Brian C. Griffin

Finding your best angles

I stopped going to my barber during Covid and, with the professional Andis clipper I used for my mustache, began giving myself an undercut. “You did that yourself?” people said over video calls. “It doesn’t look that bad.” “Wait till you see the back!” I said. But who cared

Humor

Zero stakes when you do theater over Zoom

One thing I learned about screens and videoconferencing the last year-plus is they lower the stakes for everything. No need to ride a bus four hours to Washington, DC, to go to that grad school reunion (“I think I’ll set my computer by my favorite chair here”), nor put

Know-how

When laboring over a phrase or paragraph

Consider possibility that it’s superfluous. See alternate advice here [https://bcgriff.com/know-how/write-sentence-when-stuck/].

Know-how

Don't feel ready to write?

A friend of mine used to be a substitute teacher. When she got the call in the morning that she would have a class that day, she wouldn’t feel ready. She asked another teacher about this. “Of course you don’t feel ready. You’re still at home drinking

Know-how

When to stop writing each day

Someone in a writing group I belong to is working on a play. He’ll write one scene one day, another the next, then the two scenes don’t match. “How do you keep your writing consistent from one day to another?” he asked us. I told him rather than

Know-how

Examples of the call to adventure

Joseph Campbell [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell] in The Hero with a Thousand Faces [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces] describes a structure common to hero myths which begins with the call to adventure: > A blunder—apparently the merest chance—reveals an

Know-how

The best place to start your story

Roman poet Horace [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace] in his “Ars Poetica” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ars_Poetica_(Horace)] (“The Art of Poetry”) says of Homer [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer] and the Iliad [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6130]: > Nec gemino bellum Trojanum orditur ab

Know-how

A heuristic for creating composite characters

Composite characters shorten one’s dramatis personae, tighten plot, and give anyone upon whom a personage is based plausible deniability. But how does one mix two people? One might as well mix last night’s spaghetti and meatballs with this morning’s breakfast cereal. I was daunted with the prospect

Know-how

Don't confuse flow states and good writing

Flow [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)] is what you feel when engaged in a task that hits the sweet spot between challenging and “I can do this.” When I shot my second documentary, there were days I was one with my subject. What I saw on the monitor

Humor

A couple of nature boys

I attempt to confuse mosquito. I installed the air conditioner yesterday after dinner. When I sat in my chair to read my book, I heard a buzz past my ear, and CLAPPED at the air. With what rage I did so! I missed the mosquito. And I was left with

Humor

Fitty fizzog he have

I attempt to outwit mosquito. I woke sometime in the middle of the night to a mosquito buzzing past my ear. I had noticed the other day an itchy spot on my shoulder and wrote it off as something random while suspecting I might have a mosquito. Well, I do.

Humor

The sun, J.

I used my Andis Master adjustable blade clipper yesterday. I went from 000 halfway up the side of my head to 1 just below where my shock of undercut long hair [https://bcgriff.com/humor/undercut-like-porticoes-bologna/] is; then I used the Andis Excel with the 00000 blade below the 000.

Humor

Caught between avoidance mechanisms

Limits beget creativity. I was caught on the edge between two avoidance mechanisms—avoid the anxiety of going to the supermarket, or avoid the anxiety of not having a food stockade [https://bcgriff.com/humor/wear-protective-face-bandana-outlaw/] sufficient to avoid going to the supermarket. I settled on first actually making a

Know-how

Two kinds of writers: prodigal v. miserly

In the trailer for her MasterClass, Joyce Carol Oates Teaches the Art of the Short Story [https://www.masterclass.com/classes/joyce-carol-oates-teaches-the-art-of-the-short-story] , Oates says, “Writers are like cooks that—they keep everything in the refrigerator and put it all in the casserole. Like, what doesn’t go in for dinner

Humor

Male, Greek and naked

The Greeks [https://bcgriff.com/humor/upper-bodies-carved-cuirasses/] on PBS [https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/episode-3-chasing-greatness/]. The age of the city-states [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City-state] went from the 800s to the 400s. The Golden Age of Athens [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth-century_Athens] and democracy was less than

Humor

Eight comic novels to make you snicker on trains

I remember reading Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov on the Washington, D.C., Metro to and from work in Rosslyn, Virginia, and stifling sniggers while enjoying private jokes no one else on the train could understand. This is a sign of a good comic novel. What makes it a delight,

Humor

Upper bodies as carved as cuirasses

Between Greece’s Bronze and Golden Ages. I watched some more of The Greeks [https://bcgriff.com/humor/down-societal-collapse-rabbit-hole/] last night, the first 20 minutes of Part Two (“Out of Strife”) [https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/episode-2-the-good-strife/] [sic], which goes from the collapse of the Bronze Age through the Greek

Humor

I go down societal collapse rabbit hole

Legendary Mycenaean civilization ends mysteriously. I found a National Geographic documentary on ancient Greece [https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/the_greeks_national_geographic/] on PBS Passport last night, and watched the first episode [https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/episode-1-cavemen-to-kings/], going from the Stone Age to the end of the Bronze

Humor

Caroline, coquettish as ever

I yawned the whole evening. It was a sleepy tired, not a tired tired. Only after watching the season two finale of Poldark [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/shows/poldark/] did I feel alert and present again. Ross, with money to spare now that Wheal Grace struck a mega-lode

Humor

The next Lady Rosamund

I watched the second half of the first episode of Downton Abbey [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/shows/downton-abbey/]’s final season last night. Where were the men? The Christmas special closing season five had Edith “feeling alive again” in the company of the property agent who will later

Know-how

How to write a sentence when stuck

When stuck for how to say something, write how you would say it, including all kinds of awkwardnesses, weird turns, and strange analogies. This might turn out a beautiful sentence that you can use as is. That said, a novel full of such sentences might read like Alan Hollinghurst’s

Humor

CousinAnnelovesDownton

Mom tells me she found Howard’s End [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/shows/howards-end/] the series on PBS the evening before. It was good. She liked it. “But I fell asleep.” OK, so here’s a series we could potentially watch together. It’s time to give her

Humor

The uber-masculine caped and coated Thomas Cromwell

How actors bring themselves to a role. I started watching Wolf Hall [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Hall_(miniseries)] last night on PBS. It’s good. It’s more than good. It lacks the pure entertainment value that Poldark [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poldark_(2015_TV_series)] and

Humor

I’m a doctor, I’m cool

J_____’s girlfriend was back with him in the kitchen again last night. Clearly they’re not afraid of getting germs from me [https://bcgriff.com/humor/shared-sicky-ness/]. I’ve still been wearing the mask outside the room though. Just now for breakfast I kept the mask on during preparation

Humor

Meals in situ

The logistics of Lysol. Have mild congestion. Inner corner of left eye was looking pink last night. It’s the same symptoms, and even same sequence of symptoms, as I had had in early March, except for the tiredness, headache, and loss of appetite that preceded it. I wore a