Often when I ask newer writers whose work they admire or study, they mention books on the best-seller lists or the currently most popular movies. That's fine, it's good to be aware of what's working in today's marketplace. But it's not enough.
I think we need to draw our inspiration from deeper wells. These include:
* The novels that have stood the test of time, by the great authors like Dickens, Austen, Twain, Dostoevsky, and more recently, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner.
* Short stories by masters of the form like Chekhov, Someset Maugham, Gorki.
* The mythology of various cultures
* Folk Tales
* Fairy Tales
* Classic movies like Citizen Kane, Gone With the Wind, The Godfather, Rashomon, Ran, Lawrence of Arabia, Shane, High Noon.
Whether you agree with my choices doesn't matter, what does matter is that you keep feeding your brain with material that has stood the test of time.
ACTION: Consider taking a couple of hours a week or more to expose yourself to the work of the greats of the past and the recent past.
(Would you also like to learn how to write from the masters? I have collected their writing advice in my newest book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass." It also helps you apply that advice to what you are writing. You can get the book from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)
Trying to get the basics of your story worked out? In a previous post I mentioned that for detective stories it can be useful to work backward from the murder or other crime.
Another approach that works for stories in general is to take one major dramatic moment that you know you want to have in the story and work both forward and backward from it.
If you have several scenes or moments like that in mind, they can become the cornerstones of your story.
Usually these are scenes of major conflict. Those happen when things have built up, so when you work backward you can think about what are the elements that led to the confrontation.
Such conflict always has consequences, too, and those will determine the scenes that come afterward.
The first outline you generate using this method may be too linear and predictable but they will be the raw materials for a more sophisticated version. You can decide which of these scenes to show, which just to suggest and which to hide from the audience or reader. Sometimes it also makes sense to mix up the time frame; for instance, you can start with a dramatic moment and then go back and show what led up to it.
However, before you can play around with the order, it really helps to have the events in mind in chronological order and that’s where the “before and after” method is a big help.
(for advince on plotting from some of the world's greatest writers, including Mark Twain, Anton Chekhov and many more, see my lastest book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass." It's published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)
If you’re thinking of self-publishing, beware! You are the new target of a lot of scamsters and people offering overpriced or unnecessary services. Over the past six months I’ve seen these people come out of the woodwork. They’ll milk writers until there’s not much left and then they’ll ride some other trend to make more money from unsuspecting folks.
The excellent Writer Beware Blog pointed to e-Publishing Revo, which promises 100% royalties (which actually is 70% for books you price between $2.99 and $9.99, and 45% of list price for books costing more or less than that range. How is that 100%?).
The company behind e-Publishing is Bookwhirl, which Writer Beware describes as a “notorious Internet spammer.” WB also points out that are various inconsistencies in the description of what you get for the sums e-Pubishinging Revo asks for helping you self-publish, and in the fine print it mentions that if you buy their package you’re also agreeing to be contacted by email, mail, and telephone about other products and services they want to sell you.
Sounds like one to stay away from.
Although you can do all of the tasks that go with self-publishing, some people don't have time or don't like dealing with technology, so I'm not saying all companies that offer to provide these services for you are bad. However, before you hand over any money do a Google search, see what others are saying, and be sure that the terms and conditions are absolutly clear before you sign anything.
What is the one thing that most interferes with your managing to spend enough time writing?
(Think of this before reading further.)
At the ad agency Grey New York, the boss started the Thursday morning No-Meeting Zone from 9am to noon. One of the people working there, Gina Sclafani, says, "This is officially sanctioned time for us to expand our minds and devote time to ideas that kept getting pushed to the side, using whatever methods worked for us. And not just for the writers and art directors. This was a never-before-seen, agency-wide missive."
Her article is about the creative benefits of moving out of your comfort zone, but at the moment i'm nore interested in that three hour exclusion zone.
Could you schedule a similar zone during which you banish the thing that most gets in your way? Three hours during which you will not:
* check your email
* go onto Facebook, Twitter, or other social media sites
* watch TV
* or whatever else is your biggest source of distraction
Give it a try. If three hours is too much, start with one. Then expand the number of days and, if possible, the number of hours.
(Want more time tips? See my book FOCUS: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done. You can get it from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)
An international study by software company Adobe revealed some interesting beliefs about creativity, notably:
While eighty percent of respondents felt we all have the potential to be creative, they also stated that they spend only a third of their time being creative and only 25% felt they were living up to their creative potential.
So what gets in the way?
A majority felt that schools and companies don't do enough to promote creative behaviour or actually impede it.
The other big factor was lack of time. People feel so pressured to produce that they feel they can't take the time to stop and think about how to do things differently. They're on the treadmill and it won't stop.
How do you feel about whether you're living up to your creative potential? Actually, I'm not a fan of that wording--I think I'm creative, but am I living up to my potential? Probably not. I'm surprised that 25% of people said they were. A more realistic question is, do you feel you are using your creativity a significant amount of the time?
If not, here are a few tips that might help--things I try to remember to do myself (not always successfully):
* Be aware of how much of the pressure you are creating yourself by agreeing to the "rules" -- for instance, that you should be reachable via phone at all times, or that you should answer all emails within a few hours. What would happen if you broke these rules?
* Give yourself short breaks, take a deep breath, and ground yourself again.
* When you find something frustrating or annoying to do, take fifteen minutes to brainstorm how you could do it differently, convince somebody else to do it, or get the desired result by doing something else. Remember that you can apply your creativity to just about anything.
(For more tips on making the most of your time, see my book, FOCUS: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done, published by Pearson and available from Amazon or you other favorite bookseller.)
Whether or not we should, we do tend ot judge a book by its cover, which is why any author who is considering self-publishing should make time to watch the video below. The speaker is legendary designer Chip Kidd, who creates covers for books published by Random House.
I think you'll find this interesting even if you're not going to self-publish, because he makes some fascinating points about design in general. Along the way he talks about how he came up with the covers for Jurrasic Park, among others. It lasts about 17 minutes and if you're in a rush you can start at 1:20. If you can't see it fully below, you can also watch it by clicking on this link: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/lang///id/1410
Want to write a detective novel but having problems with the plot? One method is to work backward.
Start with the murder. Who was the victim?
When you have worked out his or her story, including behaviour or personality traits or issues that could cause a lot of conflicts, you’ll also be able to come up with a group of people who all could have done it and their possible motives.
These motives will suggest story strands. For instance, let's say the victim was having an affair. That means his wife and maybe the women (or man) he was having the affair with could both be suspects (especially if he had tried to end the affair).
That means in story terms you will have to think about how he met the person with whom he had the affair, how often they got together, where, what excuses he used to his wife for not being home, etc. You will not reveal all of this information, it will be raw material.
For instance maybe your detective finds out the victim owed money to someone--another motive. In the course of investigating that lead he finds out that the victim used to go to a casino and the detective thinks that means the victim had a gambling problem.
Nobody at the casino recognizes the picture of the victim. One gambler, however, stays at the hotel next door and says, "I’ve seen him at the hotel several times."
That leads the detective to realize that the victim was meeting someone at the hotel.
When you have worked out a good story for each suspect you'll have plenty of raw material and then with half your brain you have to step back and pretend you are the detective and don't know any of this, and with the other half of your brain you remember it all and figure out how the detective can find out some of it and how one thing can lead to another.
The important thing in this genre is to keep coming up with surprises. As I said, maybe the affair was with another man, or it was with a prostitute but he never slept with her, he just talked--and what he talked about leads to another secret he had.
When I read this kind of fiction the thing that interests me more than the mechanics of the plot is the personality of the detective or other protagonist. If he or she is interesting I’ll forgive some plot lapses. A good example: the Nero Wolfe novels by Rex Stout. Nero and his sidekick Archie are what makes the books fun to read. If you want your detective novel to stand out, I think coming up with a distinctive protagonist is the key.
(Get advice on plotting, creating characters, developing your style and much more, from the great writers of the past and present, including Twain, Dickens, Austen, Amis, Vonnegut and many more. It's all in my new book, 'Your Creative Writing Masterclass,' published by Nicholas Brealey and available now from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)
I had a question recently, whether I knew from the start what kind of writing I wanted to do. The answer is no. I started out wanting to do all kinds of writing and did sample scripts of various kinds but I wasn't getting anywhere very fast.
Finally a friendsaid: "You're putting 20% of your energy and attention into five different kinds of projects and 20% isn't enough to break in. Put 100% into one kind until you have broken in, then you can always spread out later."
I took that advice and focused on sitcoms first. Once I'd established a bit of a track record in sitcoms I was able to also write TV movies and a mini-series and a feature film.
I still suffer from the desire to to it all, but periodically I have to remind myself, "You can do it all...but not all at the same time."
ACTION: If you are spreading yourself too thin, consider my friend's advice about that 20%.
Are you blocked because you fear revealing too much about yourself in your works of fiction? First enjoy the 5th episode of "Sherman Writes a Book," in which he has a similar fear(it's under two minutes long), then see the tips below for beating this kind of writer's block. (To see Sherman's story from the start, go scroll down to May 1 and then watch them in order.)
THE FEAR OF REVEALING TOO MUCH
Sometimes writers develop a block because they suddenly fear that their book or script will reveal too much about themselves. What if everybody realizes (or just assumes) that all of the protagonist's embarrassing stuff actually is the truth about the author?
First, it's true that the best fiction often reflects some aspect of the author. It's almost impossible to write anything that doesn't have some part of you in it. Of course that's not the same as saying what happens to him or her has happened to you. After all, very few writers of mystery and crime novels have actually killed anyone, yet the best are able to get inside the mind of a killer enough to do justice to that character. If they can't do that, the book won't be very good.
You have deniability! Every author is allowed to say, 'I could imagine doing such a thing, that' doesn't mean I've done it' (even if they have).
Also, let's face it, if you have a passion for writing, that means there's something about your life and/or your thoughts and feelings that you want to convey. As for which parts of your book reflect those, you can keep your readers guessing.
You also have the power of opt out of interviews and other forms of self-exposure. It didn't hurt the sales of "Catcher in the Rye" that J. D. Salinger was reclusive. In a recent interview, Stephen King revealed that he regretted doing a series of American Express ads that showed his face because from then on everybody knew what he looked like.
In short, remember that people will think whatever they want to think...but they spend far less time thinking about you then you think they do.
(There's great advice from the best writers about writer's block and a myriad of other topics in my newest book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller. Not just advice from me but from the all-time best writers like Mark Twain, Jane Austen, Anton Chekhov and many more. When you get the book, you get them as your mentors.)
This is the fourth in a series on overcoming the various kinds of writers' block, accompanies by the "Sherman Writes a Book" animated series of episodes (all under 2 min. long) that started on May 1. You might want to go back to that post and follow Sherman's story from the beginning).
THE 'WHAT IF IT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH?!" WRITER'S BLOCK
Some writers panic because they fear that their manuscript or script will not be good enough. What if no agent will accept it? What if no publisher wants it? What if they spent all that time writing for nothing?
I won't lie to you, it's entirely possible that you might not be able to see your finished book or script. It's a tough business and the majority of manuscripts and scripts don't sell. If profit is your only motive, I suggest going to Las Vegas and putting your life savings on red or black at the roulette table. At least there you have an (almost) 50/ 50 chance of winning.
However, if you write because you love it or you can't imagine not writing, then I'm afraid you are stuck with the risk. What might you gain even if your project doesn't sell? Well, you might learn something from its failure. You might figure out why it didn't sell and use that knowledge on your next project. Or it's possible that you grew as a person as a result. It's even possible that the process of writing it gave you pleasure!
The question I always ask people who worry about this is, "If you stopped writing, what would you do instead?" Most of them have no idea or say something like, "I guess I'd watch more TV with the rest of the family," or "I guess I'd read more." Unless you feel like you're really short-changing your family, would you enjoy that more? Would it bring you or them closer together--especially if you secretly felt frustrated because actually you don't want to stop writing?
Do you wish Van Gogh had stopped painting because he wasn't able to sell any of his paintings in his lifetime? Was he a failure as a painter because of that?
Don't deny your fears, just expand your definition of success.
(How about some help from the greatester writers--like Chekhov, Dickens, Twain and another 100 or so more? You'll find their writing advice in my newest book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)
Sherman's saga began on May 1, so you may want to start there and work your way forward. Each video is under two minutes long. Below the video we look at another kind of writer's block and how to overcome it.
THE 'WHAT IF THEY RECOGNIZE THEMSELVES' BLOCK
If you're writing something that is based even loosely on real people, you may wonder whether they, like Sherman's mother, might wonder whether you're writing about them. If you have portrayed them in a less than flattering light, will they hate you? Sue you?
Here are some tips on how to avoid that:
* Change lots of details so it's not easy to recognize your models for the characters. You can change gender, age, physical description, the setting, profession, hobbies, relationships, etc.
* Go for hybrids. In other words, mix together the characteristics of several people so that the combination is not that much like any of them. This also gives you deniability. You can say, honestly, "No, that character was not based on you."
* Remember that actually people generally don't know themselves well enough to recognize what you've used, especially their bad traits. Lots of successful authors have commented on that.
And if you're worried that a totally ficitonal character might accidentally be similar to a real person who coud turn around and sue you, here are a couple of tips:
* If you create somebody really hateful, give them either a common name or an obscure name. The Bill Smiths of the world are used to encountering hundreds of other Bill Smiths and they won't automatically think that an evil character with that name is modelled on them.
If you give the character a very obscure name, check Facebook and Google that name to see if anybody actually is called that. Be especially careful that you haven't give this evil character any characteristics that you spot for someone with a similar name. For instance, if your character is a sadistic dentist named Hieronymous Skitch, and you find there's a real dentist named Hieronymous Skatch, change the name totally.
Frankly, usually fears about this issue usually are overblown. Use a bit of common sense and you'll be fine.
(Want more good writing advice? Not just from me but from Charles Dickens, Anton Chekhov, and Jane Austen? It's in my newest book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from your favorite bookseller.)
Here's episode 2 of "Sherman Writes a Book," the saga that started yesterday. Today Sherman decides to get professional help... (the video is less than 2 min. long).
A WRITING BLOCK MAY BE JUST A PLOT BLOCK.
Sometimes when writers get stuck they worry that's it, they'll never write again. Not true. Over the next few posts we'll look at a variety of ways you can get past that block and get your writing flowing again. Today let's look at one kind of block: THE PLOT BLOCK
* Are you stuck on one part of the story? Do you get the sense that if you could solve that issue you'd be able to continue on with the rest of it? If so, you have a plot block. It may feel like you've written yourself into a corner. You don't want to give up, but you don't know the way forward.
If that's your block, here are three practical things to do:
* Take at least 48 hours away from the project. If you find yourself thinking about it, change the subject. Go to see a movie or two, or read a good book, take a long walk or a swim, get plenty of sleep.
* Then state, in general terms, the outcome you need. Take a step back from the solutions that aren't working and see the bigger picture. For instance, let's say that I have my protagonist tied up by the bad guys, it looks like there's no way for him to get away. Maybe I've been racking my brain trying to come up with some clever way for him to get free of his bonds. Now I'd step back and say what's the bigger definition of what needs to happen? He needs to get away.
* Brainstorm as many ways as you can that somebody can get away from a dangerous situation. Don't judge, just list as many as you can. These could include: fly away, get rescued, talk his way out, play dead, etc.
* After a break, go through your entire list. Cross off the ones you know you don't want ("somebody rescues him = deus ex machina, not good). For the ones that are left, brainstorm how they could work. For instance, talk his way out. What does he have that the bad guys could want badly enough to let him go--under supervision, of course--to get it? Or what could he do to make them think he's actually on their side? Or how could they benefit by using him in some way rather than killing him now?
* When you have a promising solution you may have to go back to an earlier part of the story to plant some additional information that pays off in this scene, and you may also need to make adjustments to what comes after this scene.
The key thing to remember: when stuck on a story point, step back and look at the bigger picture.
(You know who had terrific advice about plotting as well as characterization, description, setting? The great authors like Dickens, Twain, Austen, and the other 100 or so I quote in my book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass." It's published by Nicholas Brealey and available now from Amazon or via your other favorite bookseller.)
Today starts the saga of Sherman Shilmeister's attempt to write a book. Each episode is under two minutes long and is followed by some practical tips.
THAT BLANK FIRST PAGE CAN BE SCARY. Here are some ways to overcome that fear:
* Remember that you don't even have to start with the first page. If there's a scene later on in your book or screenplay that you know will be part of the story, jump ahead and write that one first. It may help you break the ice.
* Remember that you'll probably end up rewriting the first pages anyway. Don't try to write the perfect first line or the perfect first paragraph, page, or chapter. Just get something down that gets you rolling. You can and will come back to it later to make it better.
* Write three different openings and decide later which one to use. Having several options takes the pressure of you to come up with the 'right' one immediately.
Sherwin's journey continues tomorrow...
(And your journey of writing can be made easier with advice from the greatest writers--like Twain, Dickens, Austen, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Conrad, and many more. They spill the beans in my newest book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," published by Nichoals Brealey and available from Amazone or your other favorite book seller.)
