Back to Work

"A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds." - Francis Bacon

In many ways Labor Day is like the start of a new year.  I’m surprised we don’t celebrate the new year in the fall.  Think about it.  Labor Day marks the beginning of a new school semester.  It's the unofficial end of summer.  It’s also a time when people typically return from their vacations and settle back into their work routines.

I like to use this time to organize and prepare for the work ahead.  Like a gardener that expects a plentiful harvest, writers need to create an environment where their creative efforts can germinate and mature.  This is a perfect time to get rid of the clutter in your writing area.  Make room for the wonderful new ideas that are coming.  I keep a handy list next to my desk of my big projects for the year.  These would be the big picture things.  I want to get back into school, I want a new job, a new car, to finish my novel, a bigger house, etc.  But also, I keep a smaller list that simply reminds me of my day-to-day objectives (1,000 words a day, an hour of exercise, read 1 book a month, etc.)  A lot of the time the things that we do daily don't seem like much.  I recently thought if I learned ten new words a week by the end of a year I'd increase my vocabulary by more than 5,000 words.   A small step that would lead to a huge payoff, guaranteed.  Like in a garden, paying attention to the small daily things we could do to improve (our writing, our lives, our relationships, our finances, etc.) is the key to the fruitful life we crave.  Nothing happens overnight.  Sow the seeds of positivity in your garden and expect a healthy bounty of good works to follow.  

Some people have books they love and return to time and time again for inspiration and clarity.  I'm one of those people that believe technology is actually a good thing for the publishing industry.  Instant access to so many books, magazines and other forms of writing I've got to believe have had a positive effect on our national literacy rate.  I could be wrong.  Maybe it was just Oprah that got us back to reading.  In any event, I've always loved the classics.  I feel there are certain works that every aspiring writer should read as a common basis for understanding the craft.   Some of my favorites include F. Scott Fitzgerald, T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Anais Nin, Khalil Gibran, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Stephen King, Paulo Coehlo, Isabelle Allende, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, to name just a few.  Every writer I know is an avid reader and I can't stress enough how important it is to read both within and outside the genre in which you want to write.  A good adventure story, full of action in faraway places was always my guilty pleasure.

Decide what you'd like to accomplish in your writing for the next coming year.  Take daily steps to create that reality for yourself.  No one was ever born a Nobel Laureate or Pulitzer Prize winner.

This week's suggested website: Funds for Writers - (www.fundsforwriters.com) This online resource for writers offers information on grants, writing contests, awards, markets, available jobs and much more.


This week's writing prompt: Give yourself five uninterrupted minutes of quiet time.  Create a to-do list for any character you're currently working on.  Give him/her a life outside your story.  What are the things (however trivial) that your character must attend to on a day-to-day basis?  Laundry, shopping for groceries?  Fill a page with about a dozen projects or tasks that your character feels pressed to accomplish.  Notice how they want their life prioritized.  It may be different from what you initially envisioned for them.  Give it your best shot and have a great writing week.  

What's Your Story About?

“Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved.” -- William Jennings Bryan

What is your story about?  When asked this daunting question, I usually respond one of two ways.  One way is to give a brief description of character and plot.  For example, my story is about Elsie, a girl who’s going blind from a degenerative eye disease, who dreams of being a ballerina but discovers her true talents lie elsewhere.  This short little stab is basically a description of character, the character’s dramatic need and a glimpse of what the obstacles of Act Two and the ending might be.  In other words it’s a synopsis of what happens during the course of your story.

Another way to answer the question is to discuss the narrative in terms of theme.  Unlike a breakdown of what the plot is, this way of talking about the story focuses on the author’s intent.  For example, I could say the story of the blind girl wanting to be a ballerina is a modern tale of delusion and self-realization.

In other words, a story’s theme tells us what moved the author to write the story in the first place. The Three Little Pigs can be said to be about preparedness and perseverance in the face of great danger.    The themes in fairy tales and other children’s stories, as well as in morality plays, tend to be prominent. 

When pitching a story to a potential collaborator, producer or network executive, it's important to talk about both aspects of your project.  Be clear about your plot and characters but also understand the deeper impact your story has.  Explore the thematic aspects of your story and how they contribute to making the “action” more profound.

A well thought out theme will help put your story in societal perspective.  Consider how Harriet Beecher Stowe’s "Uncle Tom’s Cabin" contributed to the societal debate over slavery when it was first published.  A well-constructed theme helps the reader/viewer understand how your character’s behavior may be indicative of the society at large.  The Scarlet Letter is as much a character driven story as it is a portrait of a puritanical society struggling with the issue of adultery.  Theme allows the reader/viewer to compare their morality against that of your imagined characters. 

A well-executed story has its theme invisibly woven into the plot.  Be careful of being heavy handed.

This week’s website: Freelance Writing Gigs – (www.freelancewritinggigs.com) The site bills itself as the Internet's #1 Freelance Writing Community. Special features include job listings for bloggers and writers, a cover letter clinic, interviews and articles about freelance writing.

This week’s writing prompt:  Give yourself five uninterrupted minutes of quiet time.   In a previous exercise we created a resume for one of your characters.  Now, I’d like you to expand on that idea.  Write a letter of recommendation for one of your characters.  Your character may be looking for a new job, renting a new condo or entering an advance academic program.  In either case, you can write from the point of you as the author (yourself) or from the point of view of another character in your story.  Have a great writing week.  

Laying Track

"The real leader has no need to lead - he is content to point the way." -- Henry Miller  

How many times have you someone say "keep putting one foot in front of the other." It sounds like a well worn yet good piece of wisdom.  And, what a marvelous game plan it really is for getting someplace.  Guess what?  Everything in life is that simple.  Keep putting one foot in front of the other.  The outcome is assured.  You'll get there eventually.  Getting somewhere eventually is better than never getting there at all.

While preparation, vision and planning count for a great deal of success quotient, planning doesn't get you there.  Moving gets you there.  Yes, there's a time and a place to plan and envision a successful outcome but actively moving forward toward a goal amounts to more than planning.  100 words a day is better than 0 words a day.  Don't keep yourself from your writing desk because you don't have a solid block of time to commit to writing.  Write for as long as you can.  

While every individual step may seem inconsequential, their cumulative effect is profound and certain.  Keep showing up at the blank page until it's as natural as brushing your teeth.  Some days will seem like a chore just to arrive at the page and attempt to focus.  You'll feel empty and uninspired.  The process may seem lackluster and even a wasteful use of your time.  If all you have is 20% then make the commitment to show up at the page and bring 20% to it.  You may find that once you get started you actually had 25%  The point is - do something.  Anything.  Keep covering ground.

The best selling author and writing guru, Julia Cameron calls this process, "laying track."  It's simply showing up and putting something down on the page.  There will be many days where there isn't anything magical going on.  It might even seem downright boring.  (Remember boredom is just masked resistance).  Just as a seed needs to establish roots before it can shoot out of the ground sometimes our writing needs to incubate, unseen in order to bloom at a later time.

Jhumpa Lahiri's first novel, Interpreter of Maladies, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2000.  A gifted writer with a unique voice whose passion for story and character is fresh and exciting.  She brings out the universal humanity in her characters and engages the reader with rich detail and witty circumstances.

This week's suggested website:  - MediaBistro.com (www.mediabistro.com) This site is a good place to find freelance jobs online. Other features include forums, courses and industry news.


This week's writing prompt: Give yourself five uninterrupted minutes of quiet time.   Revisit a character biography you've been working on.  Imagine that this character is looking for a job and meets the difficulties of today's economy head on.  Prepare your character's resume and give it some realistic level of polish.  For extra fun submit it to one of the online job boards and see what happens.  

Cheap hotels and Hibernation

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." -- Jimi Hendrix

I've had the amazing good fortune to take advantage of some much needed time to myself.  At the end of June, I began a road trip from my home in Houston to a summer cabin I own in Catskill Park (upstate New York) near the historic town of Bethel where Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Janis Joplin made history in August of 1969.  It also happened on my fifth birthday.  I should have been one of those naked children featured in the documentary swimming naked in the lake.

To be able to see the country this way, much like Steinbeck did in the early 1960s was a wonderful experience filled with many unexpected surprises.  The landscape left me awestruck.  America is truly an amazing country.  I hibernated in the cabin for all of July and through mid-August working on a script and keeping up with this blog and my journal.  My only companions were my dogs.  And, to tell the truth, I could have used a break from them too.

Something truly amazing happens when you hibernate this way.  First of all, I gained weight.  Duh... food became a source of delight and indulgence, but I gained something else much more valuable as well.  I gained some much needed insight.  The silence gave my characters a chance to speak to me.   No television, no internet, no cell phone.  I got a chance to both focus on and strengthen my imagination.  Much like a muscle, the imagination needs to develop and the best way to do that is to use it every day.

I also got the chance to see how nature follows a specific flow and every living being responds to this flow.  The birds know just when and what to sing, the bees know just when and where to collect pollen, the fruits and vegetables know just where to turn their leaves to get full advantage of the sun.  Maybe writers have a rhythm as well.  Mornings and late evenings seem to be my most productive times.

I also seem to have a fondness for airports, hotels and waiting rooms.  I've come to understand that when ideas jump into my head (often times in these situations) its an opportunity to capture them the old fashioned way - on paper, yes a note pad.

I usually wait until I've read a book before I have anything to say about it but in this case, I think I need to make an exception.  Author, Jonathan Lehem was a classmate of mine at the Fiorella LaGuardia High School of Music and Art (Class of 1982).  I can't say that I remember him although we do  have friends in common.  It recently came to my attention that Jonathan's book, "Motherless Brooklyn," won the National Book Critics Circle Award.  He's gone on to write more critically acclaimed novels as well (Chronic City and Gun with Occasional Music .  I'm looking forward to reading Motherless Brooklyn.  It's jumped to the top of my reading list.


This week's suggested website: MIT OpenCourseWare - (http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/courses/index.htm#WritingandHumanisticStudies) The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) offers a number of free writing courses through its OpenCourseWare program. Course topics include fiction writing, short story writing, expository writing, essay writing, technical writing and poetry.


This week's writing prompt: Give yourself five uninterrupted minutes of quiet time.   Imagine that one of your characters has just won the presidential election.  It's inauguration day.  Write a compelling, motivational speech to the American people outlining the administration's vision of the four years ahead.

Constructing Plot (Act 3 - Endings)

“I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well.” – Henry David Thoreau

Know your ending!  I know some writers who insist that they know their ending first, refine it and then work backward creating characters and plot devices that intensify the ending.  No doubt, a strong conclusion leaves the audience satisfied for having gone the journey with your characters. 

Don’t disappoint.  Many endings disappoint because they fail to pay off on what's been set up in Act 1 and the audience is left wondering what happened to secondary characters or unresolved dramatic issues.

I like to think that Act 3 is all about the ‘Why?”  Show us the character growth.  If your protagonist starts off as an ignorant country bumpkin could he win a senatorial seat by the end of your film?   If a miserly grandmother hits the lottery does she become an active philanthropist or does she invest heavily in a corporate conglomerate set to destroy the environment?  

If Act 1 setups up the “who, where and what” of the story (a cowardly knight in King Arthur’s court, an apprentice bullfighter in Spain) and Act 2 shows us the “how” -- how does one train to fight a bull?  How does one overcome terrorists and save the hostages?  How does a skinny computer geek become a superhero?  All the the monumental obstacles you've thrown at your hero in Act 2 have endeared us to the character.  Then, Act 3, hopefully wraps it all up and answers the big question:  Why?  Not to be mistaken with the dramatic need (to escape, to get the girl, to win the race, to become a better parent, etc.) the deeper question is, why?

Ultimately, if you’ve done your homework the answer you derive will reveal even more layers of your main character.  Your story's resolution must reveal something about the human condition. 

Continuing on my mission to read and comment on one book a month this year, I'd like to recommend Kiran Desai's "The Inheritance of Loss."  The 2006 Booker Prize winning novel is an intimate portrait of Indian village life.  Rich with detail and political strife its a fast paced, character driven narrative.  I found the women in this novel particularly well drawn.  

This week's suggested website: First Writer - (www.firstwriter.com) First Writer is a helpful resource for writers everywhere. The site has a searchable database of book and magazine publishers, literary agencies and writing competitions.

This week's writing prompt:   Give yourself five uninterrupted minutes of quiet time.   Review the ending of your current script or novel.  Does it deliver on the story promise set up in Act 1?  Revise your ending to emphasize your protagonist's emotional growth.  Punch up the emotional impact.  Have a great writing week.  

  

Constructing Plot (Act 2 - The Middle)

"The cure for boredom is curiosity.  There is no cure for curiosity."  - Dorothy Parker

In Act 1 we've learned much about your story and its people.  Now it's time to reign havoc on their world.  That's the main thrust of act two -- confrontation!

So far your characters have walked on stage and introduced themselves.  We’ve gotten the lay of the land and we’ve been thrust into the middle of a “situation.”  As Act 1 comes to a close we’ve had a chance to see your characters in their “ordinary” everyday world.  We’ve become aware of their everday habits and also the grander, burning desire to acquire or accomplish something  - then something happens to intiate Act 2 that takes your protagonist outside his or her comfort zone.  


It’s the call to adventure that Joseph Campbell identifies and describes so well in his master work: The Hero With A Thousand Faces.  

Whether it's a  car accident, an armed bank robbery, a sudden financial windfall -  something dramatic forces your character to commit to the adventure ahead.  There can be no other choice.  The burning desire you’ve set up in Act 1 is at stake.  The hero’s refusal of the call to action can be a short as a simple "no, I can't" or it can be a long sequence with your character unable to avoid what's ahead despite his or her best efforts.  


Ultimately, whether voluntarily or not, the burning desire drives the hero into Act 2.   This story beat has been called “the inciting incident,” “plot point one,” and a number of other things by many different teachers.  The mechanics of this beat are the same.  Something changes your hero’s everyday life course.  Your story is essentially about how the person you introduced in Act 1 gets tangled up in the chaos of Act 2. 

Without question, Act 2 is always the hardest or most enriching part of the process for me as a writer.  It's also the longest.  This is where you throw every imaginable obstacle at your character.  Let chaos reign supreme.  Watch a few of your favorite films and you'll notice Act 2 is where a film's highlights are pulled for the trailer.  


The second act is all about “how” things work.  “How” the pieces all fit together.  And, the cleverness and originality of Act 2 defines much of the audience's opinion of the piece as a whole.  It’s the measure by which we judge a satisfactory ending.  Was the riddle solved?  How did Miss Marple figure it out?  Was  the murderer caught?  How did Sherlock Holmes snag him?  Was the heist successful?  What did the crew need to do to get past security?  Was the long lost couple reunited?  What did our hero have to do to get the girl back?   Don't make it too easy on the hero or we'll feel cheated.  Act 2 is the battleground on which your protagonist  wages war with the world and himself/herself and either proves to be worthy of the goal or falls short.  

Another great book with sections on character and structure is Robert J. Ray's "The Weekend Writer Writes A Mystery."  It's loaded with creative exercises and great information on character and structure.  A fast read that I highly recommend.  

This week' suggested website: NaNoWriMo - (http://www.nanowrimo.org) National Novel Writing Month, known as NaNoWriMo, challenges writers to pen 50,000 word novels between November 1 and November 31 every year. The site provides articles, forums and all kinds of motivators to help them get the work done.


This week's writing prompt:  Give yourself five uninterrupted minutes of quiet time.  Create a list of at least six things that are going wrong in your character's quest to achieve his or her dramatic need.  The larger and more difficult the obstacles the more we'll cheer as your hero succeeds!  Have a great writing week. 

Constructing Plot (Act 1 - Beginnings)

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the Gift.”  - Steve Prefontaine

The basics of constructing an intriguing and entertaining plot is at the core of good storytelling.  Any discussion of plot must at some point refer back to the master, Aristotle.  For over 2,300 years the format he laid down still serves us.  Every story has a beginning, middle and end.  Duh...  and every section has a specific function.  Setup the situation in act one, escalate the confrontation with the antagonist in act two and provide the reader/viewer with a satisfying resolution in act three.  Okay, but how does one go about constructing a plot?

In this entry I'll discuss stage one: the beginning or setup.

Let's take a look at plot construction's first component (the beginning).  The basic premise of any story is simply: something happens to someone.  In the first thirty pages of your screenplay (give or take) your story must accomplish several things.  Okay, define who your hero is.  This should be easy.  It's usually the character that under goes the most change.  The audience will experience your story through this person's perspective.

Empathy toward your main character will keep your audience engaged.  It's crucial.  No one will sit through a movie for an hour and a half if they don't feel a connection to your main character.  I've found three helpful techniques that help with this process.

• Make your main character either very good at what he or she does (a decorated army officer who leads new recruits through the difficulties of becoming an officer, a compassionate teacher that sacrifices advancements in her own career to help her students, etc.) or
• Make your main character hilariously funny (a hateful, biggot like Archie Bunker in All in the Family or a bumbling, drunken playboy like Arthur the multi-millionaire lush in the film of the same name played by Dudley Moore) we can forgive all types of bad behavior in a main character when he or she is funny.  In fact, we'll cheer them on!   or lastly,
• Make your character the victim of some unfortunate event beyond their control (a victim of a car accident, a person left devastated by a hurricane, an abused child, etc.).  Our hearts go out to people like this.  It's natural.  Exploit it!  

These are three easy ways to build audience empathy with your main character.  Empathy is what will keep them rooting for your hero and caring about your story's final resolution.

The challenge of Act one is that it needs to accomplish a few important things as it thrusts us into the action.  Many beginning writers linger on lengthy explanations and setups that slow a story down.  In contrast, look at the mega successful James Bond franchise.  Those films are famous for beginning with an elaborate action sequence.  It throws the audience into the adventure at the very first moment.

Be sure to start your story at the height of something important that's happening in the lives of the characters you've created - not their Thursday afternoon trip to the market (unless of course that's where something happens - like a robbery, an alien attack, an act of terrorism, etc.)  A good rule of thumb I've heard is to start every scene at the last possible moment.  For instance, you want to write a scene about a husband and wife getting into an argument.  Well -- start in the heat of an argument!  Insults are slung about over a badly cooked dinner, tears are shed - slaps across the face are exchanged - you get the idea.  Don't start at the moment when a tired husband is just arriving home from work.  You've got to get a lot of things done in the first thirty pages.  You just don't have time for this.

Once you've accomplished setting up the environment, tone and main character give your hero a burning desire.  This will be the gasoline that keeps the story moving forward.

Consider these personal character motives:  A woman intent on getting her less than average child into an exclusive school, a boxer trying to make a comeback when he's well past his prime, a detective with twenty hours to find a kidnapped heiress -- these are all examples of a burning desire - a overwhelming need that you can then exploit for dramatic or comedic purpose in stage two - the middle.  One clever writing book I read recently said that beginning is all about rushing to get to the middle!

Setup the "who what and where" of your story in Act one and you're well on your way to having a great first act.  Give your audience the chance to discover who the people of your story are - make them care - and then be sure to get across what the stakes are in your story.

Like many writers, I have a fondness for stories of far off, exotic locales and wondrous new cultures.  Asne Seierstad's The Bookseller of Kabul is penetrating and moving account of one journalist's extended stay in Afghanistan.  It's  rich with detail and emotionally engaging.  I highly recommend it.

This week's suggested website: The Library of Congress - (http://www.loc.gov/library/libarch-digital.html) This U.S. government site offers access to an online library of books, letters, manuscripts, photos and other printed materials.


This week's writing prompt: Give yourself five uninterrupted minutes of quiet time.  Review your main's character biography.  Make sure you've included a burning desire in his/her makeup that will drive him/her through the rest of your story.  Have a great writing week.