Here are a few quotations about creating first drafts to inspire all of us to keep writing:
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”
Mark Twain
A Few Quotations on Finishing First Drafts
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What Are Your Writing Goals For The First Few Months of 2021?
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I am not a huge fan of new year resolutions, because I think we should constantly reaffirm our goals and our plans for achieving these goals. I will, therefore, give my immediate writing goals and ask for yours.
My drafting goal for the next few months is to finish the first draft of an historical fiction/romance set in the World War Two era. I have about 7000 words done now, and I intend to write 2000 words/per day six days a week. If I can maintain that rate, I will have a first draft completed by the end of February.
If I am successful with that task, I will then do a small book on revision of novels and memoirs, which will be the next book in my writing series that began with Get The Draft Done! Helping Writers Finish Their First Draft.
In addition to drafting, I will also work on one more revision of my Young Adult Post-Apocalyptic Environmental novel The Ameriad: The Monastery of Knowledge.
So, to all the writers who are reading this post, I ask you: What are your writing goals for the next few months?
Favorite Holiday Movies: Part One!
StandardThis season is one of my favorite times of year, and I love doing this series on Christmas movies. Throughout the month of December, I will post on several of my favorite Christmas films.
White Christmas, the 1954 film about two former soldiers who turn song and dance men and who help their former commander as he attempts to run a floundering ski resort, has special meaning to me. It stars Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Rosemary Clooney and was directed by Michael Curtiz. It features the songs of Irving Berlin. As a major piece of American film history, that would be enough to be of interest to me, but it has a much more profound connection.
My parents were both of “the greatest generation,” which is a description with which I agree. They were born and raised during the depression and were part of the multitudes of America who fought and supported World War II. My father was a Marine, and my mother worked in the Signal Corps. This group of Americans had a toughness that was forged in the fire of great tumult, both national and international. They understood that the connection to country meant service and a willingness to sacrifice for the greater good.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_Corps_%28United_States_Army%29)
My mother loved this movie, and it was a tradition in our family to watch it when it aired on television, which was, if I remember correctly, every Christmas Eve. If not that night, then it was always on a nearby night. Of course, as a child who was born a while after World War II, it was all ancient history to me then, but for my mother and father, it spoke directly to their lives and to their hopes and dreams.
Both of my parents have been gone for quite a while now, over 20 years–they were married for 48 years and died within 2 years of each other. As I have become older, I have learned to appreciate what my parents did for us, which, I have to admit, when I was young and stupid, I did not. To paraphrase Mark Twain, –it is amazing how smart my parents got as I got older. And I appreciate and try to continue some of the family traditions, including watching White Christmas, but now with my beloved wife. And now my granddaughter is old enough to begin to appreciate and enjoy these films. I still feel the connection to my Mom and Pop when I watch this movie. This movie speaks to the connection of people, of hope, of joy, of happiness, and of the power of music.
And I wish we would have a white Christmas, and I hope it will happen this year.
How Is Your Writing Going?
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November is coming to an end, and some of you have been doing NaNoWriMo, and others have continued with a somewhat less frenzied pace.
I am one of the people who tries to write on a regular basis and avoids binge writing. I have put the finishing touches, I hope, on a reissue of my essay book, called French On English: A Guide To Writing Better Essays. I am also continuing to work on what I am calling an historical fiction/romance–imagine that coming from this writer of horror! If I can maintain my current pace, I should be able to finish the first draft by the end of January or February.
I will also begin revising one of the other first drafts I have completed. By the way, if you are wondering how I manage to do this, check out my book Get The Draft Done! Helping Writers Finish Their First Draft — how’s that for a bit of shameless self-promotion!
So, I ask all of you: how is your writing going?
Available on Amazon
Get The Draft Done! is available here: Amazon.com
Gallows Hill can be found here in ebook.
Gallows Hill in paperback can be found here.
An interview about Gallows Hill can be found here.
Please follow the following links to find my novel:
Thank you!
The book trailer:
Maledicus:Investigative Paranormal Society Book I
My radio interview:
COMING SOON!
Favorite Horror Movies: Part One: The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera
StandardThis is part one of a blog series that I love to run every October. I reuse some posts and add new films every year.
I have been a fan of horror movies since I was a child. I grew up watching Universal movies from the 1930s and 1940s being shown on various themed TV shows with horror hosts. As an adult, my love for these films has not waned; in fact, it has grown and helped to feed my scholarly interest in film. I use these films in some of the classes I teach in college.
Two films, in particular, stand out to me from the 1920s. (They will certainly not be the only 1920s horror films I feature.) They both starred Lon Chaney Sr., the Man of a Thousand Faces, and were made by Universal Studios.
The first film is The Hunchback of Notre Dame, (1923) based on the Victor Hugo novel, and it is an extraordinary piece of cinema that stands up today. It was a very expensive production at the time. Estimates range in the $1,250,000 to $1,500,000 range. Given the year, that is a huge sum of money. The movie accurately reflects Hugo’s examination of the capacity of human beings to be intensely cruel to each other and of the abuse of power by those in positions of authority. Wallace Worsley directed the film, and Lon Chaney Sr. gave a magnificent performance as Quasimodo. It is also important to remember that Mr. Chaney created all of his own makeups. If all you know of this story is the Disney version, you need to see this production. I would consider it one of the best and most important films ever made.
The Phantom of the Opera (1925) starring Lon Chaney Sr. is based on Gaston Leroux’s novel and was a huge success. Chaney played the deformed writer who falls in love with a singer and who becomes her kidnapper. This tale of horror and love has been redone numerous times, including the well known stage musical, but none of those productions have reached the sterling height of this extraordinary film. As with the Hunchback, Chaney created this makeup, and his performance is sublime. Again, if you have not seen this film, I recommend it highly.
Quotations By Franklin D. Roosevelt
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“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”
“Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.”
“Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.”
Grading Is Done!
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(Photo by rovenimages.com on Pexels.com)
Yay! I finally finished grading for the second summer session classes I taught at the Muhlenberg College School of Continuing Education in Allentown, PA. I had two courses in the second summer session: Literature and Film and Renaissance Plays In Process, and both courses had a full enrollment.
I had a wonderful time teaching these classes, and of course, I had much to grade at the end. That leads to a question–who is the person who assigns these papers anyway? Hmmm . . .
And now it is time to finish syllabi for the Fall semester which begins in one week!
And I can also return to writing. I had to take a few days off to complete my schoolwork.
Quotations On The Knowledge Of History
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4/11/02 Michael Crichton ’64, HMS ’69 speaks on “The Media and Medicine” at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA on Thursday, April 11, 2002. staff photo by Jon Chase/Harvard University News Office
“If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree. ”
Michael Crichton
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
Carl Sagan
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
George Santayana
“We should and must judge our leaders by their knowledge of history.”
Charles F. French
August Self-Promotion Party!
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(Photo by Lisa Fotios on Pexels.com)
Hello to all the writers out there and reading this blog!
It is well into the month of August, so it is time for a shameless self-promotion party, so please do not be shy about your work.
Writers need to be their own best publicists, and we should also help each other!
Let the world know about your book(s)!
Shout to the world about your writing!
Tell us about your book(s), and leave an image and a link if you can.
In order for as many people to see your work as possible, please Tweet, and reblog this post!
Please remember to be proud of your work!
Here is my shameless self-promotion: my latest book can help writers who have issues with finishing first drafts of their books. If that is you, I offer direct, practical advice on how to Get The Draft Done! Helping Writers Finish Their First Draft by Charles F. French.
Get The Draft Done! is available here: Amazon.com
Gallows Hill can be found here in ebook.
Gallows Hill in paperback can be found here.
An interview about Gallows Hill can be found here.
Please follow the following links to find my novel:
Thank you!
The book trailer:
Maledicus:Investigative Paranormal Society Book I
My radio interview:
Through The Nethergate by Roberta Eaton Cheadle — A Review
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I am very happy to write this review of an excellent novel I have just finished reading!
Through The Nethergate by Roberta Eaton Cheadle is a wonderful YA novel that will be appreciated by readers of all ages! Cheadle does an excellent job of weaving true historical characters into her tale that pits a teenaged girl, along with her Grandfather, and a few other helpers, against the very forces of Hell itself.
I deeply appreciated the way Cheadle was able to tell the historical tales and intertwine them into the main plot. Cheadle makes this book about history and its connection to our times.
Her development of characters is very strong, and the reader will care what happens to Margaret, the young protagonist of this novel. Margaret is a very special young lady who along, with a supernatural ability, shows empathy and courage as she faces terrible horrors. She witnesses the terrible actions of people in the past as well as seeing what can happen today. Margaret asks, “Do you think the world will ever change? I mean, do you think humanity will ever learn from its past mistakes and be able to turn away from greed, corruption, and jealousy?” That is a truly important question.
Cheadle has written a true page-turner, a tale of ghosts and horror, and a book that confronts current and past evil. I recommend this novel highly!
