How does one begin to write something new? I look to experts for advice from Pixar to Dickinson: --Pixar story artist Emma Coats has tweeteda series of “story basics” over the
past month and a half — guidelines that she learned from her more senior
colleagues on how to create appealing stories: #1: You admire a character for trying
more than for their successes. (Note to self: remember 'character is the very life of fiction' - John Gardner. Give your characters heart, hate, truths, lies). #2: You gotta keep in mind what’s
interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can
be v. different. (Note to self: every night read aloud all that you wrote that day, picture yourself as the reader). #3: Trying for theme is important,
but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it.
Now rewrite. (Note to self: first write, anything, get it down on 'paper.') “…Do I dare Disturb the universe? In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse…” -The Love Song
of J. Alfred Prufrock, T. S. Eliot “…Not for the proud man apart from the raging moon I write on these spindrift pages Nor for the towering dead With their nightingales and psalms But for the lovers, their arms Round the griefs of the ages, Who pay no praise or wages Nor heed my craft or art.” “In My Craft or Sullen Art,” Dylan Thomas “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant— …The Truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind—“ --Emily
Dickinson And so it begins again.... but if you haven't read LIE, my critically-acclaimed young adult novel-- about the brutal aftermath of a hate crime against a Latino on Long Island, inspired by real events-- now is the time to get serious and read. Truly, |
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