NYC, and others in small towns, and others writing from overseas ... and our book will describe how those authors do what we in fact are doing ourselves. What do y’all think of that idea?”
“Well, I mean, we’re creative people, but I’ve got loads of work for grad school. It’d be so so tough to find the time to think of ideas to write,” Maria states.
Then finally Kelly speaks up saying, “Expressing the ideas clearly and chronicling it as a full book is a difficult task. However, short entries might not be too bad for people to post when they get inspired to put in their two-cents. A thought on that based on Kerouac. You know, he wasn’t necessarily so brilliant as people would say. He just had a good memory, and when he got home every weekend he chronicled his own absurd, obscene and/or just plain interesting experiences. We have some fascinating discussions, and we meet some interesting people, so use your own experiences as ideas. But y’know, it’s still a novel, so if there’s an imagined scene where the shady looking guy you see outside your office having a smoke every day, well if he turns out in the story to be an undercover agent or something, it’s still a novel, we can take some liberties.”
posted by DiploThinker at 6:22 PM
1 Comments:
I want to be part of the "Book of 1,000 authors".
Where can I sign up?
:)
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