Larry Brooks's Blog, page 9

Is There Such a Thing as Natural Writing Talent?

I take this one head on today over at the Killzone.com, in response to a new article in a major magazine that basically says, “don’t worry about structure, you have the natural DNA to create a structurally-sound novel, based on your gut instinct.”

Not everyone is going to be happy.

****

Here’s a great learning opportunity for you: my friend Jennifer Blanchard has been leading a discussion/lecture based on my book, “Story Engineering” all week. On Monday at 7:00 EST (that’s today if you just received this via email) I’ll be on a conference call to help sum it all up… you are invited to call in and join in  (it’s totally free).

Primary dial in number: (425) 440-5100

Web: http://iTeleseminar.com/93379953

Hope to see — hear — you there!

*****

I’m very excited about my new Storyfix Virtual Classroom project, with five massively intense and content-rich training videos on key topics for emerging and experienced writers alike, including a module on story structure.

These are core principles that you can begin to learn now… rather than waiting a decade for your DNA to finally catch up.

You can’t really expected to write a novel like Stephen King writes a novel – using a draft to discover the story in full — unless and until you know what Stephen King knows. I can help with that.

Read more at my new training website HERE.

Or go to the Vimeo page to see the videos (also viewable on the site above) HERE.

The post Is There Such a Thing as Natural Writing Talent? appeared first on Storyfix.com.

The Path That Has Led Us… to This.

And in turn… to what is possible.

Storyfix.com is announcing an intense instructional opportunity for writers who are tired of waiting for the muse to descend, killer concept and contract in hand. For writers who are no longer sure that the much-vaunted seat of their well-worn pants will be the wise and artful guide to narrative gold that has been promised. That indeed, who realize the current seat of their pants needs a lot of help to get a story right, or finished at all.

When Stephen King tells you to “just write,” he forgot to mention that when you try to write a story like he does, it works best if you happen to know what he knows.

If those aren’t your pants… and if you like to try on another pair that knows more stuff (because this remains a process that actually can work, when worn by an enlightened writer), then welcome to…

The Storyfix Virtual Classroom Experience
Hardcore Training for Serious Authors

Because you are here, I can easily assume you thirst for information—insight—on how a novel is written. What dramatic propositions it is built from, the emotional triggers it leverages, the conceptual opportunities that raise it up to the light. Not just the periphery of craft so common to conference agendas – how to write better dialogue and hotter query letters, how to craft a steamy sex scene, how to choreograph convincing swordplay, surviving the anathema of adjectives…

… no, you crave the literary filet, the good stuff, the hardcore, raw-grist nuclear code of spectacular, memorable fiction within the tropes and traps of your chosen genre. Or maybe you just want to know what all that even means.

Welcome to the next step on that quest.

Long ago a senior guy (a suit) I worked with in the ad biz, someone who knew I was writing novels in my spare time, said this to me: “Maybe, Larry, your true purpose is to mentor other writers. To make a difference for them that will alter the math of their future.”

At the time I kind of liked the math analogy, but the rest actually pissed me off.

Cut to, well, way too many years later, and here we are. For me, a few million blogged words and fourteen published books later, six of them novels, three of them writing craft books (and one… well, never mind) and four ghostwriting assignments. All those concepts and sentences, yet I have come to believe that it is my writing workshops that represent the best of what I do.

Feedback says they are career-exploding, even life-changing learning experiences. In a world full of polite company kumbaya writing classes, mine are downright unique. Loud and sometimes shocking, because you won’t hear all the standard hits taught elsewhere(indeed, some of those will be wrestled to the ground), and what does sound familiar (indeed again, I don’t claim to have cornered the market on common writing principles) is framed with a clarity and promise many say made the difference for them.

For some time now I’ve nurtured the idea of taking this workshop experience to a wider, just-as-hungry audience. With the evolution of digital media, that vision has now blossomed into a reality.

I’ve created—and am now distributing at a fraction of the cost of a live writing workshop—online writing training unlike anything you will find elsewhere, digitally or live. This is content you wish you’d have internalized earlier in your writing career, and upon encountering it now, recognize that it is not too late to finally get it.

These “virtual classroom” sessions are presented as robustly narrated PowerPoints intercut with actual on-camera presenter video—truly emulating the live workshop experience—where I look you in the eye as I introduce, embellish, debunk and generally energize both key and veiled principles with real-world relevance spiced with a liberal dose of examples from bestsellers that you cannot un-see.

This is what the big name Authors know but can’t seem to clearly explain. Serious training that will shed years from your learning curve through an empowered clarity and understanding of core storytelling elements, essences, processes and applications of what makes fiction work, juxtaposed with all the common ways writers tend to fall short of those criteria.

And fall short, we do. You will learn what not to do—and why not—as clearly as you understand, perhaps for the first time, what actually does works… and more importantly, why.

I invite you to check out the new Storyfix Virtual Classroom.

Five video modules (at this writing) of 61 to 118 minutes in length that just might deliver the ah-ha! moments you’ve been looking for.

Visit my new training website, at www.storyfix-training.com… as well as the Vimeo On Demand page from which you can download these five initial training products.

As a Storyfix reader, take advantage of a unique 25-percent discount on all downloads from now until the end of February. Just use this code – Storyfix25off – in the checkout cycle.

PREVIEWS

Here is the preview for the Storyfix Virtual Classroom as a training category on Vimeo.

This eight-minute excerpt is from  Story Structure Demystified, one of the five modules currently available.

The post The Path That Has Led Us… to This. appeared first on Storyfix.com.

Launch your 2017 Writing Year With a Big Bang of Storycraft!

New Year’s resolutions are a good thing.

Not everybody always thinks so, but that’s on us. Because when they don’t work we have only ourselves to blame, including (in some instances) best intentions yielding to over-reaching.

Better to aim high, work hard and keep it real. You may learn that your real ceiling is a lot higher than you thought. Especially when you allow the principles of craft to guide you (versus storytelling-via-fingerpainting approach adopted by some).

Each new year presents exciting opportunities to reinvent our author-selves. To fortify and amplify our sense of story, which is the most important element of the three-way collision between craft, art and talent, all in the presence of a killer story premise.

Storyfix friend and contributor Jennifer Blanchard is holding the door open for you.

Starting Monday, January 2nd, through January 9, Jennifer — who had a killer year, writing nine books and completely reenergizing her writing life on multiple levels — is launching a FREE read and discuss series with a focus on her favorite writing book… a little ditty entitled Story Engineering. 

I’ll let her tell you about it — click HERE for the down low. It involves a daily assigned read in preparation for a daily live Facebook interactive event (the link to which is in the linked post), culminating in a new training protocol designed to take your storytelling from “meh” to downright “awesome.”

In case you missed the memo, Story Engineering was published by Writers Digest Books in 2011, and since then has been a consistent bestseller and best-of list dweller, a book many writers credit with having a significant impact on their career. It’s considered unique – even revolutionary – in the vast oeuvre of writing books… I keep a file full of authors who have written me to that effect upon the publication of their novel.

Just this last week, word reached me (from my friend Art Holcomb) that the book was named to a list of the “27 Best Writing Books” from Signature Reads, coming in at #3.

I know. I have trouble wrapping my head around that, too. There are some major names on the list, so you could say this was one of those “well at least that happened” moments for me.

Good to begin the year with gratitude.

Jennifer always runs a terrific event. I’ll be on the thread, as well, and there may be a live call toward the end of the sequence, where you can grill the author. ☺ There will be a recording available after the fact, as well.

My own plans for a reinvigorated 2017.

As for Storyfix.com, look for more video involvement in these posts. More deconstructions of bestsellers, too… including a closer look at The Girl On The Train later in January.

Also, I’m only a few days away form launching a new venture I’m calling The Storyfix Virtual Classroom. I’ll be creating meaty deep-dive video-based tutorials on critical aspects of story craft and process, beginning with five titles already up and available (if you’d like a peek or are simply someone who likes to be first in line) on my Vimeo VOD page. More titles will appear on a regular basis, with up to 30 or so by the end of the year.

Use the form to the left of this post to sign up for the mailing list to score discounts on new training modules as they appear.

******

Speaking of training… one more week to go before Art Holcomb’s incredible new six-part audio series, Two Drafts – Two Polishes, is available. It’s like taking Art to work with you every morning in the car, without having to spring for coffee. Click HERE to read more about this opportunity.

******

Wishing you a safe, healthy, and rewarding 2017, on the writing front as well as in your life.

Relative to this weekend… emphasis on the safe part.

Celebrate that you are a writer, and all the ways this enriches your life when you embrace it as the blessing that it is!

 

The post Launch your 2017 Writing Year With a Big Bang of Storycraft! appeared first on Storyfix.com.

A Short Primer (Video) on Story Structure… and Why It May Not Be What You Think It Is

I had a strategic opening all whipped up that introduces some of the exciting changes I have planned for Storyfix as 2017 arrives.  

But like many things that are wide and deep, it quickly got out of hand.

So here’s the less-than-strategic version: Big changes are coming. Video-based Storyfix posts (like this one). A new series of downloadable hardcore craft training videos for serious authors (with a new website). A weekly subscription service that reinvents podcasting into something more diverse.

But first, let’s get to what the headline promises.

Story structure is way more about a sequence of story contexts than it is about hard and fast percentages and what is mistakenly perceived as formulaic narrative exposition. As this six-minute video explains.

This video is from my new training module, Story Structure Demystified, which is part of the new Storyfix Virtual Classroom, which launches in January 2017.  (See more on this below.)

(Sometimes video links don’t come through on posts distributed via email. If that’s the case here, and you’re reading this wondering where the video is… click through to the Storyfix website (HERE), where you’ll find the video inserted within the post itself.

*****

I am days away from launching my new series of training videos, through what I am calling The Storyfix Virtual Classroom (website still under construction, but the bones are here). If you’d like to opt-in to the mailing list for these learning experiences – including a FREE initial module (a $39.99 value) and a 25% discount on all new releases thereafter – click HERE.

*****

If you missed the introduction to Art Holcomb’s new six-part audio training series on the writing process, click HERE, or HERE. Like all things Art Holcomb, it’s time and money well spent, which is why several hundred savvy writers have already signed-on. Be one of them.

*****

Inviting your feedback and contribution:

I am developing a new strategy to help writers move forward, as part of the Storyfix oeuvre of training assets. Your feedback on this would be appreciated (leave a comment, or email me directly at: storyfixer@gmail.com).  This something I haven’t seen done in quite this fashion.

You know what a podcast is. This will be sort of like that… only it will be delivered to your Inbox every Monday morning as a VIDEO with a rich audio narrative. Because you can receive your email on your smartphone, and can open any linked videos from there, and you can choose to play the media in your car via bluetooth. Or if you prefer, watch it on your phone, tablet or computer at your leisure.

It will literally be like a short writing workshop in your car or office. Or hey, from Subway if that’s how you’d like to spend part of your lunch hour.

I’m calling these: Morning Training Shots. They’ll be 5 to 8 minutes in length, with a laser focus on a specific aspect or application of craft, including any myth-busting required to render it more useful.

Launching in January, by the end of 2017 you’ll have as many as 50 of these installments to keep and reference as part of a library.  This information is not merely a duplication of the new Storyfix posts, which will be shorter and have a broader focus on the writing experience. Rather, these training shots are hardcore craft, pure and simple.

Subscribers will get their Morning Training Shot in their inbox every Monday before the sun rises.

These will be available on a subscription basis for $8 a month. Massive value at about two bucks per installment.  Also, for pluckers who want to get them on a one-off basis, they will also be on a dedicated Venmo OnDemand page (a growing menu of entries as the year progresses), for $5 each.

Think of today – this notice – as my focus group… what do you think?

Is this something you’d be interested in? Is it something you think would fly in the community of serious authors looking for hardcore craft information? Does the pricing seem fair and reasonable? Any other input for me?

Thanks for your time on this, I appreciate you helping to shape this strategy. Least I can do is send you the first installment for free, so email me your reactions, which I look forward to digesting.

The post A Short Primer (Video) on Story Structure… and Why It May Not Be What You Think It Is appeared first on Storyfix.com.

“The Tragedy I See At Starbucks Every Day” – a new post by Art Holcomb

There are a few things I want you to know about this post, and all the articles that appear here from Art Holcomb.

First, I post these because I value the information he provides and the credibility of its source. Art is one of the premiere writing gurus in the business, not only in the screenwriting trade, but for novelists and playwrights, as well.

Art has launched a series of audio training programs that are game-changers for writers at all levels.  When these programs are referenced here, you should know that I’m not a paid affiliate, I don’t make a cent off your enrollment.

That said, Art and I have a mutual-respect for the work we do, because we share so much relative to the nature of the writing craft, and the value of it. It’s that last part that, perhaps, sets us apart in a digital space virtually clogged with “mentors” (so many of whom are teaching how to be a successful self-promoter and self-publisher, which is a completely different skill-set than writing an effective story, which in the heat of the self-publishing gold rush seems to have descended to footnote status).

It’ll never be a footnote here, or with anything by Art Holcomb (who might, in fact, endorse my training products, as well; that’s it as far as quid pro quo is concerned… it’s backed by belief). Indeed, for both of us craft will remain where it belongs: center-stage, at the forefront of the work, as the catalyst for careers and dreams. As I launch my own line of video-based training programs very soon (see HERE to sign up for that mailing list, which includes a FREE training module and on-going discounts), that will remain the focus and the entire reason I keep writing about this stuff.

And, why I’ll continue to endorse Art Holcomb and anything he puts out there to help up reach our writing goals.

Larry

*****

Hi – this is Art – and I’m glad to be back with my friends at StoryFix!

Let me start out by telling you a story…

I went into my local Starbucks on the way to a conference in Los Angeles the other day, and conducted the same experiment that I’ve done many times before.

Got my coffee (regular drip, half-and half). Sat down and looked around.

And there they all were. I counted twelve people on their laptops, heads down, a serious look on their faces.

Furiously writing away.

Now, as a writing teacher, I’m always fascinated with what writers are creating. And so, like a busy body (and not really having anything else to do), I asked each of them a few questions:

      – What are you writing?

      – What’s the premise of  your story?

      – How long have you been working on it?

      – What draft are you on?

And so, here’s what I found out that day, which really got my attention in an alarming way:

Of this group, six were writing screenplays, six were writing novels – a nice, even split. On average they have been working on their stories for more than eleven months each, one for more than four years. Three were just starting, the others were on – at least – their fifth draft.

And therein resides the tragedy.

As a screenwriter and playwright, I’m trained to produce work quickly. My ability to get paid depends on it.  And, as a professional teacher of screenwriters and novelists, I teach my students the all-important technique of writing fast: getting the work out of their head and onto the page… and then using all their craft knowledge and process abilities to complete the work in the shortest period of time possible.

This is a vital skill. For example, when under assignment by a studio to complete a screenplay, a writer is typically asked to produce no more than two drafts and two polishes of the work – usually in less than six weeks.

Years ago, I first looked around a similar Starbucks and saw a similar sight – writers working away on draft after draft, and getting no further along toward their goal of publication or production.

So, here was the truth of the matter.

These are likely projects that will never be finished.

These are dreams that will never be achieved.

I saw the problem as twofold:  Here were writers who needed better craft skills, as well as a better process for getting their work done.

And process was the real problem here. Because it’s something that few writers even consider changing.  Most have stumbled upon a way of writing that worked for them in the beginning and they’ve stuck with it without question ever since, perhaps rejecting any solid guidance that might challenge it.

A shame, that. A real professional is always listening, always open to new and better ways of doing the work.

Is that you?

Here’s a valid analogy: writers – especially anyone who wants to have a career as a writer – are really more like athletes.  As such, we should be constantly tweaking and modifying our process to get the most work out of ourselves. (I frequently remind myself that I have only so many hours in a day, so many days in a year – and only so many years left to leave my mark on the world.)

And so, to help writers develop their fundamental craft skills, I created a comprehensive course to teach just that (my StorySkills series – many of you have already taken it).

However, that was only part of the equation, because . . .

The best craft skills in the world can’t help you if you don’t have a way to ACTUALLY get the work done and finished.

So now, I’ve created a 6-week audio course that teaches you how to improve your process. 

It represents the same practices and techniques that professional writers apply to their work. You’ll learn my listening to the same lessons I give professionals and using the accompanying workbooks to drive the practices home.

The course is called Two Drafts -Two Polishes. It makes a system that professional writers use to write quickly to anyone who feels this need… because we all labor within the context of this need.

For more information, and to register, click HERE.

Imagine being able to get the story out of your imagination just as you see it, to be able to structure it for maximum impact quickly, and to polish it in such a way that agents and publisher find compelling. Can you imagine that? My guess is… you can taste that.

So, the questions you need to ask yourself today are:

– Am I actually completing the stories I start?

– Am I stalled in my current story… not sure what to do next?

– Am I doing draft after draft… changing the words but never finishing?

– Do I need some help?

 The fact is – there’s no point in writing if you never finish. 

It’s as simple as that.

Here is something I know is absolutely true: There is an audience out there waiting for your story.  But they’ll never get a chance to enjoy it if you don’t get it done.

Two Drafts -Two Polishes can teach you how. Just click HERE for all the information you need to get started. This isn’t a webinar to put on your calendar, it’s a training program that is yours, to experience at your pace, as many times as you like… in your car, in your office, and most of all, in your head.

Don’t be one of those lost souls at Starbucks! Take control of your process!

Take control of your writing career.

I’ll talk with you again soon.

Art

 

The post “The Tragedy I See At Starbucks Every Day” – a new post by Art Holcomb appeared first on Storyfix.com.

Story Structure As a Critical Foundation of Your Novel – A Video Mini-Workshop

I was working on the second of the five video training workshops that will comprise the launch of my new Story Virtual Classroom venue (this one entitled “Ten Surefire Ways to Screw Up Your Novel“), and after recording and integrating this I decided to publish it here as a sort of sneak peek at the series.

Of course, the best sneak peaks — where training is concerned — are those that deliver value as a stand-alone presentation, which I believe this does.

Story structure continues to confuse, elude and challenge (read: frighten) many writers. They fear they are hearing a suggestion of formula, when in fact they are simply missing the true nature of story structure itself… as an underlying contextual journey for the narrative, drawing upon hundreds years of human interaction with storytelling.

By way of analogy — let’s use a football game for this one — there are two things always going on: a game plan, unfolding on a field in context to the boundaries and limitations of the rules of game, including the lines on the field.  The former is strategy – the particular pace, style, stealth and surprise of the offense and the defensive sets.  The later is non-negotiable – all of it a strategy that plays out in context to what those rules call for.  Play outside of those foundational lines, and you are penalized. Do it too much and you lose the game.

Substitute rules for writing principles in this analogy, and you have the true nature of story structure.

It’s not formula. Write your story any way you please. Just make sure it unfolds within the contextual playing field that the marketplace expects… which is story structure in modern commercial fiction.

The flow of a story – something I describe in four parts, though it can be broken down even further – is that playing field. But the actual way you write your story, the creative strategy of your narrative, is an infinitely broad and unrestricted series of choices you get to make. The lines on the field keep you true to your intentions and allow you to avoid trouble. Step over them… ignore them… tell yourself you don’t believe in them… and you may just lose the game.

If you interprete a call for setup, for conflict-driven dramatic arc, for an optimized reader experience, for pacing that works… if all that smacks of formula to you, then I submit you are already in trouble. Because a story without any single one of those things is doomed. Structure, like lanes on a freeway, are simply a means of keeping you moving – and alive – on the story path.

Here’s a clip from “Ten Surefire Ways to Screw Up Your Novel,” which includes a couple of real-life examples that help frame this discussion. If you’d like more of this type of training, click HERE to sign up for the mailing list for this new program (rolling out in the next few weeks), which includes a 25% discount on all workshops as long as you remain subscribed… and a FREE download ($59.95 retail value) of the rollout video, “Essential Craft for the Emerging Novelist.”

Enjoy.  I hope you find value in this.

The post Story Structure As a Critical Foundation of Your Novel – A Video Mini-Workshop appeared first on Storyfix.com.

A Free 3-Minute Video Workshop… On Turning Your Story “Idea” into a Viable Story “Premise

I just found this on Youtube. Didn’t know it was there.

It was shot by my friend Mindy Halleck at the 2013 Willamette Writers Conference.  (Check out her award-winning novel, Return to Sender, here.)

I offer it today for three reasons.

First… this is Storyfix, the entire mission here being to deliver tools and wisdom you can apply directly to your story, and/or your process. This video does that.

Then… I’m hoping you found yourself engaged. The on-screen Powerpoint in the background isn’t visible, but that’s okay in this instance — you can take away a massive amount of valuable information just by listening, and watching me sit there (bad back that day; normally I roam the front of the room ranting like Chris Rock talking politics) getting all worked up about this message.

And thirdly… this is a core message. It cuts directly to the heart of why some writers struggle with their stories. If you let it sink in, it might cut years off your learning curve, or at least your apprenticeship.

 

If you like what you see, please consider opting-in to my mailing list for the soon-to-launch Storyfix Virtual Classroom Experience, which will offer video tutorials and Master Classes on a wide breadth of titles on the craft of writing a great novel, sooner that you would otherwise. You’ll receive the first training – Essential Craft for Emerging Novelists – for free (a Master Class-level experience), and a rollout-discount of 25% on all other modules going forward.

Click HERE to view the trailer for this series, and use the sign-in form at the bottom of the page.

Thanks for considering this… I hope you found this worth your time today.  Always my highest goal.

The post A Free 3-Minute Video Workshop… On Turning Your Story “Idea” into a Viable Story “Premise appeared first on Storyfix.com.

Writing In A Corset

To be clear, I never said or did that – the corset thing – nor would I. But I would quote it – am doing that now – from an unhappy review for my book, “Story Engineering.” I’m not in the habit of quoting bad reviews, but this one tees up today’s rant, which focuses on a perceived divide out there between writers who value craft, and those who don’t believe in it in favor of simply channeling one’s inner voice and demons and then percolating on it all for what could be years, all leading to a bestselling novel and the perception that this is how it’s done.

For many – newer writers in particular – they believe this because some Famous Literary Author giving a keynote told them so. Maybe that’s where this reviewer heard it:

There is another book about craft, but this is about movies wich (stet) is John Yorke’s “into the woods” (stet). And in page XV (stet) we can find : “You have to liberate people from theory, not give them a corset in which they have to fit their story, their life, their emotions, the way they feel about the world…” Guillermo del Toro. A corset Mr Brooks, yes.

Liberate people from theory. Which is like asking them to figure out the hard things out without any contextual reference points. Just try designing anything with that approach. That’s what this guy is preaching.

Liberate us from the principles that keep us from writing ourselves into a dizzy oblivion of lane changes, proselytization and over-wrought character backstories that hijack the narrative into another dimension while boring reader to tears… theories and principles that help us understand what a novel actually is… yeah, we need to forget all about those kooky fundamentals some of us have learned to value, freeing us to attempt to reinvent a form that has been around for thousands of years.

Those who write this way aren’t reinventing anything. They are simply taking the long road to get there, often backing into it once they do, at that.

As a workshop guy, I actually hear this a lot.

I’m guessing that these Famous Literary Author types were fed this line somewhere in their early writing journey.

They bought into it, Stephen King perpetuated it (he being one of the few who can actually tell stories this way within a reasonable amount of time) and now stand before us with the rationale that their own bestselling novel (the reason they are behind that podium, which is a legitimate counter-point to all of this) is more the product of innate genius and a decade of sweating blood – writing and discarding words in 100K chunks while rationalizing this as the dues we must pay – rather than acknowledging the principle-driven craft of fiction writing (which absolutely does include how stories are structured) that would have perhaps gotten them there in a fraction of the time.

And just maybe, with a better story.

As soon as structure enters the writing conversation, from a podium or otherwise, a lens is applied by some writers, one that doesn’t clarify, but rather, clouds the issue. Because these Famous literary Author keynotes don’t believe there is a structural paradigm that underpins, to some degree (often significant) that renders stories effective. Rather, they believe they made it all up from the thin air of their brain, that they invented whatever it was that made their book great.

Hey, years of pounding on anything, if you have even a shred of literary sensibility – much less genius – will move it toward a form that finally works. And when it does, perhaps leveraging feedback that informed the story’s evolution, it will smack a lot like the very structural, craft-driven principles that they anathematize, which was available from square one for them, as it is for all of us.

Genius, this is not.

I heard one such Famous Literary Author make a quick keynote side comment about craft that went like this: “And sure, we need some craft thrown in, all those semicolons and stuff, we have to get those right.”

Yes indeed. The craft of writing a novel is all about semicolons. Which, if you really think about it, have no business being in a novel in the first place.

At another keynote I heard this spoken with a straight face (his, not mine): “I can’t wait to get to my writing desk in the morning to see what my characters might want to do today.” As if he went to bed the previous night with absolutely no clue. As if the characters are in charge of the story, not him.

They say that, too. And it’s rubbish. It’s hubris, cloaked beneath a false humility, which is what hubris-driven people do.

The book mentioned within this quote-within-a-review and its attribution is from the film world, which is imbued with screenwriting context that suggests certain story beats must appear on a certain page and do a specific thing to the story. Which is by and large true… for them. As a footnote, it is almost always a director who whines about this (as is the case here, rendering the point moot relative to structure in novels), many of which may have a thing for corsets in other contexts, who knows. It is interesting to note, too, that those directors are the ones responsible for changing a script that isn’t working, so I’m not really sure what they’re complaining about… those darn writers who ruin their movies, I guess.

As novelists, especially in deep genre, we have a structural standard that is really more suggestive localization and story management within the narrative than it is a specific target, (other than the midpoint of a story, which is labeled thusly for reasons that are self-explanatory). Novelists have more wiggle room when it comes to how to play into structure, the ability to do just that resulting in precisely what the nay-sayers are holding rallies about: allowing a story to flow in a way that makes sense, rather than jamming it into… well, a corset.

The irony is often lost on Famous Literary Author as he/she tells us how real writers go about their business.

Here are a couple of validities that arise from the calmer middle ground.

An analogy helps put a fence around what the structure conversation for novelists actually is, and is not.

Consider the world of sports. Contests unfold upon fields and courts, each of which has its own set of lines. Boundaries, within which the game is played. If the ball or the puck or the shuttlecock lands outside those lines, if someone steps over one of them at the wrong time, bad things happen. Not a total failure, per se, but a failed moment that becomes a consequence of not looking down.

Those playing fields and courts, those lines, are unassailable parts of the games that are played upon and within them. Nobody questions or ignores them. Nobody feels they can or should move or reinvent those lines, which constitute nothing short of the way the game itself is to be played.

If we are writing genre fiction in particular, the same can be said of the structural expectations that define our game. Readers plop down their money with an expectation of something, include how the story will flow. There hasn’t been a bestselling “experimental” genre novel in decades, but there have been wildly creative ones that play within those genre lines.

And yet – and here is where the corset accusation falls apart like something found in the attic of a century-old second-hand store – nobody at the professional level who is actually playing these games – theirs, or ours – claims to be constrained. Squeezed at the hip, breathless and outraged. Rather, they understand that within those lines, or upon the stage, or within our genre expectations, infinite creativity, flexibility and surprise is abundantly available. That it is, in fact, encouraged and rewarded.

Barishnikov never felt constrained because he could not dance his way off the stage and into the box seats for a foot rub. At least at the Bolshoi, he couldn’t. Roger Federer isn’t posting rants about the fact that he can’t win a point if his serve lands beyond the service line.

So who is propagating this approach, anyhow?

Too many writers have been taught that they must suffer greatly… precisely because they believe there are no boundaries or principles that guide them. And yet, such a belief becomes the main constraint on their writing. They are like teenagers turned loose in New York city with no map and no phone, with money to spend and a finite window in which to play. What to do? Well first, get lost…

This belief system is why novels from Famous Literary Authors often take years to get right. But as it is in life, if you have no principles, if you believe in nothing other than your own brilliance and unrestrained will and the freedom to make up your own rules, you have infinite ways to screw it all up.

The conversation is muddied even more by the fact that often those authors (who may have indeed recently sold millions of copies of that ten-years-in-the-making literary behemoth) can’t actually explain how they got to where they ended up. Or why it works. (The last such keynoter explained his success because his novel was narrated by a dog… literally, a dog reincarnated as a human, but with his superior dog’s world view. That’s a genius concept, by the way… and it is precisely what explains the novel’s market appeal, rather than some deeper meaning to mankind that took the writer years to understand

The irony is palpable. After all that suffering and swimming against the current of craft, after all that feedback and revision and catharsis, the draft that worked for them actually did align with the very principles of craft that were available to them at the idea stage. What to do with an idea isn’t cosmically mysterious, it’s driven by craft if you let craft guide you. One’s knowledge of craft is the means of vetting an idea in the first place.

Listen closely, and you’ll realize those keynoting literary authors are talking about process, not product. For them it’s all just one big amorphous, vapourous precipitation of ethereal pondering called writing, and for them it takes years to summon forth.

Find your truth, the keynote speaker tells us with ominous gravitas.

Dude, I write violent psycho-sexual thrillers (some with corsets involved) in which guys like you get thrown off trains to scare the locals. Tell me what being true even means in that context.

It’s lit-speak. Rhetoric. The narrative of not really knowing, but faking it until you do. If you are treading water you are not yet drowning. Meanwhile, some writer floats by in a raft called craft, tries to throw you a line, and you wave it off.

Listen to such preachings. And then hear it for what it is. Writing advice, from any source is like that old adage about fortune cookes, where you add “in bed” to the end. When someone tells you what process you should use, which process is best, add “for him/her” to the end of it.

The best process, in any genre, is one that is informed by the principles of quality storytelling.

And when someone credible talks you about craft… listen hard and then take notes. Listen and read as much as you can, and then notice how all the real craft guys are saying the same things, almost exactly by intention if not the same vocabulary applied… because that is how stories are built, no matter how you get there.

Oh, we love our characters, too, just as much, in fact, as Famous Literary Author. But armed with craft – including structure – we know what to do with them – we actually give them something interesting to do in a story – how to propel them down a dramatic path that asks readers to root for them, rather than just observe them outgrowing a crappy childhood.

As for me and Jim Bell and other writing guru types who spread the gospel of true craft, that’s us outside the conference cocktail party, hitting balls back and forth on the court that defines our game, hoping we can land a few between the lines.

You are invited to join us.

*****

Permission to pitch?  It’ll be quick, I promise.

 I am on the cusp of launching a new craft-driven venture, wherein I produce and market video-based training modules leveraging the clarity of the Powerpoint experience and the narrative intensity of being spoken to in a visual context. Just like in a live workshop. I’m calling it The Storyfix Virtual Classroom, and there will be many modules online very soon.

I’m inviting you to opt-in to my mailing list for this, to be among the first to learn about new programs just as they are released, and to receive perpetual discounts and other bonuses – training and otherwise – that aren’t available to non-list writers. As a further incentive, you’ll receive the first training module out of the gate: Essential Craft for Emerging Novelists, which will be designed to lop years off your learning curve with one hour of focused training.

It’s hardcore craft training for serious authors. I hope you’ll join me.

Click HERE to opt-in this mailing list, which will trigger an email asking you to confirm (through Mailchimp). It’s free, of course, and there is always an opt-out available. And I promise I won’t bomb your inbox with unrelated stuff.

Also, by clicking that link you’ll be able to see the new trailer I’ve produced for the program, which I hope you’ll agree is pretty cool. Your feedback is always welcome… this program is for you, help me make it better by telling me what, specifically, you’d like to see covered in these trainings.

The post Writing In A Corset appeared first on Storyfix.com.

Art Holcomb on Writer’s Block

A quick overview from your Storyfix host, and then, an opportunity to listen in via teleseminar as Art delivers an effective and perspective and an empowering solution to writer’s  block.

Art’s teleseminars are career-changing events, by the way. Life changing, even. This will his fifth so far, all of them worth every cent and every minute (which, because they are pure audio, can happen in your car, as you sit in front of your computer doing needlepoint… however you like to listen and learn).

This new one is 45 minutes of pure Art Holcomb goodness on the pure hell of writer’s block.

But first, my theory on Writers Block:

You’ve fallen out of love with your story.

You’ve engaged, but then your story got argumentative. It didn’t do what you wanted it to do. It came up short of your hopes and expectations. And now it is stubborn, just sitting there waiting for you to do something about it.

That puts you in that completely frustrating space – what we call writer’s block – which sucks no matter how you explain getting there. My theory aligns with what Art discusses under #2 below, perhaps explained by #3, leading to #1 and then, without a solution, to #4.

Writer’s block can actually be a blessing… if you can get beyond the sticking point. The very fact of being blocked says something positive (while also saying something that needs attention) about your story sensibility… it’s not working (either the story or your story sense), and so you stop.  Perhaps a good thing.  Much better to wait it out, to pound it out – using that same story sensibility to arrive at a better plan – than say “screw it” and finish and submit something that doesn’t work as well as it should.

Here’s Art on the basis of this exciting new teleseminar:

I’ve (Art) broken the notion of writer’s block down into four phases and parts, each of which gets you stuck, all of which need consideration as you work your way through it toward a better storytelling place.

Fear– Which, no matter how you break it down, comes back to the fear of being judged.  Something that is ingrained into or psyche since we were children. I talk about the Life of an Artist and give examples from Stephen King to Pablo Picasso. I discuss the difference between the writer and the writing. Dealing with this fear is a major reason I do T he Trainings , where the students write and then submit—and keep submitting—until the piece is fully in place. Only through knowing what such scrutiny feels like will a writer abate their fears.


Weak Premise– Lack of a powerful premise means that there isn’t enough raw grist that creates the necessary compulsion to carry the writer through Act II, at which point the story fails. This is the major reason we all have half-finished works in our desk drawers. I created the “Ten Steps to Building a Better Story” seminar (one of my four previous presentations) to directly address this. It forces the writer to deeply examine the elements of the premise and tighten/strengthen the idea… or choose to discard it and look for something deeper. This is consistently reviewed as one of the most important techniques I teach.


Lack of Craft– If you don’t have the skills, you cannot write a good story. Craft is the basis of what we do. We know what Craft means to a writer. I will show you why and how to move toward craft, which is out there. Not everything you hear about craft is completely focused and clear, and not everything will appeal to your sensibilities. Which is why we need to immerse ourselves in it, to find and latch onto the version of it that speaks to us as individual creative professionals.


The “Thing”– I discovered this late in my teaching career. Soooo many would be writers start out wrong and got the steps to building a career jumbled, and then did something (the Thing) before they were ready: submitted a weak script that went nowhere. And so they rush to find an agent, which may resulting in hearing back from someone was blunt about the quality of their work… and so they quit.  I even had a very successful novelist (6 books, hundred of shorts stories) who had his agent die in the middle of his career – and never was able to get back on track – and so he quit.

There are so many paths to finding ourselves stuck.

Whatever the event is, some writers never really talk to anyone about it and never found a way to get back on the horse. A couple of sessions with me and I can usually get them back on track, but it’s all talk therapy. I can usually get a writer and the story back in place, with motivation restored and sky high, by the third one-on-one call. (One-on-one work is an option, especially if you hear something in the teleseminar that rings true… which I guarantee that you will.)

The workbook that comes with the teleseminar is a series of exercises to use to dig down to underlying causes of writer’s block, which makes the case for more education (with me or someone else) and ways to dissipate fears. This workbook is approximately 10 pages, and is part of what you pay for when you opt-in.

My teleseminars—especially this one—will be interesting to writers who have experienced writer’s block, as well as the writer who fears it’s just a matter of time before they’re affected by it. Those effects can range from debilitating to devastating and, sadly, there is usually no external cause. The alpha and omega of the problem resides within them.

That’s why I created the course.

TITLE:  How to Defeat Writer’s Block – FOREVER!

PRICE: $37

TO REGISTER: http://artholcomb.blogspot.com/2016/10/this-month-how-to-defeat-writers-block.html

INSTRUCTIONS:  Payment instructions (either through PayPal or by check) are included at the bottom of the website page. There is no cart or automated fulfillment site. It’s just me and you, working on this together.

******

Hot new novel recommendation:

A really intriguing mystery/thriller in the tradition of Michael Connelly was recommended to me (a vivid Los Angeles setting, a take-no-crap detective that harkens the likes of Harry Bosch), and it turned out way better than I expected.

It’s called By Reason of Insanity, by new indie author MGM Meddis.

The book pits a morally-incorruptible reluctant hero LAPD detective—he’s not nearly as archetypical as this makes him sound—against a femme fatale (same disclaimer) who seems to get off on walking a thin line between seduction and self-incrimination, a dance in which hubris is always the undoing of the perp. The narrative includes the villain basically spilling it all to her prison psychiatrist, which plays against an evolving dramatic real-time thread that begins with the calmly executed shooting of her scoundrel husband and extends to the detective who must unravel her labyrinthine scheme to get away with it all, while resisting her considerable seductive charms.

I’m thinking this one will make one heckuva film, so grab it now and start casting it in your mind. My money’s on Ryan Gosling and either Emma Stone or Mila Kunis, with J.K. Simmons as the long-suffering LAPD Lieutenant who has to keep his thoroughbred investigator in check; this supports my contention that when we cast our stories with actors who fit, this keeps us in the right lane as we develop our characters… if you can’t hear that actor saying those lines, the dialogue needs an upgrade.

You’ll like the writing, too. That’s why I’m recommending it here.

Available on Amazon.com in Kindle and paperback.

 

The post Art Holcomb on Writer’s Block appeared first on Storyfix.com.

Help Reinvent Storyfix 3.0

Let’s work together… help me help you make your stories great.

Many of you reading Storyfix have been with me here for years. I’ve gotten to know some of you personally, which is one of the best things about doing this work. Hopefully, those of you who are new have discovered the depth and nature of writing information and coaching at hand, which is the reason so many have, in fact, been part of this journey.

But it is time to move forward into the next evolution of Storyfix.

Storyfix has always been about elevating your understanding of the core competencies and subtle nuances of crafting a story – a novel or a screenplay – that works. There have been nearly 100o posts thus far (about 25% of which have been taken down when newer posts rendered them redundant), leading to three #1 bestselling craft books, dozens of workshop/conference bookings and other extensions of my teaching. Many of you have contacted me with specific issues that led to posts, and more than a few have written to share that this information has helped them land an agent or a publisher.

So let’s turn the page and go even deeper.

Let’s turn you into a Master Storyteller by cutting a few years off  your learning curve. Or for some, perhaps for the first time, clarifying what that learning curve looks like.

I’d like to work with you to take Storyfix to the next level.

My vision for the next generation of this website is to build a catalog of actual downloadable training programs – very much like you’d see at a writing workshop or conference – using replayable Powerpoint and audio/video assets. This will deliver a virtual classroom training context… thus, the name of this program: The Storyfix Virtual Classroom Experience.

I could whip out a list of dozens of training topics, and quickly. But I’d rather listen. Listen to you.

Because this is all about you.

I am asking you to tell me what you need. What you’d like to see covered.

Tell me what your story development and writing issues are. Specific problems and areas of focus. I will use this input to craft the first wave of training programs, which I intend to create and make available in the next month.

Meanwhile – and going forward – I will continue to post free content on a regular basis (some using video), with helpful guest posts and story deconstructions, as well. Think of these as “training shots” that deliver a point of craft, on-the-nose or nuanced, just as you’ve seen here in the past.

About the pricing for these training modules:

The context of that is expressed as a goal: to deliver value far in excess of what you’ve paid. A multiple of the access fee. For roughly the cost of two movie tickets, a big bag of popcorn and a couple of sodas, you will be able to choose from a menu of training modules across a breadth of titles and lengths, from 30 minutes to one hour, as well as longer multi-module programs. Each entry will go deep into the issues you’ve identified, and all will go beyond the what to deliver the how. What you purchase and download will be yours to use going forward.

My commitment is this: at the end of one of my training sessions, you will be a better, more enlightened storyteller and narrative artist than when it began.

If you’ve ever been to one of my live workshops sessions, you know how this goes: intense, passionate, empathetic (because I’ve been where you are), with clear and directly applicable definitions, examinations and demonstrations of what makes a story work, what makes a story soar, even what makes a bestseller.  You will learn things about developing stories that you won’t hear anywhere else, or at least not framed and clarified in this way.

These training deliverables will work within any process – pantser or planner and everything in between – and in any genre. (Some modules will be genre-specific).

Please send your thoughts and feedback to storyfixer@gmail.com, or use the contact form here on the Home Page.

An incentivized Opt-in for updates:

I’m developing a mailing list for updates and discount offers on these training modules. Sign up and you’ll receive the first training program totally free, prior to public release – “Essential Elements of Craft for New Novelists.” Subtitle: Five Critical Story Practices That Will Quickly Up Your Writing Game… or Sink It If Left Untended” – 30-minutes), which will give you a taste of what you’ll experience in my virtual classroom venue.

Please use the form below to sign up for the Storyfix Virtual Classroom mailing list, which will send you announcements of new training modules, with discounts for enrollees.  Even if you’re already a Storyfix subscriber, this new list will be specific to the training products, so please opt-in for the discounts and updates. Of course the list doesn’t obligate you to anything, or cost you anything… it just keeps you in the loop for new products and exclusive discounts for enrollees.

Let’s do this together.

Who knows how high your writing dream can go when armed with a deeper knowledge and hands-on sensibility relative to the complex craft of writing a story that works.

Larry

#mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; }

/* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block.

We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */





Subscribe to our mailing list
* indicates required
Email Address *




First Name


Last Name

The post Help Reinvent Storyfix 3.0 appeared first on Storyfix.com.