Articles about the craft of writing. A blog by Bill Johnson that explores principles of storytelling and articles about writing by other authors.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
An Expert’s Guide to Character Building Essentials, By Michelle Rebecca
The reader may never learn the taxi driver who dies in
Chapter 2 has three children, or the talking dormouse who helped your hero
traverse the Desert
of Failings has an
addiction to cauliflower. As such, you may wonder if character building isn’t a
waste of time.
A well-developed character comes across stronger in a story.
You understand her motivation, her reasoning, and that understanding seeps into
how you describe her. Besides, as you explore your characters they can surprise
you, adding elements to your plot and atmosphere you hadn't realized were
missing.
Getting
the Whole Picture
Take our dormouse as an example. He's a minor character who
only shows up for one chapter, but he plays an important role in the hero's
journey, teaching the hero to face his fears and feelings.
How can he do this? Because the dormouse experienced his own
failings. He's felt the sinful allure of forbidden cauliflower. He's stolen and
lied to obtain the vegetable. And he only recovered because someone cared
enough to get him into drug
rehab (well, veggie rehab I guess).
You might hint at this in the story. You might decide it
requires more explanation or simply use it as part of the story's larger
backdrop. Either way, the character seems more real to both you and your
reader, because you took the time to develop his history and personality.
The
Importance of Backstory
Writers such as J.K. Rowling are masters of character
development and backstory. We never learn whether Professor Snape likes his
steak rare or well done, but it's a good bet that Rowling knows. Her notes on
the world and her characters are, by all accounts, voluminous.
Only a tiny portion of Rowling's character development makes
it into her books. She may have map of Hogwarts and a list of every headmaster
ever to preside over the school, but readers don’t need that information.
Instead, she uses such facts to keep the school--itself as much as character as
any wizard--consistent in tone, history and construction.
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Byline: Michelle Rebecca is an aspiring writer with a passion for
blogging. She enjoys writing about a vast variety of topics and loves that
blogging gives her the opportunity to publicly voice her thoughts and share
advice with an unlimited audience. Read her blog at Social We Love.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Self Awareness/Directed Awareness
The problem arises when a new writer doesn't realize their particular short hand code (a dark-haired woman with thick glasses could be a symbol for an abusive parent) doesn't evoke anything for a reader. The job of our brains to filter out details or shape our reality to a particular design can lead to a kind of neutered, thin writing that fails to ring true. Except for the person writing in their particular symbolic code.
Directed awareness, however, is a choice about where to focus awareness. Cynthia Whitcomb, the President of Willamette Writers, has had a long career as a successful screenwriter. When she began focusing more on writing plays, she read a play a day for a year. That was one way she assimilated a deeper understanding of what makes for a good play.
I find students in my screenwriting classes who don't like or watch movies. They simply want to imagine an idea of theirs turned into a Hollywood film, or imagine their life being turned into a major motion picture, with the money involved. I sometimes lose 50% to 70% of my students in a particular class. I suspect when I try and teach them directed awareness about storytelling -- consciously learning the craft -- they aren't ready for the work involved, or they come to realize the work involved.
About directed awareness versus intuition, recent brain scan studies have shown that once people have assimilated understanding (gained understanding about some facet of writing like plot, for example), when a problem arises, the subconscious can take that assimilated understanding of storytelling and find a solution to a particular plot problem. Then pop the answer in to the conscious mind.
Which some people interpret as intuition.
The catch is, the subconscious can only present that answer to the conscious mind when that mind is not preoccupied with a particular problem. Being preoccupied with a problem blocks the subconscious mind from accessing the conscious mind and providing an answer.
I go over this more in the latest version of my book, and reference some of these new scientific studies. I find it fascinating that brain scans give a more accurate representation of how the brain works and functions.
Many years ago I was in a state of deep meditation where I could see the flow of my subconscious thoughts/feelings/awareness welling up into my conscious mind; be aware of thoughts before they became conscious thoughts. Odd, enchanting process to observe.
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A Story is a Promise & The Spirit of Storytelling, is now available for $2.99 from Amazon Kindle.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Low Cost Book Publicity
First, it's easier to get an announcement about a talk into a local newspaper than a lone author doing a book signing. Many authors have some lifetime experience they can speak about at a local library. And some libraries also allow book sales for a nominal commission.
If you can't arrange a talk through a library, local community colleges often rent rooms on weekends for a small fee, and such locations generally offer easy parking and access.
Using a space at either a library or school also lends some status to your talk.
If these spaces aren't available to you, many communities have arts organizations, some that meet in publicly subsidized spaces. They can also be a resource for renting a room to hold a talk.
Retirement communities also will host speakers (or performers in general).
My most dependable resource for getting the word out about these kinds of events has been a local alternative weekly (most major cities have one). These weeklies generally have a bulletin board in their print editions that anyone can put notices in for .95+ cents a word. (Online bulletin boards are vastly cheaper, but you get what you pay for).
If you have an event, always keep fliers about it in your car. Bookmarks and post cards are also good resources that you can distribute; Avery provides templates for creating them. There are online services that will print small quantities of inexpensive business cards that can include the cover of your book and info about an event.
If you are near a community college, see if they have a continuing education program that offers non-credit classes. Such programs are frequently open to instructors with new class ideas. Teaching a workshop at a community college will help raise your newsworthy standing.
If you are determined to do a book signing at a book store, I suggest you set up a signing with at least three other authors who write in a similar genre. I've known authors who banded together to set up a signing at a table in a mall during a literary-themed time (like a national poetry month).
I advise new authors to think long and hard about putting down money for table space at another author's book fair, unless money is not an issue. If you choose to be involved in a book fair, look for one that is part of a larger event that generates foot traffic.
If you do want to do a book release party, contact a local book store and see if they can accommodate you. Many book stores are set up to handle authors giving short presentations. This is where a well-designed media kit can make a great first impression.
Prlog offers a free service for sending out PR announcements. I've never had great success with these kind of announcements for local author events getting picked up for distribution, however. Some of these services send announcements to link farms that are set up to automatically post every announcement received, so don't be fooled by promises of wide distribution if you'll just sign up for a service that costs hundreds of dollars.
If you can't get a response from a major newspaper in your area, contact someone at your local neighborhood paper. I've known a number of authors who have been interviewed and featured in smaller, community papers.
Does your town have a local public access radio station called Golden Hours? See if you can get interviewed about your book.
Whatever kind of event you set up, NEVER depend on anyone else (including book stores, loved ones, friends, or fellow authors) to send out your event/meeting/workshop PR. Always do it yourself to be sure it gets out. And if you send out notices to local papers or magazines, make the effort to read their submission guidelines. A third of the PR notices I receive are deleted because the authors didn't bother to find out my guidelines, like someone sending me a website link and telling me I can go there and write an announcement for them.
Ask your extended family if anyone has any media contacts or would be willing to do a book review and post it online. In general, the more relevant links you have on the web, the higher your search engine rating (some search engines discount links posted on link farms).
Authors Den now offers contacts for people who do inexpensive book reviews.
Writing a book is a creative process, but marketing a book requires a different kind of mental focus, determination and planning. But if you put yourself out there in the world, you'll come across avenues to promote your book you never knew existed.
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To read some of my longer reviews of popular movies, visit my website or check out my writing workbook, A Story is a Promise, available on Amazon Kindle.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Writing the Emotionally Resonant Character, by Rosanne Parry
One
of the pleasures of great fiction comes when a character you love takes
an action that you didn't foresee and yet is so right for the character
that it feels inevitable. You find yourself saying, "Of course! That's
so like her!" The flip side of the experience is the character whose
action so surprises you that you scratch your head and flip to the cover
just to make sure you're still reading the same book. That's emotional
resonance at work (or not at work in the second example.) Character
interviews and charts listing personal appearance and habits are an
excellent beginning, but how do you move into the realm of what makes a
character internally consistent and emotionally true? To get at the
deeper character, a writer has to ask herself deeper questions. Here are
two to get you started.
What
is the virtue that my character's family or friends or community values
most highly? What is the worst sin this character could commit in his
social circle?
For
example, soldiers don't leave men behind. They will risk everything to
bring the body of a fallen soldier home. This has been true since Hector
and Achilles were fighting at the gates of Troy. The worst shame and
guilt that a soldier suffers is from a failure to protect his men, even
in death.
This
question gets at the heart of what motivates your character's choices,
and gives you a basis for escalating the conflict in your story. The
more you put a character at odds with his personal moral compass, the
more tension you will have in your scenes. It also protects you from
unintentionally making a character choose something that is inconsistent
with his values. For example a good soldier may well leave bodies on
the field in retreat, but he would never do so without exhausting every
option and suffering remorse. Having your character's core virtue or sin
firmly in mind helps keep that character consistent and emotionally
resonant.
**********************************
Author Bio: Rosanne Parry
If
you are interested in exploring these ideas further, please consider
taking Rosanne Parry's conference workshop Character and the Seven
Deadly Sins. Rosanne is the award-winning author of Heart of a Shepherd
and two other novels. She has taught workshops at Fishtrap, SCBWI, NCTE
and numerous schools and book festivals across the country. She lives
in Portland. https://www.rosanneparry.com
Monday, March 12, 2012
Diana Gabaldon Interview on Author's Road
We are pleased to introduce you to someone who doesn’t recognize this distinction, but rather sees these endeavors as two sides of the same coin. And she has the credentials to assert this since she’s both an accomplished scientist and a successful novelist of the bestselling Outlander series and the Lord John series.
In this intriguing and lively interview, Diana Gabaldon shares her understanding of how the artistic process and the scientific process are similar, and how crafting a novel is like solving a scientific riddle.
But that’s not all that Diana offers in this amazing interview. She also does something that no other writer we’ve spoken with has attempted: she demonstrates how a written scene is crafted, reshaped and refined into a fine literary image. It’s a magical scene that writers and artists, and no doubt scientists, will find illuminating.
Each of Diana’s many novels and novellas her multiple genres, and her insights about writing are some of the most unique we’ve encountered as we’ve traveled the Authors Road. We believe you’ll find her interview an inspiration, whether you’re a writer, a reader, or simply a lover of clear thinking.
George & Salli
https://www.authorsroad.com
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Notes on the Film A Dangerous Method - Ideas in Conflict
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 seventh 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.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
A Bridge from Facts to Fiction, By Stephen Gallup
Many writers feel drawn to subjects that are obviously autobiographical. As a memoirist, I think that’s fine. But over time that kind of writing can create a very deep groove. Here’s a suggestion for venturing out of it.
If you feel that the character you are writing about is too familiar, stop and make a list of descriptive phrases about yourself. Then pick a feature and change it. Make that new trait central to your character.
For example, I love music, but due to a few poor decisions along the way I cannot with any honesty call myself a musician. The phrase not musical showed up in my list. So I tried my hand at writing about a violinist. As sometimes happens, this character began to take charge of his story. I was pleased to see that he had the wisdom to decide differently when faced with pressures that might have pulled his career off track.
Encouraged, I tried again, this time writing from the perspective of the opposite gender. That seemed to turn out even better than the first try.
These exercises were my first step in returning to the craft of fiction, which I had set aside for many years while doing another kind of writing. And I believe in their own way they contain as much truth as anything else.
Stephen Gallup is the author of a memoir, What About the Boy? A Father's Pledge to His Disabled Son (2011). He blogs at fatherspledge.com.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Story Notes - The Hunger Games
In the beginning...
When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim's warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress. She must have had bad dreams and climbed in with our mother. Of course, she did. This is the day of the reaping.
The novel starts rooted in the POV of Katniss, a young girl. The opening conveys subtle information about the world, waking up cold, a mattress with a canvas cover, the question, what is the reaping? It also raises character questions, who is Prim? Why is she having bad dreams? What do her dreams have to do with the reaping?
Next...
I prop myself up on one elbow. There's enough light in the bedroom to see them. My little sister, Prim, curled up on her side, cocooned in my mother's body, their cheeks pressed together. In sleep, my mother looks younger, still worn but not so beaten-down. Prim's face is as fresh as a raindrop, as lovely as the primrose for which she was named. My mother was very beautiful once, too. Or so they tell me.
This conveys a stronger sense of place, but more questions. Why does the mother appear 'beaten-down'? What happened to the once beautiful mother? Who is this 'they' who commented on the mother's former beauty?
Continuing...
Sitting at Prim's knees, guarding her, is the ugliest cat in the world. Mashed in nose, half of one ear missing, eyes the color of rotting squash.
This conveys a description of a cat, but also a subtext about this world, that pets fend for themselves in a harsh world. There's also the subtext here that the narrator does not like this cat.
Continuing...
Prim named him Buttercup, insisting that his muddy yellow coat matched the bright flower. He hates me. Or at least he distrusts me. Even though it was years ago, I think he still remembers how I tried to drown him in a bucket when Prim brought him home.
Again, another question: why did the narrator feel compelled to kill the cat? With the title, Hunger Games, the reason is implied; one more mouth to feed.
Scrawny kitten, belly swollen with worms, crawling with fleas. The last thing I needed was another mouth to feed.
That confirms the why the narrator wanted the kitten dead, but raises another question: why is she responsible for feeding her mother and sister?
But Prim begged so hard, cried even, I had to let him stay. It turned out okay. My mother got rid of the vermin and he's a born mouser. Even catches an occasional rat. Sometimes, when I clean a kill, I feed Buttercup the entrails. He has stopped hissing at me.
This conveys the narrator's desire to make her little sister happy. That a pet is fed entrails and not cat food again suggests something about this familiar yet alien world.
Entrails. No hissing. This is the closest we will ever come to love.
There's a subtext here that in this harsh world, accomodations are made, but only grudingly.
This is the first page of the book. It continues with the narrator getting up and ready to go out hunting, and relates that she lives in District 12 that is crawling with coal miners. Again, questions are raised that will soon be answered, and the answers will raise new questions.
The author next relates that District 12 is surrounded by an electrified fence to protect the inhabitants from wild dogs and other wild animals. District 12 is sounding more like a gulag, which it comes out that it is for most of its inhabitants, but the narrator is willing to go beyond that fence.
Suzanne Collins demonstrates a deft touch in introducing a narrator in a harsh world.
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