Monday, April 14, 2008

Day 1: Blubbbereser

I am going to see how fast I can write a novel. I had an idea while I was walking up a mountain this weekend. One sentence. I think the novel is stuck inside it. I am going to get it out. I am going to write nonstop on it until I am done. I started today at 12:30pm and now have 4500 words at 8:18. I stopped at one point to go running, which splintered the idea. Even though I am writing fast I think I am writing meticulously, so that editing won't take long. I am trying to get it right the first time but I am also figuring things out as I go.

Certain ideas about the writing were also stirred I think by reading one part of one story in STRANGER THINGS HAPPEN by Kelly Link and a certain section of FLET by Joyelle McSweeney and by certain shit stuck in my sleeping and from a certain room.

I think it also came a little from these videos by Martijn Hendriks called GIVE US TODAY OUR DAILY DREAD where he took the film THE BIRDS by Hitchcock and edited out the birds. It makes it even more fucked.



I hope to have a draft of a 30,000 word novel in 10-15 days.

I am going to try to blog about it while doing it as a form of motivation.

I am going to catalog the things I look at so I know what I was taking in.

I am going to minimize my eating and only drink coffee/water.

There are several books I admire that were written very quickly. Jesse Ball's SAMEDI THE DEAFNESS was supposedly written in three weeks. Daniel Brenner's THE STUPEFYING FLASHBULBS was supposedly written in less than that. I want to do something that fits in the energy of those books, even more so than things that I have written recently, most of which I've also finished very quickly, including most of SCORCH ATLAS. I want to go quicker, get even meaner.

What other books were written quickly?

Look at those video and comment or email me a sentence that they make you think and I might use it in the book, as there are sections of abstruse communication and I would like to not write them.

Tonight I am going to watch INLAND EMPIRE again if I stop writing long enough.

18 comments:

Prathna Lor said...

go go go

i like these video excerpts a lot

eunuch said...

"relax, you're in the bahamas."

Ken Baumann said...

yes you are motivated. awesome.

sentence:

"The cold can't stop them."

and

"Keep it there long enough to--"

Bradley Sands said...

On the Road is the book that everybody knows was supposed to have been written quickly. You are probably one of the people who knows this.

Also, most recent Carlton Mellick novellas. He likes to write them in three days. He may be the only person who benefits from this technique.

Unknown said...

lightbulb container

Marcos said...

Post Office by Charles Bukowski was supposedly written in three weeks, while working full time and drinking himself into a stupor every night. It's a good book that holds itself together by keeping things simple.

Augusten Burroughs claims that he wrote his first novel, Sellivison, in seven days.

matthew savoca said...

inland empire.

yeah!

Bradley Sands said...

I would believe that about Sellivision. It is pretty bad.

chris killen said...

"i am only their sister"

(i am listening to Deerhoof repeatedly at the moment, and that was the line that was just sung as i opened the comment box)

Jason Jordan said...

Jesse Ball's SAMEDI THE DEAFNESS

^ Another book we can argue about, Blake. I had only a lukewarm reaction to it. Ah well.

BLAKE BUTLER said...

prathna, brian, ken, thank you.

bradley, i havent read on the road since 10th grade or so. i used to really like it. i bought a mellick book once. i didn't get it.

brandon, that's a good one.

marcos, i havent read that bukowski. i've only read a couple and that was 10th grade too i think. requisite beat phase.

i don't think i would read augusten burroughs even if he was my neighbor and really nice or something.

chris, i like that.

matthew, i made it through the first hour and right as it started getting good i felt guilty that i was not asleep so i turned it off and ended up being awake until 4 am just tossing and turning.

jason, i can understand that. there are things about the novel i would change. but i like the overall energy and nature of it a lot.

Adam R said...

Just revise the hell out of it.

Marcos said...

I haven't read Sellivision either. I thought you were just asking if we'd heard of books written quickly.

I did read Post Office, and liked it, but I wouldn't recommend it to people who don't like Bukowski. For people who haven't read Bukowski, I'd recommend Post Office over many of his others (especially Women; that book sucked.) Also, I don't consider Bukowski to be a beat, though a lot of people do.

BLAKE BUTLER said...

marcos, yeah definitely. it's interesting he wrote that quick regardless.

yeah, bukowski is definitely on the 'perimeter beat'.

Bradley Sands said...

Didn't get it physically or mentally? If mentally, which title was it?

BLAKE BUTLER said...

mentally. i cant remember which it was. satan burger? it was several years ago. i dont remember what about it i didnt get it, or anything about it really.

Bradley Sands said...

That one inspired me to write my novel.

"If this guy can write a novel, then I can," I thought.

It is not as good as his more recent work.

It's very imaginative, but the writing isn't so great.

It was before he found his voice, I think. He does this minimalist thing now. He's great now. I would recommend Sea of Patchwork Cats.

That one will probably take you an hour to read.

I also like Teeth and Tongue Landscape a lot. That one came out a while ago, maybe a couple of years after Satan Burger.

BLAKE BUTLER said...

heh, that's funny. i'll check those others out.