Ask the Author: Bob Rector
Answered Questions (7)
Bob Rector
Most of my writing career has been in script form, either for the camera or stage. Script writing does not allow the writer to get into the thought processes of the character except through implication as the result of an action. The only exception is a character's thoughts as revealed through narration, which is usually (not always) done as a narrative cop-out. In a novel you can spend entire pages exploring a character's thoughts and emotions. I found that enormously liberating and fun. Simply put, in a script you have to show; in a novel you can also tell.
Bob Rector
First you have to learn the craft. This is true regardless of the profession you wish to pursue. Accept that this will take time. There are no shortcuts to mastering a craft. Reading hundreds of books and watching thousands of movies doesn't automatically make you a storyteller. You can't absorb the craft. You have to learn it. Secondly, take every opportunity to write professionally, even if it's just composing a company newsletter or writing a column for your neighborhood newspaper or a blog, whatever. Write for pay because then you will have somebody scrutinizing your work besides you.
Bob Rector
For me it's when a character I've been struggling with suddenly steps out of the fog fully formed and lets me see how they move, how they dress, how they speak. They are no longer figments of my imagination. They are real and live with me from then on, checking my work, letting me know if I don't get it right. Psychiatrist could have a field day with this.
Bob Rector
What works for me is to just start writing. Make words appear, whether they advance the narrative or not. It might be a character study, a description of a setting, a random exchange of dialogue - anything that keeps me in the world I've created and keeps my characters alive in my mind. In the process a spark will inevitably occur that puts me back on the track.
Bob Rector
My play Letters From the Front https://lettersfromthefronttheater.wo... toured the world for 15 years and is now being retooled for a new tour, so that currently is occupying most of my time.
Bob Rector
I've never had a problem with that. I've been a professional storyteller for over 40 years. I love what I do. I'm always inspired to write. If you have to search for inspiration to write, you're in the wrong business.
Bob Rector
I got the idea for Unthinkable Consequences http://www.unthinkableconsequences.com/ from personal observations as a teenager growing up in Florida in the 50s that adult women were not just teachers and moms. They were individuals desperate to break free from social convention and explore who they were and what they were capable of becoming. The 50s did not encourage this among American women, which often led to frustration and a feeling of being trapped in gilded cages. I imagined what would happen to one of these women if they suddenly decided to make a break for it.
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