David A. Schwinghammer
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Blogs by David A. Schwinghammer
More from SOLDIER'S GAP author
10/29/2009 8:56:58 AM
Question and answer session continued.
Q. What's your work schedule like?
A. I do about three hours a day. I used to think I should be able to do at least eight hours as I did as a teacher, but it's just so draining. After you hit, three hours you're basically just typing. There are exceptions. John Gardner was a working fool. Everybody should read ON BECOMING A NOVELIST.
Q. What's your process?
A. I make a scene outline for just about everything I write, including short stories. Sometimes I barely glance at it, but if I get stuck it's always there. I change it a lot as I write.
Q. Do you write on the computer?
A. Yeah, I don't have a problem with that. I know some writers work in longhand or on the typewriter, but I just see that as redundancy. I was a teletype operator in the Navy and being able to edit the tape as I drafted messages was such a gift. I also started writing before computers and
being a lousy typist makes me appreciate workprocessors even more. Then there's rewriting. You can move things around so easily on a wordprocessor and you can save your chapters as stand-alone projects. I like to think my chapters sound like short stories.
Q. What's the best movie you've seen based on a novel?
A. I have a special place in my heart for TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. I taught that book every year for sixteen years and never got tired of it, and the movie was almost as good. I used to do an exercise in class where the kids watched the movie, then picked out the elements from the novel that were missing in the movie. No Aunt Alexandra was the biggest complaint. No Uncle Jack.
Q. Do you have Kindle?
A. Nope, but I might have to get one if the Minneapolis Star Tribune stops delivery. Hopefully they'd still provide computer access. I must have a morning newspaper!
Q. What about women characters? How do you deal with them?
A. Well, they're just human beings, but I won't say I'm not influenced by stereotypes, mainly the women's intuition thing and that permission to change their minds thing they've got going on. My old girlfriends are always sneaking in there, too. One of them threatened to sue me if I ever wrote about her, but she's an old lady now so I doubt that she'd even care anymore.
Q. What male author do you think handles women the best?
A. There's a joke there someplace, but I'll play it straight. That would have to be Wally Lamb in SHE'S COME UNDONE. One would think that was written by a woman. Oprah put it on her list so she must not disagree.
Q. I see quite a few references to quirkiness in your Amazon reviews. Where does that come from?
A. I was a class clown so there's somewhat of a smartass component in my work. Then there's the Joseph Heller influence. If you haven't read him, just about everybody in CATCH-22 is quirky. And to think, I didn't like it at first. I was assigned the book in an English Humanities class; I guess I just wasn't used to something that original. Hello, Mr. Schell! I hope you're still kicking.
Q. You were a journalism teacher. Any influence there?
A. Not like Hemingway. Just a check your sources thing and double and triple checking your spelling. I still have trouble with research. I never know how much I can use or how much to paraphrase.
Continued.
Dave Schwinghammer's published novel, SOLDIER'S GAP, is available at Amazon.com.
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More Blogs by David A. Schwinghammer
• Skunks Believe Everybody Else Stinks - Thursday, May 16, 2013
• The Morning After Pill - Friday, April 12, 2013
• What Would Thomas Jefferson Say? - Saturday, April 06, 2013
• Boneheads - Tuesday, March 12, 2013
• Why Benedict XVI Resigned - Sunday, February 17, 2013
• Gabby Giffords Testifies - Wednesday, January 30, 2013
• Newspaper Caters to Gun Owners - Wednesday, January 23, 2013
• Piers Morgan Deserves a Medal - Monday, December 24, 2012
• The Red Devil and the Blue Devil? - Tuesday, October 30, 2012
• Is the new TV show, REVOLUTION, fantasy? - Wednesday, September 26, 2012
• Fanatical Moslems Aren't That Different From Our Fanatics - Wednesday, September 12, 2012
• We Need the United Nations - Wednesday, July 18, 2012
• Stop Catering to People's Basest Instincts - Monday, July 09, 2012
• Concerned Women for America political ad - Saturday, June 23, 2012
• Independent Voters Need to Pick a Side - Monday, June 11, 2012
• Romney's Solyndra Appearance - Friday, June 01, 2012
• Single Issue Voters - Sunday, May 20, 2012
• Bully or Sociopath? - Saturday, May 12, 2012
• Tan-orexic Woman Poor Role Model - Friday, May 04, 2012
• So Far Right They're Almost Left - Sunday, April 22, 2012
• Dog Eat Dog - Sunday, April 15, 2012
• The Tea Party is Back! - Sunday, March 25, 2012
• Gas Prices - Tuesday, March 13, 2012
• "Doofus" - Tuesday, March 06, 2012
• Bon Iver Front Man Makes Important Statement - Thursday, February 16, 2012
• Contraception Blowback - Friday, February 10, 2012
• 800 vetoes! - Saturday, February 04, 2012
• Issa Hounding Holder over GOP program - Thursday, February 02, 2012
• Rick Santelli's Rant - Wednesday, January 18, 2012
• Corporate Raider President? - Thursday, December 01, 2011
• Is This the Best They Can Do? - Thursday, November 17, 2011
• Tea Party a non-violent Movement? - Sunday, October 30, 2011
• Wall Street Protests - Wednesday, October 05, 2011
• Three new stooges - Thursday, August 25, 2011
• Hypocrite enters the race - Friday, August 19, 2011
• Business Leaders Need to Speak Out - Saturday, July 30, 2011
• Rupert Murdoch and GOP Credibility - Monday, July 25, 2011
• Playing on the railroad tracks - Sunday, July 17, 2011
• Scapegoating - Sunday, June 19, 2011
• The Biggest Swindle in US history - Friday, June 03, 2011
• We're Still Here! - Saturday, May 21, 2011
• Improve education by improving teacher morale - Wednesday, May 04, 2011
• Tea Partiers Don't Know What They're Talking About - Thursday, April 28, 2011
• General Electric paid no corporate taxes - Tuesday, April 05, 2011
• The Flat Earth Society is at it again! - Thursday, March 17, 2011
• Crap fest - Thursday, March 03, 2011
• Egyptian Revolution - Tuesday, February 08, 2011
• Tucson - Wednesday, January 12, 2011
• Would you want a right-winger for a neighbor? - Friday, January 07, 2011
• Noah's Ark Museum - Monday, December 06, 2010
• Frick and Frack Shoot Off Their Mouths - Friday, November 05, 2010
• Enthusiam Gap - Wednesday, October 27, 2010
• Super Computer - Tuesday, October 19, 2010
• US Chamber of Commerce, conservative front group. - Wednesday, October 13, 2010
• 13 Reasons to vote the straight democratic ticket - Wednesday, September 01, 2010
• Breitbart Makes Segretti look like a choirboy - Wednesday, July 28, 2010
• House on Fire? - Thursday, June 17, 2010
• The Blame Game - Friday, May 28, 2010
• National Prayer Day - Tuesday, May 18, 2010
• Conservative psyche (continued) - Friday, May 14, 2010
• Conservative psyche - Wednesday, May 12, 2010
• Are you smarter than a half-term governor? - Wednesday, April 14, 2010
• Rewriting History - Monday, April 05, 2010
• Fred Phelps - Friday, April 02, 2010
• Combing the Daily Newspaper - Wednesday, March 17, 2010
• Noir - Friday, November 06, 2009
• Interview with SOLDIER'S GAP author continued - Tuesday, November 03, 2009
• More from SOLDIER'S GAP author - Thursday, October 29, 2009
• SOLDIER'S GAP author answers questions. - Thursday, October 22, 2009
• Everything you always wanted to know about writing a novel - Tuesday, October 20, 2009
• Manuscript conventions - Thursday, September 10, 2009
• Revision - Monday, September 07, 2009
• Dialogue - Thursday, September 03, 2009
• Scene cards - Tuesday, September 01, 2009
• Point of view - Thursday, August 27, 2009
• Plot - Tuesday, August 25, 2009
• Arnie's dream - Friday, August 21, 2009
• Rituals - Thursday, August 20, 2009
• Dressing Arnie Vogel - Tuesday, August 18, 2009
• Character sketch continued - Friday, August 14, 2009
• Character sketch - Thursday, August 13, 2009
• Characterization - Wednesday, August 12, 2009
• Scene outline - Tuesday, August 11, 2009
• Warm-up activity - Freewriting - Monday, August 10, 2009
• Warm-up activity - brainstorming - Sunday, August 09, 2009
• Warm-up techniques (clustering) - Saturday, August 08, 2009
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