Red Room Where the Writers Are

http://shootingstarsmag.blogspot.com/2009/11/guest-post-from-author-of-jesses-girl.html

Tuesday, November 3, 2009Guest Post from the author of Jesse's Girl

THE BLANK PAGE – AND OTHER HORRORS
By Gary Morgenstein/Jesse’s Girl

There is nothing more terrifying to a writer than facing the blank page. Yet every day, a writer confronts the Herculean task of translating ethereal thoughts and vague characters and hazy scenes into something coherent.

But what you hear in your head in that parallel universe where writers stumble around, often bears little resemblance to the brick and mortar world of creating a novel that real human beings who don’t share your consciousness would understand.

When I started Jesse’s Girl, I only knew that the novel would begin in the middle of the night with a phone call. The main character, Teddy Mentor, learns that his 16-year-old son Jesse has run away from a drug treatment wilderness program in Montana. Then I was off to the races. Not only did I have a blank page, in parts, I had a blank mind.

I’d gone into the book with the pre-conceived notion that it’d be a small novel focusing primarily on the father-son relationship, hooking around the adopted teenager’s battle with alcohol and search for his biological roots. Yeah, and what about something called plot and character development? For me, the ultimate moment for Jesse’s Girl was when a transformative crime hit the page, carrying my characters along in a tsunami-like nail-biting thriller.

I didn’t realize that at the time because every day I thought I knew what I was going to write. Writers practice delusions as a way of motivating themselves. Even when you’re about to scribble rubbish, you tell yourself, at least it is something! Ah, for the good old days when you could therapeutically yank paper out of the typewriter and hurl the crumpled ball across the room.

A trick I learned is keeping a little something in the gas tank from the previous day. Don’t write yourself into exhaustion. Even if you begin with a paragraph, sometimes that’s enough to give you the momentum. It’s like pushing a car in neutral down a hill. Then you have to jump in and grab the writing wheel. Without a seat belt.

I always thought it’d be wonderful to have a gizmo hooked up into your thoughts where it would write the book exactly as you see it. Maybe if I’m reincarnated in the 24th Century.

About the Author-

Novelist/playwright Gary Morgenstein is the author of four novels. In addition to Jesse’s Girl, a thriller about a widowed father’s search for his adopted teenage son who has run away from a drug treatment program to find his biological sister, his books include the romantic triangle Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman, the political thriller Take Me Out to the Ballgame, and the baseball Rocky The Man Who Wanted to Play Center Field for the New York Yankees. His play Ponzi Man performed to sell-out crowds at the New York Fringe Festival. Morgenstein’s other full-length work, You Can’t Grow Tomatoes in the Bronx, is in development. He can be reached at www.facebook.com/people/Gary-Morgenstein/1011217889.