I had lunch with my dad today, and we talked about something that’s been happening in the family. (Garden-variety family stuff, so don’t worry.) When he asked me my side of things, I explained that, since addressing it directly had been badly received, and deflecting hadn’t worked, I’d been avoiding the situation.
Yep, I avoid conflict.
My [...]
Of the total creative effort represented in a finished work, 75 percent or more of a writer’s labor goes into designing story. Who are these characters? What do they want? Why do they want it? How do they go about getting it? What stops them? What are the consequences? Finding the answers to these grand [...]
Yesterday, I ran across the video above, from Barnes & Noble Studio, on The Daily Beast’s Book Beast page. I’m not a fan of Jodi Picoult, though, to be fair, I’ve only read one of her books, My Sister’s Keeper. I was so disappointed with it, particularly the very deus ex machina feeling of the [...]
As I mentioned yesterday, I’m using a method suggested by Robert McKee in his book Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting (HarperEntertainment, 1997) to outline scenes. He recommends outlining a story (novel, screenplay) with one- to three-sentence scene descriptions on index cards before writing anything.
Plan Scenes, But Don’t Write Them (Yet)
McKee suggests [...]
I should know this by now.
Yet, I’ve struggled for years with what, exactly, a scene is.
The dictionary definitions are useful only to a point–the point at which I start trying to craft scenes. That’s when the wheels tend to fall off the bus. But I’ve been using a technique recommended by Robert McKee in his [...]
I’m currently reading Robert McKee’s Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting (HarperEntertainment, 1997), and find his comments on creative limitations particularly useful as I start on a new novel.
I’ve decided to do as he suggest here in the video, and in more detail in the book: I’m going to straight-jacket myself into [...]
I’ve been reading Stephenie Meyer’s partial draft of Midnight Sun, which was leaked on the internet when she sent out a review copy to someone she hasn’t named. Last August, she posted something on her website about the leak, and how it stopped her, at least at that time, from completing the book, which covers [...]
My writing teacher Laurel Yourke recently recommended that those of us in her novel workshop read Robert McKee’s Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting (HarperEntertainment, 1997). She said it’s perhaps the best book she’s ever read on writing fiction of any kind.
I’ve just started it, and agree with Laurel that it’s profound, [...]
There seem to be two schools of thought when it comes to revising fiction. Some writers (and teachers) insist that you finish a first draft before doing any real revision. Other writers describe their process as writing for the day, starting the next day’s writing by reading and revising the previous day’s work, then proceeding [...]
It is harrowing for me to try to teach 20-year-old students, who earnestly want to improve their writing. The best I can think to tell them is: Quit smoking, and observe posted speed limits. This will improve your odds of getting old enough to be wise.
Barbara Kingsolver, author of The Poisonwood Bible,
Prodigal Summer, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and [...]