Earlier this month we were honored with a skype visit from Beth Revis, author of the Across the Universe series. She happened to be at a convention in New York at the time, but was kind enough to give us a good Q&A session. Here's what we learned:
Q: How do you create tension?
A: Always make the worst possible thing happen.
Q: How do you write a good first kiss?
A: Be aware that not all kisses are perfect. A first kiss should have some awkwardness in it.
Q: How do you start a book?
A: Just start writing. Then cut the first fifty pages. You want to make sure you start on the day that everything changes.
Q: How do you invent new technology for science fiction?
A: Take a look at your story and think about what kind of technology you want to have. Then do your research and find out why we don't have that yet. For example, in Across the Universe, people needed to be frozen for space travel. When I looked it up, I found out that we can't freeze people yet because their cell walls would break. So I invented the "blue goo" to solve that problem.
Q: How do you kill your first character?
A: I've killed so many characters in books it just comes naturally now.
Q: Do you have any advice on writing endings?
A: Endings take a lot of re-writing. Bring something from the beginning and make it part of the end. Come full circle.
Q: How do you get ideas for stories?
A: The ideas are the easy part. Once you get an idea, then you have to figure out what happens next, especially what's the worst possible thing that could happen next.
Q: How do you come up with titles?
A: Make a list of about fifty, and then pick the best one. Have other people help you decide.
Q: What's the hardest part about being a full-time author?
A: Discipline! I have to make my own schedule for turning out a book every year, so that usually ends up with me not writing at all for a few months, then as the deadline approaches, I panic and stay up all night writing.
Q: How do you write a romantic scene without making it too cheesy?
A: Bring in the emotional reactions. There should be some doubt or mistrust. Make it emotionally complex.
Q: How do you do foreshadowing?
A: This is one of the most fun things about writing. I don't outline, but as I write I make sure I include lots of details. As the story goes on, I find ways to make those details relevant later.
Thanks for the visit, Beth!
Showing posts with label ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ideas. Show all posts
Friday, November 2, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Upcoming Writing Lessons
Aloha young writers!
Today we discussed possible topics for upcoming lessons. Here's the list:
Today we discussed possible topics for upcoming lessons. Here's the list:
- How to begin a story
- Humor
- Resolving conflicts
- Naming characters
- Foreshadowing
- Suspension of Disbelief
- Tension
- Plotting
- Description
- Dialog
- Scenes
- Action scenes
- Monsters
- Plot holes & how to patch them
- Falling action
- Ending beats
- Character reactions
- Character motivations
- Time flow in stories
- Research
- Revise or re-write?
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
When to be Original
No one likes to see the same old same old, especially when it comes
to entertainment. We're all searching for something new and exciting.
And when we create stories, we want them to be fresh and original.
But on the other hand, you don't want to be so way out there that no one can connect with your story.
This really smart professor guy named Joseph Campbell studied myths and legends all over the world and discovered that a lot of great stories have pretty much the same plot. He wrote about it in his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (click to read the Wikipedia article). Modern storytellers, like George Lucas paid attention, and have made a lot of money creating their own versions of this basic myth. It works because it taps into universal human experience. It feels right.
We'll talk about what exactly this most epic plot is in another lesson.
So if George Lucas used the same storytelling elements that have been used since cavemen swapped tales over the campfire, how come Star Wars seemed like something we'd never seen before?
It was all in the setting. And the light sabers. Yeah, those are cool.
The constant pattern of human life, of all life in fact, is that we are all born, we grow, we live, and then we die. The same story over and over. What makes each life unique is the time and place in which we are born, the people we associate with, the minor details of our life events.
So one way to make your story seem different from every other story, even if you choose to tell a story that's been told a million times, is to have that story play out in a new setting. A setting you invent, or one you research, or one you've lived in yourself.
It's not good to mess with basic plot structure, especially for the beginning writer. Learn as much as you can about the kinds of stories that work and master those forms before you try and get inventive. But you can always, always put your stories in settings that are fresh and original.
Most writers start out imitating their favorite kinds of stories, and then eventually move into their own. Don't worry too much about being original. There's no one else like you in the whole world, and if you write what's truly inside you, your story will be something wonderful that no one has ever seen before.
But on the other hand, you don't want to be so way out there that no one can connect with your story.
This really smart professor guy named Joseph Campbell studied myths and legends all over the world and discovered that a lot of great stories have pretty much the same plot. He wrote about it in his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (click to read the Wikipedia article). Modern storytellers, like George Lucas paid attention, and have made a lot of money creating their own versions of this basic myth. It works because it taps into universal human experience. It feels right.
We'll talk about what exactly this most epic plot is in another lesson.
So if George Lucas used the same storytelling elements that have been used since cavemen swapped tales over the campfire, how come Star Wars seemed like something we'd never seen before?
It was all in the setting. And the light sabers. Yeah, those are cool.
The constant pattern of human life, of all life in fact, is that we are all born, we grow, we live, and then we die. The same story over and over. What makes each life unique is the time and place in which we are born, the people we associate with, the minor details of our life events.
So one way to make your story seem different from every other story, even if you choose to tell a story that's been told a million times, is to have that story play out in a new setting. A setting you invent, or one you research, or one you've lived in yourself.
It's not good to mess with basic plot structure, especially for the beginning writer. Learn as much as you can about the kinds of stories that work and master those forms before you try and get inventive. But you can always, always put your stories in settings that are fresh and original.
Most writers start out imitating their favorite kinds of stories, and then eventually move into their own. Don't worry too much about being original. There's no one else like you in the whole world, and if you write what's truly inside you, your story will be something wonderful that no one has ever seen before.
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