Don't start a new book. Finish the old one!

 

I know it’s the New Year, and the temptation to start completely fresh is huge. 

 

But hear me now. That does not apply to writing books. 

 

If you're in the middle of a book, you DO NOT WANT to stop to run after a shiny new idea. That is a great way not to ever get published.

 

I am pretty sure that what most aspiring authors need to be doing for the New Year—or wherever you are in the year, is to finish an old book.

 

I recently did a Zoom session with a writing group, and I started it as I always start a workshop, with these questions: 

 

     1.  The genre of your WIP (Work in Progress)

     2.  The premise of your book - the story in one or two sentences.  

     3.  A list of ten films (a few books, but at least five films) in your genre that are somewhat similar to your book structurally.    

 

Just that bit of information on my audience or students helps me focus the session or class so that everyone gets the most out of our time together. And you know what I find over and over?

 

Very few people can tell me about their ONE book.

 

Because most of the participants have five, six, seven, even eight (I’m dying here…) book or story projects going at once.

 

Oh. My. God. 

Over the years I have been astonished at how many people in my workshops have multiple projects in various stages of completion. Now, as a professional writer, I often have to work on multiple projects, but that’s the job. I’m talking about unpublished writers. It's not astonishing at all that most of these people remain unpublished. 

 

Because published authors are writers who suck it up and FINISH their books. 

 

They COMMIT. They deal with the reality of what they have written instead of the fantasy of what they thought they were writing. They develop the Teflon skin that allows them to put their work out there to be criticized—and yes, rejected. Lots of rejection.

 

Some of these unfinished projects will never be good enough to be published. The unfortunate truth of writing is that you won't know that until you finish. But you have to become a writer who finishes what you start, even if you then have to throw a whole completed project away once in a while. That is part of the process of becoming a professional writer. You must figure out how to FINISH every book you write.

 

So here’s the takeaway.

 

     DON’T start a new book. FINISH the old one.

 

Part of the writing process is picking the right premise to begin with, which we'll get into soon. But another critical part of that process is ramming your head into a concrete wall (metaphorically speaking) until you're battered and bloody but you finally figure out how to make that particular book work. Some books are just harder than others, but you must demonstrate to the Universe that you are willing to do whatever it takes to make ANY book work. It's a trust thing. Your books must trust you to fully commit to them.

 

And that time is never wasted, even if you never make money off that book. It is professional—and more importantly, creative—development. 

I have a book hidden in my files in the Cloud that I could be making quite a lot of money on if I just self-published it, or even had my agent go for a traditional publishing deal on it. People would buy it and a lot of readers would enjoy it. One of my trusted Beta readers says it’s her favorite of all my books.

 

I know all that.

 

But for me—it's not as good as the rest of my books and I don't want it out there. It just doesn’t have the theme, the meaning I want in my books.

 

I finished it, evaluated it—and then put it away and wrote another. 

 

That was a big gap in my publishing schedule, let me tell you. Good thing I had some savings.

 

BUT—my next book was Huntress Moon, a real breakthrough in my writing. It was the book and series I was meant to write. The Huntress series combines my political and social activism, my rage at the abuse of children and women and the plain fact that we are not yet as a society committed to ENDING that abuse, and my skill at working those issues into highly readable thrillers. Because I’ve written this series, I honestly could die right now and feel that I’d fulfilled one crucial thing I was meant to do on this planet.

 

The series has made me a mint. It was nominated for a Thriller Award and won an Audie Awared (Best Audiobook, Crime & Thriller). And, oh yeah - it was bought for television, too.

 

So my putting that other book away? I don't think that's a coincidence. I think my creative mind and the Universe understood that I was finally ready to do more, mean more, with my writing.

 

So I beg you all, just as I am begging my workshop students. If you haven't finished the book you're on, DON'T start a new book for the New Year (or Nanowrimo, or Junowrimo) just because.

 

Commit to the book you're already writing, in whatever stage of the process you're at, and finish THAT one.

 

And then go get published.

 

- Alex

 

(This week I heard from a good friend, a fabulous director and writing professor, who says she passed an earlier post of mine like this on to a student of hers - who took the advice, FINISHED her book, and just landed an agent! Just saying....) 

 

 

STEALING HOLLYWOOD ebook, $3.99    
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WRITING LOVE ebook, $2.99

 

5 minutes of writing per day for a year equals a book

2020 was a hell of a year. I know I’m not the only one to be glad for a chance to take out the trash and start fresh.

I actually got a lot done last year. I launched an online writing class. I had Covid in the spring and recovered, although it took a while. I did everything I could do from a distance to help save democracy.

And I wrote a book. Not just a book—the biggest book I’ve ever written. The first of a new series that’s different from anything I’ve ever written before.

How did I do it? By writing five minutes a day. I never stopped writing. Even if I only spent five minutes a day on it. I don’t think it’s said often enough that you CAN write a novel (or a script, or a TV pilot....) in whatever time you have. Even if that’s only five minutes a day. If you have kids, if you have the day job from hell, if you are clinically depressed, if there’s a pandemic, if democracy seems to be crumbling around you— whatever is going on in your life, if you have five minutes a day, as long as you write EVERY DAY, to the best of your ability, you can write a novel that way.

Five minutes a day for a year equals a book.

I’ll say it again.

Five minutes of writing a day for a year equals a book.

I wrote my first novel, The Harrowing, by writing just five minutes per day. My day job was screenwriting, at the time, and yes, it was a writing job, but it had turned into the day job from hell. But fury is a wonderful motivator and at the end of the day, every day, I was so pissed off at the producers I was working for that I would make myself write five minutes a day on the novel EVERY NIGHT, just out of spite.

Okay, the trick to this is – if you write five minutes a day, you will write more than five minutes a day, sometimes a whole hell of a lot more than five minutes a day most days. But it’s the first five minutes that are the hardest. And that often ended up happening. Sometimes I was so tired that all I could manage was a sentence, but I would sit down at my desk and write that one sentence. But some days I’d tell myself all I needed to write was a sentence, and I’d end up writing three pages.

It’s just like the first five minutes of exercise, something I learned a long time ago. As long as I can drag myself to class (or now, to the living room) and endure that first five minutes of the workout, and I give myself permission to leave after five minutes if I want to, I will generally do the whole class, and usually end up loving it. (There are these wonderful things called endorphins, you see, and they kick in after a certain amount of exposure to pain...)

The trick to writing, and exercise, is—it’s STARTING that’s hard. I have been writing professionally for . . . well, never mind how many years. But even after all those many years—every single day, I have to trick myself into writing. I will do anything—scrub toilets, clean the cat box, do my taxes, do my mother’s taxes—rather than sit down to write. It’s absurd. I mean, what’s so hard about writing, besides everything? But I know this just like I know it about exercise. If you can just start, and commit to just that five minutes, those five minutes will turn into ten, and those ten minutes will turn into pages, and one page a day for a year is a book.

Think about it.Or better yet, write for five minutes, right now.

 

It’s the New Year. Write a book.

Happy 2021, everyone!

- Alex

Nanowrimo Prep - free mini-workshop!

As anyone who's read this blog knows, I do a Nanowrimo Prep series every October to help writers do some planning to get the most ouf of their November writing session. This year I'm going multi-media and doing it as a free mini-workshop on Teachable.com, with videos, assignments, and discussions to help you jump-start the book you're going to write this winter — and sell in the New Year! Hope you can join! -- You can access the course here.

New Screenwriting Tricks for Authors video: Act I checklist!

From the Calendar of Canceled Cons:

Today I would have been in the Scottish Borders, teaching Screenwriting Tricks for Authors at the Borders Writing Forum. I had other workshops scheduled this year in Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and L.A. That’s a lot to miss out on!

I guess it’s no wonder I started doing videos of the workshop instead.

I’ve just finished the tenth video, an Act One Elements Checklist, and we’ve worked through all the essential story elements of Act I. Each video is just about 10 minutes long, with exercises that will take 15-20 minutes of your time and get you writing that book or script you’ve always wanted to write - and watching great movies that will inspire you to get it done.

At this rate, we’ll all have those books finished in no time!

Even writing full time on the first book in my new series, I’m managing one video a week, with many more to come. There was a steep learning curve with the editing software, and some of the equipment I could really use is still on backorder because of excessive demand in these days of Zoom - everything. Also I was sick for weeks, most likely with the thing, so doing anything productive is a minor miracle.

But I’ve finally realized that getting the workshop fully recorded is like writing a book. You just do one chapter at a time until it’s done. Right? Eventually you reach a state of critical mass where the book is more real than not real, and you can’t imagine not finishing. 
 
Here’s the Introduction:

And here’s the very fevery Lesson #1.

If you’ve been keeping up, here’s the new one, an Act One Elements Checklist.

Each next video should play after the one you’re watching is finished, and these first ten will get you all the way through your own Act I.

This week I’m also sending out a newsletter with a very detailed breakdown of Act I of The Hunger Games, demonstrating all the essential story elements that we’ve been going through. If you’re on my Screenwriting Tricks mailing list you’ll get that automatically. If you get notifications from me through this blog, you may need to sign up for the STFA list to get those bonus materials. Don’t worry, you won’t get double notifications! 

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And of course, you can always get the full course from the workbooks, links below! 

In the meantime, stall safe and well! Craig and I are in lockdown in Scotland until the end of the month, when a couple of restrictions may be eased. I’m really grateful to have a First Minister who’s taking all precautions, with empathy and compassion. It makes all the difference in the world.

-        Alex

___________________________________________________________________

                                          STEALING HOLLYWOOD

The workbook is a full course in writing a novel or script in any genre. All the tricks I’ve learned in my years of writing and teaching—including ten full movie breakdowns.

 

STEALING HOLLYWOOD ebook    $3.99
STEALING HOLLYWOOD print   $15.99

 
WRITING LOVE

Writing Love is a shorter version of the workbook, using examples from love stories, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy - available in e formats for just $2.99.




- Amazon/Kindle
 
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Put your craft on auto-pilot: A STAR IS BORN

Fourth of July weekend done! It’s officially summer! Yay!!  

We all love these lazy days, and we deserve a break, right? Summer is for vacations, and spa days, and - well, let’s face it - no one feels much like writing, do they? I know I’d much rather be bingeing Big Little Lies (the jury’s still out on Stranger Things 3…)

But why not do both? Be lazy and enjoy summer AND get some writing craft work in at the same time?

We went to a looooong party over the 4^th of July weekend, and nobody felt much like doing anything on Sunday, so Craig and the cat and I ended up finally watching the latest A Star is Born.

Which I've always felt is a great story. I've seen a few of these. And it's a really good teaching movie, so let's do it - in a lazy kind of way.

As some of you know, I’ve written several books on story structure and teach a popular story structure workshop when I have time - or when the location is so great that I can’t resist. Like this one on a cruise ship to the Caribbean in November, for example.

 

Writers usually buy the writing workbooks and take my workshops because they’re looking for specific help with their specific books. And that’s great. But I also try to emphasize to my students and readers that everyone can be practicing the techniques of the Three-Act, Eight-Sequence Structure and becoming a better storyteller pretty much all the time, practically by osmosis.

I talk a lot about story patterns (WHAT KIND OF STORY IS IT?) in my workshops, and one of the first things I do is encourage my students to identify the kind of story they’re writing. Because whatever story pattern you are writing (or patterns - there’s often more than one at work!), it’s always astonishingly useful to watch three or four movies of this story type in a row, to understand the specific structure of these stories and what elements we, the audience, keep coming back to see.

So that you can make sure to be hitting those elements in your own story, and even giving us the new or deeper take that will make your story a classic. Right?

We have many Hollywood examples of the “Star is Born” story. All four of the movies with that title

(1937, 1954, 1976, 2018). Also What Price Hollywood (arguably the very first in the line), Funny Girl, and the TV show The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which is an extraordinarily good, and successful, example of this story type.

I have to admit that I am particularly drawn to this story pattern because of the thematic deal with the devil aspect of it. A Star is Born never ends happily, does it? It’s a Hobson’s Choice - the heroine is always forced into a choice between fame and love. And the implication of the story line is ALWAYS that the heroine achieves fame only by sacrificing love. Even worse, the story usually says, implicitly, that the love of her life has to die in order for her to achieve fame. Or maybe what it’s saying is that even if he loves her, a man would rather die than be eclipsed by a female star.

Hopefully Mrs. Maisel will be a little more modern about it - we’ll see!

So let’s say you have an idea for a Star is Born story of your own. If you watch three or four of these Star is Born stories for common elements, you can’t help but notice that there is a scene early on in each one of these movies/shows that you could call the “Star Power” scene:  a musical or acting tour de force that makes us understand that the heroine was born to do exactly this.

It’s unique in that the heroine doesn’t just expresses her DESIRE for fame (the classic musical I WANT song) - the scene specifically has to blow us away with the force of her talent in this climactic SETPIECE.

Funny Girl is a great example of making the Heroine's Desire concrete and visual. Musicals so often do this brilliantly, in song, staging and visuals. Early in the story, Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice is fired from the chorus line of a vaudeville show because she's a terrible dancer, and, well, not exactly cover girl material. She tries to convince the producer to rehire her in a comic song ("I'm the Greatest Star") but gets thrown out of the theater anyway. Out in the alley, she makes a decision and storms back inside to try again, still singing - only to find the theater empty.  Then alone, out on stage, she has that moment that I'm sure every actor and singer and dancer in the history of the world has had - that moment of being alone on an empty stage with the entire vast history and awesome power of the theater around you. She is speechless, silenced 0 and then finishes the somg with a power and passion we haven't seen in her yet. We see, unequivocally, that she is a star.

And that turn gets her hired back. 

I love that Star Power scene and most of the rest of the movie - it's a much more entertaining and thoughtful take on the Star is Born story than the actual A Star is Born Streisand starred in in 1976.

The 2018 A Star is Born nails the Star Power scene for damn sure with Lady Gaga’s stellar turn of “La Vie En Rose” in the drag club.

Mrs. Maisel’s drunken foray into standup comedy is a fantastic, non-musical variation on the scene. Yeah, that upper Eastside housewife has the goods.

And of course in George Cukor’s 1954 A Star is Born, the iconic Judy Garland rendition of “The Man That Got Away” is not just a famous scene, but one of the best-known scenes in film history.

  

You can do this kind of scene comparison for any story question/problem you have in your own story. Screen three movies in the genre you’re writing and let the scenes those filmmakers came up with inspire you to create your own classic scenes.

Isn’t that a goal for some lazy summer writing?

So - what kind of story are you writing? And do you have other examples of the kinds of stories I've listed above, or other kinds of stories to add to the list?

- Alex

------------------------------------------------

If you'd like to to see more of these story elements in action, I strongly recommend that you watch at least one and much better, three of the films I break down in the workbooks, following along with my notes.

I do full breakdowns of The Matrix, The Wizard of Oz,  Chinatown, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Romancing the Stone, Sense and Sensibility, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sea of Love, and The Mist - and act breakdowns of You've Got Mail, Jaws, Silence of the Lambs, Raiders of the Lost Ark in Stealing Hollywood.

I do full breakdowns of The Proposal, Groundhog Day, Sense and Sensibility, Romancing the Stone, Leap Year, Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sea of Love, While You Were Sleeping and New in Town in Writing Love.

 

STEALING HOLLYWOOD ebook, $3.99    
STEALING HOLLYWOOD print, $14.99

- Smashwords (includes online viewing and pdf file)

- Amazon US

- Barnes & Noble/Nook

- Amazon UK

- Amazon DE

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Junowrimo Day 10: Are you stuck? Do you have a PLAN?

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One third of the way through June! This is a very good time to pause (briefly) and ask yourself: 
WHAT'S THE PLAN?

The Protagonist's PLAN drives the entire STORY ACTION. The Central Action of the story is carrying out the specific Plan. And the CENTRAL QUESTION of the story is – “Will the Plan succeed?”

Take a favorite movie or book (or two or three) and identify the PLAN, CENTRAL STORY ACTION and CENTRAL QUESTION and them in a few sentences. Like this:

- In Philadelphia Story, Cary Grant’s PLAN is to break up Katharine Hepburn’s wedding by sending in a photographer and journalist from a tabloid, which he knows will agitate her and her whole family to the point of explosion. (So the CENTRAL ACTION of the story is using the journalists to break up the wedding, and the CENTRAL QUESTION is – Will he be able to break up the wedding?)

- In Inception the PLAN is for the team of dream burglars to go into a corporate heir’s dreams to plant the idea of breaking up his father’s corporation. (So the CENTRAL ACTION is going into the corporate heir’s dream and planting the idea, and the CENTRAL QUESTION is – Will they succeed in planting the idea and breaking up the corporation?).

- In Sense And Sensibility the PLAN is for Marianne and Elinor to secure the family’s fortune and their own happiness by marrying well. (How are they going to do that? By the period’s equivalent of dating – which is the CENTRAL ACTION. Yes, dating is a PLAN! The CENTRAL QUESTION is, Will the sisters succeed in marrying well?)

- In The Proposal, Margaret’s PLAN is to learn enough about Andrew over the four-day weekend with his family to pass the INS marriage test so she won’t be deported. (The CENTRAL ACTION is going to Alaska to meet Andrew’s family and pretending to be married while they learn enough about each other to pass the test. The CENTRAL QUESTION is: Will they be able to successfully fake the marriage?

Now, try it with your own story!

- What does the protagonist WANT? 

- How does s/he PLAN to do it? 

- What and who is standing in his or her way? 

For example, in my thriller, Book of Shadows, here's the Act One set up: the protagonist, homicide detective Adam Garrett, is called on to investigate the murder of a college girl - which looks like a Satanic killing. Garrett and his partner make a quick arrest of a classmate of the girl's, a troubled Goth musician. But Garrett is not convinced of the boy's guilt, and when a practicing witch from nearby Salem insists the boy is innocent and there have been other murders, he is compelled to investigate further.

So Garrett’s PLAN and the CENTRAL ACTION of the story is to use the witch and her specialized knowledge of magical practices to investigate the murder on his own, all the while knowing that she is using him for her own purposes and may well be involved in the killing. The CENTRAL QUESTION is: will they catch the killer before s/he kills again - and/or kills Garrett (if the witch turns out to be the killer)?

- What does the protagonist WANT? To catch the killer before s/he kills again.

- How does he PLAN to do it? By using the witch and her specialized knowledge of magical practices to investigate further.

- What’s standing in his way? His own department, the killer, and possibly the witch herself. And if the witch is right… possibly even a demon.


The PLAN, CENTRAL QUESTION and CENTRAL STORY ACTION are almost always set up – and spelled out - by the end of the first act, although the specifics of the Plan may be spelled out right after the Act I Climax at the very beginning of Act II. 

Can it be later? Well, anything’s possible, but the sooner a reader or audience understands the overall thrust of the story action, the sooner they can relax and let the story take them where it’s going to go. So much of storytelling is about you, the author, reassuring your reader or audience that you know what you’re doing, so they can relax and let you drive. 

It’s important to note that the Plan and Central Action of the story are not always driven by the protagonist. Usually, yes. But in The Matrix, it’s Neo’s mentor Morpheus who has the overall PLAN, which drives the central action right up until the end of the second act. The Plan is to recruit and train Neo, whom Morpheus believes is “The One” prophesied to destroy the Matrix. So that’s the action we see unfolding: Morpheus recruiting, deprogramming and training Neo, who is admittedly very cute, but essentially just following Morpheus’s orders for two thirds of the movie. 

Does this weaken the structure of that film? Not at all. Morpheus drives the action until that crucial point, the Act Two Climax, when he is abducted by the agents of the Matrix, at which point Neo steps into his greatness and becomes “The One” by taking over the action and making a new plan, to rescue Morpheus by sacrificing himself.

It is a terrific way to show a huge character arc: Neo stepping into his destiny. And I would add that this is a common structural pattern for mythic journey stories - in Lord of the Rings, it's Gandalf who has the PLAN and drives the reluctant Frodo in the central story action.

Here’s another example. In the very funny romantic comedy It’s Complicated, Meryl Streep’s character Jane is the protagonist, but she doesn’t drive the action or have any particular plan of her own. It’s her ex-husband Jake (Alec Baldwin), who seduces her and at the end of the first act, proposes (in a very persuasive speech) that they continue this affair as a perfect solution to both their love troubles – it will fulfill their sexual and intimacy needs without disrupting the rest of their lives. 

Jane decides at that point to go along with Jake’s plan (saying, “I forgot what a good lawyer you are.”). In terms of action, she is essentially passive, letting the two men in her life court her (which results in bigger and bigger comic entanglements), but that makes for a more pronounced and satisfying character arc when she finally takes a stand and breaks off the affair with Jake for good, so she can finally move on with her life.

I would venture to guess that most of us know what it’s like to be swept up in a ripping good love entanglement, and can sympathize with Jane’s desire just to go with the passion of it without having to make any pesky practical decisions. It’s a perfectly fine – and natural – structure for a romantic comedy, as long as at that key juncture, the protagonist has the realization and balls – or ovaries – to take control of their own life again and make a stand for what they truly want.

I give you these last two examples – hopefully - to show how helpful it can be to study the specific structure of stories that are similar to your own. As you can see from the above, the general writing rule that the protagonist drives the action may not apply to what you’re writing – and you might want to make a different choice that will better serve your own story. And that goes for any general writing rule.

ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS: Have you identified the CENTRAL ACTION of your story? At what point in your book does the reader have a clear idea of the protagonist’s PLAN? Is it stated aloud? Can you make it more clear than it is?

And you guys, you really need to understand this. This idea of a CENTRAL STORY ACTION goes back THOUSANDS of years, to the Golden Age of Greek drama. Aristotle laid it out in the POETICS.

If you think you can fight thousands of years of dramatic structure (which is by now, I would venture to say, part of our DNA strand...) well, good for you, you rebel, you! But why make things so hard on yourself? Think about it. Thousands of years, this stuff has worked. Fight it at your peril, is all I'm saying.

- Alex

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                                        STEALING HOLLYWOOD

This new workbook updates all the text in the first Screenwriting Tricks for Authors ebook with all the many tricks I’ve learned over my last few years of writing and teaching—and doubles the material of the first book, as well as adding six more full story breakdowns.

 

STEALING HOLLYWOOD ebook    $3.99

STEALING HOLLYWOOD US print  $12.99

STEALING HOLLYWOOD print, all countries 

WRITING LOVE

Writing Love is a shorter version of the workbook, using examples from love stories, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy - available in e formats for just $2.99.

- Smashwords (includes online viewing and pdf file)

- Amazon/Kindle

- Barnes & Noble/Nook

- Amazon UK

- Amazon DE

You can also sign up to get free movie breakdowns here:

                Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns