Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Glenda Council Beal Set to Speak on July 22, at Bryson City Library

Glenda Council Beal has contact Bryson City Creative Writers and ask to come and speak with us. She is the program coordinator for the North Carolina Writers' Network-West. NCWN-West was set up to reach writers in the far western counties south of Asheville. As program coordinator, Glenda visits the nine counties in the program region. Her mission is to brings writers together to learn how to best serve them. 

Glenda is a published writer and poet as well as a teacher of writing. She holds classes in her home studio and teaches writing in the Community Enrichment department of Tri-County Community College. She has been an active member of the North Carolina Writers' Network for twenty years and has served as representative for Clay county for many years.


We have scheduled a meeting on July 22 at 2:00 pm at the library in Bryson City. The address is 33 Fryemont Street, Bryson City in the auditorium.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Escalating Conflict 101 by Susan Brewer

Escalating Conflict 101
I write screenplays. Here is the opening of one I finished last year called “Androcles and the Lion”. It has potential but still needs help and work.
Screenplays use a specific format which you can see (in part) here. Another difference to ‘normal’ writing is that screenplays must show a story, not tell a story. They are action based, and use scenes like beads strung on a string to guide conflict into a final showdown.

FADE IN:
EXT. WOODED OUTSKIRTS OF BEJOR ON THE IBERIAN PENINSULA (SPAIN) - DAY
Sunrise over a mist-filled wood with mountains in the background.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
The ancient world once lived, filled with death and blood-lust and war, though a competing desire was rooted there, too: a longing for stability, culture and opportunity, for security and the luxuries of a life well-lived.
CUT TO:
EXT. STREAM, TUNNEL OF TREES, AND FIELD BEYOND - DAY
Action: Splash! Bare feet drop into a stream before they spring away and are gone.
Then, through a tunnel of over-arching trees the runner sprints down a flat path as if pursued by the hounds of hell. A bundle of firewood is strapped to his back; he descends quickly down a short hill then emerges out onto an open field beyond.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
This is a tale of such a time and place - where the Old World struggled to do more than survive; it struggled to thrive.
Action: Rushing the stream, a horsed and helmeted cavalryman clears it in flat-out pursuit of the running man.
The horseman gallops through the tunnel of leaves, makes his way down the hill and emerges onto the field where he circles the tunic-clad runner, drawing his sword. The runner in desperation draws a piece of wood, a stick, from over his shoulder. The horseman laughs, circling the runner once more before spurring his horse on, leaving the runner armed with a stick alone.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Though culture struggled to flourish, there were lions still at the door.
Action: Still clutching his stick, the young man’s chest heaves, he raises his arms to the sky in empty defiance before bending at the waist in pain, a beat, before he explodes, hurling the stick away.

Writing requires quiet to gather the voices inside your head and time to connect them fluidly together into a whole. But writing also requires stimulation, controversy, and angst to make up conflict and action - information and drama the reader must use to form his or her own conclusions about themselves and the world. In the end, the equation, if I may call it that, is all about fantasy.
So here are some questions I like:
  1. What will the resolution solve, and what are you interested in illustrating about characters and the difficulties they deal with?
  2. What will the conflict say about the nature of mankind?
  3. How closely must you follow “the rules” of writing a story, and where can you take liberty?

The hardest thing for me to do is put together the beads on the escalating necklace of conflict. For help I look for genius in screenplays like The Wizard of Oz:
Home’s meaning to Dorothy, illustrated:
  1. when Dorothy seeing Aunt Em in the crystal ball from prison in the witch’s palace, the audience sees her love for her aunt – it’s a lot; “Oh, Auntie, Em!”
  2. when Dorothy is left by the Wizard/Professor Marvel when his balloon floats away her heart breaks. Then she learns she has always had the skills to save herself, on her own. Fabulous!
Killing the Witch is saving the Scarecrow, not an evil act. That was a neat piece of work.
And on a serious note, Toto deserved an Oscar for his performance in my opinion.

My screenplay has a man being chased. He must end up in the arena being spared by a lion meant to kill him. And because of Hollywood, I must also include lots of life-or-death drama in between, so I am still not satisfied with the way in which my screenplay gets from beginning to end. I am still interested in learning how to “discover” dramatic elements.

Susan Brewer in Rabun Gap, GA

Saturday, December 10, 2016

Sharpening The Saw, or Improving Your Skill Set

In the olden days, when people still used hand tools to do woodworking, there were hand saws.  Every so often, you would have to stop and sharpen the saw.  It made the saw work a lot better.   Somewhere along the way, someone adopted this phrase and made an idiom out of it.  Basically sharpening the saw refers to the constant quest to become better at what you do.  I am constantly sharpening the saw.  In my search for material I turn to the web.  I have found that I am regularly watching videos from the Creative Penn .  Joanna Penn has a regular podcast and she post them on Youtube.  I have found value in watching her post.  I would recommend her postings to anyone who wants to sharpen their saw.

If you have a source of inspiration, please let me know and I will post a link.

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Guest Posters Wanted

Looking for contribution to this blog.  Rant, Rave or Ramble, I don't care.  Share writing aids or complain about the wifi at your local dinner.  Whatever is on your mind.  If you are relying on me for interesting blog post, we are all in trouble.  

You can comment on this post and we can arrange for the uploading of your wisdom.  Thanks for your help.

Monday, November 21, 2016

Bringing Your Character To Life Video Roz Morris Free Ebook

Roz believes that characters bind us to  the story.  The characters are why readers care.  Readers remember characters more than any other part of a novel.  All this is discussed in the Youtube video Writing Fiction:  Bring Your Characters to life.  Amazon currently is offering her book Nail Your Novel Instant Fix: 100 tips for fascinating characters,  for free in the kindle format.  I found value in the video.  I also downloaded her free book.  Good resource.

Thursday, November 17, 2016

How to Know That You Are A Writer


 "All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you: the good and the bad,  the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and places and how the weather was.  If you can get so that you can give that to people, then you are a writer."

Ernest Hemingway

     This is one of my favorite author quotes.  It is a "consummation devoutly to be wished"


Sunday, November 13, 2016

Author Kevin Anderson, Advice On Acheiving Success As An Author

Today in my never ending quest to sharpen the saw, I  watched a video with Author Kevin Anderson. He has written 140 books and sold 23 million copies.  The title of the video was "How to Have a Successful Long-Term Writing Career." The video is approximate 35 minutes long and consist primarily of a infomercial for Kevin Anderson. It is short on advice. One thing that he does say is that he likes to have a lot of irons in the fire. He has multiple projects all working at the same time. He calls this the popcorn theory. In other words you put a lot of kernels in a pan, put on some heat and you never know which ones going to pop first. He speaks a little towards the current status of the book industry and its inevitable shift away from traditional publishing houses. If you want to good advice on how to have a successful long-term writing career, you need to find it someplace other than this video.