Words Are the Writer's Movie Camera

I have literally failed my way to success. By success I mean making my living as a writer, which was my goal. Writers don’t make mega-bucks. Most newspaper salaries are similar to those of teachers and public servants unless you’re John Grisham or Stephen King. Some magazines pay fairly well by the word. Fairly well being anywhere from 10-25 cents.

Personalized rejections mean you’re almost there. Look for the wisdom behind the words. Why is this person returning the manuscript? Maybe it isn’t the work, but the market. It’s hard to think of your writing as a product, but that’s what it is to publishers. And they’re (the publishers) the writer’s customers. Writers tend to think of readers as their “customers” but the first customer is the publisher. Impress editors, agents and/or publishers with a bang-up book proposal; short, sweet and to the point.

Many personalized rejections say, “show don’t tell.” If that’s not the same as “don’t ask, don’t tell,” then what exactly is it?

That’s what this Creative Yarnspinning technique is all about. We’ll work with your book or short story (or whatever project you choose to send) and learn how to transfer our own personal emotions to characters and set realistic scenes using “show don’t tell.”

A lot of people want to be writers. You’re ahead of most of them. You see, a lot of people don’t actually like the writing part; sitting alone at a computer screen for hours on end. Those are the ones who just want to say they “have written.”

You (who are serious enough to be reading this) probably either love writing or feel compelled to write.

That’s wonderful. It can also make you susceptible to plenty of scams.

Rule Number One: If it sounds too good to be true, It always is!

The lure of publication gleans thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands from unsuspecting authors through CONTESTS, BOOK DOCTORS and CRITIQUES.

“Just say no.”

There’s a difference between critiques and real substantive editing. Everybody needs edited, whether by a professional or a friend. I wouldn’t think of sending out a piece without somebody at least checking over it; especially a book. A friend with a good command of English can be enough if you don’t want to pay a professional.

OK- let’s get into the nitty-gritty of “Show don’t Tell.”

Here’s our first example. I call it

Here’s Johnny!

Johnny was so in love with Margaret he thought his heart would break but he knew he didn’t dare tell her. He was far too shy and he feared rejection.

There’s nothing really wrong with that scene. It relays lots of information. It tells us Johnny is in love with Margaret, but he can’t tell her because he is afraid of rejection.

But how much empathy do we have for Johnny? I know I just want to tell him to stop the pity-party and get on with it. How could we convey this information in a manner to get empathy for Johnny? Can we make the readers cry? (They actually asked me to do that when I wrote for True Romance and True Confessions.) At least let’s give Johnny’s plight a little emotion. Use words like a movie camera. Now let’s shoot the scene.

JOHNNY REVISED:

Johnny lay face down on his bed. I never knew red dye tasted like this, he thought. He’d cried so long the cheap bedspread was soaked under his face and some of the dye had rubbed off on his lips. “Margaret. Margaret,” he whispered again and again, holding the torn Polaroid photograph close to his chest. “I love you so.”

He swallowed hard and felt the lump in his throat descend to his chest. His hands shook. His lips trembled.

I can’t tell her. I can’t risk opening my heart to her and having her grind it on the ground with her heel- like all the others. Like Jenna, and Marie, and Mother. Oh God, not even mother returned my love!

*This time we didn’t say “Johnny was brokenhearted” or “feared rejection.” We showed the action in a creative scene, just as a moving picture would.

Create the scene from your own experiences. If your character is in love, remember a time when you were in love. If your character is experiencing grief , remember a time when you were experiencing grief in your own life and draw on the feelings that come to you. If his sweetheart just said “yes” to his marriage proposal, show him laughing or jumping or buying flowers from a street vendor. Or maybe he’s just been accepted to medical school. The medical school of his choice! Clapping or singing or twirling around and around the room – any one of these could be used as the basis for a scene.

Emotions are universal. You don’t have to have lost a close family member to show the feelings of a woman watching her husband die slowly of a terrible disease, or a father’s feelings as he looks at his newborn child. Just think of a time when you felt the required emotion and then project that feeling – in the form of a scene – into your character. For any of you that act, this might sound a lot like the Stanislavski “system” of (actor) projection. That’s because it is, and it isn’t.

When Stanislavski developed his method in 1906, he was talking about live theater. There’s a big difference between live theater and the pages of a story or a book. A book can become boring very quickly unless it comes alive.

That’s our goal: making the words come alive. What do we see? What do we hear, touch, taste and smell? Now let’s grab hold of that and show it to our reader.

Remember, words are the writer’s movie camera.