Ian Dawson's Blog, page 25

Writer’s Workshop Wednesday: Michael Crichton

Jurassic Park. Disclosure. Rising Sun. The Andromeda Strain. Congo. The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Next. These are just a few of the many novels author Michael Crichton has written. Along with fictional books, Crichton has written several non-fiction works, created the TV series ER, and wrote the screenplays for Jurassic Park, Twister, and other films.

He was a brilliant and prolific writer. In 1993, he had the number one film (Jurassic Park), number one series (ER), and number one bestseller (Disclosure) in the nation. His passion for technology, science, and politics resonates in each of his works.

Sadly, Crichton passed away in 2008, but works and influence on pop culture will always be felt.

Below are some great interviews Crichton did over the years talking about his work and his process. I am aware that Charlie Rose is on the outs in society right now, but most interviews Crichton did in the 90s were on his show.

Despite his presence, I hope you enjoy them.

Michael Crichton Interview #1

Michael Crichton Interview #2

Michael Crichton Interview #3

Michael Crichton Interview #4

Michael Crichton Interview #5

Michael Crichton Interview #6

Check back next week for another great author!

Tips for Indie Writers: Finding and Creating Your Book’s Cover

As the old cliched saying goes: You can’t judge a book by its cover. However, if you’re an indie author, it’s vitally important that your book’s cover is what you want and how you want your work represented either as an eBook or a published work. As a writer who has gone through the cover art process twice, I wanted to give you some advice you can use to make sure your book’s cover delivers what you need it to.

Do Your Homework

There are a wide range of cover artists that do book covers for indie authors. You can do a Google search, find them on social media, or even ask an author whose cover you liked. Depending on what you’re looking for and your budget, you can find a cover artist to meet your needs.

Maybe you’re looking for a cover with actual costumed people, or perhaps a humorous drawing of your characters. Maybe you want something simple, or something more involved. Whatever your needs, you can find someone who can do it for you.

Along with this, you also want to keep pricing in mind as you begin your search. Some artists have separate pricing for eBook and print covers, and some offer a package deal for both. If the prices aren’t listed on their site, don’t hesitate to contact them and ask.

It’s also important to find out the average turnaround time from when you send your ideas to when you get a version of the final product. If you’re in a time crunch and the turnaround is three months, you may want to look for someone who can meet your schedule constraints and still deliver what you want.

Be Specific in What You Want

Once you find the cover artist you like, nail down the pricing, and have a basic timeline set, it’s time to figure out what you want on your cover. At this point, you should have some basic ideas of what you want the cover to look like, especially as you were working on the manuscript. As you think about the cover, what images or moments from your book would capture and convey the book’s essence and genre?

Think of your cover as a simplified movie poster. You have the title of the book, your name, and now an image that draws potential readers in to hopefully purchase and read your book.

Once you’ve narrowed it down, decide on one that really feels like a great representation of the story. Now, write down what you want the image to look like. If the artist states you can send reference images, find images that will help get your vision across to them.

Much like with your story, you are creating a picture with words translated into an image by the artist.

Quick example:

- A lake illuminated by moonlight.
- It’s a clear night; stars are in the sky.
- In the background, we can see the shoreline; pine trees line the shore.
- A rowboat sits in the center of the cover in the calm lake.
- A body floats near the rowboat.
- On the top of the cover is the title: The Laketown Murders
- On the bottom is the author’s name: Bob Smithenwesson.

The key is to give the artist detailed info to work with, but not to overwhelm them. And if they need more information or detail, they’ll ask.

Allow for Adjustments and Modifications

Have you ever read a book then seen the movie version and said, “That’s not what I had pictured at all.” Sometimes this can happen during the first go-around of designing your cover. And it’s okay.

Now you have a version of the cover that the cover artist interpreted based on what you supplied. Not what you were looking for? No problem. Ask for adjustments and modifications. Again, be specific about these.

This is the fun part since now you have a visual representation of your book’s cover right in front of you. It’s definitely an adrenaline rush to see your name and title on a book cover!

Continue to work with and communicate with the artist until the cover is exactly what you’re looking for. This goes for the back cover of the print version as well (we’ll talk a little about that next week).

If you are happy with your collaboration, make sure you tell the cover artist you are satisfied with their work (you may return to them in the future for another cover). Don’t just right, “Yeah, that works,” say, “Yes! That’s perfect! Thanks so much!” A little appreciation can go a long way.

Once you are satisfied, they will email you an invoice for their services. PAY THEM IMMEDIATELY. They are a part of your indie book team now, and you want to make sure that you treat all members like you would want to be paid…on time.

Remember, Your Name is on the Cover

This cover represents you. While you should thank the cover artist and include their website in your acknowledgments, it is your name that people will see on the cover. Ensure that it represents you and your story in a way that you are proud of and confident in marketing and promoting.
Once it’s published, it becomes a product. You and the book are the faces of the product, and the cover is the packaging that entices readers to buy and see what amazing goodies are inside.

Do your research, be specific in what you want, make changes when necessary, and you’ll have a great book cover to be proud of!

Start Early

If you have a draft or two done of your manuscript and have an idea for your cover, take the leap and start the design process early. It’s a fun way to create a sense of immediacy and give your manuscript a professional face. Then you can have it as the wallpaper on your computer as a reminder of what you’re working toward: a published book!


Next week, we’ll talk about the back of your printed book and a few other pre-publishing tips. See you next week.

Writer’s Workshop Wednesday: Barack Obama

While most people know him as the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama is also an author. The former President has written four books about his life and views on politics and social issues. His first book, Dreams of My Father, was published in 1995. Since then, Obama has written The Audacity of Hope (2006), Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters (2010), and his latest book about his time as President, A Promised Land (2020).

I read A Promised Land last year and highly recommend it to anyone interested in politics’ inner-workings. I’m excited to read the second volume when it comes out later this year.

Below are some great videos I found that give insight into Obama’s writing process and his thoughts while recording the audiobook for A Promised Land. I also included a couple great interviews where he discusses his writing process and other aspects of his life.

Enjoy!

Barack Obama describes his experience writing A Promised Land

Barack Obama on Recording the Audiobook for A Promised Land

Barack Obama talks about his new memoir 'A Promised Land' | The Washington Post

Stephen Curry and Barack Obama Take To Instagram Live to Discuss A Promised Land


Check back next Wednesday for another author!

When You’re Writing, Don’t Be Afraid to Act It Out

To the casual observer, writing can appear to be a low-energy, even passive activity. But we as writers know that this is not the case. While our fingers may be the only thing moving externally, our minds are alive and active with ideas, thoughts, dialogue, and description that help bring our story to life on paper.

But sometimes, even in that state of inner active creativity, we can get a little stuck. Maybe a sequence isn’t coming together as effectively on the page as you want, or there’s an element missing from the dialogue or action.

When this happens, get out of that chair and work through the scene. As a writer, you are the creator, director, actor, and stunt coordinator of everything in your story. It is your job to do whatever you can to get the story right. And if you have to workshop it in your living room like a play, that’s 100% acceptable.

Here are some ways to do it.

Get On Your Feet and Move

Clip from I Love Lucy

As Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) demonstrates in this clip from I Love Lucy, working through the emotion, the conflict, and the drama of a scene as you write can help you create more realistic dialogue and scenes.

Reading your dialogue aloud can also be a great benefit to ensure that the characters speak like human beings and not as literary characters on a page (unless that’s the style you are aiming for).

If you have someone to assist you, you can improvise a scene you’re having issues with and work out what problems you may be having. Often as writers, we internalize too often. Getting your story’s words and situations into an external space can help you see them from a better perspective and make more substantial story choices.

Make a Model

Perhaps your story has a big fight sequence or chase that involves several characters and would be complicated to stage at home. Legos, action figures, water bottles, or even cups can be used to create a mock version of your characters (I suggest labeling the characters so they don’t get mixed up while your working). You can use boxes or other objects to create the setting, then position your characters accordingly during the sequence.

In doing so, you can now visually see how things would work, where the character would be positioned throughout the sequence, and how best to end the sequence given your parameters.

Seeing clear visuals can also help you see any problems, so you fix them before writing out the entire sequence.

Hollywood does this all the time with big sequences using animatics. While their aim is to save money on costly reshoots, your aim is to save time on headache-inducing rewrites.

Use Name Cards and Drawings

Another method can be used for even bigger sequences like a giant battle or even a murder mystery with a dinner party. In this exercise, you write the names of all the characters on separate index cards, then use poster board or another large piece of paper to map out what the room or battlefield will look like. Then you can move the “characters” around and see where they are in relation to other characters and locations.

In doing so, you can see if there is logic in who is conversing with who, helping who, and fighting who depending on where they are in the diagram.

This exercise was done by the writers of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End for the final battle involving three pirate ships, three crews of pirates, and the main cast. As they were writing, they used the diagrams to see where characters started when the sequence began and how to effectively move them from ship to ship throughout the battle.

As you can see from the movement of characters in the clip below, this would have been very useful in the writer's room!

Pirates 3 Clip

With all three, I recommend filming and talking through each exercise so you don’t forget any details that may change or pop into your head while you’re working. Once it’s done, and on the page, you can delete the footage, and no one has to know what great lengths you went through to make that big sequence work.

Happy Acting, and Happy Writing!

Pre-Writing: A Writer’s Best Friend

You’ve finally done it! You’ve come up with a great story idea, and you’re ready to start writing your amazing story. Or are you? I’m sure you’ve heard stories about the writer who has started a novel or screenplay but lost steam and tossed what they did have in a drawer, never to be looked at again. I, too, have had an idea and just started into it with no real direction, only to see the idea fizzle out quicker than it popped into my head.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Behold the fun and excitement of pre-writing! While the word may bring back memories of writing those dreaded 500-word essays for your high school English class, pre-writing can positively affect your creative work. It can also help you create a useful road map to get to your final destination: the end of your story.

So, let’s talk about some of the ways you can pre-write your way to a completed draft of your next novel, play, screenplay, short story, or other written work.

Brainstorming

Once you’ve established your story idea, maybe even have a few characters and plot points in mind, it’s time to take your mind on a trip. Sit down with a pad and pen and start writing down ideas for your story. It doesn’t matter if they are good ideas, ridiculous ideas, crazy ideas, or even ideas you think are stupid. Write them down. Every idea has a purpose until it’s no longer needed once you begin to craft your story.

The same with characters, too. Who are they? Write mini-bios and descriptions for them. What are their relationships to each other and the story? Remember that none of this is set in stone, and you can cross-out, use arrows, or do other notations as you begin to build the story and characters.

Your goal here is to get the ideas out of your head and onto paper. Even in this crude form, you can begin to visually see your ideas in words on the page. You can also draw diagrams and maps if that helps you to work on different aspects of the story or characters.

This should be a fun activity where you play around with different ideas and concepts. Don’t commit or reject any ideas 100% at this point. You only have one goal here: to flesh the story and its characters out on paper.

Why is this useful? I’ve found that if I’m working on a story in my head and not writing things down, I tend to either forget the idea I had or repeat it in my head and cannot move on to another aspect of the story. Getting it down and out – for the record, so to speak – allows your brain not to stress about forgetting the idea and frees up your brain for more ideas to flow in.

Keep a Notepad Handy

Getting the story out of your head, as I said above, frees your mind to create more. And your creative brain has no set schedule. Ideas can come at any time, so it’s a good idea to have a notepad handy at your bedside or even a Notes file on your phone. Then, when snippets of dialogue, description, or other creative thoughts pop into your head, you have a handy place to jot them down.

Check out my article called The 3AM Idea for more on this topic.

Fun Fact: Larry David (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm) carries a pocket notebook with him all the time!

Active Procrastination/Research

We all tend to procrastinate, whether it’s with writing or other tasks. We’re human. But, what if you took that procrastination and made it work for you and your writing?

If you’re writing historical fiction, you could find a documentary about that period on YouTube and learn about it while hanging out on the couch.
In fact, most topics in your story probably have a video about them on YouTube. If you’re going to be scrolling through and looking for videos anyway, you might as well watch a few videos that will help with your story.

Think about the topics, themes, character traits, activities, or locations in your story. Now, look up that particular item on YouTube. Watch a few videos and see if you can glean some new information that can help enhance an aspect of your story or gives you a new perspective.

This is especially helpful if you want to have your story in a real location that you cannot easily travel to due to the current world situation. You can find videos about most countries, cities, and regions worldwide and use that to inform your work.

You can then add these new ideas to your brainstorm notes, and make sure to bookmark or save the videos that effectively helped with your research.

And you didn’t even have to get off the couch to work on your writing today!

Outlines/Beat Sheets/Treatments

Our pre-writing objective is to get the story out in a coherent form that can then be used as an essential guide to writing the actual novel, script, etc. Knowing the beginning, middle, end, and the main plot points or story beats along the way can save you a lot of time and headaches once you sit down to begin your initial draft.

A basic outline or beat sheet (used for TV and film) can help you flesh out your story’s overall arc from start to finish with a few sentences per the significant plot points throughout the story. This gives you a bird’s-eye view of where things will go and how the story will progress. You must know where the story will go. If you are unsure, the reader will definitely not know, either.

It’s important to note that it is much easier to change an outline or beat sheet than to change sections of an entire manuscript (I know this from experience). Changing the story arc in this format will enable you to explore where the story could lead without the hassle of thousands of words being affected by your choices.

A more detailed version of the outline and beat sheet is the treatment (mainly used for screenplays). This is a detailed scene-by-scene breakdown of the story. Again, like the other two, it’s much easier to cut or re-write sections of a treatment than it is to do significant changes to the screenplay draft.

Take your time to craft the story here and reap the benefits later on once the drafting begins.


You can use one or all of these methods as you work through the early stages of creative development in your writing project. The key is to have it down and ready to access so when you do start to write, you know where you’re going.

Taking this time now will definitely save you a big headache in the future. And will keep your files and drawers free of unfinished projects!

The Myth of the “Aspiring” Artist

I like to watch interviews with writers, actors, and other people in the arts. I find them fascinating and very educational. One of the things I find interesting is when they have a Q&A with the audience after their initial interview or talk. At the end, there’s usually an audience member who says, “I’m an aspiring writer” or “I’m an aspiring actor/actress.” This has always been a curiosity to me.

The word “aspire” or “aspiring,” according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, means “desiring and working to achieve a particular goal: having aspirations to attain a specified profession, position, etc.” I would like to change the thinking about labeling oneself as an “aspiring artist” and show you that the act of creating is not, in fact, what you are aspiring to achieve.

Are You Doing It?

If you are writing, acting, painting, sculpting, writing music, or pursuing any other endeavor, you have moved out of the aspirational category and are now actively doing that particular activity. If you’re aspiring to write, why? What’s preventing you from taking those steps toward writing a story, a poem, a play, or a song?

Nothing.

When we put the word “aspiring” in front of the creative activity we wish to do, there’s the perception that it lends importance to what we want to do. I don’t believe it does. If you can do it, don’t dream about doing it, do it. If you are doing it, you no longer aspire to do the activity because you are actually doing it.

Working Toward an Artistic Goal

If you have mapped out plans to write a novel or a play, are working on an album, or are working on writing and shooting a short film, these are goals within the creative realm you inhabit. But, again, you are working toward these goals, not just thinking or hoping for them to happen on their own.

What You Really Might Want…

The truth is that we don’t aspire to be a writer, an actor/actress, a painter, or a musician. Our aspiration lies beyond that. It lies in our aspirations for success, money, and the ability to quit our day jobs and create full time. This is what we want. This is what we aspire toward.

But this should be secondary in your overarching aspirational plan. Why?

Putting in the time, work, effort, energy, sweat, tears, frustration, excitement, and other emotions that come with creating makes you better at the art you are doing. Your drive to create should be your focus when you’re starting out.

Art should be your motivation, not money or fame.

Success is a byproduct of all the time you’ve spent honing your craft on your own, at home, for free. It’s these thousands of hours of hard work that can eventually get you to where you aspire to be.

But you have to do the work.

Final Thoughts

Aspiring toward something positive involving your art is excellent, but it should be something you can’t quickly achieve in the present. You can write right now. You can paint right now. You can be creative right now. It’s the steps after the hard work of creation are done that we aspire to: the published novel, the produced play, the award-winning poem.

Everyone dreams of some level of success. But the first step to getting there is to stop dreaming about it and start doing it.

You can do it!

See you next week!


Definition source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aspiring

Writing Wisdom Wednesday: Stephen King

This week, I wanted to start a new series by bringing you interviews from a wide variety of authors speaking about the craft, their creative process, and other notable insights.

Today, I’m beginning the series with one of my all-time favorite authors: Stephen King. Below are a few videos of King speaking about his works, the inspirations for some of his works, and the craft of writing.

Bookmark, Listen, Learn, and Enjoy!

Politics & Prose Bookstore is Washington - 2014

2016 Library of Congress Book Festival in Washington, D.C.

An Evening with Stephen King at the Billerica Public Library on April 22, 1983

Check back next Wednesday for another author!

The Myth of The Overnight Success

We hear about them often in the media. They’re the overnight success who appeared seemingly out of nowhere and are now on every magazine cover, talk show, and everywhere else you look. It can be frustrating to see someone like this. Someone who has been allegedly picked out of obscurity to become the latest Next Big Thing.

But before you get jealous or frustrated, take a closer look.

The idea of an Overnight Success is misleading and a myth. No one just pops up one day, is found by chance, and suddenly makes it big (and even if they do, it’s very, very rare). That person has a story. Probably one similar to yours when it comes to being an artist. Maybe they struggled for years to write, act, sing, and get their work out to the public. Perhaps they did have a hard time for a decade or more as they worked a day job and created at night.

It’s all a matter of perspective.

The hype over an Overnight Success is a marketing gimmick. If you watch or read biographies about famous people, most of them struggled and worked hard to get to where they are now. Even an Overnight Success had to fight and claw their way to get that title.

The best way to fight against having envy or jealously over someone deemed an Overnight Success is to find out the real story. Don’t rely on social media or those making them into something that looks good on a glossy magazine at the grocery store checkout.

Who is this person? Where did they come from? What were their goals? What were their struggles to reach those goals? What path did they take? What setbacks did they encounter that eventually led them to be named an Overnight Success?

Finding the real story and discovering the truth can help you in your efforts to write, act, sing, or create. You can see what tools and tactics they used. How they found a balance between work, family, and being creative. This is an opportunity to learn from this person, not become discouraged by their sudden Overnight Success.

Because you’ll quickly see that is never the case.

So, the next time you see a story where people are fawning over a sudden Overnight Success, take a step back and find out how long it took them to be awarded that title. I’m sure that “overnight” was years or even decades in the making.

Next week, I’ll explore another Myth. See you then!

Wings Wednesday – The Value of Comfort Entertainment

We’ve been through a lot this past year. Some, sadly, more than others. Between lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, closed businesses, and quarantines, it can be a challenge to find any sense of normalcy in our world’s current state.

But when things get stressful, when things don’t make as much sense as they once did, I often reach to sitcoms as a quick remedy. Sure, the problems outside still exist, but for that half-hour – or a full season of episodes – you can escape to a happier time when things didn’t seem so grim.

As humans, we all tend to gravitate toward the familiar: familiar sights, sounds, voices, people, objects. We find comfort and peace in them. That’s why many people put up their Christmas decorations early in 2020 and started listening to Christmas music in November; it reminded them of better times that these we’re currently in.

For me, Wings is one of those shows. A sitcom that delivers laughs, entertaining characters, and leaves me happier when the credits roll than I was before. Call it Happiness Therapy. Call it Escapism. Or just call it Entertainment. Either way, sometimes watching a show you know can be a nice respite from the disorganized chaos of our current world.

We all have a favorite TV show, movie, book, or podcast that we use to escape. My favorite sitcom list is too vast to mention here, but Wings has always been one of them, ever since I saw my first episode at the gym in 1998. When a show almost makes you fall off the treadmill from laughing too much, you know you have a keeper!

And each time I moved for college or work to a new place, it was the shows that I knew that helped get me through the rough patches and challenging days. Sometimes getting a laugh from a show I’ve seen dozens of times can be the best medicine.

So, as we soldier on into January 2021, take a moment to think about that show, movie, or book you enjoyed in the past. Maybe it’s a comedy like I Love Lucy or The Office, or even a drama like Lost or Firefly. And in those moments this year when you’re feeling down, check out your favorite episode or season and give your mind and your emotions a much-needed break.

This is the final Wings Wednesday post. I truly enjoyed interviewing Dave Hackel and talking about the series. I hope you enjoyed these posts as well.

Oh, and if you’re curious, here’s a shortlist of my favorite escapist shows: I Love Lucy, Wings, Frasier, Two and a Half Men, Perfect Strangers, Full House, The Munsters, 227, Married…with Children, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld, and the list goes on and on.

What are some of your escapism shows, movies, books, or podcasts? Leave a comment and share below.

How Not to Play the Guitar – A Writing Analogy

Happy 2021! I’m sure by now you’ve thought about some goals you’d like to achieve in the new year. Whether those goals are big or small, it’s always good to have something new and exciting to look forward to as the calendar turns back to January.

For many people, this may involve taking up and new hobby or learning a new skill, which can lead many down a fascinating rabbit hole of reading and research that may not be as productive as they may think.

Let’s start with an example of this: You want to learn how to play the guitar in 2021.

A great goal. You’ve thought about playing the guitar for a while. You’ve seen people you know, and also famous people do it so effortlessly that you want to enjoy making music as much as they do. You go online and decide to buy several books about playing the guitar.

You wait for the books to arrive, eagerly awaiting the guitar-playing wisdom each book will reveal. Upon their arrival, you read three, and all three present different methods about how to play the guitar.

Now, this whole time, despite having the guitar, you haven’t picked it up once. Sure, you’ve looked at it, thought about playing it, but every time you read a book about playing the guitar and feel confident about playing, you still feel you need to find the “best” way to play.

And so, you read about playing the guitar. And the guitar sits there, alone, un-played.

Now, you’ve finished the books. You’ve highlighted paragraphs, bookmarked pages, told people about the books and how exciting guitar playing is…and suddenly you feel an unforeseen pressure. Not to pick up the guitar. It’s the pressure that with all the tips, tricks, tools, and methods you’ve just learned, your brain is suddenly overwhelmed.

Now that thing you wanted to do, that wonderful music you wanted to create, your passion for actually learning is stamped out because you spent so long reading and not doing, and you psyched yourself out of it.

This can happen to aspiring writers, too. In fact, anything creative can have the excitement and adventure of discovery killed off by reading about it instead of doing it.

I’m guilty of this, too.

I’ve written many screenplays and have dozens of screenwriting books. Each one has a different methodology of how a screenplay’s structure is composed. While the outcome is the same – a 110-page screenplay – the rules set forth by each author differ. Read a few of these books in succession, and you’ll be confused and terrified to break the “rules” you’ve read about screenwriting.

Put the books down.

Do you have a story you want to write? Do you know the basics? Beginning? Middle? End? Do you have characters and a setting to go with those three pieces? A central conflict? If you do, great. Sit down and write it out. No books. No rules. No worksheets.

Just story.

Now, as you expand and craft the story, if you need guidance about how to craft good dialogue or how to show and not tell, these are when those books can come in handy. They should be seen as reference guides to help your writing, not tutorials on how to write.

We are all storytellers. We know the basics. We’ve seen movies, TV shows, plays, short films, documentaries, and read novels. As a writer, your job is to take what you already know about how stories work and make it your own.

Much like the guitar analogy, writers must do the work to get the experience. We all start as amateurs or beginners, but you will get better with time, patience, and actual hands-on practice. While reading about it or listening to interviews is fine, don’t let that take away from doing the work yourself.

Those books and interviews will always be around. Take the time to invest your time in learning your craft by doing it. You’ll be better off in the long run.

See you next week!