Time to Write

Why so many writers with talent fail

Can guidelines for young artists apply to young (and not so young) writers as well? The previous post features a short video about artist John Baldessari, narrated by Tom Waits. It end with three things Baldessari thinks young artists should know. Let’s look at how the first of these applies to writers:

"Talent is cheap"

Yep. If you’re creative and have lots of ideas, congratulations, you’ve taken the first step. But it’s only the first step. 

I’ve known lots of writers with talent but no discipline.

They talk entertainingly about what they are going to write someday.

When they hear about a new book or film sometimes they tell you, truthfully, that they had that idea, too.

Most likely they have part of a novel or screenplay in a drawer. If they show it to you, you will be impressed by their talent.

Often they affect the current version of a bohemian style. Black predominates in their wardrobe.

The only thing missing is action. Writing the book or the screenplay. Or at least finishing it—there’s always a bit of work left to do on it before they send it out.

It can be a pleasant lifestyle—some of the perks of being a writer but none of the stress and risk, plus you don't have to wash black clothes so often. No impact, though, and not much creative satisfaction.

People sometimes ask me what the definition is of a writer—that is, do you have to be published to call yourself a writer? I don’t think so. A writer is somebody who writes….and finishes what they write. And then starts on the next thing. 

(Why not listen to the writing advice of writers who had both talent and discipline--people like Dickens, Twain and Austen? You'll find it in my newest book, Your Creative Writing Masterclass, published by Nicholas Brealey and available now from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

52 Tips for Writing Success - 8: Don't fear research

If you are writing something that requires a lot of research, don't let that put you off. Here are some common misconceptions:

1: You have to know everything about your topic. 

Actually you just have to know the basics and then some specialized details. Details are what makes a scene, a book, a movie come alive.

2: You have to go there.

Sure, it's great to go to the locations you plan to use in your projects, but it's not absolutely necessary. These days you can find a wealth of information on just about any location in the world, on the internet. Check Flicker for photos, search for blogs about that location, etc. Also check to see whether there are relevant documentaries you can watch. 

3: It's hard to get help

Actually, experts (such as professors, doctors, lawyers, etc.) usually are flattered to be asked for their help. Ask them specific questions. Ask if they are willing to read one chapter or section--not too much, they're busy people. But if they say yes, send themthe whole manuscript or script, they may read it all. 

4: You have to do all the research before you start.

In fact you can do some general research and then dig up the rest as you encounter things you need to know.

Don't let the need for research stand in the way of telling the story you want to tell!

(For friendliy guidance in writing your book or script, get a copy of Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon and other booksellers--the new edition is now available!)

Author Michael Morpurgo on "War Horse" and

Michael Morpurgo has been writing children's books for 25 years, but it was the stage and film versions of his book "War Horse" that rocketed public awareness of his work.

At the end of the link below you'll find a BBC interview with him, conducted by students from a school in Plymouth. He talks about using names of people he meets,  why the stage version of "War Horse" is more intense, and being Children's Laureate. 

You can see the interview here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17382092

(Would would you like to have Mark Twain as your writing coach? How about Anton Chekhov or Jane Austen? You'll find their advice about writing in my newest book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

 

F. Scott Fitzgerald on why we read...and why we write.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wonder what F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose quote this is, would make of the ever-increasing level of connectivity we have these days. 

When you ask writers, especially those over 35 or so, why they write, often they trace it back to the joy they got from reading when they were children. For many, including me, it was an escape from some difficult family circumstances.

Often it was, as Fitzgerald pointed out, a book that made you suddenly realize that whatever your problems, somebody somewhere else had them, too. And if it was an especially tough day, taking up residence in a fictional world for a few hours was a gift. Having valued the shelter of books, we want to extend it to others. 

Increasingly, though, kids are turning to different ways to feel connected. A Pew Research Center survey in the US in April-May 2011 found that 83% of Americans own a cell phone, and the average user makes 12 calls a day and sends 41.5 texts--but that's for people 18 or older.

A similar study in 2010 focused on teens and found that 75% of them have phones and one in three sends more than 100 text messages a day. 

They also are avid users of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. These can be used to bully kids who are different as well as to provide solace or connections but I'm certain they help more than they hurt.  

Can a writer still serve this function? Of course--kids are still reading. But if we revisit this topic in ten or even five years, I wonder whether Fitzgerald's quote will seem more quaint than relevant.

(If you'd like to learn to write from the best, get a copy of my new book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass." It features writing advice from more than 100 classic and modern writers, plus my guidance on how to apply that advice to you want to write. It's published by Nicholas Brealey and you can get it from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

 

Why the secret of lying well is also the secret of writing well

Why do people lie? There are many reasons, but certainly one of the most common ones is to make yourself or your life seem more interesting. I've encountered three people along the way who were really good liars.

LIAR 1: THE ELVIS FAN

The first one pretended that he was high up in a movie production company. He always had the latest inside news before anybody else--what he told me would appear in Daily Variety the next day.

He also said he'd been friends with Elvis and he showed me a bunch of memorabilia, inscribed to him by name by Elvis, to prove it.

It took me a while to catch on, but eventually I found out that actually he worked in the mail room of that production company and he got a lot of his inside information from a few other low-level studio workers around town. I suspect he bought the Elvis stuff and autographed it to himself.

Years later I heard that he was being sued by someone he'd conned into giving him money to finance a movie that he had claimed was almost fully funded and just needed that extra ten thousand dollars.

LIAR 2: IT'S GOOD TO THE KING 

The second was a man who pretended to be part of the aristocracy in the UK. Of course he'd met Lady Diana. He kept catalogues from Christies scattered around the place. He loved to drink champagne and to treat others to it as well.

Eventually he was arrested for defrauding his employer, which is how he'd afforded the champagne. I also found out that many of the rich Brits he used to hang around with knew he was a fake, but didn't say anything (they were much more tuned in to the nuances of accent and deportment that give away one's origins than I, as an American, was). 

LIAR 3: THIS SOUNDS FAMILIAR...

The third was someone who always had stories about his remarkable life and they were sort of plausible--until one time he told me a story about an event that had happened to him...that I had actually told him and that actually had happened to me! As far as I know, this one hasn't ever been in trouble with the law, but I hear that his life is in disarray.

All three of them at times seemed to have convinced themselves that their concocted stories were true. I guess that's the sign of a really good liar (or maybe a psychopath)--when you lie so well that you believe it yourself. 

THE 4 SECRETS OF THE GOOD LIAR AND WRITER 

What does this have to do with writing? Well, as someone said, fiction consists of lies you tell in order to reveal the truth. We do make things up, and we need to make them convincing. What made the liars' stories convincing? I think it was four things:

* inside information - that's something people love to get in books as well, a look into worlds not usually open to them, whether that's high finance, espionage, or the third world garbage piles that are 'mined' by children'

* details. If I say to you that yesterday it rained frogs, you probably would doubt me. If I said yesterday 16 frogs fell from the sky into my garden, hearing that specific number might give you pause. 

* consistency. This usually is the liars' downfall. They trade in details, but they can't keep track of them. In the case of the Elvis fan, it was a shift in versions of the same story that first made me think he might be lying. Once I was looking and listening for this, small inconsistencies that I might not have noticed before stood out.

As writers we have to be consistent on two levels. One is about details. I make notes as I go along--if on page 23 I say that Lisa has brown-green eyes, I jot it down so that when her fiance looks into her eyes on page 156 he won't remark how wonderfully blue they are. The other is consistency of the behavior of the characters we create. In real life we are not terribly consistent, but readers expect it from our characters. 

* not relying on coincidence to explain how they got out of trouble. We will happily believe it if someone tells us a series of misfortunes stemming from coincidence, but it they keep telling us that they were able to get out of trouble because each time something helpful happened by coincidence, we won't. The same goes for your plots--getting your character out of a scrape through coincidence feels lazy and like cheating. 

There you have it--four tools you can use to lie well or to write well (I recommend the latter!).

(Some of the greatest liars, er, writers, reveal their secrets in my newest book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass." It offers writing advice from Mark Twain, Anton Chekhov, Jane Austen and more than a hundred other talented and successful writers of today and yesteryear. You can get it from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

 

A reminder about a great source of story ideas

It has been a while since I wrote anything about StoryCorps, so I thought it might be a good time to remind you of this wonderful, often touching resource that is also a fantastic source of story ideas. 

StoryCorps is a non-profit organzation that, in conjunction with public radio, tapes people's life stories, or stories of important moments in their lives, and broadcasts those tales and also makes them available online. 

In honor of Valentine's Day, at the moment they are focusing on love stories and are releasing a book called All There Is: Love Stories from StoryCorps (published by Penguin). 

Some of the stories you'll find at www.storycorps.org are heart-breaking, some are funny, some give you pause to reflect. For instance, one of them consists of two sisters interviewing their father, who has Alzheimer's. Another one features a teacher asking a student who dropped out about what could have kept him in school. And one of the love stories is about how a long-distance romance blossomed.

Naturally I'm not suggesting that you use any of these stories outright as the basis of your book or screenplay , but rather that you use them for inspiration, as a way to listen to how people speak, to catch subtext, and to notice what kinds of stories have the greatest impact on you. 

The site also has animated versions of some of the stories. I love animation, but I'm not 100% convinced that they add much here to just listening to the voices in the case of the dramatic stories, but they do serve the funnier ones. Below is an example, "Miss Divine," in which two cousins remember their stern Sunday School teacher. And if you know anybody who is hooked on (so-called) reality shows, introduce them to StoryCorps where they will find true reality--and without commercials.

 

 

 

He wrote more than 300 children's books: here's how!

Bill Martin Jr. wrote or co-wrote more than 300 children's books. He wrote his first book while serving in the Army in World War II. It was published in 1945, illustrated by his brother, Bernard. It was praised by Eleanor Roosevelt and sold more than a million copies. Of his other books, probably the most famous was "Brown Bear, Brown Bear," which he wrote in 1967. In the following excerpts of a transcript of an interview I found at readingrocket.com, he talks about how he came to be a writer even though he left high school not being able to read much, and what it takes to be a writer. He passed away in 2004, at the age of 88. 

 

"I wasn't the best in the class, but I was a bright kid. But that was through the ears, not through the eyes. I listened, and I enjoyed being able to put things together in my own way.

I never learned to read. I faked it. I went all the way to college and couldn't read. Now, I could read – pour over a title of a book and maybe read the initial sentence, but I had no staying power. I was so hyperactive that it was difficult for me to concentrate. If you can't concentrate, you can't read.

And it became exceedingly difficult when I got to college; sort of like walking around with a bird egg in your pants pocket, hoping not to break it. I went to college in order to probably learn to read – that was my number-one goal – and secondly, to change the odds in my life that I would remain locked to a garden in Hiawatha, Kansas.

I had a professor who one day came to me carrying six books – adult novels. And he said, "Bill, I want you to read these books. If you're going to be a writer, you've got to be a reader."

And, first of all, I was very excited – number one, that he cared that much about me as a person; and, number two, that he didn't realize I couldn't read. He brought me adult fare. One of the books was Northwest Passage by Kenneth Roberts. And I figured if Mr. Rowan thought enough of me to bring me six of his books, if he really wanted me to be a writer – which had never occurred to me – that I would read one book. So, I started on Northwest Passage and read week after week after week after week after week. And one night, I was reading, still, at midnight. I was getting near the end of the book. Maybe it wasn't so much the story that I was trying to ingest; it was the fact that I was about to complete my first book.

At four o'clock in the morning, I remember, I finished reading the book. I was so overjoyed, I couldn't sleep and was up early. I went to school to tell Mr. Rowan that I had read the book.

From that time on, reading books became easier. I knew it could be done. I still am a very slow reader, but I'm an avid reader. I'm reading all the time.

HOW HE GETS IDEAS FOR CHILDREN'S BOOKS

Ideas for books come in many ways. Most of them are just sudden insights. I remember when I wrote Brown Bear, I was riding on a train. I heard, "Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?" And I grabbed my pen. I didn't have anything to write on, but I did have a newspaper. I folded the newspaper and wrote crosswise, "Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?" I thought for a minute, and I either heard or imagined, "I see a red bird looking at me. Red bird, red bird, what do you see? I see a yellow duck looking at me." The pattern is there. The book was broken. All I had to do was write it out. It was finished in 15 minutes.

IT'S ALL WRITING (AND JAZZ)

I think there isn't any difference at all between stories and songs and poetry. A poem, a song, and a story all have a structure.

I don't know whether I told you or not, but I always imagine that someday I'm going to write something, and somebody says, "That's a great piece of jazz!"

WHY HE WRITES

I suppose the satisfaction of writing is that it deals with the chaos of the world and gives it order. And that's all a paragraph does. That's all a story does. The reason that I keep writing year after year after year is because I believe in children. It's a wonderful thing to observe how children cope, how children deal with the realities, how children develop selfhood. I would like to think that these books help kids know who they are. That's a pretty big order, but that's what I hope for."

The reading rocket site also has the video of this interview. 

http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/martin/

(The best writers of all time are ready with advice on how to write well. It's in my latest book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

Romance writers are doing this--are you?

I was doing a bit of research on the top romance novelists, and something stood out to me. Here, from Wikipeida, are a few lines about five of the top writers in this field—see if the same thing catches your attention:

Diana J. Gabaldon'd books contain elements of romantic ficiton, historic fiction, mystery, adventure, and science fiction. 

Linda S. Howington is a best-selling romance/suspense author under her pseudonym Linda Howard.

Jude Deveraux has written stories set in post-Revolutionary America, nineteenth century Colorado, and nineteenth century New Mexico. She has written several time-travel romances, and her latest novels have had a contemporary setting. Many of her more recent books feature paranormal storylines.

Julie Garwood is the writerof over twenty-five romance novels in both the historical and suspense sub-genres.

What I noticed is that they’re not writing straight romance novels, they’ve taken this genre into lots of other areas: the hottest one at the moment still is vampires and the paranormal, but also suspense, mystery, adventure, science fiction and more.

Laura Kinsale, another top writer in the romance field, says it this way on her site: “A romance novel can be more.  More fascinating characters than you ever anticipated.  More unexpected depth.  Emotion to engage your heart and your mind.  Stories that keep you awake and words you will remember long after you close the book.”

You can see this happening in other genres, too. The old rule that you should avoid this because the bookshops won’t know where to shelve your book is disappearing as fast as the bookshops themselves.

It’s still a benefit to be known for writing in one genre, but within that you have much more leeway these days, and that has to be good news for writers as well as for readers. 

(The things that make for a good story apply to every genre, and the people who knew how to create a great story spilled the beans. I've assembled those beans, er, that writing advice, in Your Creative Writing Masterclass, published by Nicholas Brealeay. You can get it from Amazon and other booksellers right now.)

Questions you should ask the characters in your novel or screenplay

The way to make the characters in your work of fiction come alive on the page is to know them well. One way to get to know them well is to ask them some questions.

I do this all the time, sometimes when I’m out in public, and sometimes my lips move slightly as I imagine this exchange. When people notice, I just tell them I’m testing a prototype of the iPhone 6, which is so small that you can’t see it and it reads your thoughts.

What are these revealing questions to ask our characters? Here are a few:

1: Why do you think you turned out the way you did?

This is a neutral question because you’re not judging how they turned out. Usually even if you think the character is a scumbag, he will explain to you why he turned out to be such a nice fellow. When his perception of himself differs from your perception of him, congratulations, that’s a sign you’ve created a strong character.

2: Where do you see yourself in ten years?

Again, your characters’ plans for himself may well be different from what you have planned for them. It’s just as well they can’t see your outline.

3: Who do you love?

Very revealing and many’s the time I’ve been surprised by the answers.

4: What do you really want? No, really, really?

They don’t always give this one up easily. You might have to dig past the first two or three answers you get.

5: What would you change?

See if you can get them to answer this without clarifying the question because their choice of what they’d change is revealing in itself.

Some would change some aspect of themselves or what they’ve done.

Others would change somebody else—in which case, is it to benefit that person, or themselves?

Some will say the kind of thing the Miss American contestants always say: “I’d feed all the hungry people of the world,” or “I’d make it so that we all love each other regardless of race, creed, or color.” Ask them what else they’d change and you’ll get the real answer.

 Have fun, characters are some of the most interesting people.

(There are lots more tips on how to create compelling characters in the new edition of my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon and other booksellers.)

The secret of hard boiled eggs and how it relates to the secret of writing compelling plots

I’m supposed to be researching some topics for this blog, and what am I doing? I’m reading an email that promises to reveal the new secret of making hard-boiled eggs easy to peel.

The old secret was that you a make a hole on both ends and blow really hard and the egg pops out. I tried that and it didn’t work. I blew really hard. I could feel the veins on my forehead and I feared that my contacts might shoot out. That’s probably why I was drawn by the promise of a new secret.

However, this post isn’t really about eggs. It’s about a non-egg-related secret I will reveal at the end.

By the way, the email that promised this revelation then sent me to the web site, which popped up a window asking me to subscribe in exchange for a cookbook. I don’t want a cookbook, it would only clutter up the shelf above the microwave, so I close the window.

Now I have to scroll down quite a long way past a large photo of a frying pan full of eggs and garbonzo beans…but because I’m writing about it, I have to stop and get on the online dictionary because the spell-checker highlighted garbonzo. It turns out all these years what I have thought of as garbonzo beans actually are garbanzo beans.

More pictures: eggs in a carton, eggshells on a cutting board.

Then a repeat of the old secret…and finally the revelation that there are actually TWO key steps:

Peel only cooled eggs.

I knew that.

And crack the shell all over by rolling the egg between your hands.

Oh.

Then there are 8 further tips, which I read because I am disappointed by the big two. I’m not going to tell you the other eight, it’s not worth it. Then comes a “recipe” for boiled eggs, which is really just a restatement of the previous tips but it reminds you to boil the eggs first. Just in case I still didn't get it, there’s a video.

Below that there’s a repeat of the picture of the eggs on the bed of garbanzo beans and a recipe…which is called “boiled eggs with curried chickpeas.”

I wish I’d recognized that. I know how to spell chickpeas.

At the very bottom there’s a link to an article about the easiest way to make sure your fish is super fresh. Thank god I don’t eat fish.

If you're still with me, possibly you're wondering what this has to do with writing. Well, it demonstrates how easy it is to get somebody's attention and to keep it.

The word "secret," I am embarrassed to admit, still draws me in, just as it did millions of people who bought the book "The Secret." (Even more powerful is "the secret THEY don't want you to know!" which is a hook the lady who wrote The Secret used to good effect.)

Once I'd committed to learning the secret (in this case only the secret of hard-boiled eggs, which I guess nobody is trying to prevent me from learning, other than chickens), I stayed on, past the photos, past the silly "recipe", past the video of the silly recipe.

Again, it doesn't take that much, so are you using that to hook and keep readers?

More specifically, what will a reader want to know after they have read your first sentence?

What about after the first page?

After the end of the first chapter?

Checking for that as you go through your first draft is a very useful tool. It gets you to do something that's hard when you've created something: look at it from the viewpoint of the person who will consume what you've created instead of just from your own viewpoint.

Most books and movies that are not satisfying fail for one of these reasons:

* they don't make you curious early enough

* they do make you curious but then go off on a tangent for too long so you lose interest (or forget the question)

* they make you curious, they keep your attention, but the answer is a letdown. This was my experience with the egg secrets, so I don't think we'll be seeing the movie version anytime soon unless Clint Eastwood comes back as The Egg They Couldn't Boil. 

The ideal time to test your story for these potential weaknesses is right at the start, if you're constructing the story  in detail before you start writing. Then again after the first draft, and again after each major subsequent draft. 

I'm off to boil some eggs. I can't let those secrets go to waste.

(Want to find out what the great writers like Twain, Dickens, and Austen knew about constructing a story that keeps people's interest? Get my newest book, Your Creative Writing Masterclass, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon and other booksellers.)