Of Love & The Chinese Beer Flower

n the latest screenplay, The Beer Flower Limited, I juxtapose two characters with conflicting philosophies; an American financier who swears by the free market, but sees the affairs of the heart as a monopoly and a Chinese micro-brewer who refuses to mass produce her beer for fear of poor quality, but who claims to love everyone and everything. He derides her ubiquitous hugs and off-the-cuff proclamations of love for one and all as "the Bud Light of Friendship." She mocks his "Unicorn Love Ale" as non-existent.

Who's right? Which of the two values love best?

She fills her love portfolio with friends, family and animals; a healthy diversity of love assets that keep loneliness risk at bay for a steady and modest love yield at the cost of a big love return.

He values love so high that it's an illiquid issue akin to Berkshire Hathaway A stock which he is only willing to purchase when sure it will out-perform the average love market for the long run; a good, all-his-organic-love-eggs-in-one-basket bet...till Warren Buffet meets his maker.

Through the writing of this screenplay and The L-v- Fund earlier this past fall, I've had to think about a subject I haven't thought about seriously in a long time. In so doing, I've asked myself, what's normal? What's not? What's best? What can be learned from the other side of each argument? And what could constitute a compromise?

Using beer, Chinese drinking games and the language of the marketplace for cover, I find a way to discuss how we value love - for better or for worse - in The Beer Flower Limited.

Grinding It Out

ince my last post, I've registered for an introductory screenwriting course through the Gotham Writer's Workshop, started writing my second screenplay (The Beer Flower Limited) and begun reading the course's textbook which has already given me some good pointers on screenplay structure. I've also landed a new job which will allow me to attend the night course and, hopefully, free up more time to write. I hope to read the textbook once all the way through before starting the course so it's not all brand new and then again in class. I've also requested from the NYPL the movies the textbook refers to so I can get a better feel for them before we discuss them in class.

All in all, I'm feeling good about this fall and the progress I can make. Yeah, I know, all ho-hum to-do list kinda stuff, but that's what it takes. There are a few folks out there who make it overnight, but for the rest of us, we grind it out day after day.

Back in the Groove

ow that a number of concerns are out of the way, I only have one distraction from writing: baseball. Every year I brace myself for a serious writing hiatus as my mind wanders to the playing field and every year I find a way to make progress nevertheless. Hopefully this year will yield more of the same.

To that end, I picked up The BFL the other day and put pen back to paper. It felt good. Very good. It didn't take long for the story to come back to me, nor for my interest and excitement for the story to do the same.

I have also restarted my research into Chinese language. I picked up The Stories Behind 100 Chinese Idioms at the library and should finish it in the next few days. I'll share some of my favorite idioms and the stories behind them in future posts.

Jinxing Myself

ork on The Beer Flower Limited (The Girl Who Cried L-v-) has temporarily stalled while I tend to other matters that require attention. Yeah, I'm not happy about it either, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

That being said, a writer/editor is taking a close look at Any Color You Want. We'll then consider how to pitch it to some of the agents and independent publishers that she knows. For as much as I'm trying not to get ahead of myself, it is fun to think about a possible book tour and how I would present myself and my work in an engaging manner. More on this later, like, when it gets closer to being a reality.

Mining the calendar

n Any Color You Want I used the lead-up to and the outcome of a kids' soccer tournament to build tension (along with a historic Election Day, a mammoth financial meltdown and other goodies). In The Beer Flower Limited (The Girl Who Cried L-v-), I have a rivalry between two individuals (Pijiu and Houston), two countries (China and the U.S.), (at least) two media outlets (East and West) and other factors to build tension, but it never hurts to consult the calendar.

In this case, I'm consulting the Chinese calendar, in particular, their calendar and history of cultural festivals as described in Traditional Chinese Festivals (2007) from the Spring Festival to the Harvest Festival. Until I actually get to make the trip to China, this book and others have greatly enlightened me as to Chinese traditions, history, culture and language - all bits that can only make my story richer and more poignant.

Working with a particular festival can also help me time my story as a community/country prepares for a festival, celebrates a festival and then recovers from it essentially providing its own arc which the rest of the story can run parallel to, if I so choose.

Lastly, thanks to Jessica Hische for the capital "I" that lead off this post. She has made such caps available for free through her Daily Drop Cap site.

Telephone poles, hedgehogs and rigor mortis

As I did for my African characters in Any Color You Want, I've done some research into Chinese proverbs and idioms for The Beer Flower Limited (The Girl Who Cried L-v-). Some that I've come across include:

Using telephone poles as chopsticks - putting much material to petty use.

A dog snapping at a hedgehog - having nowhere to bite.

A hand stretched from a coffin - asking for money even when dead.

A swarm of ants on a hot oven - milling around in a panic.

These come from 100 Chinese Two-Part Allegorical Sayings.

4 down...14 to go

Four chapters down, fourteen to go. What's even better is I'm seeing the story and all its various parts come together not only in the chapters I'm working on, but in chapter as yet written. I just have to do a better job of being more productive on days I work, not just the days I have off. Getting my ass out of bed in a timely fashion would be a good start...

The Importance of Tangible Nouns

I got a little excited the other day about beer truck murals, beer bottle labels and chapstick. Here's why. These tangible nouns give me flexibility. First, they can change over time. Murals change with ad campaigns, personal choice or simply the seasons. Labels start on bottles, but can be peeled off. Their designs also change. Chapstick is new one day and all used up later on. They also allow me to convey an idea without saying it directly.

Edgar Watson Howe once said, "A good scare is worth more to a man than good advice." I'd wager that most of us don't take advice unless we ask for it. In this case, no one has asked for my advice. No one has asked me to write this book (or any book) providing advice or counsel on anything. But I've got a story to tell and some would say it has a moral. How then do I give advice to those who haven't asked for it? Well, I could take Howe's advice and provide a good scare. To a certain extent, I see that happening in The Beer Flower Limited (The Girl Who Cried L-v-). But more traditionally, in fiction circles, writers use symbols. In this case, I've got my tangible nouns.

That being said, what I may wish to be a symbol for failure or l-v- may be understood for something completely different, if it's understood at all.

Of Beer Trucks, Bottle Labels and Chapstick

While I'm still working on the broad strokes of The Beer Flower Limited (The Girl Who Cried L-v-), I have already come up with two to three touches that I look forward to working into the greater picture. In Any Color You Want, it was the Car Alarm Symphony. This time I'm going to play with beer truck murals, beer bottle labels and chapstick.

And for those of you familiar with A Midas Spring, yes, that chapstick.

18 chapters in 18 days

That's the challenge I'm presenting myself. I'm already pissed off for not introducing myself to a girl tonight at Amy Bloom's reading so I'm going to take it out on The BFL. 18 2-4 page chapters in 18 days. Mark it down. February 27. It's on.

In other news, I submitted ACYW to a contest and started research on small presses.

A Dahl Version

I spent a lot of time this week refining The BFL's outline which now calls for eighteen chapters. I also considered how to write the story. Going with the subtitle, The Girl Who Cried L-v-, I could write it akin to a Grimm fairytale, or in a more modern vein, akin to a Roald Dahl story. While he wrote with greater detail in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a number of his books find ways to make the most of the little description that he provided. To this end, I'm considering writing a rough Dahl version of The BFL, ie, starting with 2-4 page write-ups for each chapter, concentrating first on moving the story along and second, working in key details that appeal to the five senses.

Once I have that broad version done, I could then review and consider what parts of the story to expand on and what needs greater descriptive detail.

The end

After staring at my computer screen for the last three days, taking innumerable breaks to nap, to run errands, to listen to reggae, the Gym Class Heroes, Holly Miranda and Hall & Oates, to track down Chinese drinking songs and attempt to make dark Muscovado brownies (failed, but succeeded in making a tasty potato casserole with gouda, garlic and thyme), I have come up with the framework for an ending to The Beer Flower Limited. It needs work - no doubt - but I like it. It works. Or it will with some jigging.

After a little more cleaning up of the outline, I should be ready to race ahead.

Learning from the past

After a year and a half of writing Any Color You Want, friends suggested that I cut the first 70 pages and get to the action. Before doing so, I noted what bits from those first 70 pages I really needed and then found homes for them later in the book. Tonight I've taken pre-emptive steps to making the same mistake with The Beer Flower Limited.

Until tonight, my outline consisted of 7 chapters. Earlier this week I hit the point where the little engine ran out of track. Over the last few days I've gone back to flesh out the outline more. So far I've more than doubled the number of chapters, adding depth to the story and characters. I've also rejigged the order of things so that the reader hits the ground running instead of being hit over the head with slow moving background info upfront.

All this being said, I'm still not sure where the story will end up. Back to work on the outline...