Something for Nothing

What do Vegetable Gardens, Fishing, Poker, and Writing have in common? They all provide something for nothing. Or at least seem to.

Like that first day of spring when you start turning the soil, writing a story starts out fun.  It’s full of high hopes and wonderful expectations. Nobody should ever sat down to a poker table expecting to lose. Nobody plants a vegetable garden expecting the plants to die before harvest. A writer should never sit down expecting to write a clunker of a story. They become self fulfilling prophecies.

Every fishing trip I have ever been on. I didn’t know how it was going to end up. A boat full of trophies or skunked. Didn’t know what I’d pull up from under the water. That anticipation and surprise when something new appeared at the end of my hook was exhilarating and one of the main reasons I went fishing. It is the same reason I write.

I find it interesting that my four favorite hobbies all have so much in common.

Recent Lessons Learned.

-          When you get writer’s block, drop a mountain on the characters. In other words, create a problem so big nobody could get out of it. Or reveal a deep dark secret that changes people perspective. This pushes the story along, speeds up the pace and opens up the creative possibilities. This really worked in my latest novel.

-          When a character has OCD, they will have more than one symptom. Instead of showing the same symptom over and over again. Have them do different things repeatedly. A perfect example is in the movie as good as it gets, Jack Nicholson had to use a fresh bar of soap each time he cleaned his hands. He had to lock the door three times to make sure he knew it was locked. He couldn’t step on a crack. It reinforced how crazy he was.

-          Look for opportunities to re-enforce sub-plots and themes. In my last novel food and how much the protagonist eats is a recurring joke/comment. I had a scene in a school cafeteria but didn’t describe what was on his tray. I could have used this opportunity to flesh out the character and set up jokes for later. I should be looking for an opportunity to use this stuff instead of just throwing it out there.

-          It is almost impossible, No, correct that. It is impossible, for me to be creative when I have a stressful day at work. During the recent inspection and lead up to the inspection at work I have been putting in a lot of hours (21 straight days) and thinking about stuff while at home. I can’t switch it off and drop into writers mode. If I do the product is bad and I am not enjoying myself. This impacts my weekly writing goals. I need to take my day job schedule into account when I make my writing goals.

-          The writer’s group I attend has proven to be invaluable. The insights and opinions are great and usually spot on. The suggestions make for a better story and better writing. I hope one day I am a good enough writer that I won’t need as much correction. But until that time, I plan to continue to use my fellow writers to make myself better. I learn just as much by listening to their opinions about other writers.

Rose petals in the Grand Canyon

Talking about Self-Publishing A great line appeared in an article at the telegraph

"And once the book is out there, the work really starts. Someone remarked that publishing a book was like dropping a rose petal into the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo"

Link

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10032659/How-I-overcame-snobbery-to-self-publish-an-e-book.html

Making your character sound older or younger.

I have been accused of making my characters sound too old for their age. I won’t quibble, they are probably right. But recently, when critiquing a story by another budding writer. I discovered a key (discovered for me at least, everyone else probably knew it already). I discovered that by making the character more self-centered it made him sound younger and vice/versa more sacrificing and thinking of others made him sound older.

It wasn’t the words they used. The slang, or disdain for adults. It was the internal attitude of the character that indicated his or her age. 

By the same token. Making the character aware of and concerned about others makes them sound older. 

I know when observing my own children, they lost a lot of their self-centeredness when they reached their early twenties. They came to realize the universe did not revolve around them. 

Strange Worlds make the best Stories

Most popular stories are about something different. Whether it is a 25 ft shark off the New England coast (JAWS). Or  a woman trying to survive the Civil War (Gone with the wind). It is always a different world, or an alien experiencing our world (ET phone home).  A young woman must survive the televised Circus Maximus (Hunger Games) or a young boy migrate into the wizarding world (Harry Potter). It isn’t just about what happens to them, but about this strange world that is different to us. It becomes another character in the story and a plot driver.

The popular stories make us look at things differently, compare and contrast. What would we do if thrown into this new and unusual world. I am not saying that you have to have a different world. I am saying that the most popular stories always do. Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz is so much more interesting that Dorothy and the Wizard of Kansas.

The Highest grossing movies of all time, (adjusted for inflation)

1.       Gone With the Wind

2.       Avatar

3.       Star Wars

4.       Titanic

5.       The Sound of Music

6.       E.T. the Extra Terrestrial

7.       Ten Commandments

8.       Doctor Zhivago

9.       Jaws

10.   Snow White and the seven dwarfs

The only one that could be considered set in normal times and a normal world is E.T. and that deals with an Alien from outer space. Each of these stories explores a strange environment. A foreign country, a different time and how the protagonists deal with it.

Something to think about when outlining your next book.

Predicting the Future

Predicting The Future

People don’t change; technology changes, but people remain the same. Each of us is driven by Maslow’s hierarchy of basic needs, (Air, water, food, shelter, security, love, self-esteem, and self-actualization). It hasn’t changed for 70,000 years and won’t change for the next 70,000. What will change is the technology, the tools. Humans are tool makers.  Since the first man picked up a club or the first person jumped on the back of a horse, we have continually sought to develop force multipliers, things that make us stronger, faster, at less expense.

So, Science Fiction stories are really about modern man interacting with new technology. How do these new tools in this new situation impact the story? What will our tools, and therefore our capability look like in the future?

If you are going to write a SciFi story, you need to come up with some new technology and how it interacts with your characters. How does their society change because of this new technology? A community made up of independent, physically secure artists and craftsman is vastly different than one made up of a collective of slaves fighting to survive. Their needs are the same, but they are focused at a different level.

When predicting the future think of faster, cheaper ways of doing things and how that will impact society.

A Writer's Voice

I have been wrestling with this concept of a writer’s voice. What is it and how do I get one. Everyone seems to differ on the exact definition, and even more so on how to do it. I was hoping to find some easy instructions to follow. You know, do this, add that, stop doing this. But no one seems to have an easy formula to follow.

I have come up with three examples of voice. These are sentences that cannot be improved. They capture and move the audience more in a few words than I could with an entire book.   

“The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.” (Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address 1863)

Or

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few,” (Winston Churchill, 1940)

Or

“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.” (Declaration of Independence. 1776)

A couple of observations

-          Lincoln’s phrases go from 6 syllables to 5 syllables, then down to 4 syllables. I am sure this was intentional and lends to a sense of building tension.

-          The rule of three repeatedly shows up. Lincolns starts with 3 phrases, both Churchill and Jefferson end with 3 phrases.

-          Churchill uses 3 words in each phrase

-          Jefferson’s ends his passage with phrases starting short and ending  long, 1 sylable, 3 Syllables, 6 syllables. Building to and ending. Opposite of Lincoln’s starting long and ending short.

-          All three use BOLD declarative statements (World can never forget), (Never in the field of human conflict), (Truths to be self evident). Each statement is surrounded by 3 bold phrases.

-          Try rearranging the words, even if the meaning is the same, the strength and art is lost. EX: “Among these are pursuing happiness, life, and liberty.”  

I have come to believe that the ‘voice’ part of writing is the real art. It’s like telling Picasso how to shape a curve when painting a face. You either have it or you don’t. Training and practice can greatly improve it, but talent will take it to the next level.