mywayandthewriteway

Why?

I hope you readers will forgive me if I wax a bit philosophical today. As I am writing this post (already a week late) on a made-up day (Feb.29), I felt it was a good time to delve into certain issues I have been having as of late with a particular Hollywood genre. This really does have to do with writing because I feel that whether you are writing the next great War and Peace or a saturday matinée filler movie, the writer should do his (or her) very best to ASK interesting questions. It’s not necessary to answer them as that is part of what reading does for us: allows us to ponder questions asked great and small and come up with our own answers.

Over the past 10 years or so, I have become more and more enamored of a certain sub-genre of horror films-that being the Zombie genre. Growing up I loved monsters such as Frankenstein, Wolfman and Dracula. I read the classics, watched the Universal films and later the Hammer movies as well and thoroughly accepted the premises that they put forth. HOWEVER, the one movie I never liked was the original Dawn of the Dead. I am certain that is paramount to sacrilege for a number of you but it just never made any sense to me. Two people walking in a graveyard and then the dead rise and there is the whole movie in a nutshell. No rhyme, no reason, they just get up and attack.  And to be perfectly honest (a horrible phrase: should I be only somewhat honest?) that is pretty much the theme and plot of every Zombie movie since.

OK, this is starting to sound as if I dislike the genre, and I said I do like it. It’s true. tastes change, movie making evolves and especially since movies like Resident Evil (and all the following films in the franchise), Doomsday, Zombieland, Sean of the Dead, etc… I have really begun to enjoy and look forward to these forays into cinematic catastrophe.

There is a great TV show on AMC channel called The Walking Dead and I hope you watch it because it’s extremely good TV and it does illustrate the primary and glaringly obvious flaw (in my never-to-be-humble-opinion) that almost all Zombie and for that matter post-apocalyptic movies make. Why are we surviving? I realize that survival is at the heart of every one of these films, but really…WHY?:  Because we are supposed to? Because we enjoy being chased by hordes of Undead? No! Survival is only a powerful goal IF we have a reason to survive!

Yes, staying alive is a goal unto itself but it shouldn’t be. We survive as a species because we have goals beyond food, water and shelter. We want comfort, friendship, success, all of these somewhat immaterial but emotionally and spiritually important ideals. If all we do is scrape by and claw everyone in front of us down so that we can be in front what is the point. And more importantly, in a film or book, I get really, really bored.

The Walking Dead stands as a great example of this question by using the feud between the two major male characters. The hero-Rick, wants to survive and make a home, a safe haven, for his family and for the group. So does the Anti-hero-Shane. However, here is where the two differ. Rick wants to stay the same man he was when the world fell to pieces. Be a good dad, a loving husband and to be these things by setting an example of how to live. A comment made by him in this weeks show shows this clearly when he says (and I am paraphrasing):

“We are probably going to have to kill this man. But I’m still going to take a night and think about it. Killing shouldn’t be easy.”

On the other hand, Shane is willing to kill strangers and even friends, to completely turn his back on the ethics and morals that he (supposedly) once held dear. And the interesting thing…He does that for exactly the same reasons as Rick. Two men, identical goals, two wildly divergent means of accomplishing them. That my friends is intriguing and interesting writing. It makes me want to watch the next episode. In a book, it makes me want to turn the page. If the final goal and prize for surviving a Zombie-fueled apocalyptic nightmare is simply to be able to run away again tomorrow, well then, you’ve lost the fight already.

And finally, just a nod to maybe the best movie out there that proves my point about having a reason to survive more than just the next breath. No Zombies but very post-apocalyptic. The Book of Eli. In my opinion (see the above never-to-be-humble remark), the best Denzel Washington movie out there. If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor, go watch a great union of writing, acting and storytelling. Most importantly, it asks questions and lets us decide what the answers are.

JJ Abrams created Star Trek…didn’t he?

For those of you who read this Blog each week you may notice I’m posting it a few days later than normal (It should be out on Monday or Tuesday.)  But, better late than never. Today I wanted to talk about the unique perspective of writing for a book as opposed to a movie or comic book or TV show. Yes, we all write stories and we all need to develop characters and keep our plots interesting and intelligent (or at least cogent), however what books must do and that the rest of the forms of writing don’t have to-and often don’t do, is have a strong sense of continuity.

Yes, there have been authors who have taken over a novel or series after an author passes away, however, normally, once an author writes a story and/or creates a character, that story and character are his forever. No so true with other forms of the story writing art.

DC comics just spent the past couple of years revamping its entire universe. New origins, costumes and in some cases identities for characters that have been around since the 50′s or earlier. Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman are just meeting up.

How about all of you who think Samuel Jackson is THE Nick Fury? Actually, long before he was black and cool he was white and older and a WWII vet.

James Bond has not only been 4+ actors in his movie-life, but M has gone from an older man to an older woman. And, now that they have “restarted” the franchise with daniel Craig, apparently she always was a woman. (this is no comment on Dame Judi Dench’s portrayal-she is the best thing about the Bond franchise lately.)

What I am trying to get at here is that authors of books take the long view for their words and creations. No one would ever say that we should have a new author write Lord of the Rings in order to update it for a more modern audience. And you will not see  Tom Clancy write a new Jack Ryan novel where he was a private detective before he became a spy.  Authors recognize that once a story is created people will come to love, hate, fear, exalt, etc… their characters and will follow their adventures again and again. And even when the author has stopped writing about them, the readers (that’s us) go back and re-read them again and again.

As writers, we need to determine where our stories and characters go and who they are (or were) and we need to be certain that we want that because rise or fall, next year there will not be someone new to come along and restart our story for an ’updated audience’. For good or ill, it’s all our fault. And that is OK, because books are a unique medium. Yes, we save and enshrine films and comics but there are those who believe that Jean Luc Picard was the first captain of the Enterprise…or worse yet Chris Pine is the only Captain Kirk. That Midichlorians are why Jedi’s can use the Force, or that Nick Fury was always black. Yet, there is no one out there I wager who wouldn’t rise up in righteous anger if suddenly Bilbo Baggins kept The One Ring and never gave it to Frodo because that would make the story better. Or at least, I hope there isn’t.

Class is still in session!

Another week, another blog! We can consider this blog a continuation of sorts from last week as I am still talking about how I write. My background is that of a child with 2 teachers as parents. Untill I was 7, my father worked while going to college and getting his teaching degree. Eventually over his career he earned his masters. My formative years were spent with college professors and teachers and on and off campus’. My fathers mentor and favorite teacher was a man named King Povenmire. He was a playwrite and an English teacher and we often visited his office and went to see several of his plays.

As a youth and teen, I participated in children’s theatre and took drama class’s at school. I wrote plays and made super 8 films up through my twenties. And I read. Always. My parents were avid readers always having a book or two in hand and I just grew up the same way. I started with comic books (which I still enjoy to this day), I read science fiction (a particular passion of my fathers). I read fantasy, mystery (my mothers passion). I grew up alongside of Ellery Queen and Agatha Christie. Ian Flemming and JRR Tolkien. Even earlier I weaned myself on Issac Asimov and Ray Bradbury. All of these marvelous writers and storytellers and more shaped me and encouraged me to want to be like them.

I was and still am a huge TV and movie nut. I go to the movies regularly. I practically grew up at the cinema every summer vacation (and the rest of the year too.) I worked in a comic book store, a games hobby shop and a local theatre as a young teen. These were my learning tools and my influences, all which molded me further into who I am and the writer I have become.

So why talk about all this. Yes I read and I am certain most of you reading this did too. Yes I love movies and comics-again, I assume most of you too. How did all this influence me?

Well, I found a love of recurring villains from comic books. I acquired a thirst for adventure from Tom Swift and Prince Caspian. I came to understand the beauty (and necessity) of a mystery from Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes. I learned that if one book makes a great story then three more (or seven, or…put your own number here) are even better. A book, a movie, a TV show all end. But the stories they tell live on, the characters, as with people in life, do not simply stop but go on to greater and grander adventures.

And one more thing I learned. Horror is not how many creative ways you can slice up a teenager, horror is art. It is ambience, it is suspense. Alfred Hitchcock showed us that. So has Stephen King and Robert Bloch. Freddy Krueger? A piker next to the likes of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Michael Meyers? He has nothing on Dracula or Dr. Frankenstein and his monster. How about Jason? or Chucky? Or The Creeper? They barely make a mark next to the children in “Lord of the Flies”.

And why is that? It’s because there is story, and character and pathos in all those (good) monsters and books and genres I have mentioned. It’s one thing to create a big bad or a scary robot or a cool techno machine. But if these beings don’t resonate with you, the reader, then they don’t mean anything. The best books, the best characters, the best stories are those that strike some sort of personal chord in us.

I can’t hope to place myself at the level of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or CS Lewis. But I can tell a good story. I can make people care about the characters I write. And I can do this because I had so many good teachers. I only hope I learned my lessons well…and that I never forget there’s always more I can learn.

That’s the way, uh-huh-uh-huh I write it, uh-huh, uh-huh.

I said in last weeks blog that I would talk about how I write-equally as important as what I write. However, we may take a slightly circuitous route getting there…because generally I do that when I write.

About 8 months ago I got a dog. A three-year old Pomeranian-mix, more standardly called a mutt. Ostensibly I got him for my son but even as I kept saying that, I knew I was getting him for me. And sure enough, he is my dog. He loves everyone, but cries if I get up to go to the bathroom. He will take attention from anyone but is constantly on my lap if I even look like I may sit down. I must admit that even though I had a few dogs growing up I have never been much of a dog person and I am surprised by how much I love this little guy and am constantly amazed at all the new things I am learning about being a dog owner.

Now, what has this got to do with writing? Well, as much as I love my dog (his name is Dalton), I don’t want 4 or 5 dogs. I am happy with this one. I want as much time as I can have with him and it actually makes me sad to think about a future (a far and away future I hope) where I will have to be without him. Trouble is, I write that way too.

My first novel is called Muzak of the Mice and I wrote it after I had set up the concept as a Dungeons and Dragons game that I ran. I have been writing my own D&D games and running them with pretty nearly the same group of friends for over 35 years. And the wonderful thing about writing and running your own games is that you can totally go back and run it again and again if suddenly you have new players. Or if they bypassed one area of your game, take it out and use that part in another game. The thing is, you never have to let go of your adventures. They can be used and re-used forever. Not so with stories and books that you write.

I love Muzak of the Mice. I have been living with it for over 10 years now. But if I don’t finish it, let it go, I can’t move on to other stories. My book should not be like my dog. I need to be able to imagine a world where I have let it go and gotten a new story. Sometimes we are so in love with what we have written, that we can’t bear to think that we can write something else, something equally wonderful and exciting. It does not lessen the worth of the first book or make it any less exciting for people to read but, to paraphrase a tool we are taught at the writing conferences that I attend, I need to ” Murder my loved ones.” I need to let Muzak of the Mice go and find a new story.

For me, I am an only adequate multi-tasker and when I write I want a time and a place and a pattern to my writing. I want to explore and inspect and polish and edit every aspect of that story. But I need to never lose sight of the fact that a writer writes. I need to write. So, this week I am sending off Muzak of the Mice to the annual PNWA writers conference literary contest as well as a short story I have written. Once that’s sent off, I will make certain my entire manuscript is formatted and spell checked one final time and even as I do this I will put it aside in my mind. Make it done to me. Now i have other stories that need me and that I need and I’m going to write them.

It’s a good idea, but is it a good story?

We have all said at one time or another “This would be a great idea for a story.” I say it all the time. But I was struck this week with the thought that perhaps it isn’t a great idea for a story….maybe it’s just a great character, or a great situation…or maybe it’s not even that (though for argument’s sake I will assume it is.)

Recently, I have had one of these “great ideas” and over the past few weeks I have been hard at work on it. So far, I have oodles of notes, several stilted pages of starts and stops and a few cool names but very little in the way of a story. I have begun to wonder whether I have a great story idea or not. Now some of you may think “well, it’s just writers block” or “He just isn’t very creative.” To those who say the first, I admit you may be right and for those of you who say the latter…well, to hell with you. But I digress.You can have the greatest character in the world but if he isn’t doing something interesting, what’s the point. In fact, I will go so far as to say, the better the character, the more impressive what he is doing needs to be. We wouldn’t be excited to see Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa spend the movie buying groceries.

Ever read a book or seen a movie and you absolutely love a particular character or group of characters. Maybe they even have a great reason for hanging out and doing whatever it is they are going to do. But somewhere along the way, it just gets…meh. Maybe it’s because the idea wasn’t so hot after all. For example, in my never to be humble opinion, that is the case with Stargate (The movie, not the TV shows). I love science fiction and Kurt Russell is “The Man” (along with Bruce Campbell). You have a tragic story of a man who has lost his child and a strange mysterious artifact found in the desert and Aliens and…well, what’s not to love? But, when you put all these pieces together, the best you come up with is: Aliens want to invade us so we nuke them. Really?  That’s the best you get with all that? Maybe, cool stargate and ultra-suave Kurt Russell just weren’t enough.

I have always been able to tell a good story and I am never at a lack for ideas and words to go with them but if your character who is from an alien planet and can move the earth with his bare hands and can stand ground zero at a nuclear explosion has to fight a villain who is-a crooked realtor (even if he is played by Gene Hackman or Kevin Spacey) maybe you need to dig a little deeper.

So, I’m going to take my cool character with a nifty name (so far the 3rd nifty name I have given him) and rethink whether or not there is a good story waiting to be told about him. If there is, I’ll find it and write it but if there is not, I need to be able to accept that too and move on. I’ll keep you informed as time goes on.

Next week, I want to talk to you about how I write. Something that after 40-some years of doing it I am only figuring out now. Till then, keep those cards and letters (or in this day-and- age, those posts and pixels) coming!

…and in my copious free time, I like to write.

     In a perfect world, I would write each and every day. In fact, that’s probably the number one rule that I (and all other aspiring writers) hear from professionals when asked the question “What is the secret to being a successful writer?”

     Unfortunately, my world is far from perfect. First of all, I’m married. OK, no letters please (actually, letters and comments are great, just not about my sense of humor-unless of course you love it!) What I mean by that is I do not live a hermetical life with no obligations other than to myself (even those of you who are not married probably do not live that sort of a life). Adding to my marriage, I have (I really should say “we” have) added a son. Jackson is 10 years old-going on 30-and rapscallion that he is, finds himself unable to live his life quietly and without causing interuption (any of you who have 10 year olds-especially boys-will know what I mean).

     Rounding out my household is my mother. A truly inspiring woman in my life. She was a teacher for over 30 years and taught me for so much longer. I will never be able to thank her for all that she has given to me. However, she has had the ill-fated fortune to actually grow old (I know-How dare she). Anyway, with this unreasonable life choice of hers, it has become necessary for her to live with us and get a little help from time to time: that time being only between the hours of 12 midnight to 11:59 pm.

    Given all of this (and I have not even bothered to mention the dog and 4 cats), I occasionally find myself busy with things other than writing. But, only durring the hours of…

**PLEASE REFER TO PREVIOUS COMMENT ABOUT TIME SPENT HELPING MOTHER**

     What I am trying to point out, in what I hope is a humorous manner, is that it can be challenging to find the time I need to write. To think about what I want to write. To rewrite what it is I have already written and to somehow spend even more time promoting myself and my writings so that someone will consider it the right decision to pay me for all this writing. The truth is that I have written for almost 50 years and rarely looked to get paid for it. If no one does pay me I’ll still write for another 50 years (god willing) because I love it. It’s in my blood. But, when my son needs his homework looked at and my mom needs to go to the bathroom and my wife has decided to go back to school and now she has homework and no one has walked the dog in 2 days and now someone needs to clean-up after the dog because he has not been walked in two days and my son and his friends will go skating and leave me alone for a few hours-if I drive them and pick up his friends and can he have a few dollars for snacks and how about going for pizza after and my wife only needs me to make dinner for her when she gets home but my mom wants dinner now and my son doesn’t want any dinner-till it’s bedtime and he is suddenly hungry and my mother knows I am busy and doesn’t want to bother me but the next time I get up (her code for in the next 5 minutes please) she needs her pills and a blanket and will I turn on the heater and now will I turn off the heater and…WHEW!!…

     Well, I think you get the idea. And even if none of these are issues you deal with on a daily basis, if you are a writer, you have your own laundry list of to-do’s and more. Time management can often be harder than figuring out where the next chapter of your book should start or stop.

     Beyond all of this, I also need to find a few minutes for myself each day. I love to read. I actually go to the movies on rare occasions. Thank god I have no friends so I don’t have to include socializing in my time-off activities.

     So, what is a person to do? In school I never learned to allocate my time well for homework. I was never a poor student but did often find myself cramming the night before a test. In my love life, I always found it difficult to date (or make the attempt to date) more than one girl at a time. I tend to look for a job and once I’ve gotten one, refuse to move on-no matter how bad the work is-till I absolutely have to. In short, I suck at time management and I am only adequate at multi-tasking. If I was brilliant at just one of these then being bad at the other would be easier, but as it is I feel like I am doubly handicapped. But I am trying to get better. I’ll just add learning how to do that to the list of things I need to do…

      I realize that I haven’t really given any kind of answers to all the problems and questions I have raised. I don’t want anyone reading this to think that I am just whining or looking for pity. Everyone faces these issues-even *GASP* non-writers. This Blog is actually one way I am trying to find solutions. I make it my priority to post each Monday. I make it my goal and -so far-  I am sticking with it (it will look so much more impressive when I have more than two posts). And, over the last week I have tweaked a short story I am writing, edited another short story I already wrote and I have decided that even though outlining is not my strong suit, I need to do at least some outlining work on my newest novel because even though I have a great plot and lots of cool ideas…I really don’t know where I am headed with it.

     Last year I fell down really hard when it came to making writing my priority and goal #1. This year I am working hard to change that. Sharing this time and these thoughts with all of you will help me-is helping me do that. If anyone reading this has any suggestions and / or comments please feel free to leave them. I’ll read them all. And, I’ll see you back here next week. Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Channel (I have always wanted to say that! - Kudo’s to any of you who actually know where that comes from).

Do or Don’t, Will or Won’t

    Welcome to my first Blog post. As I start the 2nd week of 2012, I have decided to try and make a strong effort to get my writing up and running. For the past few years I have been working on a novel and now that it is finished (ok, 99.5% finished), I find I have been wallowing in indecision on what to do next and (perhaps) more importantly, how to do it.

    I have written all my life: plays for school, short stories for my family, short films with my super-8 camera and even speeches and newspaper articles for school papers. As an adult (I am still working on that adult part), I have been an avid gamer for over 35 years (no, not cards and slots, I mean RPG’s-Dungeons and Dragons and the like). As such, I wrote all my own adventures and stories to go with them.

    But untill 5 years ago, I never truly worked at making writing my first priority. Looking back over the past 50 years, that seems pretty childish (as I said, I am still working on that ‘adult’ aspect of life). There comes a time though, when you realize all the palying you have been doing really might mean something more and you have to start getting serious about it. For 5 years now I have been trying, with limited success. I intend to do more. And this is my first step.

    Each week I will update this Blog and post for all the world to see just how well (or how badly) I am doing in my goal. I am not a huge believer in New Years Resolutions, but I am a great believer in new beginings (again and again and again). So, this is my new begining. And my new goal: By August of this year, I will have a polished manuscript that has been sent out to at least 2 agents/publishers/etc… and a fully completed short story as well as a completed first draft of my new novel. You can all watch me here and follow my progress and cheer me on (or castigate me for procrastinating.) I look forward to sharing this journey with everyone.

    Please feel free to comment on what I post and I will try to respond to each comment at least once. Join me on my journey. I could use the company and maybe, just maybe we will both learn something.