Putting Into Practice the Essential Elements of Storytelling

To set a character into a world where their desire for redemption or courage or healing or understanding is tested cues an audience to pay attention to a story’s promise. As plot obstacles grow larger and strike characters with more force, they compel deeper revelations about what drives characters to resolve what’s at stake. In this workshop, you’ll learn how storytelling is a promise and how to uphold this important commitment to your story readers; create a powerful dramatic truth for your characters; and to create and transfer narrative tension to your readers.

Without these elements, a novel risks being an account of events, and not a powerful story that compels readers to keep turning the pages.

This workshop is designed to help both beginning novelists and writers who have felt 'stuck' at learning a deeper sense of the craft of writing a novel.

Cost of workshop, $50. It will be held in West Linn. Email Bill at bjscript at teleport.com to register or for details.

Date: Sunday, March 18th; Time: 3-8 pm

Authors Road Interview Features Larry Engelman, Creative non-fiction

For many of us, the Vietnam War was an event that could be described as a milestone, touchstone, or millstone in our lives. It’s a story that’s been told in every medium, from music to film, in novel, poem and historical non-fiction.

We are pleased to present our interview with historian, professor emeritus and creative non-fiction author, Larry Engelmann. Although his book on Vietnam, Tears Before the Rain, was not the first of his six books and countless articles, but it did open the doors to him to begin writing extensively on stories from Asia.

Engelmann received his BA and MA in history and economics from the University of Minnesota, and his Ph.D. in history and American literathttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifure from the University of Michigan. He then went on to teach until his retirement in the History Department at San Jose State University.

In this thoughtful interview, Engelmann discusses the real reason he began writing, and how powerfully it has shaped his life and impacted the lives of others. We know you’ll enjoy his frankness, openness and wit as he tells his stories about the art and craft of storytelling.

Next Interview: Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander series.

George & Salli

http://www.authorsroad.com

The Irresistible, Irreconcilable Self, by Mary Andonian

Question: What is the difference between internal conflict and irreconcilable self? The answer, according to Eric Witchey, master storyteller and teacher extraordinaire, is this: "Internal conflict is the character's battle within himself in any given scene. Irreconcilable self is the deep psychological opposition that is only resolved in the climax of the story when the character is forced to choose a new identity or to be reborn in the synthesis of opposing psychological needs."

Well, duh. Doesn't every fiction writer know that?

As it turns out, most don't. And that's why, Eric notes, so many characters' conflicts ring superficial.

On March 6th at the Old Church, Eric Witchey will present his ideas about irreconcilable self to the Willamette Writers membership. I hope you can join us for this information-packed evening.

Eric will differentiate between a character's internal conflict (which happens always), and their irreconcilable self - that piece of character that causes it to happen and is only resolved in the climax.

An example of the latter would be the role of a certain honorable vampire we've come to know through the Twilight series. Edward's in love with a girl and yet wants to devour her at the same time. That's irreconcilable self. When does the transformation of self take place? You'll have to attend the meeting to hear Eric's take on it. He'll also offer a four step process that you can use to create more depth in your own fictional characters.

Eric is a good friend to Willamette Writers. He is one of our all-star teachers at our annual Willamette Writers conference (where he consistently receives five star reviews) and is a writing teacher in Salem.

But what you may not know is Eric Witchey has made a living as a freelance writer and communication consultant for over 20 years. In addition to many non-fiction titles, he has sold more than 70 short stories and three novels. His stories have appeared in six genres on five continents, and he has received recognition from New Century Writers, Writers of the Future, Writer's Digest, http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifThe Eric Hoffer Prose Award program, and other organizations.

His How-To articles have appeared in The Writer Magazine, Writer's Digest Magazine, and other print and online magazines. In addition to consulting, writing his fiction, teaching college courses, and teaching private clients, he is currently working with IFD Publishing, a cooperative eBook publishing company, to bring the stories and novels of several professionals to all ereader platforms.

If you want to dig deeper on character, then please join us Tuesday, March 6th, at 7:00PM (doors open at 6:30) to hear Eric Witchey talk about the irresistible - that's irreconcilable - self. Your protagonist will thank you for it.

For more information, visit http://www.willamettewriters.com

Notes on the Film A Dangerous Method - Ideas in Conflict

This movie about Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, and Sabina, a patient of Jung's, illustrates that conflict in a film does not have to revolve around action. Here the most heated conflict revolves around ideas.

Jung is a disciple of Freud, who has invented psychoanalysis. Freud's goal is to ensure that psychoanalysis be taken seriously as a scientific method of understanding people through an understanding of the subconscious and the unconscious. When Jung begins to express an interest in a collective unconscious and mysticism, Freud sees this as something that will undermine his life's work.

Each man is committed to his ideas and their primacy. Neither can walk away from the conflict between their ideas.

When Jung begins to treat a young Russian Jew named Sabina with the new talking cure, he finds himself attracted to her (as he is not to his wealthy, genteel wife). When Jung and Sabina become lovers and rumors about that begin to surface, Freud now has a weapon he can use to discredit Jung, and by discrediting Jung, his ideas as well.

But he does not.

A thoughtful, intelligent film directed by David Cronenberg.

Years ago I reviewed a generic action film. The Big Bad in the film had hired mercenaries, some right-wing idealogues and some professional soldiers for hire. I pointed out he could develop conflict between these two groups based on their different mind-sets. A small point, but it would have given what was generic characters some flavor.

When characters embody powerful ideas in conflict, and a storyteller finds a way to bind those characters together, that kind of conflict naturally and forcefully comes off the page.

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A fourth edition of Bill Johnson's writing workbook, A Story is a Promise & The Spirit of Storytelling, is now available for $2.99 from Amazon Kindle.

Mark Twain, by Robert H. Hirst Interview on Authors Road

To our knowledge, no author in history has managed to write and publish new, best sellers that span a career of nearly a century and a half. But Mark Twain has. His first short-story (1865), The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, is still read in schools today. And in 2010, the UC Berkeley Mark Twain Papers & Project published the first of three volumes of Twain’s critical edition autobiography – a monumental work that Twain embargoed from publishing for 100 years after his death. Granted, there have been several autobiographies published before this, but the materials those were drawn from were abridged and censored.

No one anticipated what would happen with this first volume. Initial plans were made for a print run of 2,000. Before a year was up over half-million copies were sold, and world demand was still going strong.

And for good reason. Critics and scholars may argue over who is the most important American of letters, but the world knows who is the most endearing and original. Years ago, when we were in Mumbai, India we were constantly reminded by excited residents that Mark Twain had spoken there long before our arrival.

We are so very pleased to have had the opportunity to meet and talk with Robert H. Hirst, General Editor of the Mark Twain Papers & Project. For nearly half a century Hirst has devoted his professional life to the phenomenon of Twain, a history that continues to grow with the discovery each week of yet new letters and papers.

We know you’ll enjoy and learn from this remarkable interview.

George & Salli

Author's Road

Northwest Author Series Features Bill Johnson

Bill Johnson offers a presentation based on his writing workbook, A Story is a Promise, for Christina Katz' Northwest Author Series in Wilsonville on February 26th. The fourth edition of his book offers new, unique tools for creating vibrant story characters that he'll explore in his presentation.

The Northwest Author Series is an educational series of author workshops put on for the benefit of aspiring writers of all levels from Wilsonville, Oregon and the surrounding areas. All of the authors who present for us are:

* residents of the Pacific Northwest
* traditionally published authors
* experienced writing workshop teachers


The Northwest Author Series is sponsored by The Wilsonville Public Library and The Wilsonville Friends of the Library and hosted by Christina Katz.

Christina's first book, Writer Mama: How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids, was sold at the Willamette Writers conference in 2005 and published in 2007. Her second book in 2008, Get Known Before the Book Deal, was the first book to break down the steps of platform development for aspiring authors, a topic that has become extremely popular in the past few years. Her third book is The Writers Workbook.

http://northwestauthorseries.wordpress.com/about/

More about Christina.

Author's Road Features Laurie King

We've been on the Authors Road for five months now, driving over 2,000 miles and interviewing 20 writers. As you might expect we have begun to see patterns in the ways and styles of this unique species: the American Writer. Some are like firecrackers, some like slow burning coal seams, and some are time-bombs that surprise us with their explosive insights days after we’ve interviewed them. Laurie R. King is a writer who, for us, did all three pyrotechnics.

King grew up in the San Francisco and Seattle areas, making friends with books as she rolled like a tumbleweed from one place to another. She worked her way through UC Santa Cruz and The Graduate Theological Union to her Masters degree before deciding that continuing to study for her doctorate was ill advised with young children and a soon-to-retire husband. (She was later granted an honorary doctorate from GTU). Her studies had revealed that books were NOT written by God as she had believed as a young girl, so she turned her hand to writing.

Laurie R. King first introduced her readers to the very modern detective, Kate Martinelli, then helped kick the tweed knickers of the stodgy Sherlock Holmes into the 20th Century with her popular Mary Russell series. In addition to these two series, she has added yet more inventive and enjoyable novels. We can all thank her for this magic of the written word - the words that Salli believes are written by a true writing goddess - and the spells she conjures in her many works.

Laurie agreed to meet us one sunny coastal afternoon in her daughter’s backyard in Santa Cruz, California. And there, in the growing afternoon shadows, she enchanted us with her honesty, craft, and the freedom of her story-telling skills. Ladies and Gentlemen, we’re proud to present our interview with the award-winning writer, Laurie R. King….

George & Salli

And stay tuned for our next writer: Mark Twain!

http://www.authorsroad.com/