Tag: fiction writing

Archives for the Holidays: How to control people’s thoughts with words

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Happy Thanksgiving, if you celebrate it! While I stay on top of holiday cheer, I’m posting some of my favorite posts from the archives. This one was originally posted last year on December 10.

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How to control people’s thoughts with words

I’m almost afraid to publish this post.

It feels like passing out a loaded gun to every random stranger that passes by.

In the wrong hands it could be very dangerous.

But when I think about it, it’s already in the wrong hands. The hands of con artists and cult leaders and politicians. And there is no way to take that power from them except to make everyone else aware of it.

Have you ever thought—I mean really thought—about the power of language? Keep reading >>

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Pride & Prejudice & Vlogging: Lizzie Bennett Diaries challenges us to think outside the book

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Yesterday, Mr. Darcy blew up the Internet.

Since the modern-day Lizzie Bennett uploaded her first video diary on YouTube six months ago, tens of thousands of Austen fans have been holding their figurative breaths in anticipation of seeing the one, the only, the Darcy. Dubbed “Darcy Day” (as if it needed any more hype!) it was, despite my worries, not a disappointment.

So…time for a review of the entire show up to this point!

(The show is a creation of Bernie Su and Hank Green. Read more about them here.)

Let’s start with the limitations and end with the best parts!

Limitations of Vlogging.

Most of the 21st-century Pride & Prejudice adaptation takes place through Lizzie’s video diaries, and through off-shoots with other characters. This means only the parts of the story Lizzie rants about, or parts her sisters and friends mention while bursting into the room, are going to make it on screen. So:

  • We don’t see all the characters. The first episodes introduce us to a core cast of Lizzie, Jane, Lydia and Charlotte. Added characters have brought it up to about a dozen now, and we meet the rest through Lizzie’s hilarious costumed dramatizations. But Lizzie’s father is rarely even mentioned, and I miss him. Though this does illustrate his laziness as a father, his closeness to Lizzie and his eventually letting her down are important points too. But writer Bernie Su aptly noted that, as people rarely rant about the stable things in their lives, Lizzie’s not likely to talk about him in her videos…yet.
  • We get a slanted view. Because the video diary format lends itself chiefly to ranting, we see lots of the “I hate Darcy” Lizzie but little of the cool and composed wit Lizzie is when she’s meeting people in daily life. Fortunately, the other characters’ differing personalities and opinions—and the brilliantly-written hypocrisy of Lizzie’s prejudice—give us a fuller understanding of the truth.

Limitations of Modern Society.

Morals, prudence and good breeding, all major themes in the novel, don’t carry the weight today they did then, which makes parts of the story difficult to adapt:

  • Mr. Collin’s proposal and the entailing of the Bennett estate to him don’t apply in today’s world, and the writers’ solution SPOILER ALERT to change the marriage proposal into a job offer only has about 50% of the moral/emotional conflict as the original—choosing a business partner and choosing a life partner are two very different things, whether or not dropping out of college is a factor.
  • Wickham’s sin of stealing Lydia’s maidenhood means little to a society that largely accepts sex outside of marriage, with a Lydia who obviously lost her virginity long ago. One must assume his racket is more on the level of pornography, prostitution, and/or sex trafficking, but we have yet to find out.
  • The trickiest adaptation is Lizzie herself. Book Lizzie is a mixture of morals, prudence and spunk. How is that transposed for 2012? Vlog Lizzie occasionally uses language and expresses views that I don’t think even a modern Lizzie would. But I am more conservative than most people—and considered through the worldview of the writers, they have created quite an accurate picture of Lizzie Bennett.

Why Lizzie Bennett Diaries is so much fun

A million reasons! I’ll restrict myself to seven.

  • It’s a story I have loved for years, but it’s like I get to experience it all for the first time again.
  • I love seeing how closely even some of the dialogue matches the book.
  • I love trying to guess how they’ll adapt the next plot twist.
  • I love following the story across multiple mediums (media?): not just on YouTube, but through the characters’ Tumblrs and Twitter pages.
  • I love seeing new depth in secondary characters:
    • Lydia – the first adaptation I’ve seen that explores why Lydia acts the way she does. It doesn’t make her behavior excusable, but makes it understandable. We can feel for her, and even like her.
    • Mary – cousin instead of sister, is cool and together and becomes more of a positive influence on Lydia than Book Mary ever was. She’s probably the least faithful adaptation of all the characters, but we like her tremendously.
    • Maria – Charlotte’s sister—remember her?—has a brief but memorable role in her own short vlog series. She’s a refreshingly normal Doctor Who-loving nerd, and we get the feeling she’s just as excited by the story going on around her as we are. She’s the one we can relate to when Jane is too perfect, Lydia is too crazy, and Lizzie too angry—and all of them too iconic. Maria is us.
  • Jane imitating Darcy. Priceless.
  • I love connecting to a community that’s even crazier about it all than I am.

In short, Lizzie Bennett Diaries is a smart, moving, and funny adaptation, and a fascinatingly clever use of modern technology to tell an old story in a new way. I don’t believe the traditional novel will ever go out of style, but heads up: there are new outlets for storytelling. Don’t tie yourself down to traditional. Think outside the book.

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Watch Lizzie Bennett from the beginning! (recommended)

Watch Mr. Darcy’s first scene!

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Should you write for yourself, or for other people?

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Image by AntToeKnee. Check out his profile to read his hilarious bio.

When you sit down to write, who are you writing for? Are you writing only for your own amusement (or catharsis?), or to entertain other people? And which is right?

If you write only to please yourself, you’re in danger of contracting Ugly Baby Syndrome—thinking your creation is perfect no matter what anyone else says. If they don’t like it, you are personally offended. If they say pages full of poetic scenic description are boring, you say they are uncultured swine. You throw a little pity party because nobody understands your unique method of expression.

Well, you’re right. Nobody understands you because you’re not explaining yourself well.

Here’s the tough truth: being unique doesn’t make you good. You may be expressing yourself, but you are refusing to express yourself in a language anyone else understands. You are being selfish. If you want to be understood, you have to speak to them in their language first. Start where you have common ground. That means putting the story—its integrity, pace, and structure—above your pretty-words ego.

If you write only to please people, well, you’ll become a people-pleaser. A sellout.The irony is that this is another form of selfishness. You’re really writing for the attention, the prestige, the money. As soon as you find something most people seem to like, you’ll just keep writing that same story over and over again—change the names and the settings, but the same plot every time. You don’t dare to be different. You don’t dare to write the truth about your own life and struggles and the hard things you’ve learned. You turn into a formula fiction factory. On your new book cover, your name is larger than the title because people already know what’s in any story you write. You’ve stopped being an artist. You have ceased to express yourself. You are not telling the world anything it doesn’t already know.

So what’s the answer?

Write for yourself. Edit for your audience.

Maggie pointed this out in the comments of this post.

When you pour out that first and second draft, write what you enjoy. Write the kind of story you love to read. Write who you are in the grittiest, nakedest way. Write what you want to say to the world.

The ironic result is that a lot of other people probably love what you love. A lot of them have felt what you have felt. What you write could appeal to them on a deep level.

When you move on into the rewriting and editing stages, have them first in mind. You expressed yourself. Now, translate that expression. Help your audience understand you, and help them have a good time of it. Put the story above your ego. That means showing truth, not preaching it. It means cutting out extraneous drabble; letting go of your sentimental attachments if they don’t support the story. If you are in love with an unnecessary character, or you adore a setting that hinders the plot, or you’re attached to a line of dialogue a character would never say, cut it out!

Your writing ability should serve the story, not the other way around. First the truth-telling. Then the truth-translating.

That’s how to create something both you and your audience will love.

 

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 What sentimental attachments do you have to detrimental elements of your work? What truths are you afraid might offend people?

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What Happened to George Lucas?

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babies dressed as princess leia and obi wan

Image by Steve Winton

Jar Jar Binks did not ruin Star Wars.

Actually, I found Jar Jar amusing. But there’s a reason I put it on my “If I Ever Get Filthy Rich” to-do list to buy the rights to Star Wars so I can completely remake the prequels:

George Lucas ruined Star Wars.

Now, let’s not harp on the guy. He obviously didn’t mean to ruin Star Wars. So what went wrong?

And how do the rest of us avoid doing the same thing?

Obviously, the specific errors are too many to list – from the overuse of CGI to the nonsensical plot – but it all boils down to two general problems:

  1. He knew the originals were good, but he didn’t know why.
  2. Rather than taking the time to figure out why, he opted to start making money NOW through the prequels.

The meat was what made Star Wars great—the characters; the story. Lucas didn’t take the time to understand either of those things. Maybe he was lazy, or impatient, or afraid to fall whilst leaping for greatness. But all he managed to do was copy the occasional catchphrase and the droids’ comic relief, and set up a few scenes to mirror scenes in the originals (whether or not it made plot sense). But all these things are just accessories—they make the story better only when the story is already good. When the story isn’t good, they just aggravate the gag reflex.

Here are the major character errors Lucas committed. If he had taken the time to understand and develop the characters, the plot would have formed itself.

No clear protagonist

Who is the hero of the new trilogy? You know, the Average Joe to whom all the weird stuff is explained (and thus explained to us); the guy we like and root for?

  • Is it Anakin? But we don’t even meet him until 32 minutes into the first movie (which itself is only two hours and change). And even then, he doesn’t know what’s going on until movie two.
  • Is it Obi Wan? He’s on screen a lot, but we don’t get an inside look at his motives or emotions.

Our lesson: Know who your hero is. Introduce him early. Ensure he is likeable.

Role reversals

  • Movie one: Master Qui Gon recklessly gambles with someone else’s ship, while his young apprentice, Obi Wan, sits by wisely questioning his choices.
  • Movie two: Obi Wan switches to the reckless master position: after telling Anakin to think before he acts, Obi Wan promptly crashes through a window to grab onto an assassin droid that really doesn’t look like it can support his weight – and Anakin’s the one to rescue him.
  • Amidala resists a romantic relationship just because she’s in politics, while Anakin, who’s been brainwashed to reject romance for the last ten years of his life, is hitting on her from the very first moment
  • And why does she show all that skin if she wants to keep things professional?

Our lesson: Make a list of the major actions in your story, who performs those actions, and what their motives were. Does it make sense, or do you need to swap some things around?

No personalities

The original trilogy abounded in distinct personalities.

  • Luke Skywalker: sheltered, idealistic, brave.
  • Han Solo: roguish, jaded, heart of gold.
  • Princess Leia: smart, stubborn, caring.

The new trilogy, however…

  • Anakin Skywalker: uh…whiny, homicidal, stalker-ish?
  • Obi Wan Kenobi: doesn’t seem to know who he is (see above).
  • Queen/Senator Amidala: uh. Nondescript?

Our lesson: Can you describe your main characters without mentioning their appearance or occupation? If not, you’ve got work to do.

Shallow romance

Why do Anakin and Amidala fall in love? Aside from the fact that they are both good looking, and they get shot at together a couple times, there is no foundation for Amidala telling Anakin “I truly, deeply, love you.” I mean, Amidala’s been dealing with galactic politics since she was 14—why is she attracted to this kid who complains about his teachers being too strict?

Our lesson: If your story includes romance, ask yourself what, particularly, makes those two characters suited to each other? Find something in their personalities that’s complementary.

Contradicting ideals

Lucas contradicts not only the facts of the story (for instance, according to the original trilogy, Anakin never knew Amidala was pregnant), but the ideals. We go from Yoda telling Luke that “War does not make one great” to Obi Wan telling Anakin of his lightsaber that “This weapon is your life.”

Our lesson: Know what ideals your characters hold, and check that their actions and dialogue match those ideals.

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What bothered you the most about the new Star Wars trilogy? What did you like about it?

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NOTE: I owe many of the points in this post to Red Letter Media’s Star Wars reviews, which are horribly inappropriate—but annoyingly insightful.

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The Diamond-Buyer’s Guide to Writing a Literary Gem

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Photo by Steve de Polo

When determining the value of a diamond, gemologists look at four factors, collectively known as the Four Cs. By a convenient coincidence, all four coincide with important points of writing. So here are a few pointers on writing a novel that shines.

Carat – the size or weight of the diamond.

Do your plot and characters have enough weight to carry the story? Does enough happen to your hero, not just physically, but emotionally, that the story is worth writing and worth reading? If so, proceed. If not, it isn’t worth the cost. Dig deeper.

 

Clarity – how many inclusions (little black dots) are in the diamond.

Unclear wording slows down your reader – and thus the story, and keeps the light from shining through. Bummer. Look back at 47 ways to find and eliminate inclusions in your writing.

 

Cut – If a diamond is cut too long, the light will bounce sideways off the lower facets. Too short, and the light just falls through. But just right, a la Goldilocks, and the light reflects off the lower facets directly into the eyes for optimum sparkle.

Just so with editing. “They” say to cut anything that is not necessary to the plot. But a novel cannot live on plot alone. Character is just as important. Check every scene to ensure it contains two or more of the following elements:

  • Establishing character
  • Advancing plot
  • Foreshadowing events
  • Braiding in subplots

If you find a scene that doesn’t have two or more elements—and you can’t manage to work a second element in—cut it. If there was anything important in that scene, extract it and work it into another existing scene.

                       

Color – the purer white it is, the more iridescent the shine.

In writing, that pure whiteness is honesty. Yes, you are writing about made-up people in made-up situations, but you still must be emotionally honest. About how you see the world. About what keeps you up at night. What you fear. What you long for. What hurts most. And why you keep on fighting. When you’re writing that first draft, don’t try to be eloquent. Don’t try to impress your readers. Don’t preach at them. Just climb into the head of the character who’s telling the story. Then reach into your gut and vomit your feelings on the paper. The worst and the best.

That’s when the precious gem emerges; when you’re not trying to create a feeling, but to express one. As Ray Bradbury says, “when a man talks from his heart, in his moment of truth, he speaks poetry.”

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