Time to Write: Writers to Admire

January 22, 2015

Are you telling the best part of the story in your novel or script?

In a Fast Company series of successful authors' tips on writing better stories, Terence Winter (creator, writer, and executive producer of the series, Boardwalk Empire) makes a great point about choosing the most interesting part of a story to tell:

"Every movie you’ve ever seen about Al Capone shows him at the height of his power, and sort of like Al Capone’s Greatest Hits. If you can only spend two hours with Al Capone, you want it to be when he’s at the top of his game.

On Boardwalk Empire, we meet Al Capone when he’s a kid driving a truck. That Al Capone is so much more interesting to me because we get to see him become the guy we know, and we had hours and hours to do it, and really see what formed him and what made this guy tick and that’s so much more a luxury as a storyteller and more satisfying for the audience."

The series Gotham does something similar by looking at the formative years of the man who became Batman, and also by focusing on a character (Inspector Gordon) who has a supporting role in the later story.

Even in a screenplay or novel I think there's a lot of value in taking the time to brainstorm a number of ways of approaching the story before committing to one. For instance, a kidnapping story could be told with any of these as the viewpoint character:

* the victim

* the loved ones of the victim

* the detective investigating the case

* the kidnapper

* someone who is wrongly accused of the kidnapping

* someone who inadvertently or unwillingly gets involved in the crime

* a psychic (fake or genuine--if there is such a thing--who is asked to help locate the victim

* a previous victim of the kidnapper who realizes she knows something that could help but is reluctant to relive the experience

I'm sure there are more, but you get the idea.

(For writing tips from some of the greatest classical and modern writers, get a copy of my book, Your Creative Writing Masterclass. It's available from your favorite bookseller. You can find out more at www.YourCreativeWritingMasterclass.com)

January 22, 2015 in Screenwriting, Writers to Admire, Writing a Novel, writing a play, Writing Characters, Writing for children, Writing for Young Adults (YA), Writing methods | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 12, 2014

How Nick Hornby deals with the long process from script to film

It can take ages for a screenplay to become a film and of course a lot of times the production never happens. Nick Hornby, whose most recent adaptation is Wild, starring Reese Witherspoon, deals with it by using the time in between to write his novels.

An article written by Joe Berkowitz for fastcreate.com points out, "what once seemed like a dealbreaking burden [the delays] has turned into a boon for the prolific author's productivity."

Yes, he does have the advantage of being a best-selling novelist and Academy Award-nominated (for An Education) screenwriter, but I think there's a useful lesson in there for the rest of us as well, namely to figure out how to make the downsides of the business part of our craft work for us rather than against us.

Hearing back from agents and publishers can take just as long as the gaps and delays experienced by screenwriters. I think the lesson is to have another project ready to go when we send one out into the real world...which also helps cut down on the amount of time we spend thinking about the first project's fate!

December 12, 2014 in Film, Marketing Your Book or Other Writing, Screenwriting, Writers to Admire, Writing a Novel, writing a play, Writing for children, Writing for Young Adults (YA) | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 07, 2014

Sunday thought: does your writing path have heart?

"When his apprentice wants to know which route he should choose, the Yaqui brujo answers, "Any path is only a path...All paths are the same: they all lead nowhere. The only important question you must ask is: 'Does this path have heart?'

If a path has heart for you, then dare to follow it. It is important to give up on irrelevant questioning, to take care not to waste yourself."

--Sheldon Kopp in "If You Meet the Buddha On the Road, Kill Him!"

***

Does what you are writing have heart for you? Then dare to follow it. It may or may not lead you to publication; for sure it will lead you to yourself.

December 07, 2014 in Feed Your Head, Getting Ideas to Flow, Screenwriting, Self-publishing, Time to Write, Writer's block, Writers to Admire, Writing a Novel, writing a play, Writing for Children, Writing for children, Writing for Young Adults (YA), Writing Motivation | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 25, 2014

John Steinbeck's Six Tips On Writing: Six

The Fall 1975 issue of Paris Review featured an interview with novelist John Steinbeck. He won the Pulitzer Prize and was a Nobel laureate, and The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men are still required reading in many English and literature classes. I'm sharing six tips from that interview (culled by the excellent Brain Pickings blog), with a few additional comments by me. This is the last of six:

"If you are using dialogue--say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech."

This was also advised by Kurt Vonnegut in the previous series of tips. As well as saying it aloud as you write it, get somebody else to read it aloud as you listen. Ask them not to act too much. If you don't have a willing friend, use your computer's text-to-speech function. The voice will be somewhat robotic but it will still be worthwhile to hear the words spoken. Doing this is even more important for people writing screenplays or plays.

(Mark Twain had advice for writers, too, as did Anton Chekhov, Kurt Vonnegut, Jane Austen, and many more. You'll find it my book, Your Creative Writing Masterclass, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from your favorite bookseller.)

November 25, 2014 in Screenwriting, Writers to Admire, Writing a Novel, writing a play, Writing Characters, Writing for children, Writing for Young Adults (YA), Writing methods | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 24, 2014

John Steinbeck's Six Tips On Writing: Five

"Beware of a scene that becomes too dear to you, dearer than the rest. It will usually be found out that it is out of drawing."

I'm not familiar with the phrase 'out of drawing,' but I know what he means. This is the same advice as "murder your darlings." A scene that stands out may be wonderful in itself but by standing out it detracts from the rest. This was also mentioned in the tips by Kurt Vonnegut that preceded these posts. It hurts to do this, but do it we must.

(There's more advice on writing, from Jane Austen through to Martin Amis, in Your Creative Writing Masterclass, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from your favorite bookseller. It makes a great present, too.)

November 24, 2014 in Writers to Admire, Writing a Novel, writing a play, Writing Characters, Writing for Children, Writing for Young Adults (YA), Writing methods | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 23, 2014

Sunday thought: the circle of freedom & you

"Freedom is cumulative. One choice made with an element of freedom makes even greater freedom possible for the next choice. Each exercise of freedom enlarges the circle of oneself." - Rollo May

I think this applies to what we write as well as to the rest of our lives. When you refuse to self-censor based on what others might think or whether something is more or less likely to sell (do we ever predict that correctly?) you make your circle of freedom smaller.

November 23, 2014 in Feed Your Head, Getting Ideas to Flow, PS personal posts, The Writer's Life, Writer's block, Writers to Admire, Writing a Novel, writing a play, Writing for Young Adults (YA), Writing Motivation | Permalink | Comments (0)

John Steinbeck's Six Tips On Writing: Four

"If a scene or section gets the better of you and you still think you want it--bypass it and go on. When you have finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find the reason it gave trouble is because it didn't belong there."

If you still want the scene but are still unsure of how to write it, asking the following questions can be useful:

* What does each character in this scene want?

* In this scene, what is each character afraid of?

* What's the difference between what the character says or does and what he or she would like to do or say?

* What is each character's emotional state at the start of this scene?

* What's different at the end of this scene?

November 23, 2014 in Screenwriting, Writer's block, Writers to Admire, Writing a Novel, writing a play, Writing for Children, Writing for Young Adults (YA), Writing methods | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 22, 2014

John Steinbeck's Six Tips On Writing: Three

"Forget your generalized audience. In the first place, the nameless, faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place, unlike the theater, it doesn't exist. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person--a real person you know, or an imagined person, and write to that one."

It's important NOT to think of specific persons, too, sometimes. Some authors think "My mother's going to read this!" and it creates a block. When the time comes, you can tell your mother not to read it. Anyway, she's probably read Fifty Shades of Grey, so just get on with it!

(Great advice from great writers, along with tips on how to apply it to your own writing is what you get in my book, Your Creative Writing Masterclass, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from your favorite bookseller.)

November 22, 2014 in Writer's block, Writers to Admire, Writing a Novel, writing a play, Writing for Children, Writing for Young Adults (YA), Writing methods | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 21, 2014

John Steinbeck's Six Tips On Writing: Two

"Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material."

Many writers have trouble resisting the temptation to rewrite rather than going on. Often this happens as you re-read the previous day's work in order to decide what comes next. One solution: print out the previous day's work and step away from the computer and read it--without a pen in your hand. Without the tools necessary to rewrite, the temptation is eliminated (and it should be easier to avoid doing it when you step back to the computer as well).

(Writing advice from the best classic and modern authors forms the core of Your Creative Writing Masterclass, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from your favorite bookseller.)

November 21, 2014 in Screenwriting, Writer's block, Writers to Admire, Writing a Novel, writing a play, Writing for Young Adults (YA), Writing methods, Writing Motivation | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 20, 2014

John Steinbeck's Six Tips On Writing: One

The Fall 1975 issue of Paris Review featured an interview with novelist John Steinbeck. He won the Pulitzer Prize and was a Nobel laureate, and The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men are still required reading in many English and literature classes.

Here are six tips from that interview (culled by the excellent Brain Pickings blog), with a few additional comments by me. First:

"Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised."

The idea of filling 200 or 400 blank pages (or 120, for screenplay writers) is so daunting to many people that they never do write page one. In addition to focusing on one page at a time, as Steinbeck suggests, remember that you don't have to start at the beginning. If there's a scene somewhere else in the story you feel more ready to write, do it. Sometimes I'll write in a patchwork like that and in the rewrite make sure it all fits together.

(Writing advice from the classic and modern great writers is what you'll find in my book, Your Creative Writing Masterclass, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from your favorite bookseller.)

November 20, 2014 in Writer's block, Writers to Admire, Writing a Novel, writing a play, Writing for Young Adults (YA), Writing methods, Writing Motivation | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 18, 2014

Kurt Vonnegut's tips for writing with style: number seven

Years ago, Kurt Vonnegut wrote an article sponsored by the International Paper Company, on how to write with style. He intended it mainly for writers of non-fiction, but the tips apply equally to novelists or short story writers. I'm featuring one per day; this is number seven of eight.

Pity the readers

They have to identify thousands of little marks on paper, and make sense of them immediately. They have to read, an art so difficult that most people don't really master it after having studied it all through grade school and high school--twelve long years.

So this discussion must finally acknowledge that our stylistic options as writers are neither numerous nor glamorous, since our readers are bound to be such imperfect artists. Our audience requires us to be sympathetic and patient teachers, ever willing to simplify and clarify--whereas we would rather soar high above the crowd, singing like nightingales.

That is the bad news. The good news is that we Americans are governed under a unique Consitution, which allows us to write whatever we please without fear of punishment. So the most meaningful aspect of our styles, which is what we choose to write about, is utterly unlimited.

November 18, 2014 in Feed Your Head, Writers to Admire, Writing a Novel, writing a play, Writing for Children, Writing for Young Adults (YA), Writing methods | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 16, 2014

Kurt Vonnegut's tips for writing with style: number five

Sound Like Yourself

The writing style which is most natural for you is bound to echo the speech you heard when a child. English was the novelist Joseph Conrad's third language, and much that seems piquant in his use of English was no doubt colored by his first language, which was Polish. And lucky indeed is the writer who has grown up in Ireland, for the English spoken there is so amusing and musical. I myself grew up in Indianapolis, where common speech sounds like a band saw cutting galvanized tin and employs a vocabulary as ornamental as a monkey wrench.

In some of the more remote hollows of Appalachia, children still grow up hearing songs and locutions of Elizabethan times. Yes, and many Americans grow up hearing a language other than English, or an English dialect a majority of Americans cannot understand.

All these varieties of speech are beautiful, just as the varieties of butterflies are beautiful. No matter what your first language, you should treasure it all your life. If it happens not to be standard English, and if it shows itself when you write standard English, the result is usually delightful, like a very pretty girl with one eye that is green and one that is blue.

I myself find that I trust my own writing most, and others seem to trust it most, too, when I sound most like a person from Indianapolis, which is what I am. What alternatives do I have? The one most vehemently recommended by teachers has no doubt been pressed on you, as well: to write like cultivated Englishmen of a century or more ago.

November 16, 2014 in Feed Your Head, Screenwriting, Writers to Admire, Writing a Novel, writing a play, Writing for Children, Writing for Young Adults (YA), Writing methods | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sunday Quote: We (writers) must make mistakes

"We must make our experiments. We must make mistakes. We must live out our own vision of life. And there will be error. If you avoid error, you do not live."

--Carl Jung

It's possible that nobody will want to publish what you write.

You can publish it yourself.

It's possible that nobody will want to buy your self-published book.

You can give it away.

It's possible nobody will want to read the book you give away.

In that case, it was an experiment.

November 16, 2014 in Feed Your Head, Getting Ideas to Flow, Marketing Your Book or Other Writing, Pitching, The Writer's Life, Writer's block, Writers to Admire | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 14, 2014

Kurt Vonnegut's tips for writing with style: number four

4: Have the guts to cut

It may be that you, too, are capable of making necklaces for Cleopatra. so to speak. [This refers to a metaphor in tip number three.] But your eloquence should be the servant of the ideas in your head. Your rule might be this: If a sentence, no matter how excellent, does not illuminate your subject in some new or useful way, scratch it out.

Jurgen adds:

This is another version of "murder your darlings." If a sentence, paragraph, scene or chapter doesn't harmonize with the rest of the work, you have a choice: cut it out (or rewrite it), or keep it and rewrite everything else.

November 14, 2014 in Writers to Admire, Writing a Novel, writing a play, Writing Characters, Writing for children, Writing for Young Adults (YA), Writing methods | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 13, 2014

Kurt Vonnegut's tips for writing with style: number three

3: Keep it simple

As for your use of language: Remember that two great masters of language, William Shakespeare and James Joyce, wrote sentences which were almost childlike when their subjects were most profound. 'To be or not to be?' asks Shakespeare's Hamlet. The longest word is three letters long. Joyce, when he was frisky, could put together a sentence as intricate and as glittering as a necklace for Cleopatra, but my favorite sentence in his short story 'Evaline' is this one: 'She was tired.' At that point in the story, no other words could break the heart of a reader as those three words do.

'To be or not to be?' asks Shakespeare's Hamlet. The longest word is three letters long.

Joyce, when he was frisky, could put together a sentence as intricate and as glittering as a necklace for Cleopatra, but my favorite sentence in his short story 'Evaline' is this one: 'She was tired.' At that point in the story, no other words could break the heart of a reader as those three words do.

Simplicity of language is not only reputable, but perhaps even sacred. The Bible opens with a sentence well within the writing skills of a lively fourteen-year-old: 'In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.'