March 02, 2006
I had written in this space one of those rare long posts where I actually discuss in some detail a project I'm working on - a screenplay in this case; two of them, in fact. But my secretive side has won out, as it always does, and thus it's been deleted. I'll write about this project when it's actually done, at which point it will seem to appear out of thin air, without any of the the blood, sweat and tears a more disclosive writer might have chronicled.
I just learned that my thirteen year old brother Thomas (who many years ago starred in my early short film Ghostboy) has completed his first novel. Which is terrific, of course - but it's 160 pages long, single-spaced, whereas the novel I wrote when I was thirteen was 130 pages, double spaced! And a glance at his first page indicates a superiority not just in quantity but in content. I've been bested! Such, I suppose, is the nature of being the oldest of nine children.
I'll pause here to note that, prior to a certain age, the difference between a novel and a novella is vague at best, and word counts are not nearly as important as the number of pages, especially when those pages are printed out and stacked on the desk in front of some mightily impressed relative.
Posted by David Lowery at March 2, 2006 05:50 PM
Comments
I saw your post & idea(s) in the little sliver of time before the secret went back in the bag. They sounded fascinating.
Posted by: girish at March 3, 2006 05:31 AM
can't wait to hear about your new script one of these days....did your brother give you an autographed copy of his new book?..:)....i know the feeling, though....my cousin did the same to me with her films....my american novella class right now essentially says that---you're right---
there is no difference aside from length....then again, density really isn't an issue, then... HEART OF DARKNESS reads like a novel, it's so intense, yet it's little more than an elongated short story....whereas CATCHER IN THE RYE has always felt like a novella to me....
Posted by: frank at March 3, 2006 11:27 AM
Girish - if I ever get enough money to make it (them) and it actually gets released, you'll be able to say you were there from the beginning!
Frank - no autographed copies yet, since my brother is currently paying my 11 year old sister to edit it before printing it. She's a bit of a prodigy. I should probably pay her to edit my own writing.
By the way, Cool Wheels was hilariously awesome! If any of you readers out there are fans of Strangers With Candy-ish absurd high school comedy, click here.
Posted by: Ghostboy at March 3, 2006 07:51 PM
thanks, david....nothing like playing a handicapped Fonz to top off my acting year...:)
Posted by: frank at March 3, 2006 09:11 PM