Kenneth Atchity's Blog, page 80

First Story Merchant Cocktail/Coffee Klatch

Top to Bottom - Left to RightLisa Cerasoli, Sam Skelton, Neha DuttaDan Moskowitz, Douglas Fetterly, Donald Bull Linda Malcor, Chi-Li Wong, Gary Wenkle Smith

A NOVELIST’S TOOL KIT

Perfecting Your Craft
Nothing takes the place of practice. A famous athlete once said, “If you’re not practicing, someone out there is practicing. And when he meets you he will beat you.” Writing isn’t just a talent, it’s a craft that requires the honing of skill and technique. In this chapter I’ll give you several concrete suggestions about how you can improve yourself as a commercial novelist.

A novelist’s toolkit

A novelist’s medium is story, his form the contemporary novel. His most basic tools are character, action, setting and narrative voice. From the alchemy created by mixing these, a story emerges. Let’s examine each of these elements in turn.

Major, minor, and supporting characters

Character is by far the most important element of a novel. To the extent that your readers are “on board” with your protagonist, they will stay committed to your story. An unforgettable protagonist, even if he appears complex and multifaceted to the reader, is made up of just a handful of key components:

1.) Motivation: What makes your protagonist tick? What does he want? Your character must be struggling with one of the major human drives, including love, hate, fear, anxiety, vengeance, rage, jealousy, ambition, and greed. Your readers know these drives intimately; odds are, they’ve grappled with them in their own lives. They’ll respond to them.
Identify one drove for each of your characters and develop it. The best stories take a single, profound emotion and plumb its depths through all the characters like variations on a theme in music; the worst stories skim the surface of many different human drives, leaving their readers lost, confused, and unsatisfied. A well-constructed protagonist may possess two drives that are in conflict with each other, but rarely more than this. He is driven by greed and fear, for example, so that each step toward his goal of riches increases his psychological pain. In real life, people run a gamut of emotions, explore many drives, but not in well-made fiction. The beauty of the “what if” pattern (“What if a man driven by greed was as strongly driven by fear?”) is that it allows us to isolate and explore the ramifications of action issuing from such a character.

2.) Mission: Your protagonist needs a job to do, a goal for his drive. If it’s greed you’ve chosen, you may want to be the man who aims at being the top player on Wall Street, the woman who corners the oil exploration business, the couple who want to have more than anyone else at their country club. It doesn’t matter whether the character chooses to undertake the mission himself, or it’s thrust upon him. The mission should relate directly, in one way or another, to the character’s motivation. 
The mission must be involved enough and challenging enough to sustain the story for the duration of the novel. It must lend itself to challenges, both in the form of obstacles, and in the form of an antagonist. 
An antagonist, by definition, is a force that works against your hero’s mission—your protagonist’s nemesis. Your antagonist will not necessarily be a bad guy—he might not even be a person at all. In Sebastian Junger’s novel The Perfect Storm, nature is the antagonist. It’s the storm itself that foils Captain Billy Tyne’s mission to come home with a boatload of swordfish. In Steve Alten’s Domain, the antagonist is the other-worldly dragon creature who rises from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico after lying dormant for millions of years.

3.) Obstacles: Action happens when your hero struggles against obstacles to his mission. The obstacles you choose to confront your protagonist must be appropriate for him—don’t pit Bambi against the Galactic Empire. Arrange your series of obstacles in ascending order, so that the tension rises throughout your story. Your obstacles, ideally, should relate to one another in some fashion. And like all the other elements of your story, they must have a beginning, middle, and end.

4.) Relatability: If your audience can’t identify with your protagonist, they’re not going to be able to involve themselves in your story. Beginning writers often get the impression that a protagonist has to be likable. But if that were the case, we couldn’t enjoy Bill Murray’s performance as the irascible Frank Cross in Scrooged. Readers don’t have to like your protagonist. They just have to relate to him. They have to see the direction you’re pointing him in, and root for him to go there. If he’s a jerk, the audience must hunger for his redemption. You can’t help rooting for Hero’s Bernie LaPlante, even if you do want to kick him.

5.) Change: Over the course of the story, your protagonist must face his shortcoming, or his fear, or whatever it is that’s really keeping him from achieving his mission. He must grow into his ability to meet the goal you’ve set for him. In real life, human change is nebulous, messy, imprecise. In fiction, it can’t be. Your character’s change must progress in a logical, clear series of steps. See Lajos Egri’s The Art of Dramatic Writing for a thorough discussion of the steps that lead a character from state A to state B. 



All five of these elements must be present in your protagonist. And as you’ve no doubt noticed, all of these attributes link directly to your novel’s action. Because in a good story, the action happens as it does because of who your protagonist is. Conversely, your protagonist develops as he does because of the way the action unfolds. Action and character drive each other.

All the elements in your novel must support this single line of protagonist in action. This holds true as well for all the other characters who populate your novel. Whether major, minor or functional, characters only belong in your story to the extent that they serve the action line.

Minor or supporting characters have a “tag”: a single attribute that defines them and makes them memorable. Any supporting character who isn’t memorable should be instantly thrown out.

A minor character’s “tag” can be just about any attribute: greed, lechery, or like Sally’s friend in When Harry Met Sally, an all-consuming desire to get married. Don’t spell it out, though. If a character is absent-minded, show it in action, thought and dialogue, don’t use the phrase “absent-minded” or you rob audience of the chance to figure it out for themselves.

A minor character can have a motivation but not a mission—that’s your protagonist’s job. They, too can evolve, but not along the same lines as your protagonist. Your minor characters are there to make his life more interesting. Establish them quickly, then move on.

Function characters play an even less important role than supporting characters. They perform a single function without being involved in the main character’s motivation. They ride in at sunset to deliver the fateful telegram, then ride away again. They serve the drinks, drive the cabs, do their duties, then go upon their way. Unlike your protagonist and minor characters, they’re supposed to be forgettable.

Keep function characters simple. If you spend too much energy on them your readers will start to think they’re more significant than you mean them to be. Then when the character disappears, it will feel to your readers like you left something dangling, or worse, like you misled them.

Keep in mind that your characters are not real people but devices that you invented for the sole purpose of capturing and holding your reader’s attention. As such, it’s your primary responsibility to keep them interesting. The best way to do that is to give them, at all times, something significant to do.

Your audience wants action. The best writers don’t get wrapped up in the complex psychological machinations of their characters. They write to satisfy their readers’ expectations. Your audience wants more than anything to see how your protagonist gets out of the corners you paint him into. All you have to do to create a compelling novel is: don’t disappoint your readers! 

Dr. Meg Van Deusen: Coping With The Stress of COVID-19

Available on Amazon In a special one-off episode, Karen Doyle Buckwalter welcomes Dr. Meg Van Deusen to discuss how to cope with the stress surrounding the current COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Van Deusen will also be Karen's guest in the next two weeks of Attachment Theory in Action as they discuss her book Stressed In The U.S.


After spending a few years as a teacher, Dr. Van Deusen chose to return to school to study psychology. Her studies took her all the way up the Pacific Coast, starting at the California School of Professional Psychology in Los Angeles and finishing her post-doctoral hours in Seattle's Family Services, and then entering private practice in Seattle in 1994. Since then, Dr. Van Deusen has cultivated an approach to treatment that encompasses years of hard work and dedication to continuing education. She has consulted on external projects and has a blog on a topics she’s passionate about, stress, loneliness, sleep and anxiety. Her new book Stressed in the U.S. Twelve Tools to Tackle Anxiety, Loneliness, Tech-Addiction and More was released December, 2019. She is a member of the American Psychological Association and the Washington State Psychological Association.

LISTEN TO PODCAST HERE 

An Interview With Ken Atchity

Q: Could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to Story Merchant?A: Story Merchant is a literary full-service set of companies that serves the every need of writers worldwide–from ghostwriting and editing, to coaching and tutorial, to marketing to publishers and the entertainment industry, and to producing their stories.Q: What is your backstory?A: In my first career, I was a tenured professor of comparative literature (Yale PhD), Fulbright professor of American Studies, senior reviewer for The Los Angeles Times Book Review, and distinguished instructor at the UCLA Writers Program. I’m the author of over 20 books (fiction and nonfiction) of my own, have sold over 200 books to publishers, made over 200 film-TV deals for clients, and through our Story Merchant Books imprint have direct-published nearly 300 books for writers whose profiles weren’t high enough to take to traditional publishers (as well as literary states).Q: How did your company come into being?A: It came into being as an extension of my teaching career, where I coached writers toward publishing and film careers; and as a response to hundreds of inquiries generated by my books on writing, starting with A WRITER’S TIME: GUIDE TO THE CRETIVE PROCESS FROM VISION THROUGH REVISION; WRITING TREATMENTS THAT SELL; HOW TO PUBLISH YOUR NOVEL; YOUR VIP AUTOBIOGRAPHY, and QUIT YOUR DAY JOB AND LIVE THE LIFE OF YOUR DREAMS.
Q: What’s the best thing about Story Merchant that people might not know about?A: We were the development producers on THE MEG (starring Jason Statham) that grossed nearly $600million worldwide, and responsible for nearly 20 New York Times Bestsellers, including Governor Jesse Ventura’s I AIN’T GOT TIME TO BLEED, Clint Hill and Lisa McCubbin’s MRS. KENNEDY AND ME, Jerry Blaine’s THE KENNEDY DETAIL (which we then produced as an Emmy-nominated documentary for Discovery), and DRACULA: THE UN-DEAD.Q: What are your plans for the future?A: Doing bigger and bigger movies, and also distinguished smaller films in line with my lifelong literary interests. And finding a marketing partner for Story Merchant Books.

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Daniel P. Moskowitz's Bronx Stagger Places 6th in the Screencraft Cinematic Book Competition

Bronx Stagger-Tales of the Family Court currently in 6th place out of 1200 submissions, heading into the final round. 

Film Courage: Super Podcast with Kenneth Atchity

Making The Time To Write And Building A Writing Career - Dr. Ken Atchity [SUPER INTERVIEW - 4 HOURS]

Colorado Edition: The Strength Of The Human Spirit

A sign outside Stanley Marketplace in Aurora.
STEPHANIE DANIEL / KUNC

Today on Colorado Edition: We explore the state's forecasted budget amid the coronavirus outbreak. We also round up this week's education news, learn more about the 2020 census now that it's officially begun, and get anxiety advice from a mental health expert.

LISTEN  HERE : The Strength Of The Human Spirit



Colorado's Forecasted Budget

Over the past week, we’ve been hearing a lot about the economic impacts that the coronavirus outbreak is having across the country. Today, we begin our show by digging into those impacts here in Colorado, beginning with our state’s budget.

On Monday, the state of Colorado held a budget forecast briefing for Colorado officials. KUNC’s Scott Franz was there, and he joined us to talk through what he learned. You can read Scott's reporting on the briefing here.

Economic Impacts Of The Coronavirus

To get a more full picture of how COVID-19 is affecting Colorado, we spoke with Dan Mika from BizWest, who has been following various industries key to our state’s economy.

The Week In Colorado Education News

As schools close around the state, the state of Colorado announced that it will cancel standardized testing for students for the year. This is just one effect that COVID-19 has on education in our state. To talk about the other impacts, we spoke with Erica Meltzer, bureau chief at Chalkbeat Colorado.

Advice For Coronavirus Anxiety

With all the news about the spread of the coronavirus in our state and across the world, it’s hard not to get anxious. So today, we talk to Vincent Atchity, CEO of Mental Health Colorado, to get some practical advice on how to maintain your mental health at this time.

What's At Stake With The 2020 Census

The 2020 census has officially begun! You may have already received an invitation in the mail from the census bureau. If not, you’ll likely get one any day now. To talk about what’s at stake in our communities, we spoke with Natriece Bryant, deputy executive director of Colorado's Department of Local Affairs.

Colorado Edition is made possible with support from our KUNC members. Thank you!

Our theme music was composed by Colorado musicians Briana Harris and Johnny Burroughs. Other music in the show by Blue Dot Sessions:

“Charcoal Lines” by Sketchbook
"The Consulate" by Holyoke
Colorado Edition is hosted by Erin O'Toole (@ErinOtoole1) and Henry Zimmerman (@HWZimmerman), and produced by Lily Tyson. The web was edited by digital editor Jackie Hai. Managing editor Brian Larson contributed to this episode.

KUNC's Colorado Edition is a news magazine taking an in-depth look at the issues and culture of Northern Colorado. It's available on our website, as well as on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can hear the show on KUNC's air, Monday through Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

How to Be a Successful Self-Published Writer

What are the ingredients of a New York Times Best Seller? Ken Atchity has the answers and they are not what you expect. He is a movie producer, author of over 20 nonfiction books and novels. He has spent his lifetime helping writers get started and improve their careers. Writing was in his blood from the beginning. ‘I never understood writers’ block because I never had it,” he says.

What is the right mindset for being successful as a self-published writer?

It’s about what Winston Churchill said: “Never give, never give, never give up!” Don’t doubt yourself, keep working and learning more about your craft.

You wrote over 20 non-fiction books and novels. Are you still learning?

Yes, I am. I am always learning. I love writing because it’s a way of focusing your learning. I write the book first, then I do the research and spend years revising the book.

Some writers confessed that they don’t read books when they work on something new…

While you write your first draft, there is no need for you to read something else.The time to start reading other things is after you’ve finished it and improved it. You can always study yourself to death and never finish the first draft. And that’s the danger of it, or being influenced by other voices. It is much better to get your voice clear in the first draft and then give yourself a limited amount of time to do further research to make sure things are accurate. You would be surprised how often your imagination gets things pretty much right.

What do you appreciate most in a book?

I love books that take you to another world and keep you there the whole time. A storyteller who knows his craft will do this by not making a single mistake. A mistake is something that takes you suddenly out of that world.

You helped several authors to make the New York Times Best Sellers list. What are the ingredients of a bestseller?

That list is a victim of the changing times we are living now. In today’s world, a person needs to be famous or write about someone who is. The most recent three NY Times Best Sellers were about John Kennedy. But this list is not the only judge. Selling books on the Internet is a direct and immediate way to see if you could find an audience for your book.

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Why Does a Book Fail to Become a Movie?

Daniel Moskowitz's Bronx Stagger at Books in Bloom Local Author Showcase April 26th!