Leaving Your Lover
I could never be a stand-up comic because I hate talking in front of crowds. But my life . . . well, I have plenty of material. You know, not "jokes," but that Roseanne Barr, Erma Bombeck, life-as-a-mom is oh-so-funny when dealing with baby puke kind of stories.
I "think" (maybe not) when people meet me, they think I am sort of funny. My books, like Spanish Disco, are SUPPOSED to (sometimes) be funny. I even think The Roofer was funny--you know the Uncle Two Times as a weeble joke (have to read the book to get it).
But one thing I have discovered about humor is you can't force it. I have been working, off and on, on a proposal for a quirky detective-type series. The main character, who narrates, is funny--she's seen and done it all. But the fact is, with a mystery of some sort, there is usually a dead body. And dead bodies, generally, aren't funny. Neither is heartache. So sometimes the humor was forced. I knew it was all going to amount to the voice--you can make almost anything funny with the right off-the-cuff comment. Hell, funerals can be funny if you nail it right. But the fact is, it wasn't coming.
So I took a break. I left that bad boy manuscript.
And when I went back, man, if it wasn't all crystal f***ing clear. Every line, every bit of humor. My life as stand-up. It works! It works and then some, and I am so thrilled with it.
But I needed a break.
So I am not sure where the line of demarcation is between working through something even when it's hard, and going out for a martini and letting it rest for a night . . . and taking a two-month breather and starting it fresh. I know it's some internal barometer. Something that tells me, Kid . . . walk away. For now.
Like Paul Simon's Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover, at some point, you figure it out. So, with a nod to Paul Simon, here are his words. Heed them well:
She said it grieves me so to see you in such pain
I wish there was something
I could do to make you smile again
I said I appreciate that and would you please explain
About the fifty ways
She said why dont we both just sleep on it tonight
And I believe in the morning youll begin to see the light
And then she kissed me and I realized she probably was right
There must be fifty ways to leave your lover
Fifty ways to leave your lover
So? Do you sometimes have to leave your lover?
I "think" (maybe not) when people meet me, they think I am sort of funny. My books, like Spanish Disco, are SUPPOSED to (sometimes) be funny. I even think The Roofer was funny--you know the Uncle Two Times as a weeble joke (have to read the book to get it).
But one thing I have discovered about humor is you can't force it. I have been working, off and on, on a proposal for a quirky detective-type series. The main character, who narrates, is funny--she's seen and done it all. But the fact is, with a mystery of some sort, there is usually a dead body. And dead bodies, generally, aren't funny. Neither is heartache. So sometimes the humor was forced. I knew it was all going to amount to the voice--you can make almost anything funny with the right off-the-cuff comment. Hell, funerals can be funny if you nail it right. But the fact is, it wasn't coming.
So I took a break. I left that bad boy manuscript.
And when I went back, man, if it wasn't all crystal f***ing clear. Every line, every bit of humor. My life as stand-up. It works! It works and then some, and I am so thrilled with it.
But I needed a break.
So I am not sure where the line of demarcation is between working through something even when it's hard, and going out for a martini and letting it rest for a night . . . and taking a two-month breather and starting it fresh. I know it's some internal barometer. Something that tells me, Kid . . . walk away. For now.
Like Paul Simon's Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover, at some point, you figure it out. So, with a nod to Paul Simon, here are his words. Heed them well:
She said it grieves me so to see you in such pain
I wish there was something
I could do to make you smile again
I said I appreciate that and would you please explain
About the fifty ways
She said why dont we both just sleep on it tonight
And I believe in the morning youll begin to see the light
And then she kissed me and I realized she probably was right
There must be fifty ways to leave your lover
Fifty ways to leave your lover
So? Do you sometimes have to leave your lover?
posted by Erica Orloff at 6:58 PM
6 Comments:
Yep. I have purposefully not read through my finished manuscript for the past few weeks, wanting it to be fresh when I tackle the final edits. I want it to, as much as possible, seem like someone else wrote it.
In the meantime, I've started brainstorming a new, unrelated project. I'm hoping when I get back to my lover (my finished ms), absense will have made my heart grow fonder. :)
Jude:
Usually it does. I've only once or twice gone back to something and thought it was crap. And as the adage goes . . . you can fix crap.
E
Yep. I've got a lover that the trial separation has become a divorce...but I think there's a good chance of a reconciliation in the future. :)
I've been stroked in critiques of it, but wasn't happy with it myself. Couldn't figure out what was wrong until it dawned on me that it deserves to be a 'bigger' book. Bigger and more complex than I feel I have the skills to tackle at the moment. So I can let it rest until I'm ready to do it justice.
You're funny. Subtle and often caustic or even black hints of humor are far more clever and harder to accomplish in my opinion. You're right, humor can't be forced, although I know a lot of people disagree with me. I've had books passed on and people tell me 'this is hysterical'...the only joke I can see in it is that they actually READ the whole thing! To each 'is own and all that jazz.
lainey:
I have several books I am divorced from that I do intend to at one point pick up again, but for now, the divorce is working fine.
E
Yes, I always have to leave my projects for a bit of time. I thrive on a fresh eye. haha. I just wish I was a faster writer!
I've just recently graduated to finishing books this past year. My first book took me a long time to write, book 2 had to be written in lightening speed compared to the first. So it's on to the next projects where I'm volleying back and forth in order to achieve the fresh eye perspective. =D
Hi Kelly:
The nice is once you are pubbed, you get a break and then it comes back from your editor. You get a break, then it comes back from the copy editor. Then you get galleys. So you have these nice breaks to gain some perspective.
E
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