 For Authors: August 22, 2018 Issue [#9066] |
  For Authors
This week: Got to shoot the bear! Edited by: Fyn  
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People say I make strange choices, but they're not strange for me. My sickness is that I'm fascinated by human behavior, by what's underneath the surface, by the worlds inside people.~~ Johnny Depp
We can't constantly tell stories of heroes. We have to hear the other stories, too, about people in dire straits who make bad choices.~~ Rebecca Hall
A spine to my films that's become more evident to me is that many are about the choices people make, and the reverberations of those choices. You go this way, or that way, and either way, there's going to be consequences.~~ Spike Lee
Drama's not safe and it's not pretty and it's not kind. People expect the basic template of television drama where there might be naughty villains, but everyone ends up having a nice cup of tea. You've got to do big moral choices and show the terrible things people do in terrible situations. Drama is failing if it doesn't do that.~~ Russell T Davies
“Then you should say what you mean," the March Hare went on.
"I do," Alice hastily replied; "at least--at least I mean what I say--that's the same thing, you know."
"Not the same thing a bit!" said the Hatter. "You might just as well say that "I see what I eat" is the same thing as "I eat what I see"!”
― Lewis Carroll
You can use the power of words to bury meaning or to excavate it. ~~Rebecca Solnit, Men Explain Things to Me
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Making choices. Low road or high? Keep that character or do what will move things forward and have the character meet their end in that fiery crash or whatever? Sometimes, they've just got to die; i.e. -- you have to shoot the bear! Being between the proverbial rock and a hard spot is daunting to a writer. So many ramifications ensue in either direction - consequences of the decision. Not the least of which is hearing from dismayed readers when a favored character bites the dust in book 1 because of something that doesn't happen until book 2!
Yet, isn't that what writing a book or short story is? A series of choices (good and/or bad) made by characters to move a story along, provide drama and move the character along their arc towards some kind of change? If A, then B. If B, then G, H or I. Funny how many writers don't even think about the choices and decisions made during the writing process, or explore the 'what ifs' if the character makes different choices. Many don't even realize that this is a process to go through at all. It can provide some interesting alternative when one is 'stuck' or not sure what should happen next! Go with the gut or take the simple route? Something out of 'left field' perhaps?
Even when a story is plotted out, outlined to the max, a character can stand up and say, "No. I think not." When they rear up like that, I tend to give the character their head and simply follow along. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Most of the time I end up somewhere in-between.
And then sometimes, you've just got to sheet the bear! :)
Choices. Decisions. I was talking to a person a year or so ago and she was saying that, at the age of 49, she figured she was long past the time when writing a book could be an option. I told her that there was no expiration date for writing a book, that there was absolutely no reason at all why she couldn't write one if that was something she wanted to try, felt compelled to do or simply wondered about. Taking me at my word, she did and it's coming out soon! Then, today, a fellow wdc-er, iammark302 sent me the following! Great timing, Mark!
Toni Morrison: 40
Mark Twain: 41
Marcel Proust: 43
Henry Miller: 44
JRR Tolkien: 45
Raymond Chandler: 51
Richard Adams: 52
Annie Proulx: 57
Laura Ingalls Wilder: 65
Frank McCourt: 66
Harriett Doerr: 74
Harry Bernstein: 96
No, you’re not too old to publish your first book.
Choices. Decisions, decisions. Life IS but a long series of choices, of paths 'less traveled' and detours. Exploring them all is just part of our journeys. |
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