Writer's Office Tour

I decided it might be time to let my readers and friends who haven't visited in a while checkout my office and my organization of it (or lack thereof).  So come on along and I'll give you the two penny tour. 

First there's the actual place where I do actual writing - my computer and it's on a Veridesk.  What's that you say?  Well, it's an adjustable surface I can easily raise up or down.  I stand when I write about half the day and sit about half. Lots of ups and downs in a writer's life!

Yep, there's the chair, I do sit down on occasion. There's also a nice window behind me, a better shot of that, and the dog bed later. 

 

And of course the resident dog, actually one of three. This little guy is Hans and he frequently occupies the little dog bed under the window.  You can kind of get a dog-eyed view up toward my desk.

Here's that nice window, and a bit of the view at the mountains beyond. Hey, I have a great view and that picture was taken when there was still some snow on the ground.

Moving on - this is the back of my office.  That door you see leads to...well, not part of my office so I'll leave it to your imagination. That antler-topped staff in the corner was a gift from a screenwriter friend and of course you can see the beginning of the books.

Lots and Lots of books... research, binders I've put together with info I need, fun books, fiction, still have shelves loaded with books - in addition to my kindle.  Ah the life of the writer in this age...

 

Then there are the filing cabinets. Yep, need lots of space for those contracts, printed articles and old manuscripts and screenplays, copyrights, script registrations, general business, emails and, well you get the gist - lots of paper. 




Oh, look! It's the small dog bed. It's empty in the photo, but Hans is lying in it right now. Good dog!

 

Look! It's the exit!  The doorway to the outside world which I don't see very much of. And the bulletin board directly across from my desk. Lots of stuff on it. A calendar so I can keep track of what the heck day it is and any meetings or appointments, family pics, clippings and reference bits and pieces. There's a stairway down just to the left of the bulletin board so watch your step.

 

Oh, and if you couldn't see it clearly earlier, here's a nice shot of some books I've had published all lined up on that shelf. Go ahead, check out my Amazon author page.

And because they don't show everything there, take a minute and visit the Planet Of The Eggs facebook page for the latest on a comic series I've been working on and my webpage for more info.  

I have a great work space - worked for years to get it this way. Might not suit others well, but it's great for me. Come back and visit often. Tell me if you have any suggestions for making it even better.

Writers Keep Writing

Writer? Screenwriter? Novelist?

I won’t mention writers of shorter pieces because that’s not what I’m going to focus on in this post. 

illustration by Gabriel Hardman

 

The crux of the matter here is do you have a couple of half-finished novels on your hard drive? Screenplays maybe? You get going with lots of steam and a great idea that’s exciting and motivating, but somewhere along the line something happens. Maybe it feels like the original premise hits a dead end or the writer gets confused about where the original destination was or it just isn’t coming together the way it was hoped. Regardless of what it is that happens it gets agonizing. It’s a wrestling match between writer and story. Many times the writer will beat his or her head against a way for a while and then just gives up.

When it happens it can cause the writer to feel worthless. It can cause the writer to believe he can’t write. It’s flat awful.

So what can cause this? There are a number of things that can cause a writer to give up, not finish script or novel, not complete the story.

First, it’s possible there just wasn’t enough story there in the first place. What to do? Give yourself a break, stop beating yourself up and learn to think your story idea through before you start. That doesn’t mean you need to create every little tiny detail of the story, but it does mean you need to consider where that story idea you came up with is going. Don’t just jump in and start writing script or novel. Create some sort of synopsis or treatment that takes the story from beginning to end and weed out things that don’t make sense or don’t carry the story forward. Take it seriously. Don’t leave yourself in the middle of the lake without a boat so to speak. Create that plan and the solid sense of story and the knowledge of craft, novel or screenwriting, you need to carry you to the finish.

If you have a strong premise and you’re still failing to finish consider how you feel about your writing. Are you afraid that when it’s complete and you put it out into the world that you’ll be rejected? That that rejection is failure? You’ve heard it before, read it, and had it shoved in your face in every way conceivable. To be a writer is to face rejection, feel that terrible humiliation, and learn to live with it in some fashion. The very best get bad coverage, terrible reviews and premises that are ripped to shreds by editors or readers. That’s the way it is. If it’s not for you, if you can’t handle it maybe you need to be doing something else.

But keep in mind, many may pass on your manuscript or screen script, but you only need one yes. If you really are a writer and can handle that inevitable rejection and you can’t find a single yes on one project, it’s time to start another. And when you finally get that yes from publisher or producer you know you finally measure up to industry standards. That means you, as a writer, learned not to take negative comments personally and used rejection to learn and do better.

Embrace rejection. Learn from it. Move forward. Take classes, find readers, keep submitting. Keep the faith and keep writing. It takes focus and serious effort. The one shot wonder is just that, and who wants to be a one shot anyway? Dump the self-pity that can accompany rejection and the whining, “it’s-not-fair”, curl-in-a-ball and hide stance of the abused victim.

Be proud of your rejections – it means you’re in the game.

Writer's World - Characters and Skills

Writing is an interesting profession – you create people from scratch. Sort of build them from the ground up, or top down, whichever way you want to look at it. It’s fun, it’s easy, and it’s hard as hell.

In that quest to make characters real, unusual and fascinating to the reader writers look to imparting something special to that character. Something like a unique skill or an unusual talent, some ability that will set hero or heroine apart from the every day, and yet at the same time, keep that character identifiable, relatable. It could be as simple as being a chess master and using that talent in other ways or as high-profile as being a well-known newscaster, writer or movie star.

But it’s a fine line between giving that hero or heroine some special ability and going way over the top to the point where the audience (novel reader or film goer) disconnects. That can happen when the writer doesn’t match the personality of a character and that character’s past experiences and life lessons with the particular skill or unusual talent he or she’s been given. It becomes like a tag on instead of an integral part of the character.

Think about it. Some things are imparted simply by birth and who the parents are. A prodigy, perhaps with math, perhaps playing a piano, or something else, has received that particular gift through birth. On the other hand being a computer geek or maybe a martial arts master or a jewelry maker are all skills that are learned.

This gives the writer a wide range of possibilities – but also just as wide a range of things that won’t work well. A character who’s never had training or so much as seen a martial arts movie can’t suddenly become Jett Lei.

But, the fun of all this is choosing a talent or skill that fits with the character and the story. The kid raised on a farm working with farm machinery who can fix anything who, as an adult working in the city as an investor calls on those past skills to get a bus running before the train hits it. The chess master, so skilled at anticipating moves thwarts a terrorist attack by being one step ahead. The computer geek so geeky he figures out computer code from beyond the planet is actually a countdown to invasion and he figures it out before anyone else. The magician who commits the perfect crime via his prestidigitation.

The creativity behind these kinds of things is wonderfully exhilarating. Let yourself go and explore different possibilities. When you find something that strikes a chord unleash your muse, embrace the creative, go back and change other elements in the story to make sure it all fits and the special talent you’ve discovered for your character fits with the rest of your story.

There are few things more fun!

Comment below and let others know the kinds of ideas you’ve come up with and how it all came together.

Writing a Novel? Tips For What Not To Do

No long intro here, I’m going right for the meat of it. You’re writing a novel, you’re in love with your words. Well, look again and see what you need to change:

One:

Do you have your characters living in a happy fantasy land sort of like the fairy tale creatures out of Disney? Is everybody just getting along hunky-dorey and skipping hand-in-hand down the garden path?

Well, stop it! Come on, you know darn well that even best friends can have disagreements and fights. Family members scrap all the time. If everybody’s happy your readers will be BORED. Look, stressful situations can bring out the worst in even the best of people. Add some tension, pepper it with strife. Don’t let your characters get away with being so freaking happy. Really. Spice it up.

Two:

Have you gone a bit too far? Have you created a ‘hero’ or ‘heroine’ that nobody really likes? In fiction, novel or script, the main character has to be someone the reader or watcher can identify with, bond with, hope will succeed and want to follow along with throughout the entire story. Of course your main character can have flaws, baggage, irritating habits, but watch out. If you push it to far you’ll end up with a protagonist who’s demanding, insensitive, timid, wimpy or cold (or a host of other flaws that go above and beyond). Go for sympathetic and likeable – with a few quirks and flaws.

Three:

How’s your description going? Yes, description is needed to fill in the background, to give a feel to the story, to weave a great tale, but if you’re writing paragraph after paragraph describing weather and scenery then you’re going too far. Weave background into your story. Tell your readers about the weather when it has an impact on the story or the main character(s). Perhaps the weather is trapping someone somewhere and/or affecting their mood because of it. Details are what make the background the canvas against which your story is told. But be selective. Give the details that add to characterization or which might affect your main character’s ability to achieve his/her goals. 

And 

Four:

How many of you have used the “as you know…..” cheat? Don’t look blank. You know darn well it’s just a way to dump information by using a character’s dialog. It’s when a character tells another character something they both already know just to bring your readers in on it. Don’t do it. It’s annoying and amateurish and it causes your reader to blank out and pass over that passage, so they don’t even get the information you planned to impart in the first place – might even cause that reader to put the book down. Don’t do it.

Think about these. There are lots more, but I’ll leave them to a later post – meanwhile, you can tell me – what are your biggest ‘no-nos’ for writing?

Three Observations On How to Add Punch In Your Writing

Okay, first, as writers, we (at least most of us) know we need to flavor our writing with sensations that go beyond sight and sound. We add things like the aroma of chicken grilling, the smell of tangy perfume, the feel of a too-heavy gold chain dragging against the back of a neck, the feel of a chilled breeze ticking up one's back beneath a jacket or the really sour taste of overdone lemonade to add life to our writing. You know, stuff everyone experiences, maybe notices.

But, when writers are reaching for more, and it's true, editors just love more than the five senses we're used to providing, consider body language. Remember, all the extras we add as subtle touches in storytelling don't just add to the setting, but fleshes out your characters as well.

Body language is a great resource for writers and you never hear anyone commenting on it. It just is if the writer injects it smoothly.

How about a character sneaking a smoke where it's forbidden. Cupping his hand over the cigarette, whether he telegraphs he knows he's breaking the rules and is embarrassed, avoiding eye contact, or if he's arrogant and defiant, staring down those who notice him smoking, it telegraphs how the character feels, tells the reader something about his inner workings. Take some of your research time and read up a bit on body language. Then apply.Your writing will take an expansive breath.

Another thing to consider when adding depth to your story is people. You know, the characters you're writing about. We people are a strange lot. Our behavior is rational only some of the time. When you think about it, how often have you taken stupid risks or done something you're at a total loss to explain? 

You've probably heard "truth is stranger than fiction". Well, it is. You, I, all of us do strangely unpredictable things at one time or another with no rational explanation. That's a bit at odds with convincing your reader to go along with the suspension of disbelief thing. So the other side of that coin is believability. It's a high-wire act. You don't want to be cranking out boring fiction, focused on absolute rational behavior at all times.You don't want to lose your reader.

So here's the thing. The weird behavior patterns of us human beings (great fodder for writers and fun to read about) are actually just that - patterns. Others of our species can relate to or understand much of our strange and irrational behavior - heck, they've done it too!

I mean there's love, sex, obsession, weird habits. Love and sex are always basis for irrational behavior. Weird habits like never showing up on time or being obsessively punctual can easily serve as fodder or unsettling decisions, irrational anger or a host of other reactions. The obsessed can become single-minded which can lead to absolutely horrible judgment. Control freaks can have fatal consequences. You get it, more grist for the writer's mill.

Plainly, characters afflicted with human weirdness must either find redemption or with grit teeth cling to their habits to the very end. The oddity of a character's behavior is not only fascinating in your story, but it grips the reader, making him or her wonder what's coming next, why that character is reacting that way and if they'd do the same.

Inject the weirdness of human behavior into your storytelling and create sparks. It applies to all writing.

And readers, tell me if I'm wrong, but aren't you more interested, more transfixed by a character with some behavior, some quirk, that can lead to disaster or salvation? Consider stories and gripping characters you've known and get back to me on that.

And there's the third and last point I'm going to  make today. I mentioned it in another blog post and it bears repeating. You can't write delicately. You can't put restraints on your writing so you don't offend someone. Write what moves you. Don't avoid a topic because it's a darker one like incest, racism, occult or whatever you find to be the dark side. And don't put self-imposed restraints on the way you write. Let it all go. Write with abandon, feel what you did when you were a kid; the freedom of attacking almost everything with abandon.

Turn yourself loose, your readers will thank you - won't you readers?