Time to Write

A great starting point: What do you want your readers to feel?

Halloween stories and horror movies are always about making people feel scared, but every kind of writing has the goal of making the reader or viewer feel something. Deciding what that is can help you develop your plot and characters.

Ads provide a good model. Some companies create new things to fear. When I was young there was a campaign with the slogan “No more ring around the collar!” in which people spotted that a man’s inside collar had a ring around it (due to poor washing powder) and were repulsed. “Ring around the collar” was sung in a kids’ mocking way and implied that people would think you were dirty. The way to avoid this humiliation was to use Wisk laundry detergent.

EMOTIONS ARE THE GATEWAY TO YOUR STORY

To bring the reader into the world of your story, it helps to have four elements:

• A protagonist with whom they can identify on an emotional level. If you introduce us to a character who yearns for love, for instance, it doesn't matter whether it's a prince or pauper, an innocent young girl or a lonely widow, a little mouse or the last dinosaur on earth. It's the emotion that is the basis of the reader's or viewer's bond with the character. 
  
  
• A tangible goal the protagonist pursues. While we may identify with the character's emotional state, our interest will wane if they don't soon start doing something to try to get whatever they need or think they need. Sometimes we become aware quickly that they are taking the wrong route to get their need met, and that will make us curious whether they'll recognize their error and do something else. 
  
  
• An antagonist who gets in the way.  This could be a love rival, for instance, or a person who has some kind of power over them. As you may have noticed as you've gone through life, a person can also be their own worst enemy. When that's the case, we want to get at least some clues as to why they are sabotaging themselves. Things like the weather, an accident, or a coincidence can also serve as an antagonist. In the case of coincidences, remember that it's fine to use one to get your character into trouble, but not out of trouble (that will feel like you're cheating).
  
  
• A variety of emotions for the protagonist to experience. As the story progresses, it will be emotions that keep us tied to the character. We will feel their shifting responses as they move forward or experience setbacks. If the protagonist stays in any one emotional state for too long we will get bored. 

I've linked these points to the protagonist, but in more sophisticated stories they apply to the antagonist as well. It's easy to boo a villain, but if the antagonist also has needs and goals with which we identify, the story will be richer. It may raise some conflicting emotions in us as we follow the story. For instance, let's say the person opposing a young woman's relationship with a poor young man is her mother, who truly believes she's doing the right thing, maybe because she suffered from poverty when she was young. We still feel the mother is doing the wrong thing, but we understand that her actions come from love for her daughter. It involves our intellect as well as our emotions and thereby enriches the story.

START WITH WHAT YOU WANT THE AUDIENCE TO FEEL

Knowing what emotions you want to evoke before you start writing can help you construct a good story and design the characters.

It can be helpful to have a map of the emotions you want your protagonist to go through on their journey. When you write the script or the novel you can check to make sure that each major scene or chapter is evoking the desired emotion. Even in a horror film, for instance, you need some variety because nobody can be scared 100% of the time, You need some moments when your protagonist (falsely) believes that now they are safe, before the monster or the ghost reappears. This need for variety is true for every genre.

You also can decide what you want the audience to feel as they leave the cinema or theater or read the last page of your novel. If, for example, you want the reader or audience to feel repulsion at the destructive power of greed you can choose to have the character realize it before it's too late, or you can have them remain blind to it and suffer the terrible consequences. 

OVER TO YOU

What is the central emotion you want your audience to feel? Try using that starting point, and let me know whether it helps you develop involving plots and characters.

 

You've got to tell the world how to treat you

The other day I ran across this quote from James Baldwin:

"You've got to tell the world how to treat you. If the world tells you how you are going to be treated, you are in trouble."

It reminded me of an email I received recently from an aspiring writer who was doubting herself because she hadn't sold anything yet. "Am I even a writer?" she asked. 

She was letting the world--or one part of the world--define her.

I told her, "You write, therefore you are a writer. If tomorrow a publisher accepts your novel, are you a different person? If a publisher never accepts your novel, are you a different person?"

Yes, of course, most of us want our work to reach and affect others.

We can decide whether to submit our work to publishers or producers, and we can decide not to be discouraged (for long) when it takes time to find somebody who wants to buy what we've written.

We have the option of publishing it ourselves or, admittedly with greater difficulty, making a film ourselves.

But, most of all, it's our decision whether or not we are writers, not anybody else's. When we are confident and proceed with boldness, the world tends to pay attention--sooner or later. 

Having doubts is natural--probably like you, I have days when I lose heart. On those days it's good to remember James Baldwin's words and get back to our desks and do what we were born to do.

A Brainstorming Tool for Writing for Children

I've already posted about using the free Oberlo Business Name Generator to come up with the names of fictional businesses in your screenplay or novel, and for coming up with titles for a non-fiction book or newsletter. It's also a useful brainstorming tool if you write for kids.

For instance, I was thinking about writing a story in which a young child explores a pond and encounters magical versions of all the type of creatures that hang around ponds. I wanted to come up with fun personalities or identities for each creature. To start, I typed "frog" into the Generator. Here are some of the combinations it came up with:

Rock Frog

Frog Chef

Daydream Frog

Sidekick Frog

TopDog Frog

Singular Frog

General Frog

Thunder Frog

Hip Frog

Everlasting Frog

Frog Doctor

Covert Frog

If those don't give you some ideas for the kind of frog the child could encounter, you're not a writer! And I'll bet you can think of other ways that the Generator can fit into your brainstorming as well.

 

All About Fake Business Names for Your Screenplay or Novel

If you ever need a made-up business name for your screenplay or novel (e.g., the company for whom your protagonist works), try using the Oberlo Business Name Generator (it's free). All you have to do is type in one word you want included in the business name. For instance, let's say that I want my protagonist to run a barbershop. Here are some of the names the generator came up with:

Galactic Barbershop

Paramount Barbershop

BlueRibbon Barbershop

Deuce Barbershop

Mainline Barbershop

Barbershop Island

Luxury Barbershop

GoodLife Barbershop

Freestyle Barbershop

Perfection Barbershop

Brilliant Barbershop

Progressive Barbershop

LET THE NAME MATCH THE SETTING OR TONE OF YOUR STORY

Once you have a good selection, narrow the choice by considering which ones best match the setting or tone of the story. A sci-fi story might feature a "Galactic Barbershop," while a noir-type story would be better served by "Deuce Barbershop" and a comedy might find material in the difference between the aspiration suggested by "Perfection Barbershop" and the lack of that perfection in actuality.

CAN YOU USE AN ACTUAL BUSINESS NAME?

When you find one you like (examples below), Google it to check whether it actually exists.

It's OK to use a business name that is common--for instance, I'm sure there are plenty of "Curl Up and Dye" salons. But avoid that if you have set your story in a real location and that business name is in use in that location.

Be especially careful if your fictional business is dishonest or disreputable!

 

People DO judge a book by its cover - 3 bad examples

The stigma of self-publishing and assisted publishing (in which you pay a publisher to produce your book) is long gone. Many good and successful books have been self-published both traditionally and as ebooks. But one thing that seems to have persisted is the tradition of terrible covers.

People DO judge a book by its cover. If the cover is not inviting, they are unlikely to check out the rest of it.

I hope I'm not being cruel by including these three examples. Just to be clear, I'm not saying these books are bad in any way other than their cover design.  Their content may well be brilliant but I find the covers a turn-off. Let's take a look:

Any idea what this one might be about?

No, me neither.

It's actually a science fiction thriller. 

Less can be more, but in this case, it's less.

It reminds me of the joke, "Not only is the food terrible, the portions are way too small." In this case, not only is the type boring, it's way too small.

 

 

 

 

At least the title of this one gives you some clue as to the genre, but since the protagonist is an 11-year-old boy I assume it's geared to young readers. Do you think they'd be curious to turn to the first page?

Could the designer have made the secondary print any smaller? It says, "A boy trying to find his meaning in the universe unexpectedly saves it." Not a bad logline. Too bad you need a magnifying glass to read it. Ditto for the line telling us this is "The First Book in the Secret Agent Series."

 

 

Didn't ANYBODY notice that the image makes it hard to read the title and the name of the author? Making the text white would have solved that, although it wouldn't have made it a good cover.

Based on the title ("To Slight the Jacket Blue") and image, what kind of book do you think this is? 

My guess was poetry.

The blurb is, "When Ned is sent to the Caribbean to hunt pirates, he hopes to avenge the death of his best friend, Sam."

Pirates! Adventure! Danger!

Too bad all the cover says is, "Waves on a gloomy day."

These three are all from a company called fastpencil. Their design services include custom cover design for $299, Custom PLUS cover design for $599, and Premium Cover Design for $899. The covers of most of their books are case studies in what not to do. If any of the three authors above paid a penny for their cover designs they should ask for their money back.

 

 

 

 

 

Secrets sell books and screenplays

I noticed a pattern today in the "free reads" books featured by Amazon Prime this month. Here are the log lines of a few of them:

"A novel of secrets, memory, family, and forgiveness..."

"A chilling story of a woman with a forgotten past and a town with dark secrets."

"A double homicide and a missing woman lead a detective to unearth disturbing secrets in this gripping thriller..."

"A woman unlocks the mystery of her father's wartime past in a moving novel about secrets, sacrifice, and the power of love..."

THE SELLING POWER OF (SUPPOSED) SECRETS

The theme of secrets shows up a lot in messages from people trying to sell us stuff, too.

They' offer us the secrets of writing a great novel, or having hair that shines, or getting a promotion.

Some of them add a conspiratorial dimension by adding that these are the secrets some "they" don't want you to know.

It seems corny but it must work or else copywriters wouldn't keep using it. We keep falling for it despite repeated disappointments. I've yet to find a book or course that has revealed actual secrets that the Illuminati or anyone else is actively trying to keep me from finding out. 

DON'T KEEP YOUR SECRET A SECRET

In fiction, a big secret in the story suggests that something unexpected will be revealed. We do love to be surprised and in that sense, a plot twist is a kind of secret from the reader or viewer.

Beyond that, being able to incorporate the notion of a secret in your logline may help your project sell.

Obviously it has to fit the story you are telling, but if it is a feature or you can make it one without affecting the integrity of the story, be sure to point it out when you're writing your logline and your query letters.

Writing: it's a job!

Screenwriter Michael McDowell said this to his potential screenwriting partner:

"If you’re going to work with me, look at it like we’re working in a bank.

We get in at nine, we have a cup of coffee, we say good morning, then we go to work.

And we write until lunch.

We go have our lunch.

We come back. We write again until three o’clock in the afternoon.

We fold up the writing. We return whatever phone calls and whatever business of writing we have to do.

And we do this five, six days a week.

And it’s a job.

It’s not you sitting with a metaphorical beret in a metaphorical loft waiting for inspiration to strike.

It’s a job.'”

I have to admit I have never worked that way. Part of my motivation in becoming a writer was to get away from the 9 to 5 routine. I've always felt more creative in the evenings, so frequently I write until the early hours of the morning and then hit the sack and sleep late.

However, the part of it that is true for all professionals is that you have to have discipline. You have to put in the time, consistently.

Even if you sleep until noon, you have to devote a certain number of hours to writing and to the business aspect of writing. 

FOR PART-TIME WRITERS

Even if you're writing as a sideline, if you want to be productive, setting aside a specific time to write and to do the important writing-related tasks (e.g., finding an agent, learning more about the craft, etc.) is the key to moving forward.

Treat it as a part-time job, even if you're not getting paid at this point. 

GO BIG OR GO SMALL, BUT GO

Which works better for you: finding 30 minutes a day several days a week to write, maybe getting up early or staying up late, or working during your lunch hour; or setting aside a big chunk of time on the weekend?

Use trial and error to discover the way you find easiest to be consistent.

NO BLOCKS ALLOWED

In a regular job you're not allowed to say, "You know, I'm just not feeling it today, so I'm going home. I'll be back in the office when I feel inspired again."

It should be the same with writing.

If you are blocked, you have lots of options. They include:

• working on something else for a bit, then returning to the project
  
  
• trying to work in a different environment (the park, a cafe, etc.)
  
  
• devoting the time for brainstorming sessions on how to move forward
  
  
• pretending your best writing friend has this problem--what would you advise them to do? (Then do it.)
  
  
• if it's a story problem, getting help from a writing group or another writer you respect
  
  
• if it's a problem in the middle of your script or novel, looking for the source of the problem in the earlier sections

IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE GOOD--YET

There's at least one point in every project when I convince myself that it's no good and I should just stop and move on to something else. Fortunately, most of the time that's not true, it's just the normal "dip" that happens in the middle. 

The solution is to keep going. Even if it really isn't good you can make it better in the next draft and the one after that.

The work comes first, the payoff comes later--if you're lucky and, even more important, if you're dedicated.

How to write healing stories

At the moment our stories about what is normal are in disarray. It doesn't seem normal not to hug your friends, not to be able to go to the movies, not to be within six feet of people in a store without a mask. The stories we tell ourselves about progress and goals and what's important have been shaken up.

The silver lining is that when old stories are questioned, there's room for new stories to emerge. It seems to me what is needed now is stories that promote healing. 

Clarissa Pinkola Estes writes, in Stories as Medicine, "Stories, particularly healing stories, depend on the amount of self--the gristle, blood, and bone--that the teller is willing to put into them. Not all story is medicine. Generally, a story is not medicine unless it has caused the teller to laugh or to weep."

The teller, not just the listener. In other words, the story has to come from your heart. That doesn't mean it has to be a heavy drama; Groundhog Day and Tootsie are two examples from comedy.

EXAMPLE: HEALING AT MIDLIFE

In Fairy Tales and the Psychology of Men and Women at Midlife, Allan B. Chinen writes, "Before newspapers, radio, or television, fairy tales and folk tales were the only mass media, providing news, commentary, humor and entertainment. Storytellers put insights about their lives and the human condition into their stories. Many dealt specifically with characters in the middle third of life."

He notes, "Mid-life stories emphasize the importance of dealing with life as we find it, not as we imagine or hope it to be. These tales highlight an important point: that growth is possible in the middle years, no matter what kind of childhood one has had."

YOU ARE THE NEW MYTH-MAKER

If you write for TV and movies you are one of the myth-makers now.

Of course, traditionally a lot of commercial television has been treated as the placeholder between the commercials that sell us bogus stories, for instance, if we use shampoo X we'll have a great love life.

A lot of movies are near-duplicates of each other, seeing how many sequels the producers can crank out before we tire of that story.

However, there have always been exceptions and with all the additional outlets available now there's more room than ever before for a wider range of stories--including the one you feel the strong need to tell.

STORIES, NOT SERMONS

While your story has a theme, the screenwriter's or novelist's job isn't to propagandize, it's to say, "Here's an authentic story." Then it's up to the reader or viewer to decide what if means to them and whether there's anything in it they can use.  

THERE'S A BONUS!

I've always found when I've written about a subject close to my heart, it's been therapeutic for me, as well. That's the bonus you get when you write a healing story--at the very least, it helps heal you.

 

How to Name Your Novel or Screenplay

The first thing that attracts people to your book is the title. Here are a few guidelines for coming up with a title that will grab readers of fiction (these also work for screenplays):

• Make it appropriate for the genre. Sure, it can be fun to give your book an ironic title, but the only people who will know that it's ironic are the people who have already read the book.
  
  
• Avoid generic titles. For instance, if your crime or thriller novel has the word "killing" in it, combine it with a more unusual word or phrase. This piques the potential reader's curiosity. 
  
  
• Look for it inside the novel. Often you'll find a line of dialogue or a phrase that fits perfectly
  
  
• Get inspiration from the automatic book title generator at the Reedsy site. Here are a few examples it came up with for different genres:
• Crime: Outrun the Shadow
• Fantasy: Warrior's Legacy
• Mystery: Case of the Winged Monkey
• Romance: Midnight Bride
• Sci-fi: Apex Colony
• General: The Ruins of Time
  
• Check to make sure the title isn't already taken. There's no copyright on titles, but if you give your book the same name as one that already exists, the author could sue you for trying to get people to buy your book thinking it was theirs. If the other book is out of print or not popular this is less of an issue.
  
  Side story: I wrote a marketing book called "Do Something Different" and got an outraged letter from someone who'd written a (very bad, very obscure) novel with that title. They wrote me nasty emails and gave my book a terrible Amazon review (which I had removed). I tried to explain that my book was non-fiction and therefore wasn't likely to be mistaken for theirs, but logic wasn't their strong point. 
  
  
• Try the title out on friends who are fans of your genre. Put it in a list with the titles of other books in that genre and ask your friends which of the titles they find intriguing (don't tell them which one is yours). To get more input, ask a blogger who covers your genre whether they'd be willing to ask their readers to do the same. You can also do this if you have a couple of titles you really like and don't know which one to choose.

What's the secret of writing comedy?

So you want to write comedy?

Here's the problem: humor is subjective. What makes one person double over with laughter just elicits a groan from another. That's why writing comedy probably requires a little more self-confidence than writing other genres. At least you have to fake it long enough to finish the script and send it out.

How do you do it? Here's what writer Ian Southwood said about that in Screencraft magazine recently:

"I used to write what I thought other people would think is funny, always second-guessing my own sense of humor...But it never works. Never. Trying to write like someone else is like wearing a rented tuxedo. It doesn't fit. Not like it should. Now I just try to be honest, with the writing and with myself."

To the degree that there's a secret to comedy writing, that's it:

Keep it honest.

Honest to yourself and, equally importantly, honest to the characters.

Never have a character do something just because it's funny.

However crazy what they say or what they do may be, it should feel like something they would actually do.

If you want your character to beat a car with a tree branch (a famous scene from Fawlty Towers, starring John Cleese), create a character who is so full of pent-up frustration that this action is not only funny but believable. 

The source of both the humor and the plausibility is the character's attitude to the world.

Take the leads of the Odd Couple as an example. Oscar is a lazy slob, Felix is a compulsive neurotic. Put them in the same situation and they would have totally different reactions--which could both be funny.

I served my comedy writing apprenticeship with TV writer Danny Simon and I've never forgotten his most important advice: "Never sacrifice a character for a laugh."

What he meant was if you have a character do something they wouldn't really do, you may get a laugh but you've destroyed their believability.

Huh, turns out honesty is the best policy, even in comedy writing.

 

 

Can You Learn to Write Funny?

An old friend who teaches at a performing arts school recently asked me to look at a script for a short film, written by one of his students, that they are planning to film. It's the story of a young man who decides that using his gift for comedy is more important than going to college.

The problem with the script is that the writer doesn't have a gift for comedy and therefore neither does the character. If you're going to write a convincing funny character, you have to be able to be funny yourself. That brings me to a question I've been asked quite a few times:

CAN YOU LEARN TO WRITE FUNNY?

Sorry, but I think the answer is no. If you are naturally funny, certainly you can learn how best to channel that into screenplays or novels or essays, and the difference between writing for stand-up, sketches, sitcoms, movies, and plays. You can also learn how how to compose works that integrate comedy and drama.

However, if you don't start with a knack for comedy--which usually means you have an ability to see things from a different perspective--reading a book about the theory of threes, or why words starting with consonants are funnier than words that start with vowels, or that exaggeration is important, probably will not work for you. 

HOW TO FIND OUT WHETHER YOU'RE FUNNY

If you don't know whether or not you're funny (plenty of people who aren't, think they are), ask an honest friend whether they think humor is one of your greatest strengths.

That gives them the chance to say, "Hey, sure you're funny, but actually I think your greatest strengths are (x, y, z)."

Translation: "You're not funny." 

WHAT IF YOU'RE NOT FUNNY?

Write to your strengths. If you're not naturally funny, write drama, thrillers, horror, romance, or any of the other genres. Your gift, like that of my friend's student, may lie in other areas. 

 

Writing Excuses Demolished: "I don't know if my idea is good enough."

Some people never get around to writing because they don't know whether their idea is good enough to succeed in the marketplace.

Welcome to the club!

Every book, poem, short story, and screenplay is a gamble. Even the top publishers are not very good at predicting which books will take off and which will have disappointing sales. The same goes for movie studios, hence the famous William Goldman quote, "Nobody knows anything."

Sometimes writers have a huge success with one project and a huge flop with the next one, or vice-versa. 

All you can do is your best. Write the book or script, do as much as you can to help make people aware that it exists, and move on to the next one while still devoting some time to marketing your previous projects.

Unleash your Creativity by Writing from Within

Drawing from Within: Unleashing Your Creative Potential is a book by Nick Meglin that has a lot of great thoughts about drawing that apply equally to writing: 

"We make the mistake of looking outside ourselves for validation of what is, in fact, an inner experience. We look to others for approval, for them to tell us how good our work is before we can feel good about having done it!"

Of course, we want to sell what we write so eventually others will have to think our work is good, but worrying about that too soon can cripple your creative process.

Meglin adds, "The wonderful paradox is that the work that is sincere, personal, and created for one's own satisfaction is what is most often celebrated by both critics and the public alike."

"People learn to draw through the experience of drawing."

"The goal is not to make a pretty drawing, a neat drawing, a good drawing, etc., but just to draw." A good thing to keep in mind when doing your first draft.

AND IF YOU'RE TOO CRITICAL OF YOURSELF:

"We must focus our energies on identifying that part of ourselves that 'finds fault' with or 'disapproves' of our own work--that voice which tends to be self-deprecating, insecure, and negative. And we must learn how to cognitively reframe these negative voices and turn those destructive energies around."

 

Screenplays: add to characters with subtle symbols

There are lots of ways to make a screenplay character three-dimensional, and one is using symbols. Of course if the symbols are too on the nose they can detract, but here's an example of a subtle one:

Actor Paul Scheer told Fast Company magazine: "My character [in Black Monday] wears a wig in the show, and that was a conscious [choice] because when we first start talking about how he’s wrestling with his sexuality, I wanted that wig to represent the idea that he’s already hiding. On the base level, it’s like he’s not even comfortable being bald in this world."

I don't know how many people watching Black Monday would pick up on that, but a lot of times we register such clues subconsciously. 

Here are some other ways of revealing character:

What kind of clothes do they wear? Are they still wearing the style they wore twenty years ago, or are they desperate to keep up with the latest fashions? Do they care more about the label than the clothes per se? Do they try too hard to be quirky--or to avoid being noticed?

What kind of decorations and furniture do they have at their residence? What kind of painting or photos are in the background? The total absence of any decoration also tells a story. 

What kind of accessories do they choose, such as watches, rings, bracelets, etc.? For example, what does it tell you when a guy wears a Rolex? (It ain't about telling the time.)

I find it helpful to think about such things because they make the character more real to me. The more real the character is to you, the writer, the easier it is to know what they'd say and do in any situation.

Do you have to know the ending?

Once in a while I read about a successful writer who cheerfully declares, "I never know what's going to happen next, I just start writing and let the characters lead me."

Please, can you send some of those characters my way? My characters lead me, too, but usually into a dead end or another story altogether. They like going off road.

My hunch is the few writers who claim to write without a map actually do have one in their subconscious mind, and they've been at the writing game so long that their internal alarm system warns them when they're about to head into a dead end.

Either that or they're lying; throwing planning to the wind sounds much more romantic than sweating over an outline.

Christopher Markus, co-writer of "Infinity Wars," told the New York Times, "we're never writing without knowing where the end goes."

By the way, if you feel that movie was too fragmented, the writers probably wouldn't disagree. Co-author Stephen McFeeley noted, "Had we started from scratch, we would not have chosen six damn McGuffins [the infinity stones]. That's not helpful. It was difficult to get all that in." Once they knew that was the end, though, they were locked into that particular journey.

Having a strong ending is important--and difficult. Lawrence Kasdan, writer on "The Empire Strikes Back," in the same NY Times article said, "All the suspense about Act III is, how will this be resolved? People are always disappointed by the third act. 'That's all you can think of?'" 

I've mentioned before that my process is kind of a hybrid. I do know the ending and usually a few key plot points, but I allow myself to write freely for about the first quarter of the project. For a screenplay that would be the first 30 or 40 pages. Then I stop and plan the rest, although not scene by scene, just the key developments. For a feature script that might be roughly a dozen important events or turning points.

I'm not suggesting you use that method, although you might want to give it a try. You have to find what works best for you, what keeps you on track without making you feel too restricted by the plan. But for sure knowing where you want the story to end will make the entire process easier.