Dreams

Ever wonder where writers get their ideas from?  They can come from anywhere or anything.  When I started writing poetry, I would be sitting at work; thinking about random things.  Sometimes I would come up with nothing, but other times I would have a great idea or remember something from my past.  When I did write, people said I went into some sort of trance.  I was staring at the wall or out a window.  After about ten minutes I was done and ready to type it up on the computer. 

My brother has his own way of coming up with ideas.  He listens to what people say and gets an idea instantly.  He comes up with elaborate storylines in a matter of minutes that would be great to see on the big screen. 

Another way of coming up with ideas is through dreams.  That has been the way I have been getting new story ideas, and from what I have read a lot of other writers get their plots from dreams they had as well.  They are usually weird and abnormal, but most dreams usually are.  Sometimes they feel too real.  Some have you portraying the main character in the dream and other times you are a spectator watching everything unfold. 

There are many more ways people can find ideas on what to write.  Taking a walk through the park, the beach, observing people's interactions with each other, interactions with family, old jokes either with friends or family, songs, poetry, reading, and the list can go on and on.

The best piece of advice I can give when it comes to searching for something to write about, is don't discredit anything.  Write any and all ideas down; either in a notebook, type it on a computer, or enter it into a cell phone.  Don't ignore the thoughts that come to mind.  Keep them and look to them when you decide you want to write something.  If you think you can expand on it then go for it.  If you can't, don't scrap the idea; keep it for another time.

Holidays-Happy Thanksgiving.

I would like to say first and foremost Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there reading this.  This year has gone by so quickly and so much has happened and so much to be thankful for.  For me I have dealt with near tragedies, the death of my grandmother, and a Super Storm Hurricane that destroyed a portion of my town, a huge area of where I spend a lot of time, and many other surrounding areas.  Thankfully we were spared and were only minorly inconvienced.  But despite any hardships we face in life, there is always so much we can be thankful for.  A met the woman I plan on marrying, my family has been getting closer together, both of our families love each other; making us one big wonderful and happy family, and I have been making strides in both my work career and writing career. 

Over the last few years, I have had such a different perspective on life as opposed to several years ago.  Call it growing up, or maturing, or even having a deeper appreciation for the little things in life.  Regardless, something I learned over the years is that everything that has happened in your life has led you to this point in your life.  Despite any hardships or if there have been great things that happened, I say be thankful for everything in your life; the good and the bad things because both have created who you are today.

Happy Thanksgiving, and Happy Holidays

Knowledge is Power

I have been writing for years and still found something very amusing.  A lot of friends and co-workers always bought me gift cards for book stores, and then I tell them I'm not much of a reader.  They always reply, but you're a writer so you must read all the time.  To be honest I never really liked reading.  It always had to be something that catches my attention instantly or else I couldn't read it. 

About two years ago I started working with my brother and his wife.  A friend of ours told me reading was an important thing to do in life.  Without reading, you don't really grow as a person; especially if you are reading empowering books and not trashy magazines focused on following celebrities.  So I started to read a few books and two of my favorite books were the Mentor, and The Instant Millionaire.  Both dealt with working hard toward your goals and never giving up on yourself even in the worst circumstances.  If you push hard, you can reach whatever goals you set for yourself.

Now I know what some people wanted me to do with what I learned from those books, but I chose to apply it to my writing career instead.  I knew if I pushed myself and truly believed in me, I could start reaching my goals.  I am proud to say that I reached my first last year when I put out my first book Chamber of Souls.  This actually helped me in other aspects of my life.  I became closer with my family including both of my brothers, I pulled myself out of what appeared to be a dead end job and found a great opportunity with a company that has treated me wonderfully for the last year, and even found the love of my life. 

But as I sat in my brother's living room last night, we talked about how fast I caught up to him in regards to writing movie scripts.  He has been reading endless amounts of books on writing from people who have done the leg work in the past.  His writing has become better because of it and he has taught me everything he is learning.  So I decided if I can learn fast from him, why not start reading books on my own.  Share what I learn with those that can benefit from it; including him.  And who knows, maybe I'll put out a best seller sooner than I would have or sell a movie script faster, or help someone who is reading this do the same.

The point I'm trying to make with this post tonight, is do not give up on your writing, your dreams, or yourself.  You can achieve if you believe in yourself and do the work.  Push yourself and stay motivated.  And read something that's empowering; you never know what it might spark within you.

A dark time

I'm sorry to say, this post will have nothing to do with writing.  I have been away from this blog for about 2 weeks now.  The first week I couldn't find anything to say, and this week my state/my hometown was hit too hard by Hurricane Sandy. 

Much of it has been talked about on the news, but focused on New York City and New Jersey.  While NYC was hit hard, Jersey was hit a lot harder.  However there are many other parts of New York that has been devastated.  Breezey Point has burned down, Broad Channel has been flooded out and destroyed, Howard Beach has been flooded and many businesses condemed, and the South Shore of Long Island has been turned upside down.  Many lives will never be the same.  They have lost everything; their homes, their clothes, their family members, businesses, and there are still millions of people without power and have to fight the cold nights without any heat. 

This is a very bad time for New Yorkers and people of New Jersey. People are homeless, they have lost everything, people have no power, there's no gas, and there are people looting the destroyed and ruined areas. Everyone needs to pitch in to help others around them even if it's something little. Donate your time, clothes, or money to help the relief efforts. 
http://www.nyredcross.org/?nd=locations
http://www.bowery.org/donate/
https://www.wepay.com/xe8mtm9/donations/broad-channel-hurricane-sandy-relief_1

Re-Writes

Rewriting is the one thing writers don't like to do.  No one likes to hear their idea doesn't work or that it should be better than what you wrote.  That's what the writer interprets it to mean when you tell them they need to rewrite a story.  That's not what it actually means.  Critics, Literary Agents, Publishers even friends and family are offering advise on how to make your story better. 

Something I learned while doing constant rewrites is the more you write and rewrite, the better your writing becomes.  I have written and rewritten my first novel several times before I was satisfied with how the story flowed.  It has been about two and a half years since the last time I worked on that novel.  I started to write the movie script based on the novel to help shop it around more and found the beginning changed as I started to write it.  The beginning to the script seemed more eye catching and at that moment I understood what others told me a while ago. 

So here I go again.  Writing my first novel over again to spice it up a little more; make it more eye catching.  For the first time, I'm not upset about it.  I look at it as a step in the right direction to improve on what I couldn't before and a step closer to making my dream come true.

Poetry, Novels, Movie Scripts pt3

Sorry for the delay in this post.  It has been a very busy week for me with writing.  As you can guess by the title of this post, this is part 3; movie scripts.  This is something I am getting more familiar with each day.  With writing movie scripts, the first thing you need to do is buy the Final Draft program.  This one program is what every agent and production company wants you to use and it also helps to guide you along with an in depth (and complicated) tutorial of how to use the program. 

When writing a movie script, you have to keep as much of the focus on the dialog.  The dialog is how you should be telling your story.  The Action portion of the script is used to setup the scene setting intially and when there is a need to describe a character's action.  The typical length of a movie script goes from 90-120 pages.  The industry does not want you to go over 120 pages because each page equates for one minute of film.  If you are writing 120 pages or more for every script, 1. you better make sure the content of the story and characters are excellent, 2. you need to cut down some of the pages if they're not excellent, 3. the production company will look at it and think there's not enough content and will pass on the script. 

I have found out first hand that it is harder to write a book and then go into writing a movie script.  When writing a book/novel, you are focusing on the details through both dialog and narative writing in order to get the reader interested and at the same time get them to imagine what they are reading.  When writing a movie script your focus to detail has an estimated page limit to get the reader/production company/actor to understand the characters, what motivates them, what the conflict is, and the story as a whole.  Also when converting a book to script, it is very difficult due to having to cut back on the original content to save on your page count.  This is something I am learning first hand currently, because I am taking my first novel and creating a movie script out of it.  Within the first 10 scenes I have written, I have thrown out more than 10 pages of the book and changed some of the dialog to make it fit better.

That's going to do it for this post.  Please feel free to leave a comment and check out my other posts as well. 

Poetry, Novels, Movie Scripts pt2

I decided to continue the series today and focus on part 2 which will cover writing novels.  Novels are a lot harder to write than poetry because you have to focus on telling a much longer story, developing characters, a good plot, and a storyline that hooks your readers.  There is a lot of detail you need to put into your novel. 

• The first step in the writing process is always to be inspired to write.  I know it's sounds
  ridiculous.  There are a lot of people who want to write a best selling novel, but are not inspired enough and their work suffers.  The quality of writing is not at the level it could have been. 
• The next step is to come up with a good plot.  In other words, figure out what your story is going to be about.  It could be anything from a war hero coming home from war and adjusting to a normal life, to a child dreaming of being a pirate. 
• The next step is to determine the setting and genre of your novel.  Where is the story going to take place.  It is in the past, present, or future.  Is it in your home town, somewhere in your country, or someplace fictional.  Also you need to determine if your novel is going to be a comedy, action, drama, horror, science fiction, or romance type of novel. 
• Next, create a list of characters.  I usually get a notepad out and make a list of names for possible characters and figure out which ones I would like to use.  I recommend starting with your main characters and work your way to the supporting or secondary characters.  I use the notepad to write out the character description, how their personality is supposed to be like, and where I would like to see that character end up.  A lot of the time, I base characters off of people that have been in my life at some point.  Especially in the beginning, it helps for the author to make a stronger connection to his/her characters.
• The next thing (and I strongly recommend doing this) is making a chapter outline of where you would like the story to go.  My first novel I wrote did not have the structure that it should have (at first).  I wrote the story however it appeared in my mind (which can work).  But when you have the outline in front of you, it is easier to stay on track and focus a lot more on the details of the story than where it is going. 
• At this point you are ready to write the story itself.  At that point it is all on you.  The only pointers I can give during your writing process are to make sure you are very descriptive with your settings and characters.  Use your dialog to tell the story and do not try to be perfect with your wording (this isn't english class).
• Make sure you work hard at writing if this is something you really want to do.  Set goals or a schedule up for times to write or you should be at whatever chapter by this date. 
• Edit and rewrite the story.  Trust me this is something you will find yourself doing quite a few times. 

Writing a novel is one of the things I love doing the most.  It helps you create a whole other world where you control your characters and become invested in them.  When someone else reads the novel, and they get that same feeling and investment, it gives you a feeling that can't be described. 
Here are some other links that might help you with your writing:
http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Novel
http://www.novel-writing-help.com/how-to-write-a-novel.html
http://www.creative-writing-now.com/how-to-write-a-novel.html

As always I welcome any questions or comments.
http://soundcloud.com/anthonycharlesofficial/episode-20-andrew-hess-author