What are you Writing?

[AmateisGal]

Cool. Soon after the war, one of my cousins (much older than myself!) married a Japanese guy in the Grand Island area. I always thought that was sort of remarkable for that time and place only to discover, after some research and a few conversations, that they (the Japanese side of the family) were very respected by everyone around and had been for many generations. A fair number of them were well regarded college football players in the day! I'm always happy to find that some people weren't as prejudiced as modern culture makes them out to be.

My aunt and uncle live in Grand Island - we took many vacations there when I was a kid (probably because we were farmers and couldn't go very far during the summer, so a four hour drive was do-able).

 

[AmateisGal]

I read Chapter 1 of my book at a Gallery evening event titled "Writers in Our Midst." It went well, the audience laughed in all the right places and seemed engaged in the story. The reading of a novel is a flawed process at best. I consider myself a story teller and hope the writing supports the telling. From that it is hard reading just the first chapter, it is an entry point into the story but it is NOT the story. But it felt good to put the writing out.....a public declaration of sorts that I have a book and I am a writer.....if I keep saying it one day I may begin to believe it.

You ARE a writer! Believe it! And good for you to put yourself out there. That takes guts.

 

[belfastboy]

You ARE a writer! Believe it! And good for you to put yourself out there. That takes guts.

Thank you.

 

[MikeKardec]

Reading your work aloud, even to yourself, makes you come face to face with it in harshly real ways. If you can read it aloud in public and like it then it is probably pretty damn good ... or you have a VERY healthy ego. Either way, more power to you!

 

[AmateisGal]

I have to write a new synopsis for my current WIP. I added a suspense subplot and my agent needs an updated synopsis. Sigh. I hate writing these things.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Heads up, writers! Sorry if this is a bit off topic, but you might be interested in a small and humble writing contest that I started under the "Golden Era" topic heading.
The title of the thread is "Tramp Steamers". Just for fun. The only prize is the glory of accomplishment.

Thank you for indulging the interruption.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled broadcast.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Working on a puzzle-box type of story within heroic fantasy in a world where magic works . . . the hero in this case being a magician.

 

[MikeKardec]

Heads up, writers! Sorry if this is a bit off topic, but you might be interested in a small and humble writing contest that I started under the "Golden Era" topic heading.
The title of the thread is "Tramp Steamers". Just for fun. The only prize is the glory of accomplishment.

Thank you for indulging the interruption.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled broadcast.

Fun stuff! I've got a couple of those stories percolating in the back of my brain.

 

[MikeKardec]

Here's an exercise I cooked up for my students back when I was teaching. One of them asked about the key to writing meaningful art and important literature, so I made them work on the following --


The Orwell Exercise

-- Identify your tribe, your culture, your society? Who are the people you are most comfortable around? What are they like?

The class is not allowed to go forward until these questions are answered on paper.

-- What is that tribe's greatest hypocrisy? What is your greatest hypocrisy personally, the hypocrisy that could cause an existential crisis in you or a member of the tribe?

The class is not allowed to go forward until these questions are answered on paper.

-- Write or outline a story of someone who finds they are an outsider, a powerless individual, who must challenge that hypocrisy. What are the worst things that might happen to him or her under the worst interpretation of that hypocrisy?

You are not done until you identify the things that feel like the most important personal values your culture has and find a way to present them as violations of your protagonists identity.

You do not have to do this well but doing it well is the definition of being a brave ad truthful, artistic voice.


It was fascinating to watch them deal with the idea of their greatest hypocrisy and then have to discover a story where their character was abused by it. They were actually were more open to criticizing themselves than their tribe or culture. It was a bit of a trap but a good exercise.

An important sub topic is imagining the worst things that can happen to your heroes in a situation ... that's often what fiction is really about. You can't play god (the writer) unless you also play the devil.

 

[AmateisGal]

Here's an exercise I cooked up for my students back when I was teaching. One of them asked about the key to writing meaningful art and important literature, so I made them work on the following --


The Orwell Exercise

-- Identify your tribe, your culture, your society? Who are the people you are most comfortable around? What are they like?

The class is not allowed to go forward until these questions are answered on paper.

-- What is that tribe's greatest hypocrisy? What is your greatest hypocrisy personally, the hypocrisy that could cause an existential crisis in you or a member of the tribe?

The class is not allowed to go forward until these questions are answered on paper.

-- Write or outline a story of someone who finds they are an outsider, a powerless individual, who must challenge that hypocrisy. What are the worst things that might happen to him or her under the worst interpretation of that hypocrisy?

You are not done until you identify the things that feel like the most important personal values your culture has and find a way to present them as violations of your protagonists identity.

You do not have to do this well but doing it well is the definition of being a brave ad truthful, artistic voice.


It was fascinating to watch them deal with the idea of their greatest hypocrisy and then have to discover a story where their character was abused by it. They were actually were more open to criticizing themselves than their tribe or culture. It was a bit of a trap but a good exercise.

An important sub topic is imagining the worst things that can happen to your heroes in a situation ... that's often what fiction is really about. You can't play god (the writer) unless you also play the devil.

What a fantastic exercise, one that makes the students dig deep. I imagine you read some really great stuff from them.

 

[MikeKardec]

What a fantastic exercise, one that makes the students dig deep. I imagine you read some really great stuff from them.

Not as impressive as you'd think. As I said their ability to even detect hypocrisy, except where it had been pointed out to them by the established organs of their culture (think, The Daily Show) left a lot to be desired. No one is comfortable finding it in themselves or their culture/tribe/whatever but I sort of think that our Late Boomer/Early X-er generation was more attuned to it than most. Early boomers had been pointing out hypocrites all through our youth but we also saw THEM as behaving like a pack yet calling themselves rebels.

This class was in a small town in Colorado, and I had to point out that many of them were very critical of the tourists who came there (of the tourists "carbon footprint" and the "un-sustainability" of the tourists lifestyles) yet they worked serving said tourists and many like them remained long after graduation so that they could mountain bike, ski, raft, climb ... basically spend every day of the year living like the tourists did for one or two weeks. They were well educated but the weren't out there working on cold fusion or doing an audit of the electrical grid, raising bio fuel or feeding the poor.

I thought their heads were going to unscrew when I, somewhat facetiously, suggested that they should petition the school to turn over the dorms to the homeless and struggling immigrants. They didn't object to my suggestions but there were stunned expressions.

Still, I got the feeling that they took themselves very seriously but didn't really know why.

There were a couple of good ideas on the assignment but they didn't seem too willing to challenge the collective. They weren't eager to take on their parents either. Basically, they are the opposite of me who has no tribe and looks at the world with fear and bewildered humor.

I've never asked but I suspect that even The Onion goes over their heads because it's so dry or has no laugh track. These aren't dumb kids but they are a type and they haven't been challenged.

 

[AmateisGal]

Still working on the synopsis. I hate these things. Why are they so hard? And also, why is it so much easier to write a synopsis of someone else's work?

 

[MikeKardec]

I got the final pass, the mechanicals off to the publisher, thank god that's over! Working on getting the first draft of book 3 ready to go to them then it's back to complete the slight reworking of book #2. I'd really love to have these guys all done by July but that might be optimistic ... other people need time to do their work. Really, all I want to do is pack up all this stuff and get on to cleaning up my life before I have to get myself in more trouble (trouble = new projects).

Snyopsi, synopsises, synoping in general IS really hard. I find when I read peoples description of the action of my favorite books on something like a Wiki page I can barely recognize the story. It's not the tale, it is how it's told ... Steven King might have said that but he may have been quoting someone else. You go to all the trouble to tell it right, then you have to go and tell it wrong.

A few years ago I did get into doing treatments, it was my last hurrah in the TV business, so I did about five Series Bibles and or treatments. I got pretty good at it (maybe ... I never sold any of them). What I mean is that I got to the point where I liked what I was doing and thought they were entertaining even though the form is pretty dry stuff. I was always better (though writing it is agony) at doing cover or promotional copy.

Here's the "concept" or introduction page to a series bible for Haunted Mesa --

Louis L'Amour's Haunted Mesa
Writer's Guild Registration #1589074

While developing an advanced surveillance device, wealthy inventor Eric Hokart stumbles onto a way to detect areas of congruence, thin spots, that sometimes connect our world to another. This Alternate Earth is similar to ours geographically but, for the last several thousand years, it has experienced a vastly different history.

Hoping to explore the far side of this strange new border, Eric reaches out to Mike Raglan. Once a Captain in the Special Forces, Mike led the team in Afghanistan assigned to test Eric’s equipment in combat. But when Mike cannot be found, Eric’s curiosity gets the better of him … and he steps through the portal into the unknown.

With The Haunted Mesa Louis L’Amour created the basis for a unique “alternate world” Science Fiction series. The main setting is the modern American southwest, a land of red rock canyons, mesas, parched Indian reservations, and sun blasted one-street towns. In our world it is a haunted land where the ruins of ancient peoples hide in huge wind hollowed caves, and mysteries lie coiled in every shadow. In the Other World the remnants of an ice age still hold sway. There are no glaciers so far south, but the land is cold, dry, and distinctly inhospitable. The level of human population is considerably less and ancient mega fauna, like cave bears, giant sloths, and saber-tooth cats can still be found. There is only one civilization north of the equator, the seven cities of Xibalba, (She-bal-ba). A modern culture in its own way, it has a level of science, art, and architecture equivalent to, but very different from, our own. It is also a stifling theocracy where suspicion and darkness rule every relationship and human sacrifice is common.

A relatively stable portal in Mexico has allowed communication between worlds to go on for a very long time. Conditions and culture in Xibalba have influenced the Olmec, Mayan and Aztec peoples on our side … and visa versa. Today, Xibalban agents use the portal to traffic the most exotic drugs on the market as they maneuver for wealth and power south of the U.S. border. Their ultimate goal, a political foothold in our world.

Eric Hokart’s discovery of a nearly forgotten portal within in the United States is an opportunity and a threat to those tasked with Xibalban security and operations. Once they are aware of its existence they will go to any lengths to control it.

Arriving to find Eric missing and a community suspicious of outsiders, Mike Raglan has the nearly impossible job of discovering what has happened. But with mysterious prowlers scouting Eric’s high tech home in the remote Utah canyon country; strange creatures reported on the nearby Navajo reservation; and a fantastically violent drug cartel called The Army of Cibola moving north from Mexico, there is plenty of evidence that something quite unusual is going on.

Meanwhile, Eric is lost and in danger somewhere in the silent canyons of another world … and Mike has to follow the few clues Eric has left before time runs out.



The entire package contains a treatment for each of the first three episodes, a description of the trajectory of the first and second season, a potential resolution to the series ... one of the things that separates a "bible" from a "format" and earns you more money (supposedly, I was one of the producers on a pilot, that's as close to series TV as I ever got) ... there are also character descriptions and background notes. Lastly, the package contains a 60 page (aimed at premium cable) pilot script. With the exception of the script it's a lot of writing about what you are going to write, a lot like a synopsis but done as a story development and sales tool. You get a chance to meet your story and shake it's hand, as do others. If you and they like it then you go further and hopefully make it a good deal better in the process.

 

[AmateisGal]

Holy cow. That is quite a lot of work to do! But I really liked your synopsis. It wasn't dry or boring. The thing I hate about the publishing world is that you have to have a detailed synopsis which can be up to 10 pages or more, or a one-page synopsis. And the difference between those two is staggering. You have to focus solely on the main plot points and leave all the rest out.

This synopsis is harder because I had to come up with the ending for my book and I hadn't thought that far ahead yet. Usually I have a general idea of how the book is going to end when I start writing, but that can change a lot over the course of writing the entire book. Since I am in the middle of writing it, I had to come up with the ending and I didn't enjoy it because I hadn't had the chance to really discover it through character interactions and all of those fun things that pop up when you're in the midst of creating. So that tells you I'm much more of a pantster than I am a plotter. The only saving grace I have is that my book doesn't have to conform to the synopsis I come up with - i.e. my agent can sell the book based on the synopsis, but it can change through the writing process and as long as everyone (potential editor, my agent, etc.) likes it, it's all good.

Things get harder once you get into the publishing side of things, for sure.

 

[MikeKardec]

I used to hate treatments/synopsis really, really, hate them. Now after having to do several in the sort of insane detail I describe above they are starting to grow on me. I still hate them, I have a lot of trouble starting the work and sticking to it, BUT when I do it I really (as you were saying) learn a lot about what I need to do. Confronting the story is how you really start to have a dialog with it.

I used to think that writing in present tense (all good movie treatments are written in present tense) was just a trick to show idiot producers how NOW and HAPPENING your idea was but I've come to recognize that if you write it in a totally "present" manner you are only writing what "you" or the audience is going to see. This keeps you from cheating and going inside the character to explain things. If you can do it externally, even in fiction, it's much more artful because you allow your reader to "witness" the event and make up their own mind (use their own imagination) about what is going on. Ultimately, you can't do this in prose like you do in film, no reader would sit still for four pages of dialog while all the nuances of a scene were played out like they would be in a film, reading is not dynamic enough, but a lot of times the more you can stay external and make them use their imagination, the better. It just depends on the style of what you are writing and the needs of the scene. Anyway, the hyper present tense style of a lot of treatments, my example above is just the intro and thus doesn't include it (nor am I really good at it), does force you into that filmic voyeuristic mode of only saying things that can be seen.

It also probably doesn't hurt to admit that in order to write the entirety of the bible which the intro or "concept" above is just the first page took months and months. At one time I had to cut up all my dozens of pages of notes into separate ideas and rearrange them into piles of similar material before I could get them into an order that would work for the story There wasn't a word processor or computer screen big enough to unscramble the mess I had made up to that point. I'm not sure that having source material was a help or a hindrance with all that. I had a jumping off place but I was also trying to modernize and improve what was a VERY strange and problematic novel. Actually turning it into a TV series helped some of the poorly or too quickly resolved aspects that plagued it.

 

[AmateisGal]

Synopsis done and with my agent (who is in New York to meet with editors!).

Now back to the novel.

 

[MikeKardec]

Just delivered Volume Two (although it's the 3d manuscript in the series) to the publishers. I cannot convey what a relief that is. I always worry my computer will crash and my hard drives will burn up and that I'll drop dead leaving my family without a manuscript. Do not mess with me when I'm near the end, my will to live is monstrous. When I'm just starting it's like 'meh, kill me and I won't have to write that entire thing ... go ahead.'

Weird how it's the end of an effort that's taken around 10 years, 5 back in the 2002-2007 and 5 just now. All done (sort of ... it really never ends until they are all on the racks) and it's just Sunday. The plumbing backed up earlier and I haven't exercised yet. Weird.

 

[AmateisGal]

Just delivered Volume Two (although it's the 3d manuscript in the series) to the publishers. I cannot convey what a relief that is. I always worry my computer will crash and my hard drives will burn up and that I'll drop dead leaving my family without a manuscript. Do not mess with me when I'm near the end, my will to live is monstrous. When I'm just starting it's like 'meh, kill me and I won't have to write that entire thing ... go ahead.'

Weird how it's the end of an effort that's taken around 10 years, 5 back in the 2002-2007 and 5 just now. All done (sort of ... it really never ends until they are all on the racks) and it's just Sunday. The plumbing backed up earlier and I haven't exercised yet. Weird.

You must have been in the zone! Wow! And congrats, BTW. A huge accomplishment!

I am having a monstrous time trying to put my head down and work on the novel. I'm doing it slowly, but when you don't feel good the majority of the time (my chronic illnesses are really flaring lately - rheumatoid arthritis especially) it's hard to get the motivation.

 

[MikeKardec]

Anything chronic is nasty business. Sometimes when I can't get started I just make notes or write parts of other scenes or something. Make sure my unconscious knows I'm not really letting it off the hook. Feel better!

 

[AmateisGal]

Anything chronic is nasty business. Sometimes when I can't get started I just make notes or write parts of other scenes or something. Make sure my unconscious knows I'm not really letting it off the hook. Feel better!

Thanks! I finally broke through the wall yesterday and got some good writing done.