According to Bacon . . .
Posted: October 30, 2009 Filed under: Joined at the Heart, Writers Write | Tags: family, writers, writing Leave a comment »The three steps to writing a novel:
- Work eight hours every day for 572 consecutive days.
- When you’re finished, print it out.
- Start at the beginning, and rewrite it.
New Skin
Posted: October 24, 2009 Filed under: Aha!, Housekeeping, Joined at the Heart, Mouths of Babes, Writers Write | Tags: artists, family, Trusting Your Instincts, writers, writing Leave a comment »I’ve been trying to decide on a new look for the blog for a week. I uploaded a header picture, but I didn’t know if I liked it or not. I looked at several WordPress themes. None of them really suited. I ended up with this really plain white look with a bigger font. My custom header disappeared, and these books (see above) mysteriously emerged. But, I’m still not sure.
Anything creative is more about making decisions than anything else. Last week, Cherry entered a photo in an art contest. Just filling in the blanks on the entry form required choices.
“What do you want to say about this?”
“I don’t know, Mom. I just took the picture.”
“How did it make you feel?”
The question triggered a stream of imagery. She is more articulate than I was at ten. The instincts are there, but selective consciousness is developed.
Comic Throughline
Posted: October 22, 2009 Filed under: Aha!, Writers Write | Tags: comic throughline, John Vorhaus, writers, writing 1 Comment »Since I started this book, I’ve had the worst time explaining exactly what it’s about. Every time someone asks and I do manage to get out a rambling sentence, I see eyes glaze over after a few words. So, I’ve been working on something writer John Vorhaus, in his book The Comic Toolbox, calls “comic throughline.” He suggests answering the following questions in the simplest format possible. Here are my answers:
- Who is the hero? Annie Smart is a contemptuous rule follower, who teaches high school English.
- What does the hero want? Annie’s outer need: to finish the school year without being fired. Annie’s inner need: to be a superhero in the face of bureaucratic tyranny.
- The door opens . . .when Principal Evelyn Bozono implements a scheme to steal Annie’s master’s thesis.
- The hero takes control . . .when Annie dumps her play-it-safe attitude and follows her heart.
- A monkey wrench is thrown . . .when Nick Garrett falls in love with the new and improved Annie.
- Things fall apart . . .when Evelyn Bozono actually steals the thesis.
- The hero hits bottom . . .when Nick breaks up with Annie because she is afraid to expose Bozono.
- The hero risks all . . .when a student comes to her with a problem requiring Annie to go to the police about Bozono. Bozono reacts by kidnapping the school custodian and strapping a bomb to his chest. Annie saves the day by defusing the bomb.
- What does the hero get? Annie achieves her inner need to be a superhero. She achieves her outer need to keep her job. As a bonus, she gets Nick.
Of course none of the details are included in this description. And we all know–the devil is in the details.
