I’ve been writing screenplays for several years and enjoy telling stories through visual images. After storyboarding my first short film script, Route of All Evil, I decided to start creating graphic novels based on my screenplays.
I created my fair share of trunk manuscripts… until I finally figured out a way to embrace the revision process. My Diagnosis Murder colleagues still shudder whenever someone mentions “the godforsaken Food Fight script” about which the less said the better.
You have a great story with wonderful characters who overcame grievous wounds—abused childhoods, broken marriages, or alcoholic parents. How do you handle the task of explaining these life-defining experiences? In prologue, dialogue, monologue, exposition, flashback?
For 20 years, frustrated writers have arrived at my Story-Doctor virtual doorstep, manuscripts and hearts in hand. (This may not be totally accurate. Actually, I’ve never opened an email that included a photo of the sender clutching a bloody manuscript in one hand, their bleeding heart in the other. But, I digress.)
You’re probably wondering why in the world a screenwriter would worry about description. After all, don’t we just write dialogue and action? Well, no. Not entirely. We have to think in visuals, just like any creative writer does. But we have to pare down those visuals into a few words, to create tone and setting in a way that’s almost like poetry. And that means we really have to feel that setting. Get into our characters’ and story’s heads, if you will, so we can convey see their world through their emotions.
artist entrepreneur / Writing Tips
by Beth Barany · Published October 3, 2014 · Last modified October 2, 2014
“My greatest obstacle is to learn to market my work without fear. Art galleries, publishers, clients, newspaper reporters, all the questions, art receptions; talking about my work with strangers, being the center of attention, it’s overwhelming.”
Lots of writers know how their book starts and how it ends. It’s writing the middle that’s so tricky. Some writers have no clue what happens. Some writers have so many ideas, they can’t cram them all in. Indecision can be paralyzing.
“Dialogue should be active, develops characters and create moods in the scene,” Karl Igelsias said, screenwriter, script doctor and consultant, “Dialogue is the first thing a publisher will look for.” In other words, don’t fill up your book with page after page of narrative. Give your reader highly charged dialogue and they will thank you for it.
Years ago, while searching for my niche as a writer, I stumbled across a how to book on marketing for writers which included an index of activities. These exercises were designed to help novices, aspiring practitioners, and those struggling with self-confidence issues get organized. I plunged into the myriad of possibilities and came up with my ten tips for chroniclers.
One of the delights of reading fiction is getting lost in the world of the story. Becoming so immersed in that place and time that we get confused when we look up from the page, and have to ask, “Where am I?”
The month before last I spent 10 days in Texas. Ten glorious days. Before I left I was in a funk, a funk so deep that I could not seem to pull myself out of it.
So this year I ignored the inner voices and entered competitions, submitted to journals, wrote stories I didn’t know how to write, and agreed to do things I wasn’t 100% sure I could do.
I began writing short stories to ease my sense of isolation and help me make it through each day. I recall experiencing a profound sense of exhilaration. You could say I was falling in love.
Today we welcome a new columnist, Jackie Blain who is stopping by to chat with us today about “don’t show, don’t tell, inhabit!” from a screenwriter’s perspective. Enjoy! *** Here’s a simple description based on a short...
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