Time to Write

Writing and Improvisation (Guest & Levy Interview)

I'm a fan of Christopher Guest, the writer-director who is one of the main people behind mockumentaries like "Best of Show." Here's a clip of him and actor Eugene Levy, made at the time of the release of "For Your Consideration," which in my view wasn't one of their best although still entertaining. They talk a little about the writing/improvisation process on their films. (And is it me, or is the interviewer someone who could easily have come out of one of their films?)

I'm sorry if you tried to access this post earlier and found that the video wasn't working. Here is a direct link that should take you there: guest & levy.

 

The Power of Nice for Writers

The director of ScriptShark, Lee Zahavi noted on their MySpace blog that he was on a panel with writer Antwone Fisher, who revealed one of the secrets of his success. Zahavi wrote:

"According to Antwone, he has never gotten a single job through his agents, though he has been represented by every big agency in town (and, kindly enough, does not hold it against them). Antwone spoke about the need to go out there, network, be nice to people, and become a trusted writer whom people want to work with. For example, some of the first paid-for work he received was through Chris Tucker, whom he met at the comedy clubs way back when, and whose trust he gained prior to Chris Tucker doing Friday and Rush Hour, so that when Chris got big, Antwone was his go-to-guy for material. Even though these days Antwone is quite established (right now he's working on a Marvin Gaye biopic with Frank Darabont who directed Shawshank Redemption), he still makes a point to send everyone he's ever met in the industry hand-written cards come Christmas time. And he's convinced that it's this little fact that has kept him in the good graces of the industry."

JW note: My version of this was sending gift baskets to the secretaries and Personal Assistants of the people I was working with in Hollywood--a nice thing to do, and one guaranteed to help me get my calls through to the boss!

Tips: Ideas Into Action

For a brief but informative interview on MSNBC, with Behance CEO Scott Belsky, click here.

Belsky gives useful quick tips on making meetings more productive, revealing your ideas, getting feedback, and (his company's motto:) Ideas into action.

It has the rushed feel of those interviews where everybody knows the clock is ticking and the next in an endless supply of soundbites, trivia, and celebrity scandal is waiting in the wings, demanding to get on right now--but even so, it's worth a look.

A Tool for Writing Research

A quick heads-up today about a great tool I've discovered recently. If you go to www.wikimindmap.org, and type in a subject, you will get a mind map for that subject, based on the wickipedia entry for it. Here are a few ways to use it:

* In brainstorming. The mind map will give you a batch of related topics, and if you click on one of those, that term goes to the middle and generates another batch of related topics. By just playing around, you'll be led to all kinds of new connections and ideas.

* In early research. The related topics will give you an instant overview of the topic, and then you can follow the different branches to get more information.

* Late in the process. If you've already written an article or book proposal about something, a mindmap will let you know whether you've missed any key components.

Give it a try, you may think of other ways to use it as well (if you do, let me know: [email protected] or leave a comment).

Writing Goals and Overnight Success (Me at the Cheltenham Screenwriting Festival)

Selling Your Writing

Keri Smith, to whom I referred a few posts ago for her list of how to infuse your work with your personality, also has a list of point about how to get published. Three of them relate to selling your work:

* Make it real.  I borrowed this one from Sark, but I read it years ago and followed through with my first book (which I sold).  I made the book in its entirety, packaged it up really smartly in a box with fake hay so when they opened it, it was somewhat displayed.  This shows the viewer exactly what you had in mind, without them having to visualize it.  Invariably if you explain something, they won't see exactly what you are thinking.  anecdote:  When I met Sark in person a few years ago and told her I got a deal with Chronicle she jumped out of her chair and screamed, "I'm so JEALOUS!!! (This suggestion is appropriate for people who wish to write AND illustrate.  I do not recommend having someone else illustrate a book before you submit to a publisher as I have been told by many editors that this will actually hinder your chances of getting published.  Do it if you can execute it in a way that is flattering.)

*  Research and target the appropriate publishers.  This is extremely important, really look at their newest catalogues.  Would you work be an appropriate fit?  Are they using people with a style that is compatible with yours?  I'm not saying to cater your work to them necessarily, but find an appropriate fit for you.  I read the Writers Market like a novel, and used a highlighter throughout.  This gives you a good indication of what certain publishers are looking for and how to present your work.  One of the most common mistakes that authors make when submitting work (according to editors) is submitting work that is not suitable to their list.  This ensures that you get your stuff into the slush pile.
*recommended reading "Writer's Market", or "Writer's Guide to Book Editors, Publishers and Literary Agents" both published yearly.

*  Really sell yourself to them.  Put together a package with a bio, list of clients, testimonials from clients, target market for your piece, and a sales pitch (as in a press release) about why you created the book and how it might be presented to the public.  Also I always mention that this is not a simultaneous submission in my cover letter, (this is common courtesy in the publishing field), and that I purposely chose _________ because I felt the work would fit well with their list, in concept and visually.
*recommended reading "Six Steps to Free Publicity" by Marcia Yudkin

JW note: I think this common courtesy (of not submitting to more than one publisher at a time) would be fine if publishers responded quickly but they can take months and months, so if you go one by one you could spend years before someone accepts your work. Sometimes I do submit exclusively to one publisher, but generally I advise submitting to several unless they specifically say in their writers' guidelines that they will consider only exclusive submissions. In that case, if you don't get any response within a reasonable time, let them know you're moving on, and submit to others. Frankly, the deck is stacked too much in their favor for us to play the game only as they want it.

Keri's full list is here, and you may also want to check out some of her books, which are all about creativity and art.

Feed Your Head...With a Zoomquilt

A group of artists have created what they call a Zoomquilt. It's an amazing visual that zooms you through a succession of painted scenes, most of them spooky and surreal. If you need to get a little brain buzz to energize yourself, go here and enjoy! (And you might want to bookmark it and go back to it anytime you're feeling blah and need a little jolt of inspiration to start writing.)

Make Your Writing Reflect YOU

I've been a fan of writer/illustrator Keri Smith for some time, and recently on her blog I found her list of ten suggestions for infusing your work with your personality. Here are three that apply to writers as much as to artists:

* Document what you are responding to regularly. *journal/sketchbook, blog, listmaking, photo journal, bulletin board collage, internet bookmarks, Allow yourself to go deeper into an idea. Find influence outside of your field. Consider that you are ALWAYS working for yourself.

* Start to challenge yourself on a regular basis to try new things, (not just for work. *i.e. new foods, colors, processes, classes, travel, become a guerrilla artist, etc. Your hobbies are your greatest source of play.)

* "Pay no attention to the man behind that curtain." Ignore what other people are doing. It has no bearing on your existence or vision of the world. The times we feel the most discouraged are usually due to the fact we are comparing ourselves to others. Most times reading awards annuals, and industry mags only serves to make us feel inadequate. Try cutting it out entirely. Designer Bruce Mau recommends not entering awards competitions. His reasoning, “Just don’t do it, it’s not good for you.”

For the full list, go here. You may also want to pick up Keri's book, "Living Out Loud."

Follow Your Bliss? (It May Not Be All Fun)

On her blog, Susan's Art & Words, Susan Gallacher-Turner interviewed creativity expert Eric Maisel. I thought his observations on the notion that you should "follow your bliss" (as advised by Joseph Campbell as a way to find your true calling) to be interesting--and realistic:

"To my ear, 'following your bliss' makes life sound much easier than it in fact is. I think that we have to do tons of things that hold no particular meaning for us, like writing marketing emails and so on, that support our meaning-making efforts—the effort to get our book known, for instance, because we think it has something to say—things that feel nothing like blissful."

He adds: "My fear is that the phrase 'follow your bliss' makes it seem as if our work should be fun, soulful, easy, exhilarating, and so on, whereas it is those things only a percentage of the time. But it can always be meaningful, even if it is rarely blissful."

This goes hand-in-hand with our apparent belief that everything should be fun: brushing your teeth should  be fun, borrowing money should be fun, eating your dinner should be fun. Of course this notion is largely advertising-driven but it can lead us to think that if we're not giddy with joy every minute of the day there's something wrong.

Writing for Games

Writing for games is a hot, growing market, and if you think it's all only about shoot-em-ups you're behind the times. Here's an example of a game from Gamelab, called Miss Management. They describe it this way:

“Get ready to manage a team of zany animated coworkers as you step into the shoes of Denise, a young and beleagured first-time office manager. You'll have to juggle incoming work tasks, keep everyone from getting stressed out, and help the coworkers achieve their goals, from flirting at the watercooler to getting more work done than anyone else! Office politics was never as hilarious as this!"

Gamelab's non-profit partner, Gamelab Institute of Play, recently received a $1.1 million dollar grant from the MacArthur Foundation, to plan and develop a new 6th-12th-grade public school in New York City that will use game-inspired methods as a basis for learning.

If you are interested in learning more about this field, one good source is gamelab's site, here.

The Film and Book Connection: Something Different

Here's a new idea for a book/film connection that helps the author, Paolo Coelho, get media attention for his new book, The Witch of Portobello. The book has 15 narrators, and he is holding a competition for 15 film-makers to shoot the scenes that relate to each of the narrators.

These will then be stitched together to make a feature film of the book, which will be entered in film festivals and possibly will get commercial distribution.

It's not for amateurs with cell-phone cameras, because he wants high definition with perfect sound.

It's not clear that this is a great deal for the film-makers, because Coelho will keep all the rights to the film. Each selected film-maker will be paid 3000 Euros (about £2000/ $4000) for his or her segment. This may be fine as long as the film is showing only at festivals, but there's no mention of any profit-share if it gets commercial distribution, DVD sales, or TV rights, etc. In my view, he should consider the 3000 Euro fee as an advance against a small share of the commercial income, so I'm not touting this as a great opportunity for film-makers, but I do think it's an interesting example of an author doing something different.

If you want to read more about this on his blog, go here.

Someone Shoot This Man Please

All right, I'm speaking metaphorically, I probably don't want anyone to actually shoot Guardian columnist Simon Hoggart, despite this quote (which I found in Writers' News Magazine):

"My publisher, Atlantic, is generous, but I could never dream of earning a living from books. It's a hobby, which twice a year pays a cheque that might be quite nice or, sometimes, nonexistent. You have to look on your books as you do your children: you are delighted that they are there, but you wouldn't dream of making money from them."

This is a view that's out of step with today's marketplace and it helps maintain the image of the writer as a dabbler to be patted on the head rather than a professional who should be paid a reasonable sum for his or her work.

Writing for Children (Did You Pass the Test?)

Yesterday's post, with excerpts from an interview with the author of children's graphic novels, had a test hidden within it for any of you who want to write for kids (and there's a moral even for those who want to write other things, so stay with us). Here are the question:

Did you read the whole interview via the link? (Very good. Most of you get an A.)

Did you also go to the websites of the three publishers mentioned in the article, to see what they are looking for? (Aha! Just as I suspected...).

I linked only to one, Orca. If you went to their website, you found that they're considering work only by Canadian authors, so if you don't happen to be Canadian, that's a dead end. But that's not the point. The important thing is to start reading everything with an eye too how it might help you in your writing career. When you put on that filter, you'll be surprised how many leads you'll encounter.

I can attest to this from my own recent experience. I read that a publisher is releasing a new line of self-development books. Since I have one in mind, I sent them an email with a brief (equivalent of one page) summary of the idea. They requested a full proposal and made some suggestions for how to tailor it to their needs. I quickly turned around that proposal and have been offered a contract. When the ink is dry, I'll tell you more about it, but for now the point is simply that the information and opportunities are out there--if you're keeping your eyes open.

Writing for Children

If you want to write for children, you may want to consider the graphic novel format. Freshdaily's Toronto blog, BlogTo, recently carried an interview with author Liam O'Donnell, who has two new kids' graphic novels coming out from Orca Publishers. Here's what he says about the versatility of this type of book:

“It's all about finding a topic that connects with the reader. And because graphic novels are a format and not a genre, they can cover just about any topic imaginable, from super hero action to non-fiction topics like the inner workings of electricity or photosynthesis. With an open range of topics and genres, chances are you can find a comic that will engage the particular interest of the reluctant reader in your life.”

The need to get reluctant readers hooked on reading is a big theme with teachers and parents (and publishers) these days. O'Donnell adds, "Both traditional book publishers, like Orca and OwlKids, and educational publishers, like Capstone Press in the US, have caught onto this and are producing graphic novels covering a wide range of topics. As more adults struggle to get kids engaged in reading, they are realizing that graphic novels are a great way to get young minds hooked on reading. Once the love of reading is there, young readers can springboard onto longer, more traditional texts of the same topic.”

He adds a warning that I also have made to people who think they can just dash off a children's book because it's short: “If anything, successfully writing for kids can be a lot tougher than writing for adults. Adult readers will often forgive an author for a tedious bit of writing, flat characters or less than perfect plotting and continue reading the book just to see how it all ends. Kids have so many demands for their attention from TV, video games and other great books that at the first sign of anything tedious, flat or poorly plotted, they'll drop your book and move onto something else without another thought.”

PS: The movie I wrote, "The Real Howard Spitz" was about a failed detective writer who thinks it must be easy to write a children's book, but then has to hook up with an actual child (a species he detests) in order to get it right.  It's available on DVD and also includes my entire 30-second acting career...

New Media Creativity

Here is a revealing article from wired.com about how two young filmmakers, Arin Crumley and Susan Buice, took full advantage of the new media to make their 70-minute autobiographical feature film--including using MySpace to build an audience ahead of time, getting their fans-to-be to help them figure out where to try to book the film into theaters, and finally how to make money by allowing people to see the film, Four Eyed Monsters, free on the web (it has been viewed over half a million times in the week or so that it has been posted on YouTube). They financed it with $100,000 in credit card debt, but have already made $20,000 of that back in the first week via Spout.com, which is giving them a $1 commission for every person they get to sign up for that site. You can see the film on YouTube through August 15.

There have been others who have used bits and pieces of these strategies, but this story makes it obvious how all of these components are starting to come together. Good news for creative people with a drive to tell stories without necessarily depending on the old systems.