Getting 2 Know Dan Green

What’s the best book you’ve read lately, and why?

I picked up a copy of Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris at a used book fair this fall. It’s the best fifty cents I’ve spent in a long time. I had enjoyed the movie several years ago with Jody Foster and Anthony Hopkins but had never read the book.

The reason I wanted to read the book was not only for its gripping storyline but also to see how a novel lends itself well to film adaptation. The main reason is that although the story is told in the third person, the author mainly stays within the Point of View of the protagonist Clarice Starling as played by Ms Foster. Everything that happens in this story is seen through Clarice’s eyes and thoughts, resulting in a tight dramatic screenplay that is easy for viewers to follow rather than a story that jumps around to different  POV’s  such as Jonathan Franzen’s, The Corrections, a great book indeed, but one that I think would be difficult to adapt to the screen for this reason.

What is your favourite thing about writing?

The conscious and the unconscious buzz of excitement that comes when writing a first draft.

Although I start from a rough outline, I don’t hesitate to follow a different direction if the action or the characters demand it. Letting the story run free in this manner creates a conscious buzz of excitement when unexpected things happen, even though some inconsistencies and loose ends may arise. I know I’ll get to those later when I put on my editing cap.

The unconscious buzz is the excitement created when little details or ideas pop up at unexpected times when you’re not actually writing and that you simply have to jot down on a scrap of paper before they vanish. These are the unconscious thoughts that are percolating just below the surface that may even wake you up at night or in some cases prevent you from getting to sleep in the first place. They often make a storyline become clearer or a character become more three dimensional and when they occur, it’s as if you’ve had a fulltime writing assistant toiling on your project while you’re busy doing other things. I always get a buzz when that happens.

Read more about Dan’s novel Blue Saltwater

Read a REVIEW of Blue Saltwater