Time to Write

Plotting a novel or screenplay? Here's a new, useful free tool!

Amazon Studios is the part of the company that is producing original series and movies. They have just unveiled a new free tool that writers of novels or scripts will find useful. It's called Amazon Storybuilder, and it's a virtual corkboard that you can access from your computer, phone, or tablet.

Many writers use index cards with one phrase or sentence per scene or story beat. It's easy to move them around and add or subtract them as you develop the story. I do the same thing with sticky notes on a whiteboard. On Storybuilder you can have up to 1000 cards per project, many more than you'll ever need. On a typical feature film or TV movie, I seldom use more than 100.

The advantage of something like Storybuilder (similar apps are available) is that you can access the virtual cards wherever you are--as long as you have a wifi signal, that is. The cards live in the cloud, not on your device. 

Your cards are private unless you invite someone (e.g., a collaborator) to have access to them. 

Since I'm going to be travelling quite a bit in the next few months I'm going to give Storybuilder a try. If you want to as well, go here (you may need to sign in to Amazon first):  https://studios.amazon.com/storybuilder

(Do you want friendly, practical guidance in writing your book or screenplay? You'll find it in my book, Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

Related articles

Does your novel or screenplay plot look like this?

What are your novel's or screenplay's 3 magic words?

The one way to know who someone really is...

One of a series of quotes for writers and others that you might find helpful in thinking ahead to the New Year: "When people show you who they are, believe them." -- Maya Angelou

For a long time I tended to judge people either by who they said they were or who I thought they had the potential to be. That led to a lot of disappointments. 

What are the people in your life showing you about being supportive of the things that matter to you?

If it's not good, let them know. If you let them know and nothing changes, it's time to look for other people to bring into your life. Of course it doesn't hurt, either, to check what we are showing them.

Jurgen Wolff's Countdown to Christmas: the poor little (immigrant) match girl

How to brainstorm about characters and plots for your novel or screenplay

When the muse is busy elsewhere, it's good to have some ways to generate ideas anyway. In my book, "Creativity Now" (Pearson Publishing--an excellent present for people on your list, by the way), I share a ot of them, but here's another:

1. Come up with some key words that relate to your story.

For instance, I'm working on a book for kids eight years and up in which a boy has to find the courage to defend himself and his family against a threat nobody else believes is real.

2. Look up quotes about those key words.

For "courage" one I found is:

"The only service a friend can really render is to keep up your courage by holding up to you a mirror in which you can see a noble image of yourself." - George Bernard Shaw

3. See what ideas the quote gives you for your story.

The quote above gave me the idea for a scene in which the boy doubts himself but it's his one friend's belief in him that keeps him going.

Another quote is, "The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it is conformity." - Rollo May

That reminded me to show how hard it is for the boy to resist the social pressure to go along with what others. 

The ideas that result from this method don't just come out of the blue, often they were lurking somewhere just below your conscious awareness, and the quotes bring them out.

 (You can get Creativity Now from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

 

Jurgen Wolff's Countdown to Christmas: If I'd been cuter

Write it right: "the below item"?

Isn't it strange how sometimes you suddenly start spotting a lot of examples of a new(ish) usage? 

That seems to be happening with the word "below" preceding a noun, as in "the below chart" instead of "the chart below."

Is it proper grammar? That depends on whether you accept "below" as an adjective. Some dictionaries don't, a few do. 

It just sounds awkward to me and it's not like there was anything wrong with writing "the (whatever) below". 

Another one I've noticed is that "So" seems to have replaced "Well" at the start of answers to questions (e.g., at the TED talks). For example, asked how the person got into writing, he or she might say, "So...I was really into reading when I was a youngster..."

Neither "Well" nor "So" is necessary but I'm mystified how these things spread.

Is your book unique? Oh oh!

Is your book unique? That may not be such a great thing.

If we stick to the strict definition of unique, a book can't be "somewhat unique" or "very unique". Unique means one of a kind. 

Of course there are very few things that are unique. Most are variations of what already exists. However, from time to time I meet an author who says their book or screenplay really is unique--nothing like it has ever been done. 

If that's true of what you are writing, prepare for an uphill battle. 

One of the first things a publisher asks is "what are some comparable books?"

It may surprise you that if you say there aren't any, that's a negative as far as the publisher goes. They know that something really new will require too much work to explain to an audience. They prefer saying "This is just like (name of best-seller) but even better."

If you want to attract a publisher, put some comparables in your query letter or proposal and explain why yours is similar and also how it's (a bit) different. Naturally, choose books that have sold well. 

If you self-publish you'll have to make the same thing clear to readers.

If you do have something unique, congratulations. The odds are  it will be a huge success...or a huge flop. It's possilbe that there hasn't been anything like it because nobody actually wants anything like it...or because they didn't know they wanted something like it but now that it exists they can't wait.    

(Want to be even more creative? Get a copy of the colorful, fun to read, and highly useful book, CREATIVITY NOW, published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

Related articles

If you're discouraged about your writing (or your year)

Have two solutions for every writers' obstacle

Your Query Letter: 10 thing that will make them throw it in the trash

The only courage that matters

A series of quotes for writers and others that you might find useful in thinking ahead to the New Year: "The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next." - Mignon McLaughlin (writer)

Starting to write something takes courage, finishing it takes courage, sending it out into the world takes courage. The good thing is that all of these can be done moment by moment.

Related articles

Why to do it now (whatever your "it" is)

Jurgen Wolff's Countdown to Christmas: Bad news, Rudolph!

Life holds surprises--does your novel or screenplay?

Life is full of surprises--sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. Part of the enjoyment of reading a novel or watching a movie is being surprised by a turn in the plot or characterization. Of course it has to make sense, so that when we look back from that point in the story we can see that there's a reason for this change.

One place to look for a good surprise is the character arc. That's the transformation your protagonist experiences between the start of the story and the end. Not all stories have this but most do. It might be from selfish to giving, from closed-off to open, from afraid to brave.

As you may have experienced in your life, one change usually brings others with it. That's where good story surprises lurk. 

For example, let's say your protagonist changes from closed-off to open. Some possible unexpected developments that might go along with this:

* his best friend, who was comfortable with the closed-off version, abandons or betrays him;

* his new personality doesn't match what he does for a living and he loses his job;

* he goes too far in the direction of being open and someone takes advantage of him.

You'll notice that these are, or at least seem to be, negatives. That's because when we're watching someone transform from a not-so-good state to a better one we expect to see the benefits. Just as in real life, we're not so prepared for the clouds that might come with the silver lining.

Of course it may be that in the long run it's to his advantage to have different friends and a different job, and being taken advantage of helps him to define his new limits. But when these first happen they probably shock him and us and give you some dramatic setbacks to work with.

(for help developing your writing from idea through to publication or production get a copy of Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

Writers: Do you trust the reader or viewer?

An attack of the expositions has hit one of the TV series I like, "Person of Interest." I don't know why, but the last couple of episodes they have started explaining (more than once) what is obvious. You know the sort of thing: "Need I remind you that your life is in danger?" No, you needn't remind him and you needn't remind me, either, somebody just took some shots at him two minutes ago.

This also drives me crazy on a lot of the reality/semi-documentary shows. They take a commercial break and when they come back they spend a couple of minutes recapping everything we've all just seen. Either they think our last vestiges of attention span have already departed, or it's a cheap way to fill a few minutes, or maybe it's a combination of the two.

I think a lot of it comes down to not trusting the viewer or the reader. When I worked in television, several times I had network executives tell me, "I understand what you're doing in this script, but the audience won't." 

Really? Frankly I didn't see much evidence of the intellectual superiority of the people in these positions at the networks. 

Author Lauren Beukes ("Zoo City," "The Shining Girls") told SciFiNow magazine, "You can give them [readers] clues without having one character sit the other down and explain it to them. Give people information in the details, make it implicit, not explicit. Trust your reader to be smart enough to figure it out."

Amen!

(A great present for writers--even yourself! "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

Are you scared enough to write a horror novel or screenplay?

In her inteview in SciFiNow magazine Sarah Pinborough ("Dog-Faced Gods") had some thoughts about what to write about if you want to write a horror story:

"What scares you is really all you can write about. Most horror writers are terrified of everything, so it gives them a big scope. They're so focused on a milliion ways they could die, real and unreal."

Stephen King says his greatest fear is getting Alzheimer's, and I think you could make the case that zombies are a stand-in for that fear--being yourself yet no longer yourself. 

What's your greatest fear? Perhaps writing a horror story might be good therapy.

(What writing advice did the greats have for us--masters like Twain, Austen, Dickens and the top modern authors as well? You'll find it in my book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass." It's published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon.com or your other favorite book seller.)

Why to make your inner critic wait

One of a series of quotes you might find helpful in thinking ahead to the New Year: "During a performance, the only kind of 'feedback' you need is that sense of delight you will get when you are fully absorbed." - John Eliot in his book, Overachievement.

For a writer, "performance" means writing your first draft.Being critical--or inviting criticism--before that's done is a common source of writer's block and sinking spirits. Step one: write it. Steps 2 through 10: Get feedback and make it better. Step 11: Stop changing it, you're only making it different, not better. Step 12: Get it out into the world and start working on your next project.

Writing horror? It's not about the monster!

Writer Sarah Pinborough ("Poison," "Dog-Faced Gods") has this tip for writers of horror: "Make sure it's about the man or the woman; not about whatever the supernatural elements is. If you're pitching your novel as 'It's about some zombies' or 'It's about a werewolf' then it's going to be cliched."

In an interview with SciFiNow magazine, she added, "I always think whatever the supernatural element is, it should be a metaphor for something else in the book. The plot should be driven by the character, anyway. So I think with horror especially, make it about a person rather than about the monster."

Sometimes we forget that the real focus of Frankenstein, for instance, is on Dr. Frankenstein; the creation of his monster is a metaphor for man's hubris, thinking we can conquer nature to the point of creating life itself even when when nature has decreed otherwise. Given what's happening in science today, it's still a relevant topic.

Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a metaphor for the battle to control the darker side of our natures. Again, there's plenty of evidence that this theme is as fresh as ever.

Dracula explored several themes, one of which is the battle between science and superstition, another idea we're still debating.

One of the gifts given to writers of horror, science fiction, and fantasy is that they can write about what's going on today via metaphors, avoiding the effect of sermonizing that a more straightforward treatment might have. What form would your pet topic take in a horror novel or screenplay? 

(For help writing your book or screenplay, get a copy of Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas realey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

Have two solutions for every writers' obstacle

Writers can use this good bit of advice from Craig Ballantyne: Plan ahead. Always have two solutions for every obstacle.

• Whenever you send out a manuscript, already know the next place you'll send it if the first is foolish enough to reject it.
  
  
• Do the same when you approach an agent--have another one waiting in the wings.
  
  
• If you can't find a traditional publisher, be ready to consider self-publishing.
  
  
• When you're working on one project, have another in mind as the next one. If you have any thoughts about it, jot them down and put them into a folder.

Having a back-up plan reduces the anxiety inherent in this line of work and makes it easier to keep going.

(Another thing that helps is having a writing coach in a book--and that's what you'll get in my book, called, not too surprisingly, Your Writing Coach. It's published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller. This holiday season consider supporting your local independent book store by doing your Christmas book buying there.)