Putting the Movie in Your Head Onto the Page

In September I was privileged to attend a class by this title at the Midwest LDStorymakers Writers Conference. The presenter was super cool--Adam Glendon Sidwell.

Okay, I'll be honest. I didn't know who he was at first, and you probably don't either. BUT trust me. He's very cool. Before becoming an author of MG fiction he worked in the movies. His title was something along the lines of Creature Technical Director. Yep, he used computers to create some very memorable characters. Here's a list of some of the movies he's worked on. Bet you've never heard of ANY of them.

• Thor
• Ender's Game
• Pacific Rim
• Tron, Legacy
• Transformers, Revenge of the Fallen
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Speed Racer
• I Am Legend
• Pirates of the Caribbean, At World's End
• King Kong
• I, Robot

No, none of them? I didn't think so.

Anyway, Adam talked about the things he learned about timing, pacing and staging scenes from working on successful movies. Things that can help our writing tremendously.

He covered several things that movies don't do as well as books such as Viewpoint, Structure and Story. Why? Because when $150 million is on the line, directors stick to formulas that work. AKA sell movie tickets.

Movies can't delve into the inner workings of the mind as well as books. My personal example of this is The Host. Don't shoot me, but I loved the book, HATED the movie. The only thing they had in common were title and the characters had the same names. What made the book good for me was the inner struggle between Wanda and Melanie, but more importantly between Wanda and herself. All that internal dialogue was really lost in the movie. Among other things.

But, moving forward!

Movies do a great job grabbing your attention and keeping it. They use the setting and music to help set tone and mood. We need to do the same. Minus the music. :)

The part that stuck with me the most was this--

The Walking Down the Hall Scene

You know what I'm talking about, right? Sometimes as writers we feel the need to show every step from A to Z. Instead of cutting the scene where the main character leaves his office, walks down the hall, waits for the elevator, rides down, walks through the parking garage, gets in his car and drives to the restaurant (breathe)--in movies the MC is in his office, then he's at the restaurant.

See how much time we saved by not watching all the boring parts?

That's what I'm working on now. Cutting out all the stuff I wouldn't want to watch in a movie.

What do you think movies do well?

How can you translate that to your writing?

Adam with his wife.

In between books, Adam Glendon Sidwell uses the power of computers to make monsters, robots and zombies come to life for blockbuster movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean, King Kong, Pacific Rim, Transformers and Tron. After spending countless hours in front of a keyboard meticulously adjusting tentacles, calibrating hydraulics, and brushing monkey fur, he is delighted at the prospect of modifying his creations with the flick of a few deftly placed adjectives. He’s been eating food since age 7, so feels very qualified to write the Evertaster series. He once showed a famous movie star where the bathroom was.

Adam wrote every single word in the EVERTASTER series, the picture book FETCH, and the upcoming CHUM.

Welcome to a Week of Information!

This week I thought I'd toss around some things I've learned recently. I wanted to go over my notes from the amazing classes I attended at my last writer's conference in September. However, my notebook (and even the class syllabus) has disappeared!

I'm really sad about losing my notes. One of the classes I attended was all about creating a marketing plan. During that hour we CREATED a marketing plan. Now I don't have that or the 12-14 steps I went through to get it.

Despite losing my notes, I'm going to do my best to share what I learned from three of the classes.

Here's what we'll cover this week:

• What I learned by launching a Kickstarter Project
• The 1 Hour Marketing Plan
• Putting the Movie in Your Head onto the Page
• Writing Middle Grade Novels
• Reasons why you should attend a writer's conference near you

Conference Recap--Voice!

LDStorymakers 2014 Writer's Conference Recap

First I need to apologize for not only being late with my post today, but for the fact that I can't find my notebook. We have lots of yellow spiral notebooks around my house, but none of them are the one I took to Utah. My guess is one of the kids grabbed it and thought it was there's. So today you are going to get  what I "remember". 

Lisa Mangum's class description--Editors, agents, and publishers all clamor for it: a strong story with a strong voice. But what is that, exactly? How do you get it? And if you already have it, how do you make it stronger? This class will focus on ways to strength your writing voice (and your character’s voice) so that your story can sing loud and clear. 

This class was probably the most fun. I still need to work on my own voice, but I feel like I understand it better.  You don't have to watch all of these two videos. I'm not certain if the second version is the one Lisa used, but it's the same idea. Watch enough (at least a minute and half) to hear the difference in Voice.
 

Which one do you believe?

The other thought that stuck with me was this:
Voice is WHAT you have to say, and STYLE is how you say it.

Those two songs used the same words but they sounded different. One of them was much easier to believe. You could FEEL that the singer meant those words.

When you write a story there must be something that you want to say. Something you or your characters really believe in. If you believe it, then it will come out in the way you write. That is voice.

Perhaps this is the problem with my writing. I've always thought that I just wanted to tell a good story. There isn't a purpose/theme/lesson that I'm trying to get across. Maybe if I find something I really believe in and then give that to my characters, my voice will become one that readers will connect to and believe as well.

What do you think about voice? What books have you read that ooze voice?

Searching for Feedback?

Sometimes you need feedback on more than just the 250-500 words of your story at one time. Okay, we always need more feedback than just those few words, but lets face it, it's hard to get feedback.

If you're lucky, you've found one or two people that give you constructive criticism. It hurts, but you know they're right so you revise and polish. But how many times can you give the same story to the same people? At what point do they know your story as well as you and so miss certain flaws because they are no longer depending on the words in front of them?

For the last two months I've been taking advantage of a great (free) site. I know there are lots out there and you just need to find the one you are comfortable with. After trying several different sites, I've settled down at YouWriteOn.com.

Here's why in the order of importance to me:
 1. The YouWriteOn Top Ten Chart writers as listed on the first of each month will be read exclusively and receive feedback from editors from Random House & Orion who publish some of the world's bestselling authors, including John Grisham, Bill Bryson & Ian Rankin. Over YouWriteOn's history, members who have developed their writing on site have achieved book deals with Random House, Orion, Penguin and Harper Collins.

That was actually all the reasoning I needed. But here are a few things I've learned and enjoyed since joining the site.

2. You move up the chart based on your dedication to hard work. If willing to read and give honest reviews of other members stories you earn credits to assign to your own stories.

If I can't review for a week or two, I don't feel guilty for being absent. When I return I can review and get as many credits as I have time to put into the process.

3. Most of the reviews I've received have been helpful and thought provoking.

This is a website of writers. They may be in different stages of their writing, but they know something about how to write good stories. They catch things I've missed. They ask questions that in answering help strengthen my story.

It's kind of hard to ignore ten complete strangers who say X doesn't work.



And, here's another option for some great feedback. Janice Hardy, author of the Shifter series has a weekly Real Life Diagnostics post on her blog. She has three in her queue right now, so it's a good time to sign up. Click here if you want to read her review of one of my story openers.

A Free Online Writers Conference

It's no secret that I would LOVE to attend some writing conferences. Most of us spend time reading about conferences and drool over the agents and publishers that are going to be there and wish we had a money tree in the back yard so we could attend.

If you're like me, that money tree hasn't started to bear fruit. You wait patiently and wonder if you've missed your chance to learn something amazing or make connections that will eventually lead you to that goal of being published.

Well, there is a conference just for us! Last year I attended the free...yes FREE!...Muse Online Writers Conference. It was a wonderful experience.

No matter where you live, what you write, at what point you are in your writing career, you'll find a workshop that fits your needs during our week long conference.

There are even pitch sessions with agents and mid-sized publishers. This experience is priceless! Last year I pitched to three publishers and learned so much from their feedback (on the pitch and the partials they requested). That feedback gave me direction over the last year and my writing has improved.

The conference will be October 3rd-9th, 2011. Registration is now open but will close on September 25th, and sign ups for pitches will start in September.

I've already signed up and I'm polishing my pitch! Check it out and see if you can fit it into your schedule.