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.
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