Joe Velikovsky's Blog, page 23
January 6, 2012
Interview with JT Velikovsky in Writer Magazine
INTERVIEW - in January 2012 Issue of national Writer magazine
Transmedia Writer at Work: JT Velikovsky
Transmedia Writer JT Velikovsky is often writing a feature film script, a game, a novel, and a graphic novel all at once. Among his achievements are the feature film Caught Inside (http://www.youtube.com/joeteevee), satirical transmedia novel A Meaningless Sequence of Arbitrary Symbols. (http://am-so-as.webs.com/), The Feature Screenwriters Workbook (available free online: http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/feature-screenwriters-workbook/15459299), and the comic strip Dr N Sayne (illustrated by Deane Taylor).
He works as a Transmedia Consultant and as a Script Assessor for the Writers’ Guild. He writes a blog at http://on-writering.blogspot.com/ . See also: http://storyality.wordpress.com/
Tell me about your involvement in the National Young Writers’ Festival.
Smack-bang out-of-the-blue, I received an email asking me to appear on two panels at the Festival this year: ‘Games Writing’ and ‘Transmedia: The Business Behind the Buzzword’. I was thrilled to accept. It was exciting timing for me because I’d recently finished writing a big videogame and a comic, and the feature film Caught Inside, for which I was the screenwriter, opened in cinemas the week after the Festival.
CAUGHT INSIDE (2011) - Trailer (Screenwriter: JT Velikovsky)
The Festival is brilliant for Writers of all ages - and it was nice to get back to Newcastle NSW, where I lived for five years when I was studying for a BA in Communications (Screenwriting major) at the University of Newcastle. I’m deeply fond of Novocastria: it was there that I started my professional writing career, working in comedy theater with Footlice Theatre Co, as a TV sketch-comedy writer and making short films at uni, and then later at Film School...
ROCKET MAN (2003) - 10 min short sci-fi docu-drama
(Co-writer: JT Velikovsky)
How involved is the task of game writing? How did you land that gig?
Game writing is truly, madly, deeply involved! It’s not just a case of ‘making up a story to fit the game’, though that’s certainly part of it. As a writer, you need to consult regularly with the game designer and the game level designers, producers and artists, programmers and sound guys, to make sure that the game story and the dialogue all still ‘works’. Half of what you’re doing changes every day as the game evolves while it’s being made over two or three years. The writing and rewriting during the game production process can be ultra-intense. I think it’s actually about three times as much writing as on a feature film (even when a film script goes through several drafts).
It’s also a totally different way of thinking about narrative. Feature films and novels are (generally speaking) linear narratives, but with non-linear stories you need to design the many parts of the story (and lines of dialogue) to work effectively even if they are experienced in different combinations and orders.
The Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal game I wrote had only a thousand lines of dialog (in an Excel spreadsheet), but there’s much more writing involved than simply the dialog: there were outlines, character design briefs and 70-page illustrated treatments for each of the ten levels (‘chapters’) in the game. Warner Bros told us it would be a million-seller-plus game (it eventually sold 1.5 million units) so I made sure the research was exhaustive. It's always important to respect the fans, everyone has their favorite character - and in Looney Tunes, let alone Merrie Melodies, there's like, 50 years worth of canon.
Get More: GameTrailers.com, Looney Tunes: AA - Behind-the-Scenes: The Weapons, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 LOONEY TUNES: Acme Arsenal (2007) - JT Velikovsky (Game Designer & Writer)
I actually landed my first gig writing games the day I finished the Game Writing and Design short course at the Australian Film Television and Radio School. Someone rang the school that day looking for a Game Writer and my name was put forward. In truth, I’d been making my own computer games since I was seven years old, on a HP-19C calculator and then later on an Amstrad 6128, and Microbee pc's. What an über-nerd.
HP 19C - with Reverse Polish Notation.NASA astronauts took this calculator to the moon.
What’s the biggest challenge you have faced as a Transmedia Writer? Your most memorable moment?
One time, it was challenging working on a game project where we were adapting a movie I thought wasn’t very good. It was hard to take the game and its story seriously, passionately, when the film story isn’t all that brilliant. Another challenge is - when several external producers all want to pull the project in a different direction. That can sometimes drive you a little nuts, but when collaboration really works (with a great blend of creatives all working in sync), it’s the greatest rush.
Probably my most memorable Transmedia moment was when I was working on a project with Robert Watts, the producer of the first three Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies. I wrote a screenplay that Robert had optioned and, while we were working on the film, the game and a comic all at once, in the middle of it all we met with George Lucas, who was one of the reasons I wanted to be a writer-director-producer in the first place. Robert worked on 2001: A Space Odyssey and was telling us about working with Kubrick (one of my other film heroes).
To cap it off, Robert completely blew all our minds by telling us his idea for a new form of non-linear cinema storytelling. The idea is that the audience watches a 10-minute `introductory/story setup' film about five main characters, then the movie stops and the lights come up, and then - the film branches off into five different films in five different cinemas, each film following a different character within the one over-arching story. So, having seen one film, there are four other films you have to see to get `the whole story', and of course there are multiple twists, so that characters that you assumed were ‘good guys’ based on one point of view actually turn out to be villains once you’ve seen what they were up when they were ‘offscreen’ in the other story streams. It’s a brilliant way to tell a story and is exactly what transmedia storytelling is, except that with conventional transmedia the idea is split across three or more different media formats (a film, a game, a comic).
I've actually experimented with non-linear storytelling quite a bit, over the years. In 2004 we made the world's first mobile-phone soap-opera comedy, LIFERAFT. The core idea was to let the viewer/player control the decisions made by a couple of bickering newlyweds on a liferaft, after their honeymoon yacht has sunk. The decisions that you as viewer/player make, affects whether the liferaft floats or sinks, and so you can choose how the story progresses, depending on your own personal reaction to the couple in the story. - If you like them, you can help them to make good decisions that will save them - and, if not, you can just sink the raft, and doom them. Sort of like, in the movie Flying High / Airplane!: i.e.: "I say, let 'em crash-!"
LIFERAFT (2004) Writer & designer JT Velikovsky And in terms of other writing-career highlights, I also loved working with Marv Wolfman on an XCOM game last year, Marv was the creator of the character Blade. He also published Stephen King’s first short story - and actually was THE guy who first got comic-writers a credit, back in the 1950s: he signed ‘by the Wolf Man’ under the title of a horror comic story, and suddenly every other comic writer insisted on a writer’s credit. Marv taught me a lot about storytelling, and has done so many great things for writers in general over the years.
Marv Wolfman
Author of DC Comics' CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS (1985)
Photo courtesy of http://marvwolfman.com/
What are your tips for writers who want to be published?
Well, if you want to be, say, a published novelist, then I'd probably recommend you read Elizabeth Paton’s thesis Creativity and the Dynamic System of Australian Fiction Writing, which is available online, and include interviews with 40 Australian published fiction writers who have over 400 books published between them. It's available as a free .pdf online through the University of Canberra library:
http://erl.canberra.edu.au/public/adt-AUC20090825.125448/index.html
The thesis even delves into ‘What is Creativity, and How Do I Do It?’ based around Mike Csikszentmihalyi's work on creativity (see: Creativity, 1996), which is actually something that a lot of writers don’t study enough, in my personal opinion... Also, for would-be Game Designers, I recommend Mike's work on `Flow Theory', which is the state (`flow') every gamer wants to be in, when they play a game. Or - viewer when they watch a movie, for that matter. Or even, a reader of a novel.
My other big tip for writers is: Submit, Submit, and then Submit some more, and - just work through the rejections. Use any advice you get from publishers, but know also which advice to ignore as well, if someone simply doesn’t ‘get’ your work. Some readers sometimes `miss' that my satirical novel AM SO AS is a satire of The Catcher In The Rye, and as a result, often don't quite `get it'...
For writers who feel they’re merely ‘running on the rejection treadmill’, I highly recommend the book Rotten Rejections: The Letters Publishers Wish They’d Never Sent, which is a hilarious and very encouraging collection of rejection letters.
http://www.writersservices.com/mag/m_rejection.htm
But all successful writers were rejected once. Some, like Robert M Pirsig (Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance), 122 times...
What about Comics?
Comics are tricky - as it's a niche market, and there's a lot of free stuff on the interwebs.... I don't mean graphic novels, I'm just talking about "4-panel daily newspaper syndicated comic-strips" now... With Dr N Sayne, I was fortunate in that I'd known Deane Taylor as we'd work on games together before. We decided to collaborate on a project, and so I wrote it, and Deane drew it. Then we put it in a competition and found a publisher. It was the world's first exclusive mobile phone comic strip. It was a lot of fun. Deane's worked with everyone from Tim Burton to Miyazaki, so I learned a lot from him too.
Dr N Sayne - by Joe (Tesla) Velikovsky & Deane Taylor
Is there a large community of Transmedia Writers in Australia?
Funnily enough, no, I don’t believe there is a large community...
Or if there is, we should all join forces and fight crime together.
Gary Hayes and Christy Dena are the two main forces in the land of Oz, at http://www.personalizemedia.com/ and http://www.christydena.com/ And of course, Henry Jenkins: http://henryjenkins.org/
Some other Transmedia writers I've worked with are Matt Costello, Ernest W Adams and Noah Falstein (and in fact, they're all in my novel about Transmedia...)
Did you plan to build up such diverse experience in media?
No way! I started my Bachelor Degree trying to get into advertising as a copywriter (as all my favourite authors, like Joseph Heller, Don deLillo and Flann O’Brien (The Third Policeman), seemed to work in advertising before they cracked novel-writing)! Then I did Horror Film Studies at uni and I made a bunch of films, and I was hooked.
I can’t resist telling stories across as many media as possible and I've always been that way. They do always say “you should write what you know” and so, with the satirical novel A Meaningless Sequence of Arbitrary Symbols, I wrote a Transmedia story about a Transmedia Writer, using transmedia to tell the story (films, games, novels, a cult manifesto.) The title is actually an obscure send-up of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code". But the story itself satirizes Salinger's "The Catcher In The Rye" and Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby". If you haven't read all three, it's possible you may not appreciate all the literary references in there, but the story is stand-alone, and works either way. It's really all about Transmedia, and how Videogames are actually made. After 20 years of writing and designing games, movies, comics, I figured I could do a satirical expose on the process. Making games is more fun than even playing them.
A Meaningless Sequence of Arbitrary Symbols Blog: http://am-so-as.blogspot.com/
A Meaningless Sequence of Arbitrary Symbols
Transmedia Site: http://am-so-as.webs.com/
E-novellette on Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0074RW1O0
So do you have a favourite medium?
Yes - feature films, without a doubt, have always been my ‘first love’. Though I do love the freedom of novels because the budget of any given genre, scene or story is irrelevant. Imagination is the only "limiting factor" in novels. Also you can use a more distinctive `voice' in novels.
A-Rage - Sky Invaders (2004) An augmented reality game that you play in your backyardGames really are loads of fun to write - but the downside is that they’re simply not as narratively satisfying for a writer. I think the main reason for this is that, as Henry Jenkins says, ‘Player freedom annihilates Character’. It’s the old ‘Agency versus Structure’ (freedom versus constraints) issue. Besides which, Games are also usually so damned expensive to make! In my experience, the more expensive the art form or medium, the less interesting and `edgy' it becomes; the product always becomes ‘safer’ as the budgets go further north. That’s why self-publishing is so interesting, satisfying – and empowering.
Do you work with other Writers much?
Well, I collaborate about half the time, and the other half of the time I write solo. I've worked a lot with my good friend
But I think it's compulsory to have a community of like-minded writers around you, just so that you're not writing in isolation... I'm a member of a few writer's groups - The Decent Ventriloquists over in Adelaide - which includes some truly amazing writers, guys like Pat McNamara of "Dragonscarpe" and "SpaceLord Mo-Fo" fame, Alex James the novelist and film critic, Shane Dix (of Star Wars novels fame), Greg Moss the writer-director, comedy scribe Dave "The Wiz" Osbourne - and some incredible artists like Dan Foley, Dave Williams, and legendary writer-critics like Dave Bradley. A really amazing gathering of talent there...
Dragonscarpe: The Last Realm
by Pat McNamara, Gary Turner, Michal Dutkiewicz Over in Melbourne, I have another writers' group, with guys like Damian McLindon, Mitch Forrester, Warwick Holt, Allan Cameron and Ev de Roche...
Screenwriter And I'm also in the legendary Skip Press's Hollywood Screenwriters group, and a few other online communities... So - in amongst all that, my writing gets a decent amount of feedback and critiques from some pretty amazing scribblers. I'm very lucky in that regard - to have met, and become friends with so many insanely-talented and creative writers - and artists.I'm also lucky in that - some years ago, my sister married an awesome - and awesomely-creative guy, Phillip McIntyre. He's got a new book out this month, called Creativity and Cultural Production. He's also taught me an immense amount about the creative arts as well, including music. He taught Daniel Johns of silverchair songwriting... We've also got a band, Texas Radio. Our forthcoming album has a song about aliens on the moon... So... (nods to the sky, with wry grin) "The Truth is Up There..." It's based on some NASA astronauts talking about what they saw.
Do you think your experiences as a Game Design/Writing Mentor for the Australia Council and as a Script Assessor and Judge for the Writer's Guild have contributed to your ongoing development as a writer?
Absolutely, yes I do - as Mentoring is just "teaching" really, and - ironically, you always learn the most by teaching something... When you're passing on ideas, skills and techniques that have `worked before' - you're also constantly comparing those techniques to other possible approaches (for example, different ways to structure/`reveal to the player' a game story), and - mentoring also sometimes involves additional research (say, into game development tools for a certain game platform - e.g. iPhones or Android phones - etc) that you may not have otherwise explored...
Also working as a Story Analyst/Script Assessor (not just for the Writer's Guild, but for film studios as well) is priceless experience for any writer - having to read and think critically about all aspects of hundreds of scripts makes you consider all those same issues in your own work - it's just invaluable. The Guild is actually running training sessions at the moment, for aspiring script assessors (see the AWG website). I think the Writer's Guild does a simply amazing job in advancing the art and craft of writing. Hats off to those guys!
JT Velikovsky
Interview with JoeTV in "Writer" Magazine
INTERVIEW in Jan 2012 Issue of "Writer" Magazine.
Writer at Work: Joe T Velikovsky
Transmedia Writer Joe Velikovsky is often writing a feature film script,a game, a novel, and a graphic novel all at once.
Among his achievements are The Feature Screenwriters Workbook (available free online: http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/feature-screenwriters-workbook/15459299), the comic strip Dr N Sayne (illustrated by Deane Taylor), the feature filmCaught Inside (http://www.youtube.com/joeteevee) and the satirical transmedia novel A Meaningless Sequenceof Arbitrary Symbols. (http://am-so-as.webs.com/)
He works as a Transmedia Consultant and as a ScriptAssessor for the Writers' Guild. His website is www.joeteevee.com and he writes a blog at http://on-writering.blogspot.com/ .
Tell me about your involvement in the National Young Writers' Festival.
Smack-bang out-of-the-blue, Ireceived an email asking me to appear on two panels at the Festival this year:'Games Writing' and 'Transmedia: The Business Behind the Buzzword'. I wasthrilled to accept. It was exciting timing for me because I'd recently finishedwriting a big videogame and a comic, and the feature film Caught Inside, for which I was the screenwriter, opened in cinemas theweek after the Festival.
The Festival is brilliant forWriters of all ages - and it was nice to get back to Newcastle NSW, where Ilived for five years when I was studying for a BA in Communications(Screenwriting major) at the University of Newcastle. I'm deeply fond ofNovocastria: it was there that I started my professional writing career,working in comedy theatre with Footlice Theatre Co, as a TV sketch-comedywriter and making films at uni.
How involved is the task of game writing? How did you land that gig?
Game writing is truly, madly,deeply involved! It's not just a case of 'making up a story to fit the game',though that's certainly part of it. As a writer, you need to consult regularlywith the game designer and the game level designers, producers and artists,programmers and sound guys, to make sure that the game story and the dialogueall still 'works'. Half of what you're doing changes every day as the gameevolves while it's being made over two or three years. The writing andrewriting during the game production process can be ultra-intense. I think it'sactually about three times as much writing as on a feature film (even when a filmscript goes through several drafts).
It's also a totally different wayof thinking about narrative. Feature films and novels are (generally speaking)linear narratives, but with non-linear stories you need to design the manyparts of the story (and lines of dialogue) to work effectively even if they areexperienced in different combinations and orders.
The Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal game I wrote had only 1,060 lines ofdialog (in an Excel spreadsheet), but there's much more writing involved thansimply the dialogue: there were outlines, character design briefs and 70-pageillustrated treatments for each of the ten levels ('chapters') in the game.
I landed my first gig writinggames the day I finished the Game Writing and Design short course at the AustralianFilm Television and Radio School. Someone rang the school that day looking fora game writer and my name was put forward. In truth, I'd been making my owncomputer games since I was seven years old. What an über-nerd.
What's the biggest challenge you have faced as a Transmedia Writer?Your most memorable moment?
It was challenging working on agame project where we were adapting a movie I thought wasn't very good. It washard to take the game and its story seriously when the film story isn't brilliant.Another challenge is when several producers all want to pull the project in adifferent direction. That can drive you nuts, but when collaboration reallyworks (with a great blend of creatives all working in sync), it's the greatestrush.
My most memorable Transmedia momentwas when I was working on a project with Robert Watts, the producer of thefirst three Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies. I wrote ascreenplay that Robert had optioned and, while we were working on the film, thegame and a comic all at once, in the middle of it all we met with George Lucas,who was one of the reasons I wanted to be a writer-director-producer in thefirst place. Robert put on 2001: A SpaceOdyssey and was telling us about working with Kubrick (one of my other filmheroes).
Then, to cap it off, Robertcompletely blew all our minds by telling us his idea for a new form ofnon-linear cinema storytelling: the audience watches a 10-minute introductoryfilm about five main characters, the movie stops and the lights come up, andthen the film branches off into five different films in five different cinemas,each film within the one over-arching story.
Having seen one film, there arefour other films you have to see to get the whole story, and of course thereare multiple twists, so that characters that you assumed were 'good guys' basedon one point of view actually turn out to be villains once you've seen whatthey were up when they were 'offscreen' in the other story streams. It's abrilliant way to tell a story and is exactly what transmedia storytelling is,except that with conventional transmedia the idea is split across three or moredifferent media formats (a film, a game, a comic).
I also loved working with MarvWolfman, the creator of Blade. He publishedStephen King's first short story and was THE guy who first got comic writers acredit, back in the 1950s: he signed 'by the Wolf Man' under the title of ahorror comic story and suddenly every other comic writer insisted on a writer'scredit. He taught me so much about storytelling.
What are your tips for writers who want to be published?
If you want to be a publishednovelist, I recommend you read Elizabeth Paton's thesis Creativity and the Dynamic System of Australian Fiction Writing,which is available free online and include interviews with 40 Australianpublished fiction writers. It's available as a free .pdf online through theuniversity of Canberra library:
http://erl.canberra.edu.au/public/adt-AUC20090825.125448/index.html
The thesis even delves into 'Whatis Creativity, and How Do I Do It?', which is something that a lot of writersdon't study enough, in my opinion.
My other big tip is: submit,submit, submit, and just work through the rejections! Use any advice you getfrom publishers, but know which advice to ignore as well, if someone simplydoesn't 'get' your work. For writers who feel they're merely 'running on therejection treadmill', I highly recommend the book Rotten Rejections: The Letters Publishers Wish They'd Never Sent, whichis a hilarious and very encouraging collection of rejection letters. Allsuccessful writers were rejected once. Some, like Robert M Pirsig (Zen &The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance), 122 times!
Is there a large community of Transmedia Writers in Australia?
Funnily enough, no, I don't believethere is a large community. Or if there is, we should all join forces and fightcrime together.
Did you plan to build up such diverse experience in media?
No way! I started my Bachelor Degreetrying to get into advertising as a copywriter (as all my favourite authors,like Joseph Heller, Don deLillo and Flann O'Brien, seemed to work in advertisingbefore they cracked novel-writing)! Then I did Horror Film Studies at uni and Imade a bunch of films, and I was hooked.
I can't resist telling stories across as many media aspossible and I have always been that way. They do always say "you should writewhat you know" and so, with the satirical novel A Meaningless Sequence of Arbitrary Symbols, I found myself writinga transmedia story about a transmedia writer, using transmedia to tell thestory (films, games, novels, cult manifesto.) The title is a send-up of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code." And the story itself satirizes Salinger's "The Catcher In The Rye" and Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby." If you haven't read all three, you may not get all the literary references, but the story is stand-alone, either way. It's really all about Transmedia, and how Videogames are actually made. After 20 years of writing and designing games, movies, comics, I figured I could do an expose.
A Meaningless Sequenceof Arbitrary Symbols Blog: http://am-so-as.blogspot.com/
A Meaningless Sequenceof Arbitrary Symbols e-novellette on Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004XW2GDK/
Do you have a favourite medium?
Yes! Feature films, without adoubt, have always been my 'first love'. Though I do love the freedom of novelsbecause the budget of any given genre, scene or story is irrelevant. Imagination is the only limiting factor in novels.
Games are loads of fun to write -but the downside is that they're simply not as narratively satisfying for awriter. I think the main reason for this is that, as Henry Jenkins says, 'Playerfreedom annihilates Character'. It's the old 'agency versus structure' (freedomversus constraints) issue. Besides which, games are also usually so damnedexpensive to make! In my experience, the more expensive the art form or medium,the less interesting it becomes; the product always becomes 'safer' as thebudgets go further north. That's why self-publishing is so interesting – and empowering.
Do you think your experiences as a Game Design/Writing Mentorfor the Australia Council and as a Script Assessor for the AWG havecontributed to your ongoing development as a writer?
Absolutely, yes - mainly asmentoring is teaching, and ironically, you always learn the most by teachingsomething... When you're passing on skills and techniques that have `workedbefore' - you're also constantly comparing those techniques to other possibleapproaches (for example, different ways to structure/`reveal to the player' agame story), and - mentoring also sometimes involves additional research (say,into game development tools for a certain game platform - e.g. iPhones orAndroid phones - etc) that you may not have otherwise explored...
Also working as a Story Analyst/ScriptAssessor (not just for the Guild, but for film studios as well) is fantasticexperience for any writer - having to read and think critically about allaspects of hundreds of scripts makes you consider all those same issues in yourown work - it's just invaluable. The Guild is actually running trainingsessions at the moment, for aspiring script assessors (see the AWG website). Ithink the Writer's Guild does a simply amazing job in advancing the art and craft ofwriting. Hats off to those guys!
www.joeteevee.com
October 23, 2011
On "The Matrix" - Augmented Reality Games has you
This is a talk I gave at the Australian Game Developers Conference a while back with some colleagues from UniSA.
These A-Rage games we created are kind of like `The Matrix' - in that, the game world is superimposed over the real world, using a head-mounted-visor.
`The Matrix' has you... kinda thing.
A-Rage AGDC (The Australian Game Developers Conference)
View more presentations from Joe Velikovsky
Anyway - these games were all very fun to write the stories for...
`SKY INVADERS' is about Martians invading Earth...
Not exactly a `new' premise, but H G Wells is as good a source to rip off as any, right?
We also had TV news stories within the game, that played at certain points, as the circumstances of the game changed (depending on how the Player was doing against the alien invaders, i.e. the UFOs that are attacking them in their back yard, or - the park - or - wherever the Player is playing the actual game.)
I think the best line from the news broadcasts was:
"President Al Gore says - We will prevail, after all, we are the greatest planet on Earth."
Which actually is a homage to a line by General Jack D Ripper from "Dr Strangelove", except he was talking about our precious bodily fluids.
So, there you go.
October 10, 2011
On Game Writing - 2011 NYWF
Games Writing - NYWF 2011 jtv .....A PPT from a 2011 NYWF (National Young Writers Festival) guest presentation on: Game Writing and Interactive Storytelling by JT Velikovsky....
View more presentations from Joe Velikovsky.
April 26, 2011
THE TOP 10 "COMMON ELEMENTS" in BEST-SELLER NOVELS
Stieg Larsson, Stephanie Meyer, J K Rowling, James Patterson and Dan Brown...
What `Top 10 Things' do their best-selling fiction novels all have in common?
Below is my own analysis of 10 common elements these works all share.
1) ALL ARE IN THE SAME GENRE...
All are in the Suspense-Mystery-Thriller Genre. Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist are investigating/pursued by killersPotter has to find out who killed his parents; people are trying to kill him Cross always has to solve a murder; Langdon has to work out who is killing these people, and why; Bella has to urgently find out whether she should: a) abstain from having sex with a vampire, or b) abstain from having sex with a werewolf - (before someone gets themself killed.)
2) ALL ARE A `TEXTBOOK' CAMPBELL / VOGLER'S HERO'S JOURNEY.
All of them have the "Hero's Journey" story structure, and have all of the classic Joseph Campbell / Christopher Vogler`monomyth' Hero's Journey myth Character Archetypes.
(Take a look at The Feature ScreenWriter's Workbook (free) if you aren't familiar with The Hero's Journey...)
3) ALL HAVE SIMPLE/`INVISIBLE' PROSE STYLE
- All of them are, in general written in simple, `unmemorable'/non-literary prose.
i.e. So that, a general audience (possibly even, a `young adult' reader) could likely read these books, without necessarily `going to the dictionary' every second page.
So - In other words:
Write like Hemingway. (Small words. And often: short sentences.)
Next...
4) THE SAME THEME
All have the same Theme: i.e. - Revenge.
Salander's journey is "all about Revenge" (she even literally says this, at the end of the 3rd book), as indeed is Blomkvist's journey (given the events at the start of the 1st book)Potter wants to/(has to) avenge his parents' death by Voldemort; Cross is generally trying to avenge the deaths of murder victims; Langdon is trying to take revenge on the Church for its crimes; and the 2 individual males - and their `tribes' - tussling over Bella in `Twilight' are constantly Revenging on each other, at every alternate step, in her evolving relationship with them - though sometimes Bella talks them out of it.)
5) FILMIC-NESS.
(Or: ALL HAVE THE SAME "SCENE-ERY" TO THEM)
All these novels are constructed dramatically, with `Scenes' - much like a feature film. i.e. - The Pacing and the Timing, the Scene Structure and Scene Length (and typically, the Dialog) - is all constructed much like a film screenplay.
(And, notably - they have all therefore been Optioned, Adapted, and Filmed and - Marketed back to the mainstream, and - fans of the books. Which is, `the mainstream' at any rate.)
Importantly - by contrast - such heartbreaking works of staggering literary genius as `The Catcher In The Rye' or say `On The Road' and `The Great Gatsby' tend to be filled with internal narration, and slow (or even haphazard/"meandering") plots, and - thus don't necessarily make for popular movies (or even `films', which are more `arty/literary' than movies.)... They just make for: awesome literary novels.
(Note also that - those 3 (latter) novels aren't mystery-thrillers, as such; certainly not in the Sherlock Holmes/Agatha Christie-style suspense-mystery-thriller style/tone/genre)
6) CLIFFHANGERS, AT THE END OF EVERY CHAPTER.
Self-explanatory; this is also partly why they are viewed as "page-turners"
(Or perhaps: "Chapter-turners"?).
The Millennium trilogy books are especially good at this (leaving a suspenseful question `hanging' at the end of almost every chapter).
This also feeds back into Point #5,
i.e. - Movies in general kind of have to do this - or else, often there can be a lack of suspense - which, the Audience may find boring.
7) All feature `VILLAIN TRIUMPHANT' stories in their first book of the franchise.
Also, take a look at the StoryAlity Blog (http://storyality.wordpress.com/) if you aren't familiar with this story trope...
8) ALL ARE AMATEUR-DETECTIVE / PSEUDO-`SHERLOCK HOLMES' STORIES...
Again, the Millennium trilogy is the most obvious example of this.
This also ties back into point #1, that all of them are in the Suspense-Mystery-Thriller Genre. The hero is always a `Detective' of some sort (sometimes an `amateur' detective, e.g. Potter, or Bella) and - has to `solve the mystery / catch the killer' - or else they (or someone close to them) will die. In other words: high stakes, life & death suspense.
9) ALL OF THEM FEATURE A "NON-EVERYMAN", `ELITE' HERO... Harry Potter is `special' - born of `special' parents, with an amazing talent. (See also: Luke Skywalker in `Star Wars'.) Cross is a super-sleuth, as well as being a strong, handsome, intelligent black man. Langdon is a genius symbologist/academic / "cryptographer / code-cracker" type. Bella is especially attractive - to both Vampires, and Werewolves. Lisbeth Salander and Michael Blomkvist are phenomenally-gifted experts at what they do. Lisbeth is one of the 30 best computer hackers in the world - and a mathematics genius (see Fermat's Last Theorem, in the novels..). Blomkvist is also an exceptionally-bright, gifted and talented investigative journalist.i.e. - These protagonists are NOT ordinary/Everyman/Everywoman people. - They are all `super-special' or outstanding in some, or even many ways.
So - make your novel's protagonist super-special ; an expert, or highly-talented (or genetically-gifted... which, is the same thing as highly-talented anyway)...
And now - the last, most politically-contentious point:
10) 80% OF PROTAGONISTS IN THESE BEST-SELLING HEROES ARE PRIVILEGED WHITE MALES.
Bella isn't a male, Alex Cross isn't white - but all the other protagonists are white males.
------------------
That's my own view, on Common Story Elements in those best-selling novel series.
Another interesting book on this topic is:
Hit Lit: Cracking The Code of the 20th Century's Biggest Bestsellers
JT Velikovsky
High ROI Film/Story/Screenplay Guru
http://storyality.wordpress.com/
What `Top 10 Things' do their best-selling fiction novels all have in common?
Below is my own analysis of 10 common elements these works all share.
1) ALL ARE IN THE SAME GENRE...
All are in the Suspense-Mystery-Thriller Genre. Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist are investigating/pursued by killersPotter has to find out who killed his parents; people are trying to kill him Cross always has to solve a murder; Langdon has to work out who is killing these people, and why; Bella has to urgently find out whether she should: a) abstain from having sex with a vampire, or b) abstain from having sex with a werewolf - (before someone gets themself killed.)
2) ALL ARE A `TEXTBOOK' CAMPBELL / VOGLER'S HERO'S JOURNEY.
All of them have the "Hero's Journey" story structure, and have all of the classic Joseph Campbell / Christopher Vogler`monomyth' Hero's Journey myth Character Archetypes.
(Take a look at The Feature ScreenWriter's Workbook (free) if you aren't familiar with The Hero's Journey...)
3) ALL HAVE SIMPLE/`INVISIBLE' PROSE STYLE
- All of them are, in general written in simple, `unmemorable'/non-literary prose.
i.e. So that, a general audience (possibly even, a `young adult' reader) could likely read these books, without necessarily `going to the dictionary' every second page.
So - In other words:
Write like Hemingway. (Small words. And often: short sentences.)
Next...
4) THE SAME THEME
All have the same Theme: i.e. - Revenge.
Salander's journey is "all about Revenge" (she even literally says this, at the end of the 3rd book), as indeed is Blomkvist's journey (given the events at the start of the 1st book)Potter wants to/(has to) avenge his parents' death by Voldemort; Cross is generally trying to avenge the deaths of murder victims; Langdon is trying to take revenge on the Church for its crimes; and the 2 individual males - and their `tribes' - tussling over Bella in `Twilight' are constantly Revenging on each other, at every alternate step, in her evolving relationship with them - though sometimes Bella talks them out of it.)
5) FILMIC-NESS.
(Or: ALL HAVE THE SAME "SCENE-ERY" TO THEM)
All these novels are constructed dramatically, with `Scenes' - much like a feature film. i.e. - The Pacing and the Timing, the Scene Structure and Scene Length (and typically, the Dialog) - is all constructed much like a film screenplay.
(And, notably - they have all therefore been Optioned, Adapted, and Filmed and - Marketed back to the mainstream, and - fans of the books. Which is, `the mainstream' at any rate.)
Importantly - by contrast - such heartbreaking works of staggering literary genius as `The Catcher In The Rye' or say `On The Road' and `The Great Gatsby' tend to be filled with internal narration, and slow (or even haphazard/"meandering") plots, and - thus don't necessarily make for popular movies (or even `films', which are more `arty/literary' than movies.)... They just make for: awesome literary novels.
(Note also that - those 3 (latter) novels aren't mystery-thrillers, as such; certainly not in the Sherlock Holmes/Agatha Christie-style suspense-mystery-thriller style/tone/genre)
6) CLIFFHANGERS, AT THE END OF EVERY CHAPTER.
Self-explanatory; this is also partly why they are viewed as "page-turners"
(Or perhaps: "Chapter-turners"?).
The Millennium trilogy books are especially good at this (leaving a suspenseful question `hanging' at the end of almost every chapter).
This also feeds back into Point #5,
i.e. - Movies in general kind of have to do this - or else, often there can be a lack of suspense - which, the Audience may find boring.
7) All feature `VILLAIN TRIUMPHANT' stories in their first book of the franchise.
Also, take a look at the StoryAlity Blog (http://storyality.wordpress.com/) if you aren't familiar with this story trope...
8) ALL ARE AMATEUR-DETECTIVE / PSEUDO-`SHERLOCK HOLMES' STORIES...
Again, the Millennium trilogy is the most obvious example of this.
This also ties back into point #1, that all of them are in the Suspense-Mystery-Thriller Genre. The hero is always a `Detective' of some sort (sometimes an `amateur' detective, e.g. Potter, or Bella) and - has to `solve the mystery / catch the killer' - or else they (or someone close to them) will die. In other words: high stakes, life & death suspense.
9) ALL OF THEM FEATURE A "NON-EVERYMAN", `ELITE' HERO... Harry Potter is `special' - born of `special' parents, with an amazing talent. (See also: Luke Skywalker in `Star Wars'.) Cross is a super-sleuth, as well as being a strong, handsome, intelligent black man. Langdon is a genius symbologist/academic / "cryptographer / code-cracker" type. Bella is especially attractive - to both Vampires, and Werewolves. Lisbeth Salander and Michael Blomkvist are phenomenally-gifted experts at what they do. Lisbeth is one of the 30 best computer hackers in the world - and a mathematics genius (see Fermat's Last Theorem, in the novels..). Blomkvist is also an exceptionally-bright, gifted and talented investigative journalist.i.e. - These protagonists are NOT ordinary/Everyman/Everywoman people. - They are all `super-special' or outstanding in some, or even many ways.
So - make your novel's protagonist super-special ; an expert, or highly-talented (or genetically-gifted... which, is the same thing as highly-talented anyway)...
And now - the last, most politically-contentious point:
10) 80% OF PROTAGONISTS IN THESE BEST-SELLING HEROES ARE PRIVILEGED WHITE MALES.
Bella isn't a male, Alex Cross isn't white - but all the other protagonists are white males.
------------------
That's my own view, on Common Story Elements in those best-selling novel series.
Another interesting book on this topic is:
Hit Lit: Cracking The Code of the 20th Century's Biggest Bestsellers
JT Velikovsky
High ROI Film/Story/Screenplay Guru
http://storyality.wordpress.com/
THE TOP 10 "COMMON ELEMENTS" in current BEST-SELLER NOVELS
So... Stieg Larsson, Stephanie Meyer, J K Rowling, James Patterson and Dan Brown...
What `Top 10 Things' do their best-selling fiction novels all have in common?
1) ALL ARE IN THE EXACT-SAME GENRE...
All are in the Suspense-Mystery-Thriller Genre. Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist are investigating/pursued by killersPotter has to find out who killed his parents; people are trying to kill him Cross always has to solve a murder; Langdon has to work out who is killing these people, and why; Bella has to urgently find out whether she should: a) abstain from having sex with a vampire, or b) abstain from having sex with a werewolf - (before someone gets themself killed.)
2) ALL ARE A `TEXTBOOK' CAMPBELL / VOGLER'S HERO'S JOURNEY.
All of them have the "Hero's Journey" story structure, and have all of the classic Hero's Journey Character Archetypes.
Take a look at The Feature ScreenWriter's Workbook (free) if you aren't familiar with The Hero's Journey...
3) ALL HAVE SIMPLE/`INVISIBLE' PROSE STYLE
- All of them are written in very simple, unmemorable prose.
i.e. So that, a Young Adult (or, an old adult, or even a dummy) could read this book, without going to the dictionary every second page.
So - write like Hemingway.
Small words. Short sentences.
Next...
4) THE SAME THEME
All have the same exact Theme.
ie - Revenge is sweet.
Salander's journey is "all about Revenge" (she even literally says this, at the end of the 3rd book), as is Blomkvist's journey (given the events at the start of the 1st book)Potter wants to/(has to) avenge his parents death by Voldemort; Cross is always trying to avenge the deaths of murder victims; Langdon is trying to take revenge on the Church for its crimes; and the 2 individual males - and their `tribes' - tussling over Bella in `Twilight' are constantly Revenging on each other, at every alternate step, in her evolving relationship with them - though sometimes Bella talks them out of it.)
5) FILMIC-NESS. (ALL HAVE THE SAME "SCENE-ERY" TO THEM)
All their novels are constructed with `Scenes' - just like a feature film.
ie - The Pacing and the Timing, Scene Structure and Length (and Dialog) - is all written `like a film screenplay'.
(And - they have all therefore been Optioned, Adapted, and Filmed and - Marketed back to the mainstream, and - fans of the books. Which is the mainstream anyway.)
Importantly - by contrast - such heartbreaking works of staggering literary genius as `The Catcher In The Rye' and say `On The Road' and `The Great Gatsby' are filled with internal narration, slow (or haphazard) "meandering" plots, and - don't necessarily make for decent movies (or even `Films', which are more `literary' than Movies.)... They just make for awesome literary novels.
(Note also that - those 3 (latter) novels AREN'T mystery-thrillers, as such. Certainly not with the Sherlock Holmes/Agatha Christie-style suspense-mystery-thrillery-ness about them...)
6) CLIFFHANGERS, AT THE END OF EVERY CHAPTER.
Self-explanatory. This is partly why they are "page-turners" ("Chapter-turners"?).
The Millennium trilogy books are especially great at this.
This also feeds back into Point #5, ie - Films kind of HAVE to do this - or there is a lack of Suspense - which, The Audience finds: Boring.
7) All of them feature `VILLAIN TRIUMPHANT' stories in their first book of the franchise.
Also, take a look at The Feature ScreenWriter's Workbook (free) if you aren't familiar with this story trope...
8) ALL ARE AMATEUR-DETECTIVE PSEUDO-`SHERLOCK HOLMES' STORIES...
Again the Millennium trilogy is the most obvious example of this. And - it does it brilliantly.
This also ties back into point #1, all of them are in the Suspense-Mystery-Thriller Genre.
The hero is always a `Detective' (sometimes `amateur' detective, eg Potter, or Bella) and - has to `solve the mystery / catch the killer' - or else they (or someone close to them) will die.
High-stakes, life & death suspense. (If this sort of pulp fiction doesn't appeal to you, then, possibly, you are not in the "mainstream'...) Then again, half the world is `below-average'... What can you do. Cest la vie. So it goes.
So, re-read the classic Sherlock Holmes mysteries - (and Agatha Christie `classics'!) and, create your own damn Sherlock Holmes...
But - make him an investigative journalist, or a wizard in high school, or a Jedi Knight in space, or a forensic psychologist in New York, or religious symbologist in Paris, or heck - maybe a tree-doctor in the Sahara. (Why not?)
9) ALL OF THEM FEATURE A "NON-EVERYMAN", `ELITE' HERO... Harry Potter is `special' - born of `special' parents, with an amazing talent. (See: Luke Skywalker in `Star Wars'.) Cross is a super-sleuth, as well as being a strong, handsome, intelligent black man. Langdon is a genius symbologist/academic / "cryptographer / code-cracker" type. Bella... hmmm, isn't really that great at anything much, but she is one hot, sulky, sultry babe. Not `average'. Lisbeth Salander and Michael Blomkvist are phenomenally-gifted experts at what they do. Lisbeth is one of the 30 best computer hackers in the world(!) and a mathematics genius (see Fermat's Last Theorem in the novels..). And - Blomkvist is an exceptionally-bright, gifted and talented investigative journalist.ie - These are NOT ordinary/Everyman/Everywoman people by any stretch. - They are all `super-special' or outstanding in some, or even many ways.
So - make your novel's protagonist super-special ; an expert, or highly-talented (or genetically-gifted... which, is the same thing as highly-talented anyway) at - SOMETHING ...
...Cops and lawyers are always popular. Look at all the `police procedural' and `legal' shows on TV.
And now - the last, most politically-contentious point:
10) ALL OF THESE BEST-SELLING HEROES ARE PRIVILEGED WHITE MALES.
Ok - so, Bella isn't a male - but Edward Cullen sure is, they don't come much whiter n' a vampire. Sheesh!
(So, Tip #10: Don't go writing about a non-white Hero, in your would-be best-selling novel .)
Make the bad guys as `ethnic' as you wanna, though. (Hey - knock yourself out, make the bad guy a spooky albino, with a weird spiky-chain-garter-thingy on his thigh... :)
(...Okay, okay, so, Alex Cross is black... But - everyone in Stieg Larssen's Millenium novels are Anglo-Saxon, so, we're still talking "4 out of 5" of these best-selling characters are priveleged Anglo males... And check out how much Revenge there is in the (awesome) Millenium series, and how much it is in the Agatha Christie/Sir Arthur Conan Doyle mould/genre/tone/style..! Aye carumba! )
------------------
So, yeah...
That's my `take' on why those best-selling novels (novelists) are all successful - and what you need to do, if you want to emulate that Bestseller success. They all do those 10 things.
(Then again - I am a priveleged white male. If it helps, I feel real guilty about it.)
Okay - Motivational hyperlink time... check this out:
http://www.paywizard.org/main/VIPPaycheck/VIPpaycheckauthors
Ok - so you have the `10 Rules'...
Now - get cracking on that best-seller novel !!!!
Hope it helps..!
PS - If you want some inspiration, read this novel:
http://www.amazon.com/AM-SO-Meaningless-Arbitrary-ebook/dp/B004XW2GDK/
What `Top 10 Things' do their best-selling fiction novels all have in common?
1) ALL ARE IN THE EXACT-SAME GENRE...
All are in the Suspense-Mystery-Thriller Genre. Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist are investigating/pursued by killersPotter has to find out who killed his parents; people are trying to kill him Cross always has to solve a murder; Langdon has to work out who is killing these people, and why; Bella has to urgently find out whether she should: a) abstain from having sex with a vampire, or b) abstain from having sex with a werewolf - (before someone gets themself killed.)
2) ALL ARE A `TEXTBOOK' CAMPBELL / VOGLER'S HERO'S JOURNEY.
All of them have the "Hero's Journey" story structure, and have all of the classic Hero's Journey Character Archetypes.
Take a look at The Feature ScreenWriter's Workbook (free) if you aren't familiar with The Hero's Journey...
3) ALL HAVE SIMPLE/`INVISIBLE' PROSE STYLE
- All of them are written in very simple, unmemorable prose.
i.e. So that, a Young Adult (or, an old adult, or even a dummy) could read this book, without going to the dictionary every second page.
So - write like Hemingway.
Small words. Short sentences.
Next...
4) THE SAME THEME
All have the same exact Theme.
ie - Revenge is sweet.
Salander's journey is "all about Revenge" (she even literally says this, at the end of the 3rd book), as is Blomkvist's journey (given the events at the start of the 1st book)Potter wants to/(has to) avenge his parents death by Voldemort; Cross is always trying to avenge the deaths of murder victims; Langdon is trying to take revenge on the Church for its crimes; and the 2 individual males - and their `tribes' - tussling over Bella in `Twilight' are constantly Revenging on each other, at every alternate step, in her evolving relationship with them - though sometimes Bella talks them out of it.)
5) FILMIC-NESS. (ALL HAVE THE SAME "SCENE-ERY" TO THEM)
All their novels are constructed with `Scenes' - just like a feature film.
ie - The Pacing and the Timing, Scene Structure and Length (and Dialog) - is all written `like a film screenplay'.
(And - they have all therefore been Optioned, Adapted, and Filmed and - Marketed back to the mainstream, and - fans of the books. Which is the mainstream anyway.)
Importantly - by contrast - such heartbreaking works of staggering literary genius as `The Catcher In The Rye' and say `On The Road' and `The Great Gatsby' are filled with internal narration, slow (or haphazard) "meandering" plots, and - don't necessarily make for decent movies (or even `Films', which are more `literary' than Movies.)... They just make for awesome literary novels.
(Note also that - those 3 (latter) novels AREN'T mystery-thrillers, as such. Certainly not with the Sherlock Holmes/Agatha Christie-style suspense-mystery-thrillery-ness about them...)
6) CLIFFHANGERS, AT THE END OF EVERY CHAPTER.
Self-explanatory. This is partly why they are "page-turners" ("Chapter-turners"?).
The Millennium trilogy books are especially great at this.
This also feeds back into Point #5, ie - Films kind of HAVE to do this - or there is a lack of Suspense - which, The Audience finds: Boring.
7) All of them feature `VILLAIN TRIUMPHANT' stories in their first book of the franchise.
Also, take a look at The Feature ScreenWriter's Workbook (free) if you aren't familiar with this story trope...
8) ALL ARE AMATEUR-DETECTIVE PSEUDO-`SHERLOCK HOLMES' STORIES...
Again the Millennium trilogy is the most obvious example of this. And - it does it brilliantly.
This also ties back into point #1, all of them are in the Suspense-Mystery-Thriller Genre.
The hero is always a `Detective' (sometimes `amateur' detective, eg Potter, or Bella) and - has to `solve the mystery / catch the killer' - or else they (or someone close to them) will die.
High-stakes, life & death suspense. (If this sort of pulp fiction doesn't appeal to you, then, possibly, you are not in the "mainstream'...) Then again, half the world is `below-average'... What can you do. Cest la vie. So it goes.
So, re-read the classic Sherlock Holmes mysteries - (and Agatha Christie `classics'!) and, create your own damn Sherlock Holmes...
But - make him an investigative journalist, or a wizard in high school, or a Jedi Knight in space, or a forensic psychologist in New York, or religious symbologist in Paris, or heck - maybe a tree-doctor in the Sahara. (Why not?)
9) ALL OF THEM FEATURE A "NON-EVERYMAN", `ELITE' HERO... Harry Potter is `special' - born of `special' parents, with an amazing talent. (See: Luke Skywalker in `Star Wars'.) Cross is a super-sleuth, as well as being a strong, handsome, intelligent black man. Langdon is a genius symbologist/academic / "cryptographer / code-cracker" type. Bella... hmmm, isn't really that great at anything much, but she is one hot, sulky, sultry babe. Not `average'. Lisbeth Salander and Michael Blomkvist are phenomenally-gifted experts at what they do. Lisbeth is one of the 30 best computer hackers in the world(!) and a mathematics genius (see Fermat's Last Theorem in the novels..). And - Blomkvist is an exceptionally-bright, gifted and talented investigative journalist.ie - These are NOT ordinary/Everyman/Everywoman people by any stretch. - They are all `super-special' or outstanding in some, or even many ways.
So - make your novel's protagonist super-special ; an expert, or highly-talented (or genetically-gifted... which, is the same thing as highly-talented anyway) at - SOMETHING ...
...Cops and lawyers are always popular. Look at all the `police procedural' and `legal' shows on TV.
And now - the last, most politically-contentious point:
10) ALL OF THESE BEST-SELLING HEROES ARE PRIVILEGED WHITE MALES.
Ok - so, Bella isn't a male - but Edward Cullen sure is, they don't come much whiter n' a vampire. Sheesh!
(So, Tip #10: Don't go writing about a non-white Hero, in your would-be best-selling novel .)
Make the bad guys as `ethnic' as you wanna, though. (Hey - knock yourself out, make the bad guy a spooky albino, with a weird spiky-chain-garter-thingy on his thigh... :)
(...Okay, okay, so, Alex Cross is black... But - everyone in Stieg Larssen's Millenium novels are Anglo-Saxon, so, we're still talking "4 out of 5" of these best-selling characters are priveleged Anglo males... And check out how much Revenge there is in the (awesome) Millenium series, and how much it is in the Agatha Christie/Sir Arthur Conan Doyle mould/genre/tone/style..! Aye carumba! )
------------------
So, yeah...
That's my `take' on why those best-selling novels (novelists) are all successful - and what you need to do, if you want to emulate that Bestseller success. They all do those 10 things.
(Then again - I am a priveleged white male. If it helps, I feel real guilty about it.)
Okay - Motivational hyperlink time... check this out:
http://www.paywizard.org/main/VIPPaycheck/VIPpaycheckauthors
Ok - so you have the `10 Rules'...
Now - get cracking on that best-seller novel !!!!
Hope it helps..!
PS - If you want some inspiration, read this novel:
http://www.amazon.com/AM-SO-Meaningless-Arbitrary-ebook/dp/B004XW2GDK/
THE TOP 10 "COMMON ELEMENTS" in all BEST-SELLER NOVELS
So... Stephanie Meyer, J K Rowling, James Patterson and Dan Brown...
What top 10 things do their bestselling fiction novels all have in common?
1) ALL ARE IN THE EXACT-SAME GENRE...
All are in the Mystery-Thriller genre. Potter has to find out who killed his parents; Cross always has to solve a murder; Langdon has to work out who is killing these people, and why; Bella has to urgently find out whether she should: a) abstain from having sex with a vampire, or b) abstain from having sex with a werewolf - (before someone gets themself killed.)
2) ALL ARE A `TEXTBOOK' CAMPBELL / VOGLER'S HERO'S JOURNEY.
All of them have the "Hero's Journey" story structure, and have all of the classic Hero's Journey Character Archetypes.
3) ALL HAVE SIMPLE/`INVISIBLE' PROSE STYLE
- All of them are written in very simple, unmemorable prose.
i.e. So that, a Young Adult (or, an old adult, or even a dummy) could read this book, without going to the dictionary every second page.
So - write like Hemingway. Small words. Short sentences. Nice.
Next!
4) THE SAME THEME
All have the same exact Theme.
ie - Revenge is sweet.
Potter wants to/(has to) avenge his parents death by Voldemort; Cross is always trying to avenge the deaths of murder victims; Langdon is trying to take revenge on the Church for its crimes; and the 2 individual males - and their `tribes' - tussling over Bella in `Twilight' are constantly Revenging on each other, at every alternate step, in her evolving relationship with them - though sometimes Bella talks them out of it.)
5) FILMIC-NESS.
All their novels are constructed with `Scenes' - just like a feature film would have.
ie - The Pacing and the Timing, Scene Structure and Length (and Dialog) - is all written `like a film screenplay'. (And have therefore been Optioned, Adapted and Filmed and - Marketed back to the fans of the books.)
Importantly - by contrast - such heartbreaking works of staggering literary genius as `The Catcher In The Rye' and `On The Road' and `The Great Gatsby' don't necessarily make for decent movies (or even Films, which are more pretentious than Movies.)... They just make for awesome literary novels. Note that - those 3 (latter) novels AREN'T mystery-thrillers.
6) CLIFFHANGERS, AT THE END OF EVERY CHAPTER.
Self-explanatory. This is partly why they are "page-turners" ("Chapter-turners"?).
This also feeds back into Point #5, ie - Films kind of HAVE to do this - or there is a lack of Suspense - which, The Audience finds: Boring.
7) All of them feature `VILLAIN TRIUMPHANT' stories.
Take a look at this White Paper we published: " PLOTTING PROFITABLE PICTURES " for more on this...
(it's FREE, here):
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/joeteevee
Also, take a look at The Feature ScreenWriter's Workbook (free - same Lulu link, above) if you aren't familiar with The Hero's Journey...
8) ALL ARE AMATEUR-DETECTIVE PSEUDO-`SHERLOCK HOLMES' STORIES...
This ties back into point #1, all of them are in the Mystery-Thriller Genre.
The hero is always a `Detective' (sometimes `amateur' detective, eg Potter and Bella) and - has to `solve the mystery / catch the killer' - or else they (or someone close to them) will die.
High-stakes, life & death suspense. If this sort of pulp fiction doesn't appeal to you, then you are not in the "mainstream'.
Then again, half the world is `below-average'. What can you do. Cest la vie. So it goes.
So, go re-read the classic Sherlock Holmes mysteries - and, create your own damn Sherlock Holmes. But - make him a wizard, or a Jedi Knight, or a forensic psychologist, or religious symbologist, or heck - a tree doctor.
9) ALL OF THEM FEATURE A "NON-EVERYMAN", `ELITE' HERO...
Harry Potter is `special' - born of `special' parents, with an amazing talent. (See: Luke Skywalker in `Star Wars'.) Cross is a super-sleuth. Langdon is a genius code-cracker. Bella isn't really good at anything much, but she is one hot, sulky, sultry babe. ie - These are NOT ordinary people. They are all `super-special'.
So - make your novel's protagonist super-special; an expert or highly-talented (or genetically gifted... which is the same thing as highly-talented anyway) at - SOMETHING.
Cops and lawyers are always popular. Look at all the `police procedural' and `legal' shows on TV.
And now - the last, most politically-contentious point:
10) ALL OF THE HEROES ARE PRIVILEGED WHITE MALES.
Ok - so, Bella isn't a male - but Edward Cullen sure is, they don't come much whiter n' a vampire. Sheesh.
(Tip: Don't go writing about a non-white Hero, in your would-be best-selling novel.)
Make the bad guys as `ethnic' as you wanna, though.
Hey - knock yourself out, make the bad guy a spooky albino, with a weird spiky chain-garter thingy on his thigh... :)
------------------
So, yeah... that's my `angle' on why those best-selling novels (novelists) are successful - and what you need to do, if you want to emulate that Bestseller success.
(Then again - I am a priveleged white male. If it helps, I feel real guilty about it.)
Okay - Motivational hyperlink time... check this out:
http://www.paywizard.org/main/VIPPaycheck/VIPpaycheckauthors
Ok - so you have the `10 Rules'...
Now - get cracking on that best-seller novel !!!!
Hope it helps..!
What top 10 things do their bestselling fiction novels all have in common?
1) ALL ARE IN THE EXACT-SAME GENRE...
All are in the Mystery-Thriller genre. Potter has to find out who killed his parents; Cross always has to solve a murder; Langdon has to work out who is killing these people, and why; Bella has to urgently find out whether she should: a) abstain from having sex with a vampire, or b) abstain from having sex with a werewolf - (before someone gets themself killed.)
2) ALL ARE A `TEXTBOOK' CAMPBELL / VOGLER'S HERO'S JOURNEY.
All of them have the "Hero's Journey" story structure, and have all of the classic Hero's Journey Character Archetypes.
3) ALL HAVE SIMPLE/`INVISIBLE' PROSE STYLE
- All of them are written in very simple, unmemorable prose.
i.e. So that, a Young Adult (or, an old adult, or even a dummy) could read this book, without going to the dictionary every second page.
So - write like Hemingway. Small words. Short sentences. Nice.
Next!
4) THE SAME THEME
All have the same exact Theme.
ie - Revenge is sweet.
Potter wants to/(has to) avenge his parents death by Voldemort; Cross is always trying to avenge the deaths of murder victims; Langdon is trying to take revenge on the Church for its crimes; and the 2 individual males - and their `tribes' - tussling over Bella in `Twilight' are constantly Revenging on each other, at every alternate step, in her evolving relationship with them - though sometimes Bella talks them out of it.)
5) FILMIC-NESS.
All their novels are constructed with `Scenes' - just like a feature film would have.
ie - The Pacing and the Timing, Scene Structure and Length (and Dialog) - is all written `like a film screenplay'. (And have therefore been Optioned, Adapted and Filmed and - Marketed back to the fans of the books.)
Importantly - by contrast - such heartbreaking works of staggering literary genius as `The Catcher In The Rye' and `On The Road' and `The Great Gatsby' don't necessarily make for decent movies (or even Films, which are more pretentious than Movies.)... They just make for awesome literary novels. Note that - those 3 (latter) novels AREN'T mystery-thrillers.
6) CLIFFHANGERS, AT THE END OF EVERY CHAPTER.
Self-explanatory. This is partly why they are "page-turners" ("Chapter-turners"?).
This also feeds back into Point #5, ie - Films kind of HAVE to do this - or there is a lack of Suspense - which, The Audience finds: Boring.
7) All of them feature `VILLAIN TRIUMPHANT' stories.
Take a look at this White Paper we published: " PLOTTING PROFITABLE PICTURES " for more on this...
(it's FREE, here):
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/joeteevee
Also, take a look at The Feature ScreenWriter's Workbook (free - same Lulu link, above) if you aren't familiar with The Hero's Journey...
8) ALL ARE AMATEUR-DETECTIVE PSEUDO-`SHERLOCK HOLMES' STORIES...
This ties back into point #1, all of them are in the Mystery-Thriller Genre.
The hero is always a `Detective' (sometimes `amateur' detective, eg Potter and Bella) and - has to `solve the mystery / catch the killer' - or else they (or someone close to them) will die.
High-stakes, life & death suspense. If this sort of pulp fiction doesn't appeal to you, then you are not in the "mainstream'.
Then again, half the world is `below-average'. What can you do. Cest la vie. So it goes.
So, go re-read the classic Sherlock Holmes mysteries - and, create your own damn Sherlock Holmes. But - make him a wizard, or a Jedi Knight, or a forensic psychologist, or religious symbologist, or heck - a tree doctor.
9) ALL OF THEM FEATURE A "NON-EVERYMAN", `ELITE' HERO...
Harry Potter is `special' - born of `special' parents, with an amazing talent. (See: Luke Skywalker in `Star Wars'.) Cross is a super-sleuth. Langdon is a genius code-cracker. Bella isn't really good at anything much, but she is one hot, sulky, sultry babe. ie - These are NOT ordinary people. They are all `super-special'.
So - make your novel's protagonist super-special; an expert or highly-talented (or genetically gifted... which is the same thing as highly-talented anyway) at - SOMETHING.
Cops and lawyers are always popular. Look at all the `police procedural' and `legal' shows on TV.
And now - the last, most politically-contentious point:
10) ALL OF THE HEROES ARE PRIVILEGED WHITE MALES.
Ok - so, Bella isn't a male - but Edward Cullen sure is, they don't come much whiter n' a vampire. Sheesh.
(Tip: Don't go writing about a non-white Hero, in your would-be best-selling novel.)
Make the bad guys as `ethnic' as you wanna, though.
Hey - knock yourself out, make the bad guy a spooky albino, with a weird spiky chain-garter thingy on his thigh... :)
------------------
So, yeah... that's my `angle' on why those best-selling novels (novelists) are successful - and what you need to do, if you want to emulate that Bestseller success.
(Then again - I am a priveleged white male. If it helps, I feel real guilty about it.)
Okay - Motivational hyperlink time... check this out:
http://www.paywizard.org/main/VIPPaycheck/VIPpaycheckauthors
Ok - so you have the `10 Rules'...
Now - get cracking on that best-seller novel !!!!
Hope it helps..!
April 25, 2011
David Siegel's 9 Act Structure - and thriller stuff, like Dan Brown, and whatnot
So, in this, the (free), Feature Screenwriter's Workbook:
(Note: Free)
The David Siegel 9-Act Model of Storytelling is summarized...
I of course, refer to: Page 68 of the above:
DAVID SIEGEL'S NINE-ACT STRUCTURE
David Siegel, WWW design legend and author of Designing Killer Web Sites has
invented his own structural film story paradigm.
His `Nine-Act Structure‟ runs thus:
Act 0: Someone Toils Late into the Night.
Act 1: Start with an image.
Act 2: Something bad happens.
Act 3: Meet the Hero (and the Opposition).
Act 4: etc
Act 5: etc
Act 6: etc
Act 7: etc
Act 8: etc
Source: http://www.dsiegel.com/film/Film_home...
So, in this paradigm, the "someone" in "Act 0" refers to a Bad Guy...
When he is "toiling late into the night" Siegel means: someone like Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), the villain in DIE HARD :
i.e. - Hans plans to rob the vault of the Nakatomi Building, and obviously, mid-divorce cop John McLane (Bruce Willis) gets stuck in the middle with him , as Stealer's Wheel might say...
Or, say the dead guy in The Louvre, in The Da Vinci Code .
This ties into something Stephen de Souza (screenwriter of DIE HARD ) also says - namely that The Bad Guy is actually the Protagonist, in almost all Action films - and the good guy is the Antagonist, even though we (The Audience) root for him...
i.e. - The good guy is reactive, in trying to foil (or - survive) the Bad Guy, but essentially the Bad Guy's actions "drive" the story...
This is how most action / thriller novels work too:
Dan Brown's story stuff ( The Da Vinci Code , etc) is usually kicked off a bunch of bad guys toiling late into the night, eg Opus Dei - or - some such. This backstory comes out later.
Jurassic Park , (that guy trying to steal the eggs... you know, Neumann) and - many others by Michael Crichton... (eg Westworld, which is just Jurassic Park with cowboy-robots)
All of James Bond... (the Act 0 "someone" would be Dr No, Goldfinger, or Blofeld, Kananga, Scaramanga, or Dr Evil, etc)
All of the Jason Bourne series...(er, in the first one, probably Conklin, if not Wombosi - or maybe even Bourne/David Webb himself...? )
All of Stephen King...
- etc...
This also ties into something in PLOTTING PROFITABLE PICTURE$, the White Paper, which is also free, here:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/joeteevee
Namely that - the Top 20 Return-On-Investment Films Ever - are all "VILLAIN TRIUMPHANT" stories.
Something to think about, when plotting films, novels, or even songs with a narrative.
The song "Long Black Veil" is a good example of this.
Check out how many covers have been done of this song(?!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Black_Veil_(song)
Lyrics here:
http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/33466/
However - whether this song is also a VILLAIN TRIUMPHANT genre, remains debatable.
The real killer got away... BUT - The guy did cheat on his best friend's wife.
Morally and ethically, that makes the Narrator the bad guy...
Also, it makes the song a Bangsian Fantasy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangsian_fantasy
If Bangsian Fantasy is "your thing" (for e.g. - The 6th Sense, Sunset Blvd, American Beauty, etc) then, maybe go here for a "BangsTian" Fantasy:
See the novels BaNGST - and especially, AM SO AS.
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/joeteevee
Ciao 4 niao...
(Note: Free)
The David Siegel 9-Act Model of Storytelling is summarized...
I of course, refer to: Page 68 of the above:
DAVID SIEGEL'S NINE-ACT STRUCTURE
David Siegel, WWW design legend and author of Designing Killer Web Sites has
invented his own structural film story paradigm.
His `Nine-Act Structure‟ runs thus:
Act 0: Someone Toils Late into the Night.
Act 1: Start with an image.
Act 2: Something bad happens.
Act 3: Meet the Hero (and the Opposition).
Act 4: etc
Act 5: etc
Act 6: etc
Act 7: etc
Act 8: etc
Source: http://www.dsiegel.com/film/Film_home...
So, in this paradigm, the "someone" in "Act 0" refers to a Bad Guy...
When he is "toiling late into the night" Siegel means: someone like Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), the villain in DIE HARD :
i.e. - Hans plans to rob the vault of the Nakatomi Building, and obviously, mid-divorce cop John McLane (Bruce Willis) gets stuck in the middle with him , as Stealer's Wheel might say...
Or, say the dead guy in The Louvre, in The Da Vinci Code .
This ties into something Stephen de Souza (screenwriter of DIE HARD ) also says - namely that The Bad Guy is actually the Protagonist, in almost all Action films - and the good guy is the Antagonist, even though we (The Audience) root for him...
i.e. - The good guy is reactive, in trying to foil (or - survive) the Bad Guy, but essentially the Bad Guy's actions "drive" the story...
This is how most action / thriller novels work too:
Dan Brown's story stuff ( The Da Vinci Code , etc) is usually kicked off a bunch of bad guys toiling late into the night, eg Opus Dei - or - some such. This backstory comes out later.
Jurassic Park , (that guy trying to steal the eggs... you know, Neumann) and - many others by Michael Crichton... (eg Westworld, which is just Jurassic Park with cowboy-robots)
All of James Bond... (the Act 0 "someone" would be Dr No, Goldfinger, or Blofeld, Kananga, Scaramanga, or Dr Evil, etc)
All of the Jason Bourne series...(er, in the first one, probably Conklin, if not Wombosi - or maybe even Bourne/David Webb himself...? )
All of Stephen King...
- etc...
This also ties into something in PLOTTING PROFITABLE PICTURE$, the White Paper, which is also free, here:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/joeteevee
Namely that - the Top 20 Return-On-Investment Films Ever - are all "VILLAIN TRIUMPHANT" stories.
Something to think about, when plotting films, novels, or even songs with a narrative.
The song "Long Black Veil" is a good example of this.
Check out how many covers have been done of this song(?!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Black_Veil_(song)
Lyrics here:
http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/33466/
However - whether this song is also a VILLAIN TRIUMPHANT genre, remains debatable.
The real killer got away... BUT - The guy did cheat on his best friend's wife.
Morally and ethically, that makes the Narrator the bad guy...
Also, it makes the song a Bangsian Fantasy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangsian_fantasy
If Bangsian Fantasy is "your thing" (for e.g. - The 6th Sense, Sunset Blvd, American Beauty, etc) then, maybe go here for a "BangsTian" Fantasy:
See the novels BaNGST - and especially, AM SO AS.
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/joeteevee
Ciao 4 niao...
