Coming Down the Pipeline
by Robison E. Wells (the E stands for Quality)
My next book, The Counterfeit, will be released in a few months. And while my first two novels each took less than a year to write, this one has taken two-and-a-half years. The problem I've had during that time is that I come up with ideas a whole lot faster than I write books -- and it makes me kind of sad to realize that a lot of these ideas will never see the light of day. (Once again, this problem could be solved with more time, and I'd have more time if I had an unpaid intern. Or, if I were fabulously wealthy. I'd take either.)
So, here is a short account of what is currently sitting on the back burner. These are projects that I fully intend to devote time to, eventually -- I have other ideas that I fully intend to never devote time to, such as the tale of three wacky Vietnamese roommates named Bo, Beau, and Charles. (Seriously, this stupid thing has been sitting in my head for four years now, and I can't get it out. I'm nearly ready to funnel bleach into my ear canal to wash my brain.)
Anyway, future projects:
1) A romantic comedy where the man and woman do not meet each other until the last page -- possibly the very last paragraph. And I'm not talking about some Sleepless in Seattle nonsense either, where they follow each other around -- these people will never meet at all.
I worked on this for quite a while and couldn't get it right. I've since decided that it would be a far better screenplay than a book.
2) A collaborative novel, utilizing wiki. This is a project that Matthew Buckley and I are fiddling with: we co-write the chapters, and then open it up online for immediate semi-public editing and comments (ala wikipedia).
3) An action/adventure novel that's kind of Indiana Jones with BoM artifacts.
4) A collaborative screenplay, with U of U film student Sam Potter.
5) I have vague desires to write something for the national market, although I have no idea what. I keep hearing that there's a lot of money out there, and I loves me some money.
6) But most important, and the whole reason for today's post, is that Monday, May 1st, something big is coming. It's something that, as far as we can tell, has never been done in the LDS market. It's a mountain of work, and it's the reason that I never return anyone's emails, and never update my personal blog, and never sleep anymore. But it's going to be cool.
Stay tuned.
My next book, The Counterfeit, will be released in a few months. And while my first two novels each took less than a year to write, this one has taken two-and-a-half years. The problem I've had during that time is that I come up with ideas a whole lot faster than I write books -- and it makes me kind of sad to realize that a lot of these ideas will never see the light of day. (Once again, this problem could be solved with more time, and I'd have more time if I had an unpaid intern. Or, if I were fabulously wealthy. I'd take either.)
So, here is a short account of what is currently sitting on the back burner. These are projects that I fully intend to devote time to, eventually -- I have other ideas that I fully intend to never devote time to, such as the tale of three wacky Vietnamese roommates named Bo, Beau, and Charles. (Seriously, this stupid thing has been sitting in my head for four years now, and I can't get it out. I'm nearly ready to funnel bleach into my ear canal to wash my brain.)
Anyway, future projects:
1) A romantic comedy where the man and woman do not meet each other until the last page -- possibly the very last paragraph. And I'm not talking about some Sleepless in Seattle nonsense either, where they follow each other around -- these people will never meet at all.
I worked on this for quite a while and couldn't get it right. I've since decided that it would be a far better screenplay than a book.
2) A collaborative novel, utilizing wiki. This is a project that Matthew Buckley and I are fiddling with: we co-write the chapters, and then open it up online for immediate semi-public editing and comments (ala wikipedia).
3) An action/adventure novel that's kind of Indiana Jones with BoM artifacts.
4) A collaborative screenplay, with U of U film student Sam Potter.
5) I have vague desires to write something for the national market, although I have no idea what. I keep hearing that there's a lot of money out there, and I loves me some money.
6) But most important, and the whole reason for today's post, is that Monday, May 1st, something big is coming. It's something that, as far as we can tell, has never been done in the LDS market. It's a mountain of work, and it's the reason that I never return anyone's emails, and never update my personal blog, and never sleep anymore. But it's going to be cool.
Stay tuned.
RobisonWells — 4/25/2006 11:28:00 AM
19 comments
19 Comments:
Just like a writer to tell us something is coming, but we have to stay tuned in order to find out what.
The "E" stands for making me laugh out loud before I even read the post
Oh for crying out loud.
Thanks Fell, for the constructive criticism.
Come on, Rob. Just a clue? Pretty please? I'll be in San Antonio on The Big Day and won't have access to a computer. Will it be on the NBC Nightly News? Entertainment Tonight? Comedy Central? Curiosity might be the 8th deadly sin. (It certainly feels fatal.) Don't do this to me!
Robison, did you read my suggestion to write a book about the Berlin Wall coming down? I would base it from the experience of the anonymous small guy who said, "we are not keeping people in anymore." And make him not Mormon, but friends with a Mormon, not even a particularly good Mormon. Have him die at the end.
It wouldn't be LDS fiction, but you could be the next John LeCarre.
What I would do is start by writing a conversation with his priest, then change the priest to his less than devout Mormon friend.
You could make the whole book about a week in his life.
I think you've got something there, I thought I knew a lot, but that is a particularly interesting fact.
Anne, maybe you should write that book.
Regarding your idea #1, you definitely need to see "Next Stop Wonderland," which is basically the exact plot you describe. Wonderful independent film! Put it on your Netflix list.
Kerry -- the curiousity is the whole point!
Dancer and I
As I watch, astonished,
what I hunger for,
is not what I know I cannot do.
But for this cocksure witness
to what I know some other human being can:
The summoning of summer to a song,
the color of plum to a line,
the translation to the mother tongue
of what there is in flight.
Following the dancer, the cascade of discipline and
abandon like the trill of an impossible note,
I am consumed by beauty.
It is not envy nor even desire that engages me;
All is the lifting by the tongues of bells.
Here. Now.
Toes buttocks fingers instincts
tingle with places to hold and take off from
knowing for once How.
-Emma Lou Thayne
My last words to you folks.
It looks like I spoke too soon--my comment is much more appropriate now.
That's a gorgeous poem. Thank you.
But I hope this doesn't mean this is your last post on our blog!
About the wiki, do you already have some sort of sponsor and/or web hosting? My company would love to sponsor the wiki.
I don't know which wiki we were going to use. Matthew Buckley is handling the technical side (because I know nothing about it), and he's currently in Japan at an Open CourseWare conference.
Send me your email, and we'll drop you a line when he comes back. (You can send me an email at robisonwells at msn.com)
Is this what you're doing with Stephanie? You guys are making me crazy, dropping hints and then clamming up. Good thing it's only a few days away.
Sigh. I only added "blog" to my vocabulary a few months ago. Will somebody please define wiki?
Truly, I ought to just go lie down with the other dinosaurs. I wonder if the La Brea pit has any openings...
Vanessa -- yes, this is the thing that Stephanie helped me with, and all shall be revealed shortly.
Kerry, wiki is what makes the internet cool. Basically, you post an article to the web, and you make it completely open to everyone and anyone to update/edit.
The best example is wikipedia: an online enclyclopedia that allows anyone at all to create articles, edit them, and change anything. And the cool thing is that wikipedia is packed with information, on just about any topic. A recent study declared that, byte for byte, wikipedia is more accurate than Encylopedia Britannica. Here's the link.
And Vanessa: I didn't quite understand your response to my question. What part of Eastern Oregon? (I ask because my wife's family is from Union, and I always get dragged up there for family reunions...)
I don't know what a wiki is either and I've been doing this a year and a half.
That was my last word about your writing. I thought it explained.
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