Ceara Comeau's Blog: Lessons From A Struggling Writer - Posts Tagged "writers"

Attention all writers! I have an amazing experience to share with you. And if you’re not a writer, don’t tune me out just yet. This post is really for anyone in the realm of the arts.

Within the last several weeks, I’ve been given the honor of conducting a writer’s workshop for a charter school in my area. And as each week goes by, I can’t help but be inspired by these students and their creativity! One student is working on a magical fantasy world, another student is learning the ropes of the horror genre, another student is developing her spy novel, and there’s even one working on an amazing historical fantasy! But, there’s one student, in particular, who absolutely amazed me. This past week, he finally welcomed me into his amazing science fiction world that blew me away! He showed me dozens of scrolls which had family trees and decrees written out on them. He had countless binders filled with ideas for his world and he’s got fifteen languages going! These ideas span throughout over ninety books! But the most amazing part was, he JUST started formulating these ideas only a year ago.

“Okay, Ceara, you’re bragging now.”

Heck yes, I’m bragging! Want to know why? Because these students are the future. Crazy thought, right? Well, not really. See, writers and artists of today aren’t going to live forever, sad to say, but it’s true. And we don’t often think about that. But maybe we should start.

If you’re a writer or really deal with any art form, might I encourage you to go into the schools near you and talk to students? Teachers are always looking for new workshops that their students might enjoy and they don’t know that you’re out there unless you introduce yourselves.

“I’m not a teacher, I can’t talk to the students!”

(Teachers, please skip over what I’m about to say).

YOU. DON’T. HAVE. TO. BE! Think I said that loud enough 😉 I’m not a teacher, not by a long shot, nor do I intend to go on out and get a degree in teaching. It’s simply not necessary. Experience is sometimes the best “teaching degree”. And, you want to know a secret that many people miss? Most, if not all, times students will listen more to people who AREN’T teachers.

“Well, okay, so I don’t have to be a teacher. But what if I don’t want to teach kids? I’ve got to focus on my (fill in art form here)!”

Sure, that’s totally your prerogative. Consider this, though. Your art form, whatever it may be, could potentially die out. *GASP* Yes, I just said that. It might seem dramatic, I understand, but Baby Boomers and Generation X are in their 50-70s. And the youngest Millennials have reached (approximately) the age of 20! Generation Z is our future, people.

I’ve heard it time and time again of the older generations complaining about kids. “They’re too lazy”, “They’re ungrateful”, “They’re too impatient”, “They’re (fill in the blank)”. We can change that, in fact, we’re the only ones who can!

Let me be real with you. Whether you’re an actor, digital artist, painter, cartoonist, writer, poet, musician, or any other medium of art. We ALL have an obligation to encourage the youth. Educate them in their field of interest. Show them they’re not alone and that we have their backs. Because the children of today will become the artists of tomorrow.

The power of friendship is something we hear throughout our lives, especially when we are children. But I want to talk about a different kind of friendship—a writer friendship. This past week was my vacation away from work and I spent it with my friend who I haven’t seen in two years due to distance. Stephanie, or as I call her Stephie, and I met in college about five or six years ago. And to be honest, when we first met, she was so bubbly I couldn’t imagine how someone had that much energy! But, our acquaintanceship blossomed into a friendship and we’ve been tight ever since!

Now, what does this have to do with writing? Well, Stephanie is a writer like myself and we deal with similar genres. During our college years, she taught me so many new writing techniques that I would have never thought about in a million years. It’s because of her that I am the writer I am today. Throughout this week we’ve gone on so many adventures and each one we go on, she inadvertently gave me some more writing tips that I didn’t think about. For example, we were watching a reality show that was on TV and she suggested, “This is a really fun show! All these contestants have their own story that you could use them as inspiration for a character!” This thought never crossed my mind, but now I want to go back and watch every reality show because she was right!

We even took a day and went on a book crawl (its like a pub crawl but with books). And because of Stephanie, I have a to-read list larger than my phone notes can handle. I’m telling you, guys, if you get the chance, think of that one writer friend in your life and go on a crazy adventure with them this summer, and if you aren’t able to…video chat with them! Listen to their helpful suggestions and maybe you’ll get some great ideas for your next writing project!

At some point, all of us have seen memes on Facebook that show magic coming from an open book. But, it’s a little bit misleading if you ask me. Books are certainly magic, that’s definitely true, but it’s honestly just the result. The true magic comes from the writer—whose raw imagination developed the literary worlds we fall in love with.

Unlike the magic from Harry Potter, writing magic doesn’t always come with just a flick of one’s wand. Writing comes with a lot of patience, practice, and listening to one’s inner voice. (Sorry, I couldn’t come up with another “p” word.)

So, how do you know if the magic of writing is REALLY working? When the story starts writing itself.

Let me give you an example from my latest writing project. For the last several months I’ve been working on the third book of my trilogy. Now, to be honest, I dreaded this book because of its level of difficulty. Half of this book is written from the perspective of the villain of the trilogy, which also happens to be the creation of the main villains of my entire universe. Now, this group of creatures is not something I’ve ever written about before. They are sociopathic biomechanical creatures. Or, as I like to put it…compare it to Dr. Who’s Cybermen, but with free will. Sounds scary, I know. But thinking from the perspective of a machine was super difficult for me. I remember trying to watch/read different movies and books that contained characters who were sociopathic and no matter how much I tried to research, I still couldn’t grasp the concept.

So, what do I do? Just start writing and hope for the best. The start of the book was insanely slow and brutal. In my mind, I knew what this main character was supposed to act like, but I just couldn’t automatically figure him out. But, I kept writing though. It wasn’t until chapter four that the book changed on me a bit. I had this particular chapter figured out, or so I thought. I was super excited about it too, but the more I looked at my original outline, the more I noticed that it wasn’t working.

I fought so hard against changing my original plan, but the magic of storytelling was much stronger than my stubbornness. That’s what I had to learn this month, once I caved in to what the character wanted me to write, it went smoother. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before in some of the blog posts, but I feel that it’s often overlooked when writers talk about their writing process. For the majority of us, we don’t just pop out 50,000 words in a day. If we do, then generally it’s because we’ve thought about it for a VERY long time. As a writer, I think it’s important to remember, and I often forget, that it’s not my stories that I’m writing…it’s the characters. And if the story isn’t going the way it’s supposed to, well they’ll let you know 😉

This month has provided so many lessons for me that I had no idea which to choose. And since this blog is about an author’s adventure through life, let’s talk about books—more importantly books vs. screen adaptions.

If you were to have asked me two years ago, what I thought about turning my books into a film. I’d probably ask you, “Maybe…what’s the catch?”

As a kid, the answer probably would have been more, “Yes, sign me up! When’s the red-carpet premiere?”

A lot has changed between these two answers, and most of that has to do with my perspective. I love to watch books come to life on the screen. But, every single time it ALWAYS comes with a catch, and that catch is generally the screenplay writers left an important detail out.

And, I know I’m not alone in this aggravation. As a reader, I want to see everything on the screen. But as a screenplay writer myself, I know that can’t always happen whether it be due to budgeting or even locations. So, I make do with what I have.

Some might say, “Then, don’t turn it into a film at all! Keep it on the pages!”

Sure, we could do that, but that leaves out a group of people who prefer visual storytelling vs. written storytelling.

As an author, I want to get my stories into the hands of every person in the world, but, to do that, I have to find creative ways to intrigue a larger audience. Maybe we shouldn’t look at books vs. screen adaptions in a “who’s better” sort of way. Why can’t they both be considered good?

For example, I’ve seen a lot of people who have read the Harry Potter books and have seen the movies who have struck up debates on the internet about what the author meant by one thing or another. There have even been times when the screenplay writers wrote Easter eggs into the script that tie back to the books!

In reality, a good book-to-screen adaption should work together, one directs people toward the screen and the other directs people toward the book.

Sadly, many screenplay writers just see what will sell nowadays so the adaptions don’t do a book justice. But, if more authors who had the opportunity to get their work onto the screen had an involvement in the script, I bet things would dramatically change!

Happy June! Wait…or is it July? These last two months have melted together so much that I can barely remember what year I’m in! I’ve been so busy with…you guessed it…filming, and I’m pleased to say we are 95% of the way finished with the film, we just have one more day in August and 2 ½ scenes to film then we will be done. At least with episode 1 😉

Putting this update aside, I gotta be real with you. This project was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. We filmed through scorching heat, rain, and even floods. But it wasn’t just the weather that created issues, we also had tech malfunctions, a number of recasts for the same role, and even a little drama on set (but what’s a massive project without a little drama, right?)

And, looking back on everything, I wouldn’t change any of it for a second. Why? Because I learned so much about myself as an artist through it. I learned how far I was willing to go to get my story to the “big screen” as it were and I also learned where I was going to stand my ground on certain aspects of getting this story out.

But, I think what kept me going through all the ups and downs was the actors. They got so into the characters that they willingly became the characters in the Amber Oak world and, I don’t know why, but it really amazed me.
Here I am hyper-fixated on getting all the shots in and making sure everyone is standing in the right places, but it was in between the scenes when I overheard the actors talking about their characters and asking each other where they thought the series was going next. They were hypothesizing the motives for other characters in the series too. It was at this moment that I knew this series may actually go somewhere.

Now, I’m not expecting to get a call from Netflix or Hulu the day after it airs. But just the fact that the actors put their all on the set for this film gave me so much hope. Even if the series doesn’t take off as I hope, I’m still going to be pumping out more episodes, writing more scripts, and (at some point) finishing the third book of my trilogy as the ending events coincide with this film series. And, who knows, maybe someday I can put the trilogy into film too…I just need a few dragons and a couple of castles. Anyone know a guy? 😉