2015 Goals

You've set your goal, now what? Congratulations. You set your goal for 2015. Now how do you accomplish your goal? I can tell you how I used to go about achieving my goal. It involved no planning, no strategy, no focus. But let't not dwell on the past. How do I do it now? Well I'm glad you asked. Write your goal down. Write down the steps you need to take to achieve your goal. If you're not sure, ask someone in that field. Since I am a writer, I will let you peek at last year's steps. 1. Identify where my writing needs work. 2. Take classes that address my weakness in my writing. 3. Rewrite and see if I show improvement. 4. Take more classes as necessary. That was my focus and planning. My strategy involved using a calendar planner, looking at classes that were offered, scheduling them on my planner, booking plane tickets, and paying for onsite and online classes. My goal was to improve my writing. I had to identify where I needed it. I knew from published authors and screenwriters who'd read my work that I was great at plot, great at dialogue, great at story. Everything that was necessary for a novel, screenplay, or teleplay to work was on the page, but I wasn't great at editing. Now I revised, and revised and revised. But It still wasn't working. So my focus last year was on learning how to edit my writing. Did it work? Yes. I can see the flaws, and deescalations, and lack of conflict and fix them. I can cut entire scenes and even characters. I can rewrite scenes three, four, or five times to see which one fits the story better. When I do revisions, I set the revision as my goal and then I write down the steps. What am I looking to edit/revise: dialogue, conflict, stakes, emotion, characterization, setting, plot, etc. Approaching my writing this way allows me to write that first draft like a young girl running through a meadow, listening to pixies play on flutes. Because I know when I'm done, I'm going into the underground bunker with bare concrete walls and its time to revise-get brutal with my editing. Some writers are different. They start in the bunker with the writing craft tools and even an outline. I need to let myself flow free for as long as I want. Write the way that comes natural to you. 3. Do the steps. This is where the planner comes in handy. Write down what steps you are going to take every day. Yes, every day. I work eight hours a day, five days a week, so I know it means sacrifice-sleep, or something else. But this is your dream. Do it. 4. Write some celebrations in. I like a glass of sparkling wine when I finish a writing project. Or it could be a trip to the office supply store for fluorescent sticky notes. Anything that motivates you to continue. My goal for 2015: to option a novel and screenplay/teleplay. I've already gotten started, and yes, my planner pages are filling up. I'd love to hear what your goal is.

Alive on the page

Alive on the page? Do you ever put a book down and think "Man, that character is crazy", or "Man, I can't stop reading this, I hope she doesn't get caught by the ogre". Or does this happen instead, "Man, that writer used some really powerful words", or "Man, that writer really knows how to mess up a book. I'm done reading this." The difference in the two is just like acting. We love to go to a movie where we can get lost in the character, not in the person playing the character. Personally I hate going to see a movie and I see the actor, not the character, he or she is portraying. Well the same holds true for a novel. A writer wants the reader to feel like the character could come off the page and be a real person. A writer does not want the reader seeing the author. I'm revising my second novel with my advisor in graduate school, and I have caught myself "writing pretty". Writing pretty is my way of saying an author throws words on the page to let the writing flow, without paying attention to the character. You see me as the author, you do not see the character. I find that I write pretty when I am typing solely on the computer (or iPad). I find that my writing is rich and full of character and description when I write long hand. So I've switched to writing my revision and all new material long hand. It takes longer, but then again God blessed me with being able to type over 80 words per minute, so I'm good. Plus the action of writing, and the typing allows me to do more reflection and editing. When my novel is published, you will be glad that I took the time to write long hand. And so will I.

Formulaic

I was able to participate in a free screenwriting call with John Truby last night. He said the number one thing that kills screenwriting careers is the 3 act structure. He said many other informative things like write in several genres, which is the opposite of what books tell you, even though working screenwriters do write in different genres. And yes, I have written in every genre except westerns so far.
3 act structure. Yes it's good for learning the basics of writing a screenplay, but you still have to go with what your story needs. Which is what he also spoke about.
Why is that important? In my Mfa program (which is the same for all Mfa programs), I'm not writing the way I would like to. I prefer to finish a product and then edit and revise it. In the program you write 20-40 pages and then revise and edit that, using what I call the Mfa formula. It's a string of words that deal with the writing craft. Things like psychic distance, point of view, unreliable narrator, etc.
I just want to tell my story. Get the entire thing on the page as naturally as possible without chopping off the creative part of me with all these formulaic devices.
Are they good things to be aware of? Yes. Should you be combing every page as you write it for them. No!
Writing should be like sculpting. The rough shape takes form, and then you smooth it out. Not cut a nose and then spend a month reshaping the nose, never getting to the rest of the face and losing who you are as an artist along the way.
Don't let formulas drive your writing. I know. It caused me to lose my creativity and stop writing for two weeks.
I figured out that I was being turned into a formula driven writer.
That's not who I am. I also wasn't writing what I really wanted to. I was being told I had to write other things.
Never let someone step on your writing dreams. It's time to cut the cord when that happens.
I read about a woman that wanted to write a historical novel. She enrolled in a writing class and at the end the instructor told her she showed promise as a writer, but that she shouldn't write a historical novel, she should stick with what she knows. She didn't let that deter her and wrote her historical novel. That novel is being published this year.

I'm back to enjoying my writing. The way I love to write. I have discarded from my head all that formulaic garbage that was holding me back, forcing me into being a cookie cutter writer, and hampering my writing.
I'm back to what I love doing. The way I love to do it.

The King's Speech Movie Review

My goal is to see Christian writing raised to the level of academy award and national book award status (including Caldecott, Newberry, and Pulitzer).

From time to time I will be supplementing my blog with novel and book reviews. Here is today's review of a movie I saw last night.


Saw The King's Speech last night for two reasons: academy award nominations, and the recommendation of my best friend. I went to Cinebistro, and while the service was not up to par, it was a comfortable seating and viewing experience.

First off, I am a sci-fi, action movie type of girl. My video collection reads like a list of Marvel comics, so I was unsure how I was going to like The King's Speech, even with one of my favorite actresses-Helena Bonham Carter in the movie.

The King's Speech hooked me from the beginning. It didn't start off with a long prologue, it dove right into the conflict, the dilemma.

Watching Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush banter back and forth, I felt like they had spent most of their life looking for that one person who would understand them the most and found it in each other.

SPOILER ALERT--



The difficulties the King faced with his brother and his father surprised me. Monarchy aren't suppose to be like us-they aren't suppose to have siblings that pick on them, or fathers that bully them; or suffer abuse, and they certainly aren't suppose to be afraid of power-and yet they do.

One of the lines I loved in the movie is delivered by the King to Lionel Logue. He said all this time he never really knew the commoners; he knows as little about them as they do about him. This movie peels back that veil of aristocracy and shows us frailty, courage, and the power of a true friend.

My recommendation: A