I was recently approached by a lit agent about a memoir after publishing my first personal essay in a major magazine (at long, long last
). The memoir is a story of how a neurotic, asocial obsessive-compulsive (myself) moved to a big city far, far away from everything he knew to be with a girl who's his exact opposite (this board's Celia Cyanide). I've written out the outline and was just diving into the BIGGER outline, when something occurred to me: Celia and I define ourselves through pop culture, the music and movies we listen to, the comic books we read. I wrote out a chapter or two and saw that our love of all things pop is both an integral part of our relationship and our personalities, to the point that leaving it out would be a huge detriment. I may not even want to write it at all, that's how deeply I enjoyed the mixing of pop and personal. I just really, really love how it all synchs together.
My dilemma is this: In order to make this work, I'll have to quote many full lyrics for songs, dialogue from movie and books, etc. What if I can't permission from the original artists to use any of this stuff (I'll be carefully attributing, so nobody will get the impression I came up with any of this stuff). I mean, if I fill up my memoir with songs and cinema, then find that I have to rip all of that out, it'll destroy what I've got going, and the groove I've got going is pretty damned crunchy!
My question is this: Should I just keep everything in there, write the memoir the way I feel it needs to be written and, when the time comes, let the publishers and editors worry about the legalia? Or should I not even bother in the first place, play it timid and tell a neutered love tale?
I figure I'd ask this before I really delved into this. I have Monday off and I'd really like to dive into this head first, but I thought I'd run it by you guys first, since you're all so insanely awesome!
Now, if you'll kindly ex-squeeze me, I'm going to indulge both my loves of pop culture and soy-based food products.
Thanks in advance!
). The memoir is a story of how a neurotic, asocial obsessive-compulsive (myself) moved to a big city far, far away from everything he knew to be with a girl who's his exact opposite (this board's Celia Cyanide). I've written out the outline and was just diving into the BIGGER outline, when something occurred to me: Celia and I define ourselves through pop culture, the music and movies we listen to, the comic books we read. I wrote out a chapter or two and saw that our love of all things pop is both an integral part of our relationship and our personalities, to the point that leaving it out would be a huge detriment. I may not even want to write it at all, that's how deeply I enjoyed the mixing of pop and personal. I just really, really love how it all synchs together.My dilemma is this: In order to make this work, I'll have to quote many full lyrics for songs, dialogue from movie and books, etc. What if I can't permission from the original artists to use any of this stuff (I'll be carefully attributing, so nobody will get the impression I came up with any of this stuff). I mean, if I fill up my memoir with songs and cinema, then find that I have to rip all of that out, it'll destroy what I've got going, and the groove I've got going is pretty damned crunchy!
My question is this: Should I just keep everything in there, write the memoir the way I feel it needs to be written and, when the time comes, let the publishers and editors worry about the legalia? Or should I not even bother in the first place, play it timid and tell a neutered love tale?
I figure I'd ask this before I really delved into this. I have Monday off and I'd really like to dive into this head first, but I thought I'd run it by you guys first, since you're all so insanely awesome!
Now, if you'll kindly ex-squeeze me, I'm going to indulge both my loves of pop culture and soy-based food products.
Thanks in advance!
