Kaui Hart Hemmings
Kaui Hart Hemmings
Kaui Hart Hemmings is an American writer who was born and raised in Hawaii. She attended Colorado College and graduated in 1998. Her debut novel The Descendants was adapted by Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash into the highly acclaimed 2011 American film The Descendants, starring George Clooney...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
CountryUnited States of America
consist describing nature saying setting specific takes vivid
Setting shouldn't just consist of describing nature or a landscape, or of saying where something takes place. It is the world of specific people. It's not enough for it to feel vivid or credible; it should feel necessary.
birthday
For my 11th birthday, I asked to be adopted.
across compared encouraged remember setting teachers three
When a place comes across vividly in a novel, it's often compared to a character. I can remember writing teachers who encouraged me to treat setting as if it were a character, to give it three dimensions, to make it come alive, jump off the page.
background board call clooney equally george home looked playing related sand shirt suddenly surf wearing
One day during filming, George Clooney was wearing his surf shirt and board shorts, and my six-year-old daughter was in the background as an extra, playing in the sand - playing herself. She and Clooney suddenly looked equally Hawaiian, equally related to the place I call home.
businesses debut kids knows priests receive songs
My seven-year-old daughter knows old songs and how the neighborhoods got their names. There are little things: Businesses receive blessings from Hawaiian priests before opening, and everyone's kids have their debut luau. You can't really get through a day without doing something Hawaiian.
anywhere characters narrow overall putting setting shots sweep tight wide work
In putting setting to work, I like to think about long shots and close-ups. The long shot is the overall view of the place in which the characters live - the island, the town, the wide sweep of place. Then we narrow in. The close-up, the tight focus, makes the place different from anywhere else.
add food music particular props region render sayings sit slang
I like to add props to render the specificities of place - paintings, food, clothing, signs, infrastructure, music, sayings and slang particular to the region and particular to the character. And props shouldn't just sit there; they should get used.
call entire fred gang grocery house island knows members night soon threaten
The entire island knows our father, Fred Hemmings, Jr. - kids, adults, surfers, the governor, grocery clerks, gang members who call our house at night and threaten to kill us as soon as they get out of jail. Fred was a world-champion surfer and is now a well-known, controversial politician.
heart airplane sleep
The sun is shining, mynah birds are chattering, palm trees are swaying, so what. I'm in the hospital and I'm healthy. My heart is beating as it should. My brain is firing off messages that are loud and clear. My wife is on the upright hospital bed, positioned the way people sleep on airplanes, her body stiff, head cocked to the side. Her hands on her lap.
goodbye running jobs
A sea of red lights, and I slow down. My job now is to gather everyone together and tell them we have to let her go. I won't tell anyone over the phone, because I didn't like hearing the news from the doctor that way. I have maybe a week to handle the arrangements, as the doctor said, but the arrangements are overwhelming. How do I learn how to run a family? How do I say goodbye to someone I love so much that I've forgotten just how much I love her?
air want destination
I'll never be ready. Yet at the same time, you always want to reach the end. You can't fly to a destination and linger in the air. I want to reach the end of this thing, and I feel terrible about it.
want alex latches
I don't ask what Alex sees in him because I'm afraid my disapproval will make her latch on to him even more. That's how it works. I'll have to pretend he doesn't bother me and that I don't want to drown him in the bay.
growing-up kids islands
...we’re just kids growing up on an island, doing bad things in pretty places.
feelings doe feels
Because feeling love does make you feel superior. Until you find out you aren't loved back.