Becoming a Lifelong Learner of the Craft of Writing

By author, editor, educator Shonell Bacon aka ChickLitGurrl™

In part one of this series, I offered some advice on books and software to help you on this journey and gave you guys a little homework.

In part two, I talked about seeing your book as a visual story. I asked you to look at your book as a movie goer, not as a book reader, and to discern what about your book was visually appealing, stimulating—to see if the book had good stuff to be developed into a script. The point of part two was not to start thinking about the movie, per se, but to see if there was material in the book—enough material—to move on to this step, part three. Thinking structurally.

In part three , I talked about structure—movie structure, the visual story itself. I briefly talked about the three-act structure as a way for you to begin to see how re-development of your book is shifted when we move into scriptwriting.

SO, after spending several months going from the book in your hands to ideas of how this book can be restructured for a script (or if it can be—remember, some books are just books—which is not a bad thing), we now come to the place where we talk about the SCRIPT itself.

This is where the products I talked about in part one, especially the software programs Celtx and Final Draft will come in handy. As I mentioned in part one, Celtx is at the time of this writing a free product; however, for a very low monthly fee, you can become truly integrate yourself into the Celtx community…and they have great add-ons for purchase, too.

A lot of writers who decide to write a screenplay often feel daunted by the task of adhering to the format of the script. This is actually one of the things I love about scriptwriting—its format and structure. If you love those things, this won’t be as painless as you might think. If you’re not a fan of having a lot of format and structure thrust upon the work (and I could argue that novel writing has just as many format and structural needs), then this might be tedious to begin, but after more practice, it will become natural to you.

Whether you use Final Draft, Celtx, or some other software program, most of these programs have a drop-down menu with the most-essential components of a script just a click away. What are those components?

• SCENE HEADING – where you tell the SETTING of a scene: inside/outside, location, time of day. For example, INT. JOSH’S LIVING ROOM – AFTERNOON tells us that we are INSIDE (INT) Josh’s living room during the afternoon.
• ACTION – this is where your “exposition” goes; what are people DOING?  You write that here, using present tense.
• CHARACTER – who is speaking?
• PARENTHETICAL – often described as “attitude, verbal direction, or action direction for the actor who is speaking the part”
• DIALOGUE – what your characters say.
• TRANSITION – used to move seamlessly through scenes

A few things to be mindful of…

As I’ve already mentioned in previous write-ups, screenplays—unlike novels—do not typically contain long paragraphs of exposition. We don’t spend pages detailing a character’s thoughts or feelings. In a screenplay, those things are illustrated in what a character says (dialogue) and what a character does (action). Therefore, when writing action, you want to make sure to be concise. This will probably be one of the biggest hurdles for writers that move from novelist to screenwriter. The word ACTION is a dead giveaway. It’s ACTION not long, drawn out feelings and thoughts that are needed.

Now, a note on parentheticals. You do want to use these judiciously. I liken the parenthetical to the exclamation mark. Anyone who has read me knows my feelings on exclamation marks. Use them sparingly and let your words…not your “marks” reveal things for the reader. With the parenthetical, many argue that novices tend to use these more often than is needed; dialogue and action, when written well, often will show, dictate to an actor how he or she is supposed to feel, react, move while in dialogue. Actors have studied their crafts just as screenwriters should study theirs, so often, they do not need to be told in parentheticals how to act. If you believe wholeheartedly that a parenthetical is necessary, place it. In revisions, when you have the critical eye, make sure to read the dialogue and action that surrounds the places where you drop parentheticals and seriously ask yourself if the writing is strong enough as is to delete that parenthetical. If they aren’t, then ask yourself what you can do to revise the action and dialogue to make them stronger. THEN…delete the parenthetical.

With dialogue in screenplays, remember that just as in novel writing, we typically don’t go for long, monologue type pieces of dialogue. We want it crisp, concise. We want it to reveal character and help move the story forward. This is even more so in movies. Because it is a visual medium, we expect to see movement. If we’re stuck in a monologue-like type of dialogue, we don’t get much movement—and it’s even worse when the dialogue doesn’t seem to move the story forward or reveal anything about the character.

Transitions, like parentheticals, should be used sparingly, some in the field argue.  As the writer of this link [http://www.screenwriting.info/10.php] further illustrates, unless a transition is necessary to the script, it’s best to leave them out and use that space to develop more important components to the script, such as dialogue or action.

In my last posts, I provided you with movies to check out that were based on books. This go around, I want to spotlight a few screenplays for you to check out that are based on books.

Two places that I go to often to download screenplays are Simply Scripts and Drew’s Script-O-Rama. Be sure to check some out. Make yourself a Screenplays file and get to downloading.
Here are four screenplays to add to that file for starters:

1. Precious, screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher, based on the novel PUSH by Sapphire
2. The Silence of the Lambs [http://www.horrorlair.com/scripts/lambsfinal.txt], screenplay by Ted Tally, based on the novel by Thomas Harris
3. Shutter Island, screenplay by Laeta Kalogridis, based on the novel by Dennis Lebane
4. The Social Network, screenplay by Aaron Sorkin, based on the novel THE ACCIDENTAL BILLIONAIRES by Ben Mezrich

My suggestion would be to skim through some screenplays to get a feel for the format, structure, for understanding how each major component works within the screenplay, and then TRY it. Someone once said the only way to learn how to write is to write. Well, the only way to learn how to write a screenplay is to write a screenplay. You’ll figure it out as you go along and do more of them.

Thanks for checking me out @ The Write Life for You; next month, I will offer information about contests, agents, management companies, and websites you should check out!

Shonell

Book to Screen 4: Writing Structurally, The Script by Shonell Bacon is a post from: APOOO

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• Book to Screen 3: Thinking Structurally by Shonell Bacon
• Book to Screen 2: Seeing Book as a Visual Story by Shonell Bacon
• Book to Screen 1: Some Basic To-Haves & To-Dos by Shonell Bacon
• Two Tips to Spark Your Writing by Shonell Bacon
• Writing the Short Short Story by Shonell Bacon

Becoming a Lifelong Learner of the Craft of Writing

By author, editor, educator Shonell Bacon aka ChickLitGurrl™

Book to Screen 3: Thinking Structurally

In part one of this series, I offered some advice on books and software to help you on this journey and gave you guys a little homework.

In part two , I  talked about seeing your book as a visual story. I asked you to look at your book as a movie goer, not as a book reader, and to discern what about your book was visually appealing, stimulating—to see if the book had good stuff to be developed into a script. The point of part two was not to start thinking about the movie, per se, but to see if there was material in the book—enough material—to move on to this step, part three. Thinking structurally.

So, what does this mean, this thinking structurally?

Once you have gone through your book several times and essentially parsed good moments of visual storytelling and have considered how to change other passages to make them more visually stimulating, it’s time to think about structure. Not formatting structure yet, but movie structure, the visual story itself. Head into a theatre, buy your popcorn and big soda, and sit in the darkened theater. Watch the previews and wait for your movie to start. Your movie is YOUR movie, your book turned into movie.

Where does it start? How does it end? What is the conflict, tension, etc. Don’t assume that your book is so perfect as is that you won’t have to change anything in movie form; you probably will—whether it’s to amp up tension or to delete an unnecessary scene or two, or three, or…you get where I’m going with this.

I know there are a slew of writers who bemoan this dirty word—outline—but I’m about to get into this area…a little bit.

Just like in your book, in the writing stage, you wanted to start strong, develop characters, establish conflict, heighten tension, climax, and resolve the tension, you want to do the same things in a movie. With books, many of us outline chapters and scenes and try to make sure we have a good blueprint for a story before jumping in and writing. This outline doesn’t mean the book will end up exactly like the outline, but it does help some writers (raising hand) get situated and feel free to write.

It’s important to do this, too, for the script you write. There are scenes in movies, too, that need to be orchestrated in a way to develop the best story possible, and those scenes are situated within acts (which to me, are like mega-chapters, if we need a synonym).

Pick up just about any book on screenwriting, and it will detail a three-act structure for a movie. Some, a five-act structure. Others, debunk the structure altogether. For the sake of this piece, I will talk about the three-act structure because ultimately, the components discussed are important to your script regardless if you think of three- or five-act structure.

Most writers of screenwriting talk of the magical 120-page screenplay. If typically, one scripted page is one minute of running time, then a 120-page screenplay is 2 hours of movie time. So, let’s say your movie will be two hours of pure entertainment. How does the three-act structure apply to this?

Act I typically illustrates pages 1 through 30 of your screenplay.

Act II, 30-90.

Act III, 90-120.

These are not definitive; if your “Act I” goes to say page 40, that doesn’t mean you have to scrap the pages and start again. Again, this is to help you visualize your story and pace out scenes, dialogue, action within a typical movie’s running time.

You’ll notice that acts I and III are half the size of act II. Not surprising. It constitutes, in a way, the middle of a book, that oh-so-important chunk where our main character is leaping obstacles or being taken down by obstacles and must fight and struggle to achieve the goal or obtain the want that he/she has sought since the beginning of the story. It is the biggest part of your story—book or movie.

I’ll briefly talk about what typically is found in each act so that you can begin to visualize how your movie might fall into place.

In Act I, we are setting up the movie. What are key needs here? Setting us within a time and place. Introducing us to the main character who wants something but for some reason, can’t have it. Showing us what the story is about. Setting us up with a moment in which the main character decides to “act” and pursue his/her want, to tackle the problem he or she faces. Sounds familiar, right? Books need these things, too. As we know by now, the main difference is the visual aspect. We could spend 50-100 pages in a book developing this, but in a screenplay you have about 30 pages.

In Act II, the largest section of the screenplay, we deal with the confrontation that the main character deals with. The MC has decided to jump into action and obtain his/her want, but of course, things can’t be that smooth for the MC. We have to set up obstacles. We have to frustrate the MC. We have to make him or her think the want is almost at hand, and then we have to dash all hopes, leaving the MC to think he or she has lost everything. We have to work, work, work to get our MC to a place where the MC goes for broke, and risks everything, come hell or high water, to get this want, which leads us into Act III.

In Act III, we resolve issues, good or bad. All that tension and excitement that has built throughout Act II reaches its boiling point here. The MC confronts whatever or whoever had kept the elusive “want” from him/her and the action here leads to the conclusion of the story—someone wins, someone loses? Does the MC win? Or lose? And what does that mean at the end of the day?

Basically, within this whole structure, we’re looking for the same things we need in a book: we’re looking for a MAIN CHARACTER WITH A WANT à SOMETHING WON’T LET HIM/HER HAVE THE WANT à OBSTACLES STAND IN THE WAY OF HIM/HER GETTING THE WANT, AND HE/SHE IS ALMOST READY TO GIVE UP à BUT HE/SHE GIVES IT ONE MORE ULTIMATE SHOT TO OBTAIN THE WANT FROM WHATEVER/WHOEVER KEEPS IT FROM THE MC à TENSION RISES TO THE POINT WHERE AT THE END OF THE “FIGHT”, SOMEONE WINS – IS IT THE MAIN CHARACTER?

With this “structure,” you can begin to visually put your story together into a blueprint for your script.

There is so much more I could say about “thinking structurally,” and people have written books just on this, but I think I’ve given you more than enough to sink your teeth into for now.

One thing I want to end with is this structure does not mean you must write a linear movie.

One of my favorite non-linear movies is Memento . The story begins at the end and throughout the rest of the story, you move backward in 10-minute increments. Like this story, your movie might not be about following a character to see what happens; it could be about establishing what happens at the beginning and laying out the “why” of the story for the rest of the movie. Despite the non-linear structure of the story, Memento still has all of the components discussed above. So it doesn’t matter if you plan to be linear or non-linear, we STILL need a main character that wants something he/she can’t have and obstacles that keep the MC away from that want, and a final push that resolves with the MC winning or losing. Those components, no matter how they are put together, is what connects us to a character and the story that character puts us through.

My three offerings of books-turned-movies this month are a bit different than the past two offerings. One, I feature an author that H’wood just seems to love. Two, I feature a book by an author who had a novel turn into a highly successful TV show and series of movies and who had another book turned into a TV show without the same fanfare. Three, I feature a memoir turned to movie because come on, so many people these days love writing about themselves and I know that they already picture some sexy actor or actress playing them on the big screen. Check them out below, and if they interest you, pick up the movie version, too. Like I’ve said in previous posts, it’s always good to learn, learn, learn.

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks [Because it seems H’wood loves turning his books into movies]

Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell [Because though the show was short-lived, this book spawned a TV series, much like Bushnell’s hit, Sex and the City]

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs [Because it’s interesting to see a memoir turned to movie]

Thanks for checking me out @ The Write Life for You; come back next month when we continue the Book to Screen series. Up next—writing structurally, the script.

Shonell

Book to Screen 3: Thinking Structurally by Shonell Bacon is a post from: APOOO

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• Book to Screen 4: Writing Structurally, The Script by Shonell Bacon
• Book to Screen 2: Seeing Book as a Visual Story by Shonell Bacon
• Book to Screen 1: Some Basic To-Haves & To-Dos by Shonell Bacon
• Two Tips to Spark Your Writing by Shonell Bacon
• Writing the Short Short Story by Shonell Bacon

Becoming a Lifelong Learner of the Craft of Writing

By author, editor, educator Shonell Bacon aka ChickLitGurrl™

Book to Screen 2: Seeing Book as a Visual Story

In part one of this series, I offered some advice on books and software to help you on this journey and gave you guys a little homework. I hope you took part in it, especially if you picked up a book made to movie and read the book then watched the movie. Doing that exercise will give you a chance to see how fully developed and alive the book is and how that same development and life (if done well) can be transported onto the screen—a lot of times with cutting, revising, and moving around of parts of the book in the movie form.

Now, in part two, I want to talk about seeing your book as a visual story—which I know most of us say we do already, as we talk about seeing our story on our “mind’s screen,” but do we all really know what that means when it’s translated onto the screen?

Do you know what two important verbs typically go into the making of a screenplay? Doing and Saying. Characters do things, and characters say things.

Like a book, like any good story, movies have plots and subplots that tie into the same question: what does the protagonist want and what keeps him/her from obtaining that want? In the quest to see how this story ends, characters do and say things.

Why am I repeating this and why is it important to know—especially in regards to seeing your book visually for the screen? Check out one of the many free scripts at Simply Scripts. One thing that you will not notice in a screenplay is heavy exposition, pages upon pages of description, of characters’ thoughts and feelings, of minute detailing that brings a story to life in a book but would weigh a screenplay down in the worst kind of way. In a screenplay, writers are quick to give just enough definition, description, or setting of the stage, but primarily, they are concerned with telling a story by speech and by action. The vast majority of a book is exposition; the vast majority of a screenplay is dialogue/action. Long passages in which a character is musing doesn’t necessarily make for great movie entertainment. Because of this, we need to rethink our printed book for the visual screen. Adapting a book into a screenplay is not just about moving from a book format to a script format. It’s about examining your book with screen eyes to discern what parts make for visually stimulating moments for the screen, which parts have strength in character action and speech, which sections do not and if vitally needed, how can they be changed in order to be visually appealing. We need to realize that 1) movies/TV are visual media and 2) you need to see how your book can become a part of that visual media.

How can we do that? Now, keep in mind, this series does not make the claim that with each of these parts you can quickly write this script. That is so not the case. In fact, just this part of the series alone entails a lot of work for you to do. What kind of work? Well, getting a copy of your book printed (or on computer if you don’t want to kill trees) and start to parse the manuscript. Read through it, making note of visually appealing scenes/moments, making note of scenes/moments that aren’t visually appealing and figuring out if they are needed for the story and how to make them visually appealing if they are needed, and going through all the exposition to discern, if needed, how to make it visually appealing and make it fit into the action and speech that are vital to good visual storytelling.

At this stage, we are not concerned with order or structure or how the book will be a screenplay. We are concerned with looking at the artifact and figuring out if it has the goods to be a screenplay. Not every book is made to be a movie, and this is a great stage to look at your book with screen eyes to see if this is a story best kept in print or if it has the chops to be developed for the screen.

Between now and the next part of the series, I’d like for you to read your book with those screen eyes. And think not just as the writer of the book but as a movie goer. Try to separate yourself from the book, which I know is hard as the literary parent, and be the typical movie goer. Is there enough action in the story? Is there enough strong dialogue that reveals characters and moves story along? Can the exposition and description be trimmed for the screen or made into visually appealing components? Start thinking like a movie goer and not just a book reader.

Last time, I gave you three links to books that have been turned into movies, and I want to do the same here. As part of the learning process, it’s always a good idea to see how others have successfully gone from book to screen. These three all won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay Adaptation, and what’s cool about one of them is the movie was developed from a short story—not a novel. If you can find the short story by Annie Proulx, that would be a great way to see how a short work can be developed into a motion picture—and win big-time awards.

Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire // film written by Geoffrey S. Fletcher: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precious_(film)

Brokeback Mountain, a short story by Annie Proulx // film written by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brokeback_Mountain

Sideways by Rex Pickett // film written by Jim Taylor and Alexander Payne: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideways

Thanks for checking me out @ The Write Life for You; come back next month when we continue the Book to Screen series. Up next—thinking structurally.

Shonell

Book to Screen 2: Seeing Book as a Visual Story by Shonell Bacon is a post from: APOOO

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• Two Tips to Spark Your Writing by Shonell Bacon
• Writing the Short Short Story by Shonell Bacon

Becoming a Lifelong Learner of the Craft of Writing

By author, editor, educator Shonell Bacon aka ChickLitGurrl™

Book to Screen 1: Some Basic To-Haves & To-Dos

What better way to kick-off the end of 2010 with a new writing series, eh? And I’m really excited by this series, too.

Welcome to the Book to Screen series. There are many of you out there, I know, who have thought at least once, My book would make a great movie. Well, in this 5-part series, what I’d like to do is provide you with some basic thoughts and advice that can help you move from the book in your hand to the screenplay on your computer.

The five parts will consist of the following:

• Book to Screen 1: Some Basic To-Haves & To-Dos
• Book to Screen 2: Seeing Book as a Visual Story
• Book to Screen 3: Thinking Structurally
• Book to Screen 4: Writing Structurally, The Script
• Book to Screen 5: Contests, Agents, Mgmt Companies

So, let’s get started, shall we?

What I plan to offer you in this part are some tools to help you get your mind in a movie mood. I’ll conclude with an assignment I’d like you to tackle before the next part goes live in January.

A Tale of Two Books (on Screenwriting)

Yep, can’t get away from books, I’m afraid. All you have to do is a quick Google search on “screenwriting,” and you will find a plethora of books on screenwriting, from writing one to selling one. I want to suggest you pick up the following two books that I love:

When it comes to screenwriting, pretty much everyone knows of Robert McKee. And many aspiring screenwriters scramble to get a seat to one of his workshops. I haven’t had the pleasure of attending one of his workshops, but I have read Story , and I adore just about everything from this book. There is great discussion on story and structure as it pertains to screenwriting, but as a novelist this book actually reaffirmed my own thoughts on storytelling in general. It would be a nice book to have on your shelf, whether you plan to seriously delve into screenwriting or stick to the wonderful world of novel writing.

Thanks for checking me out @ The Write Life for You; come back next month when we ring in the New Year by continuing the Book to Screen series. Up next—seeing your book as a visual story.

Shonell

Book to Screen 1: Some Basic To-Haves & To-Dos by Shonell Bacon is a post from: APOOO

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Two Tips to Spark Your Writing

Hello All! We’re moving into holiday season, what with Halloween come and gone and with Thanksgiving and Christmas before us. This time of year also marks a major time for writers, too–especially those writers who participate in NaNoWritMo. If you don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, it’s a contest of sorts where during the month of November thousands of people from all over the world decide to roll up their sleeves, charge up their laptop batteries, and write a 50k novel in 30 days. Now me personally, I’ve only written a 50k book once in my life. In the last six years, I’ve used NaNoWriMo to write the first 50k (sometimes I made it to 60k+ in 30 days) of a novel. And you can, too. If you’ve been thinking and thinking and (you get the picture) about writing your book, take this month to DO IT. Stop playing. It won’t get done through osmosis (I’ve tried).

By author, editor, educator Shonell Bacon aka ChickLitGurrl™

Two Tips to Spark Your Writing by Shonell Bacon is a post from: APOOO

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Becoming a Lifelong Learner of the Craft of Writing

By author, editor, educator Shonell Bacon aka ChickLitGurrl™

Writing the Short Short Story

This weekend, I was talking to a sisterfriend of mine about writing. She was working on a short story for a contest. She asked me to read what she had written thus far, the first couple of pages, and as I read I thought, this is great stuff—for a longer story. She had set up the main character well, had placed me firmly into the context of the story’s situation, and had detailed the environment efficiently. However, as I neared 1,000 words in what was supposed to be a story 2,000 words or less, I had no idea where we were going or where this story was ending. Only because I knew my girl and knew the types of stories she wrote did I have a sense of the type of story she was writing. People who don’t have that knowledge—most people—might be lost.

I asked her to explain to me what, ultimately, the story was about, and once she did, we talked more about how to make what she had into an effective short story—not a great beginning to a novel.

A lot of writers who are entrenched in Novel World often have a hard time transitioning into writing short stories—like my friend. And like me. While pursuing my MFA, I was told on a few occasions that some of my short stories were novelistic. I’m not sure this was a compliment. Now, I can laugh loudly at the comment and realize that to an extent, it is true—but it doesn’t have to be.

In Novel World, we have space to develop scenes and environments, to let characters muse, to place a well-intention monologue, to—well, you get what I’m saying. More space allows for more stuff for the writer to revel in.

With short stories ranging in length to say 2,000 to 20,000 words, there is also a range in how one can tackle a short story depending on its size. A longer short story offers the writer the opportunity to explore some of the things that a novel offers the writer. When you’re writing a shorter short story, one say close to flash fiction and touching on the level of short story—that 1 to 2k zone, it’s important to think of a few things.

GETTING TO THE POINT

We talk a lot about having a great first chapter, first page, first paragraph, even a first sentence, and here, this point is extremely important. I talk more about the first page on this article at the Blood-Red Pencil .  What is the point of the story? What are you trying to say with it? What is its purpose? Its theme? It’s important to think about these questions because the most important thing about a short story is where you start it. You start it too soon and you’ll rush to go to the resolution. You start it too late and readers will be left wondering what happened in the past for the story to occur.

CHARACTERS & DETAILS

These points are not in any order, and if they were, I might put this first because many people think of their characters before a story idea. For a short short story, it’s important to think the fewer the better when it comes to characters. Not more than 3 main characters, and for a short short especially, less than 3 is preferably. Now, don’t take the “less” to mean that your characters should not be fleshed out, not be detailed. They better be! And now that I’m thinking on this, maybe this point should be second because knowing what your theme or idea or purpose is for the story will help you determine which details, which characteristics of your character should be detailed in the story and which ones should not. Once you have an idea of the story, of the theme, then you can clearly make sure that everything, from the dialogue to the character development, adheres to that theme. A short short story is too, well, short to not keep your focus while writing it.

STRUCTURE

Short stories have the same structure as other works of fiction; we move from situation, to conflicts, to resolution. But in a short story, even more so a short short story, it is important to know specifically what the situation is, what the conflict is, and what the resolution is. A short short story takes up small space—in words and in story space. As a result, you’ll need to be mindful of just how many obstacles you’ll place in the story. This point ties in well with the first one because once you have an idea of the story you want to tell, you will need to be mindful of how you start the story. Will you start straightaway with conflict or not? And oftentimes, it’s good to place the character within conflict at the start so that you don’t waste much space with having to lead us to the conflict.

TIME

Short stories typically cover a short span of time. When developing your short short story, think about the time span that the story covers and think about how you can effectively tell the story with a developed character, conflict, dialogue, setting, resolution in the word space you have. Because you don’t have much word space, it’s good to think about a single event, a single, significant event in the main character’s life.

There is so much more I could say about this topic, and probably will in later commentaries.

I’m more of a novelist than a short story writer, but I’m fond of the short story. For me, I treat them like puzzles that need to be solved. Some run from the idea of having to write something short, but if you look at a short story as a game in which you are being challenged to bring a character to life in one momentous event of that life in a short amount of words, then you can make the art of short short story writing a fun activity.

Thanks for checking me out @ The Write Life for You; come back next month – I’ll be talking about two ways to help spark yourself into writing!

Shonell

Writing the Short Short Story by Shonell Bacon is a post from: APOOO

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• Book to Screen 1: Some Basic To-Haves & To-Dos by Shonell Bacon
• Two Tips to Spark Your Writing by Shonell Bacon

By author, editor, educator Shonell Bacon aka ChickLitGurrl™ 

Writing Statements & Letters for Scholarships, Grants, and More

Two years ago this month, I started The Write Life for You series here at APOOO. Thus far, I’ve written 24 articles, nearly 24,000 words’ worth of solid advice and information on fiction writing. No, this is not a farewell speech! There is always something to write about fiction, and every day, new writers step up, needing the same guidance that we all once needed. I start this article in this fashion as a way of saying that from time to time, I plan to focus on other writing outside of fiction, whether that be articles, screenplays, letters, or—as I’m about to talk about—writing statements for scholarships and applications. Many writers apply for fellowships, grants, and scholarships to supplement their writing or to receive time at some wonderful retreat to enable them to have designated, quiet time to write and grow in their journey as writers. It’s important to know how to go about writing these seemingly easy statements.

This write-up will provide some advice on the matter.

Many times with these applications for scholarships, grants, and fellowships, you might be asked to draft a writing statement or letter of intent. You read the CFP (call for proposal) or the application and then sit to write.

How should you handle the process?

1-    Know the organization and its mission, its purpose. You are writing this organization in order to receive time, money, or some other award. They want to make sure that you are the right person to receive the award. Showing that you have done your homework (at the least have read the material on the organization that they provide) and know how you fit into their goals is a great thing. Going that extra mile to do further research is a major plus.

2-    Draft, not thinking about word/space limitation. Just about every application will demand that you adhere to word/space limitation. At the onset, it shouldn’t be your goal to be at or less than the limitation; the goal is to answer the question or respond to the statement provided. It’s like what I say about fiction: turn the editor off.

3-    Revise, making sure that what you write connects with not only the organization’s mission but also their requirements for your statement (See #1 and #2).

4-    Revise, making sure that you are using strong examples and not just stating generalities. Don’t just say there are many things you plan to do and the money will help you take on those tasks; specifically tell them what you want to do and discuss it quickly, but vividly.

5-    Cut, cut, cut. Find the verbs and make sure they are clear and active, or as a former professor says, “Delicious.” Find the dead words, phrases, and sentences and either find short, clear, active replacements, or delete.

6-    Once you have the statement, letter where you like it, give it and the application or guidelines to a trusted person strong in writing and have him/her read and critique it.

7-    Go back and revise.

Since April, I have come across a few opportunities where I had to practice this skill, and the success rate has been pretty good. And I’m still learning. I’m longwinded, so having to write my life goals and how I plan to achieve them in less than 200 words can be extraordinarily daunting for me.

Having said that, what has helped is following the advice above. Why?

If your writing does not connect to the organization, they won’t understand why they should give you the money to you instead of to the other applicant that does connect.

Word/space limitations are often a way to quickly assess who can follow direction and who has a clear focus on their agenda. If your statement is twice as long as requested, that could be a knock against you before they even read it; that’s if they read it.

If you are not clear with what you want to do and what you plan to do with an organization’s money, they will be VERY clear about not giving you the money.

Finding someone who knows you, has a strong writing foundation, and (even better if you can find the person) has experience with writing statements and letters is crucial because let’s be honest—with this type of writing, people tend to go opposite ends of the spectrum: they ego write (and fail to connect to organization’s mission) or they humble-write, using so many generalities that the statement becomes about nothing. An outside reader can tell you how balanced the piece is and ask that “How so?” question that always arises when one speaks in generalities to prove something.

I hope this advice helps you; if anything, writing these pieces will enable you to concisely, quickly discuss your goals and plans for those goals—a needed tool.

Writing Statements & Letters for Scholarships, Grants, and More is a post from: APOOO

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Answering Readers’ Questions

This month, I wanted to do something different. Since September 2008, nearly two years ago, I began posting articles here at APOOO based on subjects that I wanted to cover, and for this month, I’m responding to questions that concern you as writers.

Every day, I receive questions from writers. Some of them just want a quick answer, and some have become good friends through constant communication. I never have a problem with answering a question from a writer. If I have the answer, I’ll willingly give it. If I don’t have the answer, I will often go find it and come back to the writer with the answer. It’s about paying it forward, about helping those behind, before, and ahead of me in any way I can.

With that said…here are three questions that writers have recently come to me with. I hope the answers help you out, too.

I find it hard to write every day, but I’ve read that it’s important to do so. I always hear “Writers write.” So, if I’m not writing every day, is that a problem?

Quick answer: No, it’s not a problem. Yes, writers write, but that doesn’t mean a writer writes every day. All writers are not the same. Each writer needs to look at her/his life, examine all the things that must get done in that life, and organize a writing schedule that is conducive to getting the writing done. What’s important is not how many days you write, but how productive you make the writing experience. Just as you schedule other important to-dos, you should schedule writing and make sure you shut away all other things while you are writing. Regulate your schedule so that you develop a rhythm for it.

How do you keep up the energy to write after receiving so many rejections and disappointments with trying to get published?

I had to initially laugh at this question because the writer just assumed I had received a lot of rejections and disappointments! Truthfully, I have, and I’ll put it out there and say that there have been times when I just stopped writing. I thought, What’s the point? No one will ever read it. The stories will sit on my computer forever. And then somehow, some way my love for writing returns, and I manage to forget the heartbreak of literary disappointments. So, how do I keep up the energy to write? My most important asset is my band of writer friends. These are people that I talk to every day and gather encouragement from. I met many of them on Facebook and Twitter, and others from interviewing them, then befriending them. We tend to do writing jags together, share pieces of each other’s writing for quick critiques, and act as drill sergeants to make sure the writing gets done. Another asset I have is keeping writing goals. I try not to let much time lapse between writing projects. You know the saying, “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop,” right? Well, when the literary mind is idle, it’s easy to fill that mind with negative thoughts–the rejections, the disappointments. By keeping your mind ON the writing, you keep OUT the thoughts that will diminish your energy. At first glance, this next asset might not relate to writing, but believe me, it does; I live life. The unlived life births unlived stories. Living life and doing what you love will fill you with an energy that can push out thoughts of rejections and disappointment and keep you writing.

I absolutely hate writing synopses. Any advice on how to jump in and just get a rough draft of a synopsis done?

This is not the first time I’ve been asked this, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. These days, the synopsis gets a bad rap. And because so many people tend to confuse it with other writing forms, like book back copy, it’s going through an identity crisis, too. I talk about synopsis writing in another APOOO article , but here’s some advice on writing a quick-and-dirty synopsis. It can take you four steps to get a draft you’re proud to call a synopsis. First, go through each of your chapters and ask, “What happens in this chapter?” Write about a paragraph or two, summarizing the major plot points of each paragraph. Once you have that done, go through the document, making sure you bring your main characters into the synopsis, illustrate what their wants/desires are, initiate the conflict, and take us through the rising of tension and the climax and resolution (essentially, the story arc). After this, go through the document again, making sure you develop the major plot points and eliminate those parts of the story that are not necessary for an agent or editor to see the overall story arc. Finally, go through the document, making sure it’s written in third person. Try to think of the synopsis as a short story version of your novel. Let it have voice, character, style. A synopsis should not be a dry reporting of your story. It should have as much kick and energy as you can develop within it.

Thanks for checking me out @ The Write Life for You; come back next month – I’ll be talking about writing statements for scholarships and applications.

Shonell

Answering Readers’ Questions by Shonell Bacon is a post from: APOOO

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By author, editor, educator Shonell Bacon aka ChickLitGurrl™ 

Developing a Poetry Collection 

I have always been a fan of poetry. When I pursued my MFA in Creative Writing, I often marveled at my poet friends’ ability to spin such emotion in so few words. Because of their limited space, poets have to learn to master mining the language to find the perfect words for their works. They must also be well-versed in timing, rhythm, and cadence and allowing all the senses that we can’t see just looking at a word to resonate from the poetical page. 

But those are not the only things a poet needs in her or his toolbox to become a great poet. If you are looking to develop a poetry collection, whether it’s audio or print, there are things you must consider when developing that collection. It’s not about simply writing a slew of poems and just putting them all together in one document and voila: a poetic masterpiece. 

Just like a novelist must consider organization of chapters to make sure the tension and conflict builds appropriately and climaxes at the right moment, so too must a poet consider how to organize her or his “poetic story” in order to achieve the intended purpose. What is the overall feeling (purpose) you want the collection to convey? Knowing this can help you determine which poems make the cut. What themes/subject matter will you cover in the collection? Knowing this will help you not only organize poems by those themes, but also move and organize those themes in a way that guides the reader through the appropriate feelings, emotions of the entire collection. 

For this article, I called upon some poetic friends of mine—Marc Lacy, Archuleta Chisolm, and Samara King—to offer sound, real advice to those looking to develop a poetry collection. Each of these published authors has a way with the written word that transcends the page and evokes emotions within the reader. They understand the importance of the word, of themselves as poets, as writers, and of the audience to which they write for. 

Across the board, despite the varying themes and subject matter that is found within the works of these authors, you’ll find that there are factors to developing a poetry collection that all three agree upon. Developing the collection isn’t really rocket science if you know these factors… and knowing these factors will only make your collection that much stronger as a piece of literary work. 

Below are excerpts from each author based on two questions I asked: What are three important aspects to developing a poetry collection and how important is having a well-organized collection.  

Marc Lacy, author-poet, latest poetic release, Rock & Fire: Love Poetry from the Core [website; book info] 

For Marc, a well-organized poetry collection demands the poet consider keeping the readers’ attention from beginning to end: 

Having a well-organized collection is monumental in that it takes more to reel the poetry reader in as it does the listener (of performance). Gaining the attention is challenging enough; but keeping it (when it comes to poetry) is a whole different puppy.  One has to almost automatically assume that the reader is going to have a short attention span.  With such being the case, well-written and well-organized poetry is key in keeping them engaged throughout the book.  

Archuleta Chisolm, author-poet of Heaven Knows Your Existence: A Collection of Poetry and Prose that Speaks to the Soul [website; book info] 

The importance of the reader in the development of the collection continues with Archuleta’s thoughts: 

The importance of having a well-organized collection is crucial!  Readers want to be absorbed by whatever it is they are reading.  When their eyes are going left to right on the page, they want to be pulled in and taken away to that place.  Having a well-organized collection assists the reader in doing just that, and they will always come back for more.  It makes a statement about you as a writer, and it builds a relationship with your audience. 

Samara King, author-poet, whose debut poetry collection, The Ebony Kryptonite, will be released later this year [website] 

In discussing important aspects of a poetry collection, Samara also mentions the importance of drawing the reader into the work (among other things): 

[A poetry collection needs] to have a sense of a story. Though poetry and fiction differ, the two venues of creativity also marry, in which a story is being told. Another important aspect is picture painting. Infuse words that will draw a picture to the reader’s mind; it brings them closer to the message you are trying to convey. I would say being true to self is key, too. Your words reflect you and the moment an artist, a writer or a creator deviates from true self, things tend to fall apart. 

You can see all the authors’ advice and more by downloading the booklet, “The Write Life for You Presents… Developing a Poetry Collection.” You can download [here]. 

Thanks for checking me out @ The Write Life for You; come back next month – I’ll be answering a few questions I’ve received lately about writing…I’m sure there are others who have these questions floating about their minds, too. 

Shonell

Developing a Poetry Collection by Shon Bacon is a post from: APOOO

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Becoming a Lifelong Learner of the Craft of Writing

By author, editor, educator Shōn Bacon aka ChickLitGurrl™

Being Social: Promoting Your Literary Wares through Social Media

These days, having an Internet presence is a must; there is no choice in the matter, especially if you’re looking for ways to promote your literary wares.

What I’d like to do with this commentary is discuss various social media platforms and tools you can use to promote your work, and then ask you what you use and their effectiveness. The more we talk and share, the more we all can be successful in our literary endeavors.

BLOGS

Just about everyone has a blog today. They are free, and they allow any and everyone with an Internet connection the opportunity to have a voice along the Information Superhighway. Two of the most popular platforms for blogs are WordPress and Blogger. You can go free with them, or you can, as I have done, bought domains and use the WP platform to develop my sites/blogs.

Whatever platform you use for blogs, you want to be mindful how you use the blog. You don’t want to just provide a dumping spot for text for people to read.  Blogs allow you to interact with your audience, and you need to be mindful of that component so that you can develop content that not only keeps your blog “sticky” (return to that particular website or hold their attention and get them to spend longer periods of time at that site), but also keeps your reader wanting to develop a relationship with the content via responses/comments and conversation with you and/or other blog readers.

Twitter is a microblog in which you have 140 characters (or less) to make a statement. Some might wonder how exactly you can use such a small space to make a big impact on book promotion, but there are ways.

First, it’s important to have a centralized location for your branding—whether that’s an official website or an official blog. This is the place that all information about you and your book and your activities regarding the book is located (and archived). Twitter can be used to broadcast new information that is at the centralized location to generate traffic to the main site or blog. Remember, you only have 140 characters, so it’s important to use an URL shortener like bit.ly or TinyURL [and now Google has one, too, for Chrome users and to think of your message as a HEADLINE and use vivid nouns and verbs to spark readers to click your link and learn more about you and your product(s).

You can also use Twitter to promote you work by publishing a line from your book with a link to learn more about the book to a link to purchase the book. Take a month where once a week you will publish 5 to 10 lines from your book each week along with link. Last month, I did it for my latest release, Death at the Double Inkwell , and it intrigued people enough to message me about the book and go to my website to learn more about DDIW.

Another thing you can do with Twitter is create accounts for main characters of your work. Let people learn about your book through the characters developed within the book.

FACEBOOK

Want a fan page? Start one on Facebook. There are plenty of authors who are using Facebook as a one-stop shop for all things about their literary wares. You can use the fan page to discuss book signings, latest releases, current writing projects, new book trailers, and all things book related. It’s a great way to have a spot where you can collect fans and feed them with material to keep them interested in you and your work.

Some people use their general FB page in order to do this, and that’s cool; I do. My one FB page is a one-stop shop of EVERYTHING me, but people expect that from me, so no one’s ever had a problem with me doing that. Despite this, I would argue that it might be a good idea to have one place dedicated to you as writer and collect friends that are interested in you as writer and in buying your writing.

SQUIDOO

Any writer that is serious about having a long writing career needs to have a platform. Often, this platform comes from the themes, the ideas that permeate your writing. Think about the themes that follow you from one story to the next. Is there a way that you can generate content or find content on those themes online to showcase to your audience? If so, then using Squidoo to help develop/promote this content might be a good idea.

“Squidoo is the popular publishing platform and community that makes it easy for you to create "lenses" online. Lenses are pages, kind of like flyers or signposts or overview articles, that gather everything you know about your topic of interest--and snap it all into focus. Like the lens of a camera, your perspective on something. (You're looking at a lens right now).”

So, you can create “lenses” about you (as author). You can create lenses about your book in which you populate the lenses with articles, links, etc. about your book, including pieces about the themes that resonate with your book. For example, with Death at the Double Inkwell, in addition to all things related to what the book is about, I might have commentaries about self-esteem, sisterhood, types of men and how to avoid particular types, family, relationships, lies – all themes and ideas that find themselves within the book.

PODCASTS

The cool thing about the Internet is you don’t have to provide people with just text. You can provide audio, too: enter the podcast.  I use Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/), a free program you can download online, and a pair of HP headphones with mic to develop my podcasts, and I have a subscription to Podbean (http://podbean.com) where I can upload my MP3s and showcase them on my page (http://shonbacon.podbean.com).

You can showcase excerpts from your books, themes that resonate within your books, and your journey to publication, among other things.

You can use music to intro and outro your podcasts, but you want to be mindful of copyright laws. In the past, I used snippets from music my friends created and gave me permission to you. You might check out Creative Commons (http://creativecommons.org/), a nonprofit organization that increases sharing and improves collaboration, to find possible music.

It is a good idea to write scripts for your podcasts and not just “wing it.” It will help to make your productions more professional sounding.

Ustream.TV

If you want to bring live interactive broadcasting to your book promotion efforts, then you definitely want to consider Ustream.TV.

As the Ustream website states, “…anyone with an Internet connection and a camera [can] engage their audience in a meaningful, immediate way.”

People are using Ustream to broadcast a myriad of things, to include:

• Major political events such as debates, speeches, rallies
• Talk shows
• Movie premieres and ‘red carpet events’
• Concerts
• School and business events and training
• Conferences
• Sporting events
• Personal milestones such as holiday gatherings, weddings, graduations, parties, even births
• Interactive games for viewers to watch or join

How can you use this technology to promote your work?

• Book club discussions
• Book readings
• Conferences/talks that center around the themes found within your books
• Book signings
• Book release parties

There are, obviously, other avenues people are traveling to bring social media into their book promoting, such as using YouTube to publish video (like book trailers). And many are using the tools I presented above in ways not discussed here.

How are you using social media tools to promote your literary wares?

Thanks for checking me out @ The Write Life for You; come back next month – I’ll be talking about developing a poetry collection.

Shōn

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Being Social: Promoting Your Literary Wares through Social Media by Shonell Bacon is a post from: APOOO

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