Larry Brooks's Blog, page 24

Two Short (but killer) Guest Posts from Art Holcomb

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

Legends say that when a victorious Roman general returned to Rome, he was allowed to march his armies, his captives and his spoils through the sacred streets of the city. He would ride in a great gilded chariot in all his finery – and at his feet would sit the slave who held a small bunch of burning straws which during the procession turned to ashes.  The slave would repeat to the general a phrase meant to remind him – at that particular moment of triumph – that he was only mortal:

“Sic transit gloria mundi.”

(“Thus all the glories of the world pass away.”)

- Keystone Publishing, “Court Jesters and Public Slaves”

Glory comes in all shapes and sizes.

The glory of publication – The glory of acceptance.

All glory is fleeting.  You must always move on to the next challenge if you want to keep the crown.

This is the greatest truth that a writer needs to hear.  That there is no sitting on one’s laurels.  Careers have arcs just like stories.

There may be financial successes for you and acts designed to flatter the ego.  There may be tributes and resounding reviews.

The only thing that matters is the truth and the ever increasing body of work.

Any one writer who has but one book out, even a Gone with the Wind, must be considered suspect.

I’m a story teller but within that vehicle I strive to tell the truths of my life.  To say at every turn – with every day of writing and with every finished work – that I WAS HERE.

To paraphrase Ellison:

            “For a brief time I was here and for a brief time, I mattered.”

In the end for a writer, the body of work is the only sign that you were ever here.

*****

The Stephen King of Funny Cat Videos 

“There are two ways into Hollywood – you are going to have to write what they’re buying or sell them your dream.” 

- Scott Meyers, screenwriter of K-9 and Lecturer on Film at UNC-Chapel Hill 

I recently came back from a conference in sunny San Diego where I ran a writer’s workshop for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror writers with author Peter Clines (Ex-Heroes, 14, website )

We had an excellent group.  Writers of all ages and experiences.

Lots of enthusiasm.  Lots of talent.

Lots of zombie stories.

Most of the writers who attend these kinds of workshops are new, pre-published and still trying to find their voice. One can hear the resounding echoes of other writers in their works – Rowlings, Collins, King, etc., and I expect this at the beginning of many careers.

Because these writers are each in the process of developing his/her own process.

But there are a couple of dangers here. 

The first is about VOICE: 

Some authentic voices were emerging out amongst these writers, but many tried to write the way they believe writers should sound, instead of sounding like themselves. So what you end up with are very clever people trying to sound clever when they could simply unclench a bit – and just let their very clever, talented, and interesting selves shine through.

The second problem is about PERSPECTIVE:

Now, I don’t mind zombie stories – I believe whatever genre and sub-genre excited these new writer enough to actually write is a good thing . . .

 . . .In the beginning.

But – for example – did you know that, when you enter the phrase “funny cat videos” into the search engine for YouTube, you get something on the order of 3,600,000 hits . . .

3.6 million variations on the same theme. And over 1 billion entries if you so the same search on Google.

All cute, all adorable – and all pale variations on a theme.

Voice and perspective.  Hard to develop, harder still to mainstain, but vital to the soul of the writer.

Without them, you are just another guy with a video camera documenting the hilarity of something that is not quite human. And in that lies the real problem: Nothing in the known universe has ever been more human than Story.

Now . . . you could become the best at this.  The most popular, most universally loved, the absolute Stephen King of Cat Videos if you like.

But why?

The nature of drama and story is breathtaking and powerful, unique and emotional. The real estate of the page is some of the most precious in the world and your time and treasure are severely limited. Why spend it writing about something that looks like any of the 3.6 million other, similar, non-unique cat stories.

When one person’s writing becomes indistinguishable from another and these two people have never met, it is the culture speaking and not a person.

You have to know – you have the power and the spark in each of you. 

There are things that you want to say, need to say and they can come out through theme and subtext – blatant and true at the heart of your story. You have to always say what you believe needs saying.

In short, you have to sell them your dreams.

Your goal should not be to be a great craftsman of something entertaining but ubiquitous.  You’re better than that.  The popular vampire and zombie stories that fill the popular media today are the high-calorie fast food of our time – not because of their genre but because they were written as attractive products and not as works of Craft and Art.  And while some excellent writing has been done in their names, there can be but one Bram Stoker, and one Mary Shelley and one William Seabrook or George Romero.

These types of stories are akin to working with licensed properties.  The constraints can be invigorating but they don’t allow the writer to tell your story – because you are telling their story

Because, at some point, what they’re buying is no longer likely to be the same as what they’ve bought

You can’t control or predict what they’re buying. Trends change, sometimes on a dime and one would have to be clairvoyant to know where the industry and the public’s desires are going in advance.

But, in the end, here’s what everyone really wants: A good idea, excitingly told and competently written – that they can’t get anywhere else.

Give me a new perspective. Meet the story with conflict and drama. Take me out of myself. 

All these things are within your control

In the end, the only person who should be writing a classic Stephen King story is STEPHEN KING . . . and perhaps not even him.

*****

Art Holcomb is a screenwriter and comic book creator. His most recent comic book property is THE AMBASSADOR and his most recent project for TV is entitled THE STREWN.  His new writing book is tentatively entitled “SAVE YOUR STORY: How to Resurrect Your Abandoned Story and Get It Written NOW!” (Release TBA.)

Larry’s add to Art’s bio: when he’s not on set doing rewrite work or chasing a deadline for a studio script assignment, he’s also a major screenwriting teacher at the University level, a story development coach and a sought-after workshop facilitator at writing conferences around the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two Short (but killer) Guest Posts from Art Holcomb is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

Interview With a Novelist Turned “It Boy” Television Writer

A week or so ago I pointed you to The Daily Beast for an interview with Robert Harris about his new novel, An Officer and a Spy… and before that, to a killer interview with Michael Connelly.

I’d like to thank The Daily Beast for doing all this work for me, all I need to do is provide the link and we’re all in this together.

Here’s another one.  Another peek behind the curtain of a writer currently making the most of his Big Break.

His name is Nic Pizzolatto, a writing teacher who published his first novel a couple of years ago, Galveston, A Novel.  It was a fine debut, putting him in the cross-hairs of opportunity on several fronts, the most visible of which his is new television program, True Detective, starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey.

If you haven’t seen it, and the raw tough stuff is your cup of strong tea, by all means run to your On Demand and play catch up.  The fourth of eight episodes airs this Sunday, and as the writer tells us here, things are about to get heated up.

The writing on this program is stellar, both in terms of dialogue and narrative storyline.  It liberally relies on the type of character monologues that have made Aaron Sorkin an icon in the scripting business, and it’s something we should all notice as writers, as well as viewers.  Because it’s something that, when all else is right, can really differentiate a novel from the middling crowd.

As with the Harris article, there’s lots here for writers.  Enjoy.

 

Interview With a Novelist Turned “It Boy” Television Writer is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

The Key to Making Your Historical Novel Publishable

It is some combination of confusing, intimidating and challenging to hear that the very thing that brings a story to life can also  – too often, in fact – be the thing that kills it.  This is especially true in the historical genre, as well as science fiction and fantasy.

It’s like salt in a great recipe.  Absolutely necessary.  But too much and the dish is rendered inedible, even though it remains visually appealing on the plate upon which it is served.  Toxicity, in food and in storytelling, is often invisible.

The learning is this: it’s not about the salt.  Never was, never will be.

Relative to fiction, I’m talking about “world building.”

Writing a story about a time and a place from history (the battle of Iwo Jima, the Alamo, the theater where Lincoln was shot, the Garden of Eden… etc.), for the primary purpose of transporting the reader into that time and place… at the expense of a compelling story unfolding within it… is the great trap for well-intentioned writers who don’t get this principle.

It is also the reason so many historicals get rejected.

And therein resides the seductive aspect of that trap: for you, the author, it very well might be all about the world you are building. It’s why you’re writing it in the first place.

You began with an interest in the time and place of the history you are writing about.  Including the reliving of an actual event or time-span.  You want to take the reader there with you, and so, you focus on the time and the place, even the event itself, rather than unleashing a compelling story that unfolds there, like a windmill on a landscape.

When that’s the case, story can become an obligation.  And too often when that’s the case, it comes off as a contrivance.

It’s not about the landscape.  When it works, it’s about the windmill.

The story of the ticket taker at the Ford Theater on the night Lincoln was shot… that’s not dramatic enough.  Been there, read about that, saw the movie.  Unless you make it dramatic and compelling enough to warrant a novel on its own, which means you have to integrate your story into the historical one.  How?

Having that ticket-taker at the Ford Theater witness the tragic events of the night and then tell us his version… that isn’t enough.  Having the people behind the assassination set out to eliminate him as a witness (speculative or not; who knows, maybe in your fiction the local cops wanted to frame J.W. Booth as an easy heroic fix)… now that is a story that will get you published.  Same time and place, same potential to transport the reader there… but now it’s a story within the real story that comes at it from a new angle.  Speculative or not.

Understanding the difference in that example is your ticket.

Published authors in these genres know how to strike the right balance between ambiance and dramatic tension involving the hero of the story (versus a hero who observes it, or wanders around from thing to thing while it’s all going down).  Because they understand that, while the reader may have (like you) come for the world building (“I love WWII stories,” for example), they stay for the story.

The best way to learn the difference is to see it in play.

A novel should never be a tour of anything, as its primary narrative objective.

It should give us a hero with a problem to solve and/or a goal to reach… with opposition along the way… and stakes hanging in the balance, the strength of which moves the reader toward empathy.

This is as true for historicals as it is with any other genre.

Unless you’re reading unpublished (and unpublishable) work, you won’t find this type of lopsided, drama-lite, ambiance-rich narrative out there.  In published novels you’ll find the balance stricken properly.  The key for us as writers, then, becomes recognizing it as such.

And then applying that recognition to our own stories.

The best historicals plop their hero smack in the middle of the action.  They play a role, they move the story along, rather than just watching the story move along.  Unless your hero is a known person from that page in history, you’ll need to invent someone, and a role for them, that fits seamlessly into the actual history.  An unsung hero in a well-known set piece.

Not all historical novels revolve around a documented event.

Ff your story is set in a time and place and that is the scope of your historical ambition (perfectly fine, by the way), you still need to present a compelling story that makes the time and place dramatic.   In The Help (yes, it really was a historical novel), Kathryn Stockett certainly took us back to 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, but the story she told — the dramatic plot and the players within it — was totally of her own creation.

As in any genre, it is the quality of your invention that makes it work.  In a historical novel you didn’t invent the history (either specific or ambient), which is why it needs more than the history itself.

Otherwise it’s like taking your reader to Disneyland after they’ve shut the place down… the fun lasts about 10 minutes before they turn off the lights, and there’s no caramel corn anywhere in sight.

The reader is always there for the ride, no matter how vivid and compelling the park itself (your time and place) may be.

Read this piece and find the gold that illustrates these points.

Bestselling author Robert Harris (Fatherland) has written a new spy novel based on actual events (An Officer and A Spy), a story so vividly drawn within a time and a place from history that the environment itself becomes organic and natural… allowing the story to emerge from within it.

This article from The Daily Beast wasn’t written for writers, per se, but if you look closely you’ll see how Harris has honored (seized the inherent power of) the principles described above: the story trumps the ambiance of the history, all while seizing the gritty ambiance of it both in terms of time/place and the events themselves, which are well documented.

****

Thanks go out to Mike Wustrack for sending this my way.

 

 

The Key to Making Your Historical Novel Publishable is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

Promote Your New eBook Like a Pro

Helpful Tips For Social Media Promotion of Your Ebook

a guest post by Anna Fox

Once the words are out and the proofing is done, you’ll find yourself with an ebook that’s ready to be published and, if all goes according to plan, adored by the public at large, making you a healthy amount of money and establishing you as a writer whose work is well worth reading.

The trick to achieving that goal lies in your ability to moonlight as a marketer. When it comes to self-publishing, you lose the assets that traditional publishing firms have to offer, and there is probably no asset that you’ll miss as much as having a well-trained advertiser on your side.

Luckily, though, the web at large and social media in particular make being an effective marketer easier than you may think, allowing you to be a full-time writer and a part-time advertiser, and all to wonderful results.

If you’ve got an ebook to self-publish and you want it to be the success that you’ve always dreamed of, follow these seven helpful tips for social media promotion of your ebook:

1. Prepare Your Accounts

No social media promotion can take place without well-connected accounts, of course, so the first step in getting the word about your new ebook out to the world at large requires that you start making friends with people online who share a common interest with the themes and ideas that your book touches on.

Whether you’re using Facebook, Twitter, or any other of the seemingly endless different social networks, such as the very helpful social sharing hub MyBlogGuest, you’ll need to make as many connections as possible in order to build an audience worth hawking your wares to.

2. Orchestrate a Build Up

Exactly how far and wide you’re able to spread the word about your book in advance of its release will determine just how successful your sales at launch are, so you’ll need to come up with an intriguing marketing plan in the months leading up to the big release date. This can involve any number of tactics, so long as they’re always aimed towards helping more people to be aware of your book, what it has to offer, and exactly why they should be looking forward to reading it.

To this end, consider releasing tantalizing details about settings, plot lines, and characters, the wittiest and most humorous of quotes from the book, and any associated media such as artwork, photography, and other visual aids. All of this will combine to have your fans genuinely excited for what’s to come, even while building what will surely prove to be a loyal following as you build your writing career.

3. Celebrate Your Launch in (Virtual) Style

Parties may have required a physical address in years past, but social media has made it possible to come together with hundreds or even thousands of like-minded people virtually, and this represents a fantastic way to get your book off of the ground, build excitement among your buyers, and help both word of mouth and internet buzz to draw in many more people who may be interested in spending a few dollars in order to read what you’ve written.

4. Unique Hashtags and Keywords Build Buzz

While connecting with like-minded readers, each of them a potential buyer, on popular social networking websites is a fantastic start, the real audience is out there, among the millions of people who may very well love your book, but also run the risk of never hearing about it at all.

Hashtags and keywords to the rescue! Whether you’re writing about your book in thousands of words on a blog or in 140 characters on Twitter, be sure to use hashtags and keywords that reflect the many nuances of your book. For example, if you’re publishing a financial how-to guide, you’d mention keywords such as “making money” and “increasing wealth.” If you’ve written a fantasy novel a la Harry Potter, you’d go the route of utilizing hashtags like “#magic” and “#fantasy.”

This type of effort is exactly what you need to draw new people into your circle, helping them to find you via searches and social trends and growing your ebook-related network with potential readers who have a real, genuine interest in your topic. Those are, after all, the people most likely to invest in the cost of your work.

5. Connect with Each and Every Fan

Your fans pay the bills; therefore, your fans deserve your attention. Even once your ebook has been released and sales start happening, be sure to continue to give your readers all of the social attention that they ask for, helping them to feel at home with both you and your book.

Besides earning the appreciation of readers and giving them a good reason to tell a friend about how well-written and approachable you are, you’ll also begin building the kind of following that promises to follow you from publication to publication, helping you to achieve success in the future as you push further into your career as a writer.

6. Contests, Competitions, and Giveaways – Oh My!

Generating buzz around a new ebook, whether it be a technical manual aimed at web designers or a fanciful piece of fiction, can be exceptionally difficult, but offering up freebies is always a great way to grab the attention of potential buyers and new fans.

Leading up to the launch of your ebook, use your social media status to host interactive contests that result in your followers getting a free copy of your work. Try to create the contests in such a way that they relate directly to your topic, helping you to generate buzz not only around what you promise to give away, but also around your topic itself.

Remember: a single copy of your ebook costs absolutely nothing to give away, so don’t be stingy when it comes to allowing no-cost copies of your work to make their way to the masses. Besides intriguing potential new buyers with the interest that your promotional tactics will inspire, you’ll also be setting up more and more people with the ability to spread the word about how much they enjoyed and how much they took from your book, and that may very well turn out to be the most important advertising of all.

7. Be an Expert in Your Niche

With so much competition out there, you can be sure that there is very little new under the sun, and that requires that you make very sure that you know exactly what you’re talking about, letting your readers know that your words are worth consuming, even amongst the many millions of words available to them at any given time.

If you’re writing a technical manual, be sure to always know what you’re talking about, not only within your work, but when associating with fans and followers, as well. If you’ve written a historical piece, know your history. If you’re pushing a fantasy novel, know the niche well enough to appeal to those readers who are sure to be well-versed in the niche.

Images Credits: keywords, blogging.

About the author: Anna Fox is the writer addicted to self-improvement. She is running a blog where you can find dozens of tips for increasing productivity. For spreading the word about her ideas she is using Viral Content Buzz – free social media platform for content promotion.

Promote Your New eBook Like a Pro is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

Phillip Margolin – The Storyfix Interview

The New York Times bestselling author discusses his latest novel, why it took 30 years to get it out, and reflects on what it takes to reach your goals in this business.

Larry: Your new novel, “Worthy Brown’s Daughter,” is a departure from your usual genre, though it’s still a “legal thriller” (this one set in the mid-1800s, making it a “historical” in terms of categorization).  Can you tell us how the idea came to you, and why it took you 30 years to get from there to here?

PM:  Sometime in the early 1980s I ran across an article about Holmes v. Ford, an 1853 case from the Oregon Territory. Colonel Nathaniel Ford brought a family of slaves – Robin and Polly Holmes and their five children – from Missouri to Oregon. He promised to free them if they would help him establish a farm in the Willamette Valley. They kept their promise but Ford only freed Robin and Polly and a small child and kept four children as his servants. Oregon was very racist in the 1800s. Our Constitution barred free Negroes from Oregon if they weren’t living in Oregon when it the constitution was passed. These two illiterate, impoverished ex-slaves had to find a white lawyer who would help them get their children back. In 1853, George Williams, the Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court ordered Ford to return the children but one child died while in his custody.

I thought this story was heartbreaking and I was inspired to write a novel based on it but I didn’t know enough history to do that. I spent the next six years doing research on the period and, more specifically, on what it would have been like to practice law in the Wild West.

I finished a draft in the late 1980s but I didn’t feel it was good enough to be published. In 1993, I published my first bestseller, “Gone But Not Forgotten,” and I put my historical novel away while I worked on contemporary legal thrillers. In 2010, I finished a book well ahead of deadline and decided to give my historical novel another look. My agent didn’t think it was publishable as written but she made some excellent suggestions for a rewrite. I scrapped the earlier version and did a complete rewrite starting at page one. This version was totally different from the others and HarperCollins bought it.

Larry: Being so established in the modern legal thriller niche, how much arm twisting was required to get your agent and publisher to line up behind the idea?

PM: HarperCollins and my agents were very supportive. I’ve heard of other writers who have tried to change genres and been rebuffed by their publisher. This never happened with HarperCollins. I believe there were several reasons for their terrific support. First, I believe this is the best book I’ve written and my publisher appreciated the quality of the work. Second, although “Worthy Brown’s Daughter” deals with serious subjects like slavery and dealing with grief at the loss of a spouse, it also has all the elements of my contemporary thrillers including a surprise ending in the middle of a murder trial. The book can be read as a serious literary novel, an historical novel, a western or a legal thriller and I believe that HarperCollins realized that these multi-genre aspects of the book might attract people to my work who may not have read me before.

Larry: You’ve written 17 NY Times Bestsellers, which is amazing.  What was the most powerful “tip” you learned early on, and what would you say now, after being on that A-list for this long, to writers who would like to earn their way to such visibility, as well?

PM: Don’t try to figure out what you must write to get published or make the bestseller list; write something that excites you. If you look at most first novels, even ones that aren’t particularly good, they all have a certain energy that comes from a writer getting an idea that excites them.

Larry: Just like King tends to keep his stories in Maine, you tend to set yours in Portand and the Northwest.  Is that a comfort level thing, a branding strategy, the leveraging of “real” cases, or something else?

PM: I set my books in Oregon because I love Portland and the Pacific Northwest. Also, when I start my books with the sentence “It was a dark and stormy night” I’m not lying most of the year.’

Larry: You were kind enough to read and blurb my new novel.  How many blurb requests a month do you normally receive, and do you have advice for those who reach out to “name” authors without the prior-acquaintance advantage that I had with you?

PM:  I am asked to blurb books a few times a year and I only blurb a book – even if it is written by a friend – if I like it. I will not read a book for a blurb unless it has been accepted for publication.

Thanks to Phillip Margolin for taking the time to share with us.  That tip about writing what you love, rather than writing what you think will sell, is a game-changer.  That said… what excites you still needs to be written in context to the proven principles of story physics for it to work.  His new book demonstrates that, as well.

Worthy Brown’s Daughter releases January 21, 2014, from HarperCollins.

Click HERE to go to the book’s Amazon.com page…  HERE to go to Phillip Margolin’s Amazon.com Author site… and HERE to go to his personal website, which is excellent.

****

A Short Review of Worthy Brown’s Daughter

by Larry Brooks

Given that Phil blurbed my new novel (DeadlyFaux), and then appeared here in this interview, you might question my objectivity as a reviewer of his new novel, Worthy Brown’s Daughter.

Don’t.  I can tell you with complete honesty, objectivity, clarity and sincerity that Worthy Brown’s Daughter is an excellent novel, immersive and even disturbing (in a good way) to read.  And if you’re a Phillip Margolin fan already, you’ll find it to be a refreshing mash-up of his familiar take on all things lawyerly and a perfectly nuanced trip back in time to the mid-1800s Pacific Northwest.  If you’ve ever wanted to time travel, this novel is as close as you’ll get without actually using time travel as a literary device.

For me the book was a powerful vicarious experience. I marveled at how the roots  of the modern practice of law — complete with corruption and incompetence and the value of a solid attorney who will do what it takes to have your back — was evident in the legal machinations of hero Mathew Penny as he helps a black laborer, Worthy Phillips, out of a jam compelling enough to be an Emmy-winning episode of The Good Wife.  Throw in a bombshell femme fatale who makes Sharon Stone’s Basic Instinct villain look like a pickpocket by comparison, and you have a cascade of emotional empathy driven by an ongoing stream of dramatic twists.

Evidence of story physics abounds in this novel.  All six realms are in play, and as such the novel becomes a clinic on how to tap into the forces that make a novel a rewarding reading experience.  A compelling dramatic premise that you haven’t seen before… dramatic tension fueled by a can’t-look-away plot… great pacing that allows the story to be as character-driven as it is plot-centric… emotional empathy that has you rooting for the hero as hard as you’re rooting for the villains to get hit by a stagecoach… a vicarious reading experience that plops you back in 1860 Oregon to an extent you’ll be checking your boots for mud… and a clean writing voice that infuses the read with grace minus any literary distractions.

This is how it’s done.  Read earlier Margolin novels and you’ll see the same hallmarks of excellence in play.

*****

A nice quick review of Deadly Faux can be found HERE, on Kay Kenyon’s great site for writers, along with some other “worthy” recommendations.

If you caught the pun… couldn’t stop myself.

Phillip Margolin – The Storyfix Interview is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

How Michael Connelly Writes… and What He Drinks When He Does It

An interview with the undisputed best crime novelist on the planet.

I wish I could tell you that the interview was with/from me, specifically for Storyfix.  But this link is from The Daily Beast  (click it to get to the interview, people are MISSING THIS, so I’m bolding this… so YOU won’t) was sent to me, and I’m honored to share it, typos and all (those aren’t mine, either).

In case you still missed it, CLICK HERE to read the article.

I’m particularly happy to see that he calls out one of “my” six realms of Story Physics as key to making a novel work (and not remotely to the exclusion of the others), using the exact same key word.  This is like putting forth a theory and hearing Einstein echo your thoughts… which doesn’t make you Einstein, it just makes you relevant.

I’ve never met Michael Connelly, whom, if you aren’t familiar with him, you should Google.  Or check him out on Amazon.com, where his Author Page provides a nice 101 on his ouvre, which will enhance this article for you.  There is no bigger contemporary name in the bookstore… any bookstore.

I do have three tenuous connections with him, though. 

Okay, two, and one of my own concoction.

I saw him well over ten years ago at a signing at Powell’s Books in Portland, OR.  There were about three hundred folks awaiting his arrival, most with multiple books in hand for signing, which I estimated would take him until dawn to complete.  I remember him strolling in, Starbucks in hand, looking surprised and sheepish when he saw the size of the crowd.  I thought that was cool.

Someone in the crowd asked about film adaptations of his book (this was before Blood Work in 2002, and long before the Lincoln Lawyer, which he discusses in this article).  He said they’d all been optioned, and - with a  poker face – said those options had paid for his Los Angeles house.  I thought that was cool, too… as if anyone in the room could relate to that.

Not long after, in a stunning feat of naivete, I emailed him (through his website; no, I don’t have his personal email, fat chance) prior to the publication of my first book (Darkness Bound, which has just been republished by Turner Publishing), asking for a blurb.  That happens all the time to A-List writers, by the way, and unless you have a personal connection you have, like, ZERO chance of it happening.  Didn’t happen for me, either (though the publisher, Penguin Putnam, scored a couple of A-minus list blurbs), but here’s what was amazing: he answered me.  Unlike about 20 other known names who couldn’t and still can’t dust the guy’s keyboard, who didn’t answer.  I thought that was classy.  I’ve since learned — as you are about to experience – that everything the guy does and says is classy.

And finally, the third one is… well, let me know if you can figure it out (because I can barely speak it aloud, much less write it down).  It’s a connection through reference, that’s the hint.  Free book to anyone who gets it.

Enjoy the article.  Worth the time if you’d like a peek behind the curtain of process for a writer whose work will be remembered for decades after he, and us, are gone.

****

Useless but fun sidebar: if you’re a reader here you probably have read the posts by Art Holcomb.  If you ever wondered what Art looks like, I’ll just say this: he’s a dead ringer for Michael Connelly.  Like, twins separated at birth kind of close.

Also… speaking of interviews… I have recently completed an interview with Phillip Margolin, who it could be argued is the Michael Connelly of legal thrillers (lawyers writing mystery/thrillers about lawyers).  Look for that here in about a week.

How Michael Connelly Writes… and What He Drinks When He Does It is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

Art Holcomb’s Favorite Bits of Storytelling Advice in 2013

If you aren’t familiar with Art Holcomb, use the search function (right column) and be amazed.  He’s a regular contributor to Storyfix, with some of the best content here or anywhere else. 

*****

The advice business for writers can be a minefield. 

Some things work, some don’t. But we always seek to give writers bits of knowledge that will mean something when the moment comes and they need inspiration the most.

I’m no different.  Neither is Larry. 

Writing is a lonely task and we all need guidance from time to time. I know I do.

As a gift for the New Year, I want to share with you 20 pieces of advice that I have found most helpful in my own writing in 2013.  They come from teachers such as Xander Bennett, Scot Myer, Michael Hauge and others. They made a difference in my writing.  Perhaps they’ll find a home with you as well.

Lessons from 2013

1.      Every once in a while, step back from theory and plot structure to think about your story’s place in the overall culture. What do you want your story to say, and why do we need that message right now?

2.      What you write belongs to you. Every word is a decision, and every decision is a reflection of yourself. Never forget that.

3.      Actors are trained to think in terms of scene goals, and you should too. If a character is speaking and acting at cross-purposes with their goal, it’s probably because they’re being influenced by some unspoken inner need.

4.      Everyone knows the villain is supposed to act like she’s the hero of her own story. But so should the romantic interest, the henchmen, the mentor and the supporting characters.

5.      Don’t cater to the slower members of the audience. Move fast and force them to keep up.

6.      A character should either A) strengthen what we know about them, or B) challenge what we know about them. If it doesn’t do either, maybe it doesn’t need to be in the story?

7.      Don’t feel bad about destroying large parts of your story world. You created it; you can un-create it.

8.      If you don’t like a character, nobody else will. If you’re not attracted to a character, nobody else will be. And if you don’t hate the villain, don’t expect the audience to either.

9.      Your job is to convince others that what you see in your mind’s eye is important, feasible, and makes narrative sense.

10.  A great idea is nothing without great characters.

11.  Good villains don’t just make it worse for the protagonist. They make it personal.

12.  You’re the one in control, not your characters. If they start “doing something you didn’t plan”, make them stop. Inspiration is great but not if it wrecks your carefully crafted structure

13.  Act Three (also known as “Part 4″ in the Story Engineering model for novels… it’s the same thing exactly) doesn’t necessarily have to be bigger. It just has to feel bigger to your protagonist.

14.  A story without real emotional moments will ultimately feel hollow. Remember to slow down every now and then to let your protagonist feel something.

15.  The more fun your villain appears to be having, the more the audience will hate her (and love her at the same time).

16.  The first thing your protagonist says is at least ten times more important than how they look. Write accordingly.

17.  When writing a historical story or biopic, try to put emotional truth before literal truth.

18.  When it comes to difficult story problems, start by assuming that everything you already think you know is wrong.

19.  Be honest with people about your schedule and how quickly you can write. Under-promise and over-deliver. That way if you miss a deadline you only have yourself to blame.

20.  Each time – Every time – show us something we’ve never seen before.

All the best in the New Year – and keep writing! 

Art

****

Art Holcomb is a screenwriter and comic book creator. His most recent comic book property is THE AMBASSADOR and his most recent project for TV is entitled THE STREWN.  His new writing book is tentatively entitled “SAVE YOUR STORY: How to Resurrect Your Abandoned Story and Get It Written NOW!” (Release TBA.)

Larry’s add to Art’s bio: when he’s not on set doing rewrite work or chasing a deadline for a studio script assignment, he’s also a major screenwriting teacher at the University level, a story development coach and a sought-after workshop facilitator at writing conferences around the world.

 

Art Holcomb’s Favorite Bits of Storytelling Advice in 2013 is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

Novelists: Hatch a Stronger Story Idea in 2014

 Three Ways to Discover Something New and Exciting 

But first…

For the past couple of weeks we’ve been inundated with “best of” lists for 2013 books and movies.  On the latter front, several movies scored well across the board, including a few #1 rankings each for Frances Ha and Inside Llewyn Davis.

Before I lean into the direction of the title of this post, I’d like to offer two thoughts about these movies in particular, and why they are seductively dangerous and misleading to novelists.  Both are subordinated beneath the eternal truth that storytelling in movies versus novels are similar (very similar in many cases) yet different. 

Emphasis on different.

Keep that in mind as we solider on here.

I didn’t care for either film.  I was bored silly, and very glad that: a) I wasn’t living the lives depicted there, b) that I don’t have either of these characters anywhere in my life, and c) wasn’t drinking the artistic Kool-Aid.

But that’s just me.  I’m not remotely saying they were bad films, far be it from me to dispute the findings of those who create those best of lists.  But I can say with confidence why they are dangerous fodder for novelists searching for the next Big Idea.

Because neither of those stories would work as a commercial novel, and both would be challenging as a literary novel.  (Inside Llewyn Davis was inspired by an autobiography; Frances Ha was an original screenplay.)

Neither has a story within it.  The are both entirely situational.   They drop the viewer into the very dreary world of two very dreary characters, and we splash around in that gray pool with them for two hours before walking out with anything at all other than a headache. 

They are character sketches.  They are well-rendered vignettes of darkness and hopelessness.  They are episodic, anecdotal, and without a clear point other than: life sucks then you die.  They are, in essence, the slice-of-life biographies of two characters without a discernible character arc. 

If you’re looking for resolution, or the living proof of the existence of story physics, or a good time, these are not the films to see.  If you’re looking for something that will depress the hell out of you, and/or value someone’s idea of art over entertainment, have a great time.

And, to be fair to the filmmakers and actors, they made precisely the film they set out to make, with high art and skill.  Acting Oscars for all.

Which brings me to the aforementioned point: there is something out there for everybody, both in movies and in books.  From that obviousness take this proven advice: write what you love.  Write what you’d love to read but can’t find (versus piling on to an established niche, like teen vampires and dystopian hero mythologies).  If the film (or book) is out there, the door through which new stories in that mold enters the game has probably slammed shut.

These types of “situational and plotless”– and this is my opinion, somewhat educated and tested – stories usually make for lousy, unpublished and often unreadable novels.  Even when they do make a dreary film out of such a novel, you’ll usually find that the novel indeed offered more of a dramatic spine, character arc and even the slightest whiff of resolution.

Notice that Jonathan Franzen hasn’t had either of his slice-of-life character-driven films, based on very literary, very successful books — despite offers and options — made into a movie yet.   (The great 2002 film Adaptation started out as a film based on a problematic novel — The Orchid Thief ; that screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman, was so frustrated he ended with a film about the adaptation process itself, rather than the novel… because he needed some sense of conflict and resolution to accompany the themes, and the only conflict he could come up with was within him; genius ensued.)

So, if you see these films, have a great time (and bring some Zoloft for the ride home).  But don’t take notes for your novel, and don’t for a moment think that this is something you can get away with within its covers.

Three Better Places to Find Better Dramatic Ideas

Yes, character is critical to a successful novel.  But so are dramatic tension, pace, something root for and against, all leading toward something akin to something resembling resolution. 

1.  Look Within

The most fertile ground for intriguing story triggers – because an “idea” is not a “story” yet, not until you add more layers to it – may already be on your radar.  To find it, look at your life and then add a strong dose of “what if?” focus to start a string of possibilities for… well, just about anything… and see what where it leads.

What if the fight you’re having with your spouse leads to a discovery that she/he is planning to kill you?

What if that thing you are making in the garage turns out to be something that will revolutionize an entire industry… and the folks running that industries want to either buy you out or wipe you out, either being fine with them.

I live in a condo complex where the octogenarians want to assassinate (with brooms) the two beautiful geese who arrive at our pond each year to have their babies… there are “what if?” possibilities in that, too.  (Coen brothers, call me if interested.)

You get the idea.  This “what if?” exercise works in any genre, for any topic.  And, in the end, the ultimate genius of it will be entirely your own creation, because only you get to define the breadth and scope and nature (read: how far will you go?) of the scenarios you put into play.

2.  Visit a Bookstore

Spend an hour reading book jackets.  Both the back covers and, with hardcovers, the flaps.  There you’ll find the entire story physics enchilada just short of the ending itself: concept, premise, character intro, first plot point (what complicates things and thus becomes the focus of the plot), what the hero wants, what blocks that quest, and even an invitation to discover something thematically weighty within it all.

If one of them rings your bell, if you find yourself reaching for your credit card, ask yourself why you are drawn to it.

Then listen for that bell going off on a new idea beginning to hatch, or at least the inspiration to keep digging.

3.  Visit Rottentomatoes.com

Do if for the same reason that a bookstore visit might pay off – there are dozens of current and recent films reviewed there in summary, literary form.  They’re just like book jackets, and you can ingest twenty of them in the time it’ll take you to drive to the B&N at the mall.

Another cool feature is the separate summary rankings from both critics and viewers.  It should be noted that both sides overwhelmingly disagree with me on Frances Ha(92/79) and Inside Llewyn Davis (93/75)… which means pay no attention to my filmic assessment if character-driven fare (to the exclusion of dramatic plot and resolution – not to mention having a good time) is your thing…

… and pay very close attention here relative to how these films and those like them can lead you, the novelist, into an abyss if you try to shadow them on your pages.

May your next idea in 2014 be more Hunger Games (84/81) than not, in terms of how the application of craft will lead you toward being discovered by agents, publishers and readers.

 

Novelists: Hatch a Stronger Story Idea in 2014 is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

The Key to Writing an Inherently Episodic Story… Effectively

Unless something really cool or scary happens, a novel about what happened on your summer vacation probably isn’t going to work.

Yes, “Summer of ’42” (a film based on a memoir by American screenwriter Herman Raucher) was a modern classic.  But really, did you fall in love with a married hottie like Jennifer O’Neal during your summer of “42?

Didn’t think so.

“Saving Private Ryan,” episodic as it was, wasn’t just a cinematic stage upon which the storytellers sought to illustrate the daily grind of Tom Hanks and Company as they plodded across the French countryside.  Yes, it was indeed harrowing and scary – also totally linear, and thus, episodic – but that was never the literary point of it all.

It was never the story.

Saving a U.S. solider named Ryan, for reasons that bore significant emotional weight, was the point of it all.  The mission had stakes.  It gave us a reason to root for the hero as those episodic scenes ticked off.

As an author, you need to be clear on that same dynamic –the relationship between your scenes and the higher, broader arc of your story.  The latter is what fuels the former.

Your scenes depend on, and are trumped by, the context of stakes and ultimate purpose, rather than the in-the-moment experience.  (Writers of epic battles and long days on the trail, take note here.)

And that’s the key to your episodic novel.  Even when your point is to make us feel the injustice of prejudice or the thrill of young love or the drama of a life of crime.

There needs to be more going on than simply what happens, or even what it means in terms of the reality it explores.

Episodic stories can work.

But only if you understand this principle.  Only when there is an over-arcing dramatic question in play.

Anyone who begins the writing of novel has something specific in mind – even if it seems less than specific – at Square One.  At the moment that initial spark of inspiration hits.

A novel about prejudice.  A novel about growing up in Brooklyn.  A novel about a young girl looking for her unknown parents.  A novel about being lost at sea.  A novel about heartbreak.  A novel about the challenges of being in a primary relationship.  A novel about finding a magic talisman that releases the power of an all-powerful wizard.

All are worthy.  And yet, all are inherently episodic until something else — a hero-specific dramatic question — is in play.

Trust me,  despite what the reviewers wrote, “The Help” didn’t work because it illustrated a bunch of episodes with black maids being harshly treated by their white employers, thematic and powerfully depressing as they were.  The story had much more going for it than that, even if “that” was the author’s highest purpose and her initial inspiration

Only rarely is an initial moment of clarity of purpose a fully formed “story.”  Those who begin writing a draft fueled by intention alone – “I’ll figure it out as I go…” – quickly discover there is much more involved, because so much more is always required.

Thinly disguised memoir and fictionalized true stories often fall victim to this trap.  It happened, it was excruciating and thrilling and illuminating and life-changing… and so, in your novel, you show a sequence of things that show “it” happening.  But that doesn’t exempt you from this principle… the story will tank if there isn’t an end-game in play.

To take this point to the next level, consider this: you can’t just toss in an obligatory purpose or dramatic mission as justification for a sequence of scenes, either.  Because it is the very emotional essence, the degree of weight and resonance of that is what readers will engage with…

… not because there is another battle, another abuse, another injustice to behold.  But because of what is at stake.

In the end, episodes aren’t story.  The hero’s goal, the stakes behind the goal, the encountering of opposition to that quest, always trump the hero’s memories and the daily grind of getting to them.

Battle/fight scenes are fine.  But what the hero is fighting for is what makes them work.

If you can’t get past that, consider a memoir instead.

This is why movies based on video games – where the in-the-moment experience is the appeal – have yet to draw a meaningful audience or a place in storytelling history.

The movie Tron was terrible, as a case on point, for just this reason.  As was Ender’s Game, which was based on a much more literate bestselling novel by the same name.

The latter Batman movies were terrific, because each battle the hero engaged in had consequences and backstory-driven weight to them.

The Magic of Story Development

Story development, stemming from whatever the initial idea might have been, always comes with the territory, no matter what process you employ to get there.

There are many dozens of items to check off the roster of what is required of a story that works.  If that sounds daunting, I’ve previously categorized them into six core competencies and six realms of story physics that at least give you something to shoot for.

When your initial spark is indeed the right stuff, the true grist of greatness (as it was in “The Help”), you’ll find yourself building the other eleven elements upon and around that core initial building block.

The acid test here is easy: be honest, what is your goal at any given moment in your narrative?  To plop the reader into a scene, because it happened, or it’s cool, or it’s another example of the issue at hand?  Or, is it to forward the story itself?

Without the latter, the former is always a transitory experience. 

“The Lord of the Rings” worked not because of the battle scenes, but because of the ring and what it means.   The ring was the quest, and thus it – not the endless battle scenes – was the point.  Don’t confuse episodic television or video games or the demographic nature of an audience with the art storytelling in novels.

Harry Potter was always about the hero discovering who killed his parents, and discovering himself in the process.  Every book.  Every magical scene in every book had the shadow of that larger context behind it.

A story isn’t just what happens, in what order.

A great story is more about WHY it happens.  The stakes behind the episodes, over and above the experience of the episodes.

That is the key: the stakes the characters are playing for… fighting battles for… taking dangerous journeys for… taking risks for.  Without the WHY driving those scenes we are left with little more than a diary.

There is no sacrifice when backstory, purpose and stakes enter the storytelling equation to become context for all that transpires.  Indeed, there is hope in all of this.

And in that sense, your initial idea/spark is both a gift and a burden.

Because how you frame it will make or break the story itself.

*****

UPDATE:  the deconstruction ebook using Deadly Faux as a case study is still in development.  If you’ve opted in, you’re on the list.  I hope to get this out in January.  If you haven’t opted in, click HERE for details on how to get this FREE ebook.

The Key to Writing an Inherently Episodic Story… Effectively is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

What Has Your Publisher Done For You Lately?

 

Here’s what mine did recently…  a mass mailer.  Thought I’d share it… ’tis the season. Thanks!
























“An absolute must read, DEADLY FAUX is guaranteed entertainment.” —Robert Dugoni, New York Times bestselling author of THE JURY MASTER

“After half a century of being on the lookout for a crime fiction writer with a voice that rivals Chandler’s, one has finally appeared…. His name is Larry Brooks. The guy has a slick tone and a crackling, cynical wit with lots of vivid descriptions (of both interior and exterior landscapes), and the sparkling figures of speech dance off the page and explode in your inner ear. Though as modern as an iPad 5S, he is truly and remarkably Chandleresque. He’s dazzling. Check out his new one, Deadly Faux—it’s sexy, complex, intelligent; a truly delightful novel with more plot twists than a plate of linguine swimming in olive oil.”

—James N. Frey, author of How to Write a Damn Good Novel

Set in the gritty allure of a Las Vegas casino, Deadly Faux is an unstoppable thriller of deceit and seduction.

Wolfgang Schmitt, ex-underwear model, self-proclaimed wisecrack, and cynical copywriter turned undercover agent, is biding his time, unsure how to spend the millions he scored after his recent undercover mission for the FBI (as chronicled in Bait and Switch). His life becomes suddenly more complicated when he might be called in for a new mission; if it’s off the books and calls for a touch of seduction, Wolf is the man for the job.

But trouble comes in threes. On the same day Wolf is visiting his mother in a nursing home, he makes three troubling discoveries: the place is going under and he may need to step in; the stash in his offshore account has completely vanished; and the promising new woman in his life is actually a Fed, vetting him for another undercover gig. His mission: to entrap a casino-owning couple suspected of involvement with the organized crime factions piping untold amounts of money through the gambling mecca’s glamorous underworld. All of this seems nearly impossible to pull off, probably illegal as hell, and if this is anything like his last gig, nothing is as it seems.

Full of crime, passion, and betrayal, Deadly Faux finds Wolf cornered in a dangerous undercover mission in Sin City, forced to use his wits, charm, and gambler’s luck to survive in the dark underbelly of Las Vegas.

Buy from Amazon



























Buy from Barnes & Noble



























Buy from IndieBound

Larry Brooks is the author of six critically-acclaimed thrillers, and the guy behind www.storyfix.com, one of the fastest-growing and most respected writing sites on the internet. Author of Story Engineering: Understanding the Six Core Competencies of Successful Writing and Story Physics: Harnessing the Underlying Forces of Storytelling, Brooks teaches writing workshops across the country. He lives with his wife and children in Scottsdale, AZ.

And don’t miss these other great titles from Larry Brooks:

Bait and Switch

Darkness Bound

Pressure Points

Serpent’s Dance

2013 © Turner Publishing Company | 424 Church St, Suite 2240 | Nashville, TN | 37219





This email was sent to storyfixer@gmail.com | Unsubscribe





To ensure that you continue receiving our emails, please add us to your address book or safe list.

What Has Your Publisher Done For You Lately? is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com