Time to Write

Writers: when you need a character name

Sometimes when you're writing a novel, story or screenplay the characters' names pop into your mind easily. At other times, you might find the Random Thing Generator useful.

At the Random Thing Generator site you'll see three lists: names, addresses, and businesses. Each of them offers you ten items. For instance, when I looked at the site the first three names were:

Pamela Baker, Louise James, Gerald S. Thompson

The first 3 addresses were 1344 1st St, Eugene, VT, 257 Lincoln Blvd, Albuquerque, OK, and 1137 Walnut Lane, Charlotte, MI.

The first 3 businesses were Lillian's Fish & Fries, Heather's Mac & Cheese, and Chris's Dive Bar.

If you don't like any of the items, you can click on "Refresh" and you'll get ten more.

It's not perfect--there's a shortage of ethnic names, and all the businesses seem to start with a name (like the three above, or Jurgen's Words and Phrases Discount Outlet).

Also it's not clear whether the addresses are totally random--that is, one random street number plus one random street name plus one random town or city plus one state. I looked up the MI address and there is an 1137 Walnut Street (not Lane) in Charlotte MI. Even with the Street/Lane difference, I'd worry if I happened to be writing a thriller in which a crazed killer is found to be holed up at that address and somebody lived at the almost identical real location. If by chance the real person bore any kind of resemblance to my serial killer a lawsuit might be forthcoming.

However, as a way to prompty your own character names, street names, or business names, a few minutes with the Random Thing Generator could be useful.

 

 

Writers and artists...get support where you can (not necessarily where you expect)

        (c) 2013 jurgen Wolff

Writers' groups: watch out for these types of writers

Writers' groups can be great. It's helpful to get constructive feedback on your work and satisfying to give it. However, sometimes such groups are dominated by one or more of the following characters, in which case run for your life.

1. THE DEPRESSIVE

She writes poetry about death, suicide, ravens, Satan, rain, sadness, broken hearts, spiders and flies, and funerals. She's prone to bursting into tears while reading her latest creation. The group is afraid to criticize her poems in case it sends her over the edge, although they're tempted. 

2. THE WRITER OF EPIC MULTI-VOLUME FANTASY NOVELS

Before he reads his work he has to explain to you the history, culture, geography, topography, language and customs of the people of the land of Fnarr, which he has been creating in his mind since he was five. That's Fnarr II, of course, because Fnarr I was destroyed by Zokitosh, second son of...hey, pay attention!

3. THE BITTER WRITER

This guy knows there's a conspiracy to keep talented newcomers like him out of the writing game. Agents are in on it, publishers are in on it, even the people who run Amazon are in on it, and he has the rejection slips and the zero Kindle sales to prove it. Sit down, he'll tell you all about it. There's a lot.

4. THE APOLOGIST

She spends the first 15 minutes of her reading slot telling you that what she's written really isn't any good, she probably shouldn't even be in this group because she's not as good as everybody else, and she needs to rewrite it. Once she does start reading her work, she interrupts herself to say "I need to rework this next bit" or "ignore this part, it really should be in a different chapter." 

If you can't find a writing group that's not dominated by one of these characters, start your own. Show them this post. If they laugh, let them join.

(While you're at, make sure all prospective members of your new group have bought my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and purchased only by the nicest people.) 

 

 

How to spot a Communist (or terrorist or folk singer)

Could that person sitting next to you in your writing group or in the subway actually be (gasp!) a Communist?

Oh, less likely these days, right?

But maybe he or she is a terrorist!

Fortunately, back in 1955 the US First Army Headquarters created a manual called "How to Spot a Communist."

I wonder whether it could still be of use, if we just substitute the term terrorist? Given the recent revelation of the key words in your emails that make the NSA suspicious (team, pork, etc.), I may be on to something here. 

The report says that while they try not to give themselves away, such people can be spotted. So here we go, with terrrorist replacing Communist:

"While a preference for long sentences is common to most terrorist writing, a distinct vocabulary provides the more easily recognized feature of the “Terrorist Language.”

Even a superficial reading of an article written by a terrorist or a conversation with one will probably reveal the use of some of the following expressions: integrative thinking, vanguard, comrade, hootenanny, chauvinism, book-burning, syncretistic faith, bourgeois-nationalism, jingoism, colonialism, hooliganism, ruling class, progressive, demagogy, dialectical, witch-hunt, reactionary, exploitation, oppressive, materialist.

This list, selected at random, could be extended almost indefinitely. While all of the above expressions are part of the English language, their use by terrorists is infinitely more frequent than by the general public…"

Other tipoffs that you may be dealing with a terrorist are the use of terms including “violation of civil rights,” “racial or religious discrimination” or “peace.” 

The report does warn, "The principle [they meant principal] difficulty involved is the distinction between the person who merely dissents in the good old American tradition and the one who condemns for the purpose of abolishing that tradition." You know, abolishing traditions like imprisonment without trial or representation, or needing a warrant for wiretaps. Oh, wait...

I will write more about this soon but must close for now or I will be late for the hootenanny. Ooops...

Writers have only one advantage--are you you using it?

Brian Grazer is one of Hollywood's top writer-producers and the secret of his success, as he tells it, is one thing that all writers can do. Here's how he put it:

"My whole career has been built on one piece of advice that came from two people: [MCA founder] Jules Stein and [former MCA Chairman] Lew Wasserman. In 1975 I was a law clerk at Warner Bros. I'd spent about a year trying to get a meeting with these two men. Finally they let me in to see them. 

They both said, separately:

 

'In order for you to be in the entertainment business, you have to have leverage. Since you have none--no money, no pedigree, no valuable relationships--you must have creative leverage. That exists only in your mind. So you need to write--put what's in your mind on paper. Then you'll own a piece of paper. That's leverage.' 

With that advice, I wrote the story that became 'Splash,' which was a fantasy that I had about meeting a mermaid.

 

For years, I sent registered letters to myself--movie concepts and other ideas--so that I had my ideas officially on paper. I have about 1,000 letters in a vault.

 

To this day, I feel that my real power is only that--ideas and the confidence to write them down." 

THE ESSENTIAL FIRST STEP

Obviously there are a few more steps between that and success, but without this first step they can't exist. 

Sometimes people say ideas are a dime a dozen. It's true that an idea by itself isn't enough. You have to turn it into something tangible--an outline, a script, a manuscript, a book, a graphic novel or comic, a presentation, a film, a blog, a podcast...something others can experience. 

If you don't have a mechanism for recording your ideas or don't do so consistently, you may be missing out. I'm sure that not all 1000 of Grazer's ideas are great, but they sure give him a lot to choose from. Sometimes looking through a list of your ideas also is an effective way to conquer writer's block.

HOW TO RECORD YOUR IDEAS

Recording your ideas is simple. The traditional advice is to carry a notebook and pen with you at all times. I have a keychain that has a small pen attached, so even if I forget to carry another pen and paper I can always use that pen and write on the back of one of the business cards I carry in my wallet.

These days many people carry around a smart phone and there are lots of simple note-taking apps available. You can type it or use an audio recording app. Or you can email yourself the idea. Tablets allow you to do the same thing.

The rules are the same as for brainstorming. Focus on quantity first and don't judge, just record. That means noting even an idea that you suspect will not work. Later you may be able to combine two bad ideas into one good one. 

If you record ideas on the go, take time once a week or so to assemble and store them in a paper or computer file.

One idea can change your life (and sometimes the lives of many  others) for the better--don't let it get away.

In my book, Creativity Now, I give tips for three phases: getting into the right mindset; having and recording your ideas; and implementing your ideas. As a bonus, there are 25 case studies of people who have created value by doing all three. Creativity Now is available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.

How to be more productive (tips from a tech mogul)

Writers want to be more productive as well as more creative. In the previous post, I linked to a brief video of Caterina Fake, founder of Flickr and Findery, talking about how to find time to be more creative. In the one linked below from the Inc.com site, she has some tips on how to be more productive as well:

http://videos.inc.com/index.php/extwidget/openGraph/wid/1_hf9wmqwn

Writing isn't about words...it's about emotions

When I teach, one question I ask writers to keep in mind right from the start is:

What do you want your readers or audience members to feel?

Too often we forget that the best reading or movie-going experience is an emotional one. We are paying to be moved to laughter, to tears, to fear, to wonderment. 

I'm talking mainly about fiction writing, but it applies to some degree to non-fiction, too. Yes, we want to be informed but that is much more likely to happen if our emotions are engaged as well.

Advertisers know this, of course. They want you to take action--to buy something, usually--and they know that you'll do that only if you're motivated. The strongest motivation comes from feeling a strong emotion. It may be that if you don't buy product X you won't be popular or attractive, or if you use product Y your days will be joyful. 

Unfortunately most of the products don't really deliver, but it's important that our books and screenplays do.

Therefore I suggest considering this question on several levels:

What do you want your readers/audience to feel when they have finished your book or seen your film?

If they leave with a strong feeling at the end they are much more likely to continue to think about and talk about your work. The strongest word of mouth comes about when people want their friends to have the same emotional experience they did.

What do you want them to feel about each of your characters?

We may want readers' feelings about a character to change, in which case we have to be sure to give them sufficient reasons; as in life, in fiction a first impression is powerful.

What do you want them to feel in each of your major scenes?

Here we have to take into account not only the emotional tone of each scene in isolation but also in light of what went before. An emotion is stronger when it is felt after its opposite. That's why good thrillers and horror stories often juxtapose a funny or calm moment with a shocking one.

If you find it too inhibiting to think about this while writing the first draft, use it as a rewriting tool. I hope it helps you write the best book or screenplay you can--that'll lead to some great positive emotions!

How to make time to be creative (tips from a web mogul)

How to make the time to write? In the three-minute video clip linked below, Caterina Fake, the founder of Flickr and Finder, talks about making time, paying attention, and mastering change in an industry that's constantly in flux.

She's talking about entrepreneurship but I think her tips apply to writing as well, especially for people who also have a day job. 

http://videos.inc.com/index.php/extwidget/openGraph/wid/1_iw9us7ft

 

 

Can design save newspapers, books...and writers?

In the 2009 six-minute TED talk below a Polish newspaper designer named Janek Utko discussed how changing the design of newspapers might help save them--at least for now. Of course it's not design alone, as he acknowledges, but it can make an important contribution.  

Maybe it can give us some ideas for how to make sure that traditional (paper-based) books and other creative products also continue to be popular. 

 

Related articles

Self-publish or go with an ebook publisher? (And an uncomfortable truth)

The danger of waiting for your Muse before you start to write (illustrated)

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copyright, 2013 jurgen wolff