Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Now THIS is what I'm going for

I finished my final draft of The Project yesterday. If I expected bells and whistles, there were relatively few -- just a hell of a lot of pride and the thought of: Where to from here?

Editing, of course. Here's where I sit down with my critiques and refine it.

In one critique, Sean wrote:

Jesus! It's funny -- your story is so specific, unique, and personal -- but I keep running across bits and pieces that are straight out of my life.

This confirms one of the best things I've taken from Roger Ebert's writing (I love that guy -- he's an inspiration). Ebert once said: "Strange but true: The more specific a film is, the more universal, because the more it understands individual characters, the more it applies to everyone."

The same can certainly be true of a memoir (or, really, any art form), and I certainly would like to think it's true of mine.

1 comment:

Happy Chandler said...

I think the universal reaction to "The Project" tells you how it will turn out!