Reading, Research and Brainstorm Sessions

Only four more days until the madness begins!  I'm talking about ScriptFrenzy, of course.

I am having to exercise a large portion of self-control -- I want to start writing my screenplay NOW!

However, I've taken some advice from the SF headquarters and am in the midst of three things that will most definitely help my script reach its full (while still being messy and in need of serious editing) potential.

1. I'm reading scripts.  Some will be of my favorite movies (Speedracer and The Breakfast Club, to name a few), some I've never seen (Adventureland and 500 Days of Summer), and maybe one or two I really dislike.  Just so I know what to avoid.  ScriptFrenzy has a link to Dave's Script-O-Rama which has a large collection of scripts (various drafts, formats and genres), and I highly recommend imbibing a few before April 1.  I might even print one out as a reference.  (And it will probably be The Breakfast Club.  Seriously.  I could watch that movie every day)

2. Research!  I read a great piece of advice from Chris Baty, who started the NaNoWriMo/ScriptFrenzy bonanza.  Instead of wasting countless hours on 'research' (or Farmville), give yourself 5 clicks.  Go to Google, type in one thing you wrote down on your research list, and 5 clicks after that, you're done.  That's it.  No more until you finish this draft.

For a first draft, that's a great rule (that will hopefully keep me from worrying about how perfect my understanding of 1940's Dinner Etiquette really is).

3. BRAINSTORMING -- my absolute favorite part of story creation.  It might also be called day-dreaming.  Give me a soundtrack and a treadmill to walk (or a car to sit in) and I will entertain myself for hours making up stories.  But writing the stuff down might be helpful too --

which is why I have index cards, different colored felt-tip pens, notebook paper, a clipboard, a notebook, push pins and a bulletin board spread out in the living room, along with some short, helpful hints on writing.  My imagination space is almost complete.  Now I just need to plug my computer in.

Are you joining in the Frenzy? 

(If not, what are you working on/reading/watching these days?)

Foundling: Book 1 of the Monster Blood Tattoo Series by D.M. Cornish

I've begun several series this year -- much to my chagrin, they are all new(ish) and therefore I'm having to wait on the Kindle versions (or even paper versions!) to come out at the library.  It's painful.

BUT it is exciting that the slump of children's literature (or at least the perceived slump -- excluding the Harry Potter series, of course -- a definite literature life-saver) from the Noughts Decade (2000-2009) has receded and we are left with some true gems.

Foundling (Book 1) is one such gem -- it was utterly fascinating.

Rarely have I found a fantasy world that feels so real.  There's even a glossary at the end, complete with maps, pronunciation, measurements and descriptions.  While there is so much background information, the book is in fact quite easy to read (which is somewhat rare in very detailed fantasy worlds -- at least from my experience).

It is in fact so intriguing that I would (if I had the money -- which, alas, I do not...until Friday...) snap up the next two books wherever I could find them in paperback.

I want to know more about the unfortunate boy called Rossamund (I'm sure that's a foreshadowing of some kind!  How thrilling!) and his new life outside the orphanage.  And the monsters!  How is he going to avoid getting chomped in his dangerous new job?  And will he deign to serve someone who kills those who are, perhaps, misunderstood?

There are several things to chew on here -- racism (without sounding trite), society and the way it intertwines with our fate, and even freedom vs. safety (political and sociological).  All without being dry and dusty and tasteless.

It's amazing how much you can pack into a child's story.

Which is what made me want to write in the first place.

Have you read anything by D.M. Cornish?  Did you enjoy it?  What other fantasy worlds are real to you?  Which books make you want to pick up a pen and write?

How to Be A Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood by William J. Mann

William J. Mann's inside look at Liz Taylor's history was, to me, depressing.

I grew up with the Hollywood glamour in my eyes.  I wanted to be a movie star.  (Or a TV star.  I'd actually rather be on TV with a character I can play for years)  And then of course reading the tabloid headlines, I received a healthy dose of cynicism.  Or realism.  However you want to look at it.

But Old Hollywood still held some glamour for me.  At least until reading this book.

I'm not saying it's a bad book -- it's written by someone who wanted to reveal the real person beneath the publicist's mask.  Which of course is refreshing, in a way, and sad, too.

Liz Taylor wasn't the perfect, beautiful, tragic-turned-happy (?) figure we're led to believe.

She loved food.  diamonds.  sex.  alcohol.  and drugs.  These excesses (or the want of them) drove her life.  Pushed by her mother into stardom, Liz took what she could when she could, always ready for more.

She had a wretched beginning -- married off by MGM to Paris Hilton's granduncle (who turned out to be abusive), which began her running from man to man in an attempt to slake the thirst inside her.  (Her dad was a distant figure in her past, never close.  Wonder what psychologists would do with her?)

I like reading about celebrities.  But I don't like reading only the bad things about them.  I like knowing they're mixed bags -- as are the rest of us.

This book seemed to be trying to make her a real person -- but it didn't succeed in showing that she was a sympathetic character.  My respect for her dropped until there wasn't any left by the end of the book.

Would you have liked Marie Antoinette if you were a French beggar?

It also opened up the wretched mess that was the Hollywood industry and even back then, people were just as terrible as they are now.  It was just tied up in a prettier package.

Opening eyes can be a good thing.  But realizing that humanity has always been wretched and will always be wretched is not why I read.  I read to hope that we are better than that.

This book was extremely well written and researched but it left me sad and feeling ugly.

I'm going to go back to fiction for a while.

Saved By Soup

This is the first time I can say I've read a cookbook all the way through (skimming the prep since a lot of it is similar) -- and I really enjoyed it!

Saved by Soup:  More than 100 Delicious Low-Fat Soups to Eat and Enjoy Every Day by Judith Barrett is not only a cookbook -- there are bits of history, practical shopping advice, and health info sprinkled throughout.

It was an enjoyable read for several reasons:

1. I love soup.  I mean, I REALLY love soup.  It's my favorite thing to prepare and eat besides popcorn.
2. I love history -- so learning about each type of soup was intriguing.
3. I loved that each of these flavorful soups was low in fat (and calories) and that they (for the most part) used common ingredients.

There are several sections of soups -- including fruit soup (for summer), ethnic soups (borscht, gazpacho), and light soups for a fancy meal (pea soup and watercress), as well as comfort soup (chicken noodle).

There are instructions for making your own low-fat broth (quite easy) and also suggestions for what to serve with the soup (whether it was hearty or light).

I truly enjoyed reading this cookbook -- I read it on my Kindle but I'd love getting the hard copy someday to use in my kitchen.

If you're interested in low-fat, delicious soup recipes, or if you want to try something new (and healthy), I recommend this beautiful, practical and well-written cook book (with pictures!).

Steampunk! An Anthology -- by Various (including Lois Lowry and Garth Nix)

I usually don't read anthologies because I don't care for short stories.  They are usually unsatisfying, horrifyingly violent or tragic, and the endings are dreadful.  That's an unfair generalization, but I have read a ton of short stories.  (And yes, I do have some favorites -- Poe's "The Pit & the Pendulum" for one)

Perhaps I had better rephrase that to say, "I don't care for the modern/postmodern literature version of short stories," which is far more accurate.

Therefore, I was a wee mite trepidatious upon my primary perusal of the aforementioned anthology, "Steampunk!"

But it was steampunk.  And I was curious.

I was pleasantly surprised at the quality (and content) of the stories.  Instead of children mauling each other or everyone dying, there were semi-historical settings (some off-planet), gunslingers, nuns, a ghost and an automaton dance instructor who falls in love with his pupil.

Garth Nix and Lois Lowry are two of my favorite authors, so reading their steampunk stories was a real treat.

I have not been exposed to large quantities of steampunk but I like the general idea and hope to read more, as this was a lovely introduction.

The stories were so different from others I've read -- more like detailed oil portraits instead of dark and grainy snapshots.

"The Seventh Chair" (Lois Lowry) is especially intriguing.

I recommend this collection if you want to travel off-world for a while and learn about some very beautiful steam-powered machines (including a time-warping gun).

Have you read any steampunk literature?  Do you like the mixture of Victorian age science, futuristic societies and the occasional robot?  If you don't, what short stories do you like?

Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George

I've reviewed a few of J.D. George's books this year -- with mixed feelings.  I love her ideas, but something's always missing (it seems) in the execution.  Not that she's a bad writer, mind you.  She isn't.  She plots extremely well (which is more than I can say for some other books I've read this year), but that little something that makes a book isn't there.

Or wasn't.

Tuesdays at the Castle is unique -- ostensibly written for a younger audience, it is a delightful romp of a fairytale, so fun to read that parents might want to take over the reading responsibilities for a few nights.

Another word for this story is appropriate.  And not the boring definition.  It's appropriate because of the way the subject matter is handled.  It doesn't turn dark, twisted and horrifying.  It has sad parts, scary parts, hilarious parts...but none of it ever feels threatening, and for a younger audience, that's important.

I don't want my (future) kids always reading one wretched tale after the other about poor young children who are stuck in horrible situations with no hope of a better future and no way to change their fate.  I want them to read books like this, about kids with spunk, bravery, mischievousness, and heart.

(And I also think it would make a great family movie)

Analyzing The Writer

As a young-and-aspiring writer, I haven't found my "things" yet. 

Things like:

-my writing style
-my plotting/story-boarding, "work" format
-my favorite way to write (keyboard? pens? a blue pencil?)
-my themes

So that's what I want to write about today.  How do you figure out what these are?  I expect the answer runs along the lines of, "just shut up and write" (and then you'll figure it out years later) but for the sake of discussion (and a longer blog post), I'm going to hazard a guess, or several, about the Origins of a Writer's Style.

I think we have to begin with the individual brain.  Your Primary Story-Telling Device.  The thing you spin yarns with, the thing that gives you crazy dreams wherein mice are your co-workers, translating your data entry into Braille*.  Everybody's noodle is wired differently, and whether you realize it or not, your personality and your brain have a lot to do with HOW you write.  (I'm talking about weird stuff, like why you only drink orange soda while writing code for websites)

For example: I am a messy, disorganized Type-B individual.  I don't use notecards or Post-Its with enough regularity for them to be called Instruments of My Trade.  I'm more likely to keep one notebook and scribble EVERYTHING down.  The organization will come later.  Hopefully.  I just shower my paper with thoughts (and doodles) and hope something linear arrives.  A pattern of some kind.  Sewing mixed seeds and then hoping to harvest all the cucumbers, that sort of thing.

Why?  It has to do with what type of learner I am.  My brain deals with abstracts much better than concretes.   I learn by doing, seeing the big picture and drawing strange connections.  So it makes sense I'd write stories that way.  My brain's just wired like that.

Also, I snack on carbs when my brain stops working as I write.  Maybe that explains my non-pregnant-yet-round tummy.  O.o  (That or I'm an extra-tall halfling, and loving/eating tons of food is in my DNA.  I tend toward that prognosis)

I think part of the way you write also comes from the stuff you love (obvious, but let me explain).  Say you decide to write a story about fruit, a princess, a large, cuddly animal and perhaps some sort of magical spell.  Those things were stored in your brain from somewhere.  Your brain likes these things for some reason, and it pulls in stuff you won't even realize is in there until you begin dissecting, years later, for those nosy columnists who interview you after your story wins best something-or-other.

There's also the idea that you often include stuff that's happened to you as a way of processing it.  I tend to write about characters who are only children, who want something -- either a 'real' family that actually gets along or spends time together, or to escape the oppressive situations they've grown up in.  I'll let you figure out why I write about the last two situations, but as for the only child thing...

I've thought about that a lot, and I've just this second seen why I write about that.  When I was very small, I lost a little brother in a tragic accident.  I was an only child for a while again, and I don't think I ever forgot what that felt like, even though I now have three more siblings.

Weird, isn't it?  Like a little piece of yourself coming into focus.

As for my Tools of the Trade -- I must have a non-scratchy pen.  I CANNOT write with a scratchy one.  I can't concentrate and I want to blow the pen up in a much-larger-than-necessary explosion.  I love notebooks.  I have too many, and few of them are gorgeous.  I can't write in beautiful, empty books.  What if I mess them up?!  I also love writing on the computer -- I'm a pretty fast typist.  I prefer certain programs over others and I may find a favorite eventually but I'm young and new enough to this that I haven't found The One yet.

So what about you?  As you approach a new writing project (or ScriptFrenzy), what do you stock up on?  Have you discovered something about yourself while writing that surprised you?  Do you hate scratchy pens too?

*Totally had this dream a few nights ago.  It seemed perfectly normal at the time.