The Eight Rules for Writing Screen-to-Print

 

You read that title right. It means screenplay writing rules for writing a book.

We live a new literary world of 140 character Twitter, personal Facebook dispatches and USA Today snappy prose. The reading audiences of the New York Times who enjoyed reading ‘literature’ has rapidly declined with their subscribers. Or to paraphrase Elmore Leonard, “Literary fiction is when they leave in the boring parts that everybody skips.”

Or to put it another way:

Literary fiction is the fiction of ideas. Its primary purpose is to evoke thought. The writer’s goal is self-expression. Any consideration of the reader—if one exists at all—is purely secondary.

Popular fiction is the fiction of emotion. Its primary purpose is to evoke feelings. The writer’s goal is to entertain the reader. Any consideration of self-expression—if one exists at all—is purely secondary.

One can still hope to write the Great American Novel but if you want to make writing your career – you have to make money. Many experts on writing agree that if revenue is what you seek, then you must write for markets – not for prosperity. Pursue a writing career not so much for fame but for fortune.

I suggest writing stories that are screen-to-print.

So how is that done? What RULES apply?

 To do that we need to talk Hemingway.

After he finished “The Old Man and the Sea,” Hemingway wrote his brother, Leichester, telling him that he did not think there was single wasted word in the book. He may be right. The story is a lean, powerful tale. So lean that it may well be the only book ever written to have very nearly every scene transposed into the film version.

So here is rule NUMBER ONE – Think movie scenes and not chapters.  Write the story in such a way as how it would look on the big screen. What I am saying is that we can all learn something from Hemingway.

He had some tips for writing well. Use short sentences, use short first paragraphs, (I would add all your paragraphs should be short, sweet and to the point), use vigorous language, say what something is rather than what it isn’t. He learned this style when working as a newspaper reporter.

If you’ve spent any time on the writing discussion boards, you’ll see that the majority of comments about writing style seem to fall into two groups. Those that believe the flowery prose of the literati is real writing and those that feel authors should write to be marketable and choose to eschew obfuscation. Now there are those who believe that paragraphs and even pages of narrative are necessary for successful story telling.

I don’t.

Which brings us to the next set of rules writing Screen-to-Print.

Rule NUMBER TWO. Show. Don’t Tell. Telling is abstract, passive and less involving of the reader. It slows down your pacing, takes away your action and pulls your reader out of your story.

Showing, however, is active and concrete – creating mental images that brings your story and your characters — to life. When you hear about writing that is vivid, evocative and strong, chances are there’s plenty of showing in it. Showing is interactive and encourages the reader to participate in the reading experience by drawing her own conclusions.

Dan Brown’s ‘The Symbol’ suffers from the fate of telling not showing. One critic said he could have cut out 20% of the narrative or chapters and it wouldn’t hurt the story.

So, why is’ showing’ so important to Screen-to-Print?

90% of a screenplay is ‘showing’ – that is, dialogue. There is very little narrative in a screenplay. Very little telling. Except for a few short paragraphs before certain scenes to paint the environment and the mood of the characters, the vast majority of a screenplay is dialogue.  The dialogue tells the story.

You have to tell the story through dialogue.

Rule NUMBER THREE. Start your scene in the MIDDLE of the action or start with a dialogue as frequently as you can. A novel should start off by drawing the reader into it right away and give them a hint of mystery of what is to come.  I use the device of Prologue in my novels to do this.  This breaks another cardinal rule. Editors and publishers claim they don’t like Prologues. I think they can be used to grab the reader’s attention before the actual story starts.

‘Show-Don’t Tell’ types of stories are looked down upon by the literati but I believe that today’s reader – the USA Today and Twitter generation – is not looking for tombs of literature but a quick and entertaining read. Even Michael Crichton honed this down in his later novels. His books were written is such a way that they could easily be turned into screenplays.

There are times where several paragraphs of narrative are necessary to get the story out but always ask yourself first, “Can I SHOW this information instead of TELLING it – and WHEN can I do it?”

Rule NUMBER FOUR. Try to create friction, tension or conflict in every scene – good movies do that. One of the most important elements is the use of conflict and tension.

To quote Tina Morgan:

“Inserting conflict into your novel is not quite as simple as inserting a fist-fight into the storyline. Conflict in fiction can be as diverse and as individual as you are. It can also be used effectively to heightened tension and increase suspense.”

Is your character in enough danger from one chapter to the next? Danger can take many different forms. The easiest and most obvious is the physical danger. Don’t forget to use emotional danger. You as the writer have a moral responsibility to torture these characters as much as you can. Pile on the emotional danger along with the physical.

Analyze a movie – any movie. The best ones that hold your attention are those that know how to put conflict and tension into EVERY scene – even those used for exposition. You know — those boring scenes necessary to get information out.

Don’t leave a finished chapter – or what I call scenes – without re-reading it looking for the inclusion of conflict or tension.

Rule NUMBER FIVE. Write conversationally and kill the semi-colon. Write like you speak – ‘style’ be damned! Or in the words of Dorothy Parker:

“If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.”

Rule NUMBER SIX. Plot of course drives the story. But what drives the plot? Characters do. In general, you come up with a story idea. Then outline the major plot points that unfold your story idea. This is called a wireframe of your story.

Character behavior drives plot, which drives character behavior. So your next step is to hang the character experiences and behavior on the wire frame of the plot aiming for the sequencing of their experiences to match up with the overall scenes of the plot. If you’re able to do this, then you have a story. All you need to do is fill in the details of each scene.

Rule NUMBER SEVEN. The reversal or the All-Is-Lost-Moment.

Watch movies as they moves along. There is a point where the story is working fine for the hero or heroine – then BAM!!  Everything goes to hell for the main character! Two-thirds through the movie there’s this reversal. You can see reversals in romantic comedies too. In fact they are almost always there.

Everything seems to going the hero’s way when all of a sudden, a sub plot appears that threatens to send the hero and his objective into the crap can.

Another example of this is the All-Is-Lost-Moment where it looks like everything is lost. Then the hero resurrects himself. This challenge if faced and the movie then hurtle to its climax. This is important in a novel, too. This challenge if faced and the movie then hurtle to its climax.

Rule NUMBER EIGHT. The Dismissal. Have you ever read a story, following a character through the pages then – they disappear! The reader asks,” What happened to that guy or girl?” Except for the characters that are used one time in a story, your other characters need to be dismissed – that is – have their activities come to a satisfying end. You can’t leave them hanging out there. You need to end their lives or finish their relationships. If you thought out each of you continuing character’s role in moving the plot forward, you will ensure that you have a logical plot structure.

So there you go. Follow these EIGHT rules of screen-to-print and you will have a very readable and enjoyable story where the reader will feel his or her investment in time and money were worth it.

And if you’re up for it – you have a ready made screenplay from your book.

This post is contributed as a Guest post By Author Frank Fiore

 

A List of Magical Creatures

 A list of magical creatures for your next story...

A List of Magical Creatures, Fantasy Animals, and Supernatural Beings (bryndonovan.com)

Naming a Character

The most unforgettable fictional characters begin as a glimmer in the author’s mind. Only in writing the novel does the character go on to acquire the dimensions that will make him or her live in the imagination of the reader years after the book has been read.

Sherlock Holmes, Captain Ahab, Huckleberry Finn, Jo March, Dorothea Brooke linger in our memories as if they were real people we have known.

These examples are all from the English classics, but even the writer whose ambitions focus on something less monumental than Moby Dick or Middlemarch needs to give adequate thought to the principal character/s who will carry the story, whether it's a light mystery, a romance, or a middle school adventure.

The place to begin is with the character’s name.

Some writers, in a hurry to start that first draft, will tack the first name that comes to mind on the main character, intending to come up with a better name “later on.”

Bad idea.

A purely practical objection is the danger that the substitute name will creep into a few paragraphs in the completed draft, creating embarrassment for the author and confusion in the reader.

A more important reason to begin with the most appropriate name is that the name is part of the character’s persona and can inform the developing action. The right name can also send a subliminal message to the reader. Take the name Atticus Finch.

The antique Roman name Atticus suggests formality and is imbued with connotations of law and justice. Finch is the name of a harmless bird and, as such, reflects the title of the book, To Kill a Mocking Bird. Harper Lee may or may not have been aware of the useful qualities of the finch as a destroyer of weeds and harmful insects, but Atticus Finch lives in our memories as a dignified representative of the law doing what he can to protect the social garden from destructive influences.

The very letters in a name can connote characteristics. The k sound suggests strength and courage. Consider: James T. Kirk, Kinsey Millhone, Alex Cross, Brother Caedfal, Kate Beckett.

Other sounds, like those of h and r and the vowels, can suggest such characteristics as weakness, hypocrisy, and—sometimes—evil. Consider: Iago, Humbert Humbert, Professor Moriarty, Dorian Gray, Uriah Heep.

A combination of strong and weak sounds can produce a name that suggests a multi-layered character who possesses strength and courage, together with a willingness to use others to their advantage. Consider: Becky Sharp, Scarlett O’Hara.

The sounds of l and n may suggest sexiness or feminine weakness: Ulalume, Lolita, Annabelle Lee, Anna Karenina.

And, finally, it’s possible to incorporate a suggestive word in the name of a character. Holly GoLightly’s name contains the sexy l 's, together with a word that conveys her unconscionable view of life. Bigger Thomas, born in different circumstances, could have had a bigger, better fate. Edward Murdstone has a heart of stone and a murky disposition. Sam Spade digs ploddingly for information, while Mike Hammer gets what he’s after by any means necessary.

Before you get too far into that first draft, take the time to give your protagonist the right name.

 From: Daily Writing Tips

New Title From Saguaro Books

 Urma Applebaum and the Pigman

It is customary that each generation passes many things onto the next. Sometimes it’s through spoken word. Sometimes it’s through things that we find out but were never told. Fourteen-year-old Trinity grew up visiting a small town in Vermont where her grandmother lived. This town is on edge, the Pigman dwells among them. His odd look and tenacious ways have caused great fear among the residents. With her grandmother's sudden passing, Trinity realizes that she's been left alone with a secret that only she knows. What will she do?

 Amazon $9.95 paper; $3.99 Kindle

 

New from Saguaro Books, LLC

Paperback: 249 pages 

Publisher: Saguaro Books, LLC (July 9, 2020) 

Language: English 

ISBN-13: 979-8647460158

Price: $11.95

  

Abigail “Art “ Ruth Teller thought her sophomore year would include the usual teenage worries: getting good grades, breaking away from an overprotective mom, dealing with hormones, having fun with friends and starting to date. Unfortunately, the School Board decided to throw a wrench in her plans by proposing to water down the science program to teach the decidedly unscientific creationism. With such a subpar curriculum, how would Art get into a top university so she could discover a cure for her diabetes? Someone was going to have to stop them and it looked as if it was going to be her. As if high school wasn’t hard enough. Art didn’t know if one teenager could really defeat a group of religious zealots dead set on bringing their political beliefs into the classroom but she vowed she would stop at nothing to save her school.

Tips on How to Target Your Book's Audience

From Ingram/Spark:

by Brian Jud
 

You could sell more of your books if you'd answer two questions honestly. First, how often do people think about your book? Second, how often do people think about their own problems? You will probably agree that people think more about how they can solve their own problems, learn something, improve themselves, or be entertained than they do about your book. However, if you can show them how reading your book helps them achieve these things, you are likely to increase your book sales and revenue, so let's cover how to target your book's audience.

Define Your Target Reader

When I ask authors to describe their target audience, the most frequent response is “everybody who likes (their topic).” It is difficult, time-consuming, and expensive to market to everybody. Defining your primary target readers and buyers is a basic, required task for selling books. But if you limit your marketing to those people, you are significantly limiting your sales and revenue.
Consider if you wrote a book about ways to resolve fear and your premise is that everyone is afraid of something, at some level. But how can you tell “everyone” the ways in which your book will help them? One way is to divide your target readers into categories. Using these techniques, you might address the people who are afraid of flying, dying, being in a relationship, or other types of fears individually—building a message specific to those audiences.

Think of Readers as Actual People

Remember that you are marketing to people, not to segments. So who is the typical person in each segment who will actually purchase your book? If you can describe those individuals and the problems that consume them, you can communicate the ways in which the content of your book can help them.
What if “soccer moms” were singled out as a target segment for your book about resolving fears? These mothers might be fearful of the safety, health, and future of their children. In this case, you would define the typical “mom” who will benefit by reading your book, in terms of age, education, lifestyle, and geography. Defining the “typical mom” and creating a composite of the person to whom you will promote your book, you might seek answers to the following questions:

• What is her average level of education? This may dictate the vocabulary you choose to use.
• About how old is she? This will help you specify your target based on where women in this age group typically spend their time and what concerns affect them in particular.
• How much money does she make? This could influence your book distribution choices. Should you have your book available in Wal-Mart or Neiman Marcus?
• To what ethnic or religious groups does she belong? Could you sell your book to churches as a possible target?
• In what leisure activities does she participate or watch? Could a home goods or sporting retailer be a potential outlet?
• What magazines and newspapers does she read in print or online? Try to get a book review, or submit articles for publications in the media she would be looking at. It's important to pick the right media for your audience.
• In what current events or issues is she most interested? Use examples in your articles and releases to increase your relevance and potential search volume by utilizing specific keywords.
• Is there a particular life event she is facing (e.g., divorce, career balance, childbirth)?
• What makes her happy? Unhappy?
• What are her problems or ponderous issues?
• What organizations or associations does she join? If it has a bookstore on its website, have your book in it.
• To what radio and television shows does she listen/watch? Choose these to perform on the air.
• Are there geographic concentrations of prospects?
• How can you reach her?

Answering these questions can help narrow down your target book audience to more effectively reach your ideal reader.

Research Groups and Organizations That Communicate With Your Target Reader

Suppose you have a book to help divorced parents deal with their children’s trauma of being bounced back and forth between mother and father. Divorced parents would comprise the expected target segment, and most authors would stop there. However, the actual market is much larger—without being labeled as “everybody.”
Enlarge your sales opportunity by seeking buyers among people and groups that help divorced people cope with their split-up and its impact on their children. These could be divorce counselors, divorce attorneys, divorce mediators, marriage clinics and retreats, marriage counselors, American Counseling Association, Parents Without Partners, The Fathers' Rights Association of New York State, Inc., the store on the website for Focus on the Family, and ministries such as The Center for Divorce Education. You might also sell books where divorce rates are particularly high, such as on military bases. There is also niche media to consider, such as Marriage Builders Radio. The lesson here is to look for sales in places you may never have considered before.

Find New Sales Opportunities

Below is an example of how I expanded the opportunity for my book, Job Search 101, which helped people use marketing techniques to find employment. Find new sales opportunities by asking yourself—and answering—these questions.

• Who could use the information in your books? The answer to this question defines the obvious segments for anyone seeking employment for the first time, anyone ready for a career change, or anyone looking for new employment after being laid off. Describe your primary buyers in terms of age, education, gender. Then think about what (the form in which your content is delivered), where (retail stores, online), and when they buy.
• Where do they look for that information? The initial answer would probably lead you to sell through bookstores, but unemployed people do not want to spend money if they can get the information for free. So, instead of waiting for job seekers to go to bookstores, I went to them by making personal presentations at colleges and high schools, and to groups of unemployed people at libraries, churches, state employment departments, employment agencies, outplacement firms, and networking groups. In many cases, I had meeting planners buy books for everyone in the audience in advance of my presentations.
• Who else could use the information in your books? Finding new segments in which to sell existing titles may be the most efficient way to increase your sales and revenue. I found more prospects in new niches comprised of high-school and college students, people who are over 50 years old, women, and blue-collar workers.
• Who could use your content in generally over-looked segments? Prisoners must be trained to find jobs before they are released. The the same concept applies to military personnel before they are discharged. People in both segments need job-search information, perhaps explained in a different way. This opens the door to an opportunity for niche-specific content.  
• Where do they look for that information? Prisoners go to their prison library or search online for career information. Military exchanges sell books for people in the armed services who are about to re-enter civilian life, and for their spouses who change jobs as they move with the transferred service person. 
• Who could act as a decision influencer on people who could use your content? Instead of marketing directly to prospective customers, market to the people who can influence them. This could open the door to selling job-search content to career development officers at colleges, to guidance counselors in high schools, or to the parents of graduating seniors, which I did through direct-mail campaigns.
• Do people use the information in any unusual way? One state government loved Job Search 101, but would not place an order. They conducted regular workshops, and perfect-bound workbooks do not lay flat. I had the binding replaced with a spiral binding, and the government office placed a standing order for 8,000 books a quarter. I volunteered to conduct the workshops for additional income, and I took that spiral-bound book to other states.
• What is the biggest hassle of purchasing your content? Some people do not want to be seen in a bookstore buying a job-search book. Heavy and oversized books do not sell well in airport stores because people do not want the aggravation of carrying them through the airport and on the planes. If your content can be delivered in a more portable form, it may be purchased in larger quantities. This might lead you to download your podcasts or publishing an audio version of your book.
• Who spends money to adapt your content to their specific needs? Informal research disclosed an absence of career information available for the Hispanic market. I found that Latinos were spending time and money translating into Spanish job-search information written in English. Hence, I had my content translated into Spanish as Elementos basicos para buscar trabajo. 
• What knowledge about your content could lead to a new product form? In writing, I found it difficult to adequately portray the interview skills of body language, gestures, eye communication, and facial expression. That led to demonstrating those skills in a video.
• What information about your customers could lead to a new product form? Research among college students uncovered the need for job-search information in an easier-to-use, less expensive format. Using existing content, I created series of booklets, each devoted to one traditional job-search tactic such as writing a resume or interviewing. With a little re-writing, I easily adapted the booklets to meet the needs of other markets, including state unemployment offices.
• How could this information lead to a by-product that could be the key to entering another business? The titles Job Search 101 and Help Wanted: Inquire Within describe many of the basic techniques for finding employment. Together, they explain where to find the names of prospective employers, how to contact them, and how to interview effectively. Fortunately, these are the same steps required by authors to secure and conduct performances on television and radio shows. Even the interview skills of correct posture, eye communication, gesturing, and voice control are similar. This observation bore an entirely new product line, using as its foundation the fundamentals of job-search communication. I repurposed this versatile content and presented it to a new market as the video program, You’re on The Air. This media-training product helped authors get on and perform on television and radio shows. Its two companion guides, Perpetual Promotion and It’s Show Time, extended this product offering.
• Who uses your content in ways you never expected or intended? Who else could use media-training information in You’re on The Air? An association of civil engineers thought its members could enhance their practices if they could get on the air as local industry experts. I convinced other associations to do the same.
• How could the delivery of your content change if it were tailored for every customer? The fact that I was the author of a large product line positioned me as an expert in the field, enabling me to perform one-on-one consulting services. In this case, my books served as an expensive brochure rather than as stand-alone products.

Knowing who buys, and why, will help you more effectively position your author brand in the minds of your customers and build your author platform. Be creative in your definitions of potential buyers. Finding new prospects for your books is the lifeline to more long-term book sales, revenue, and profits. Like electricity, it gives energy and power to the publisher, author, and title. It brings good books to life.

When writing Fiction - Chapter One

USE CAREFULLY CHOSEN DETAIL TO CREATE IMMEDIACY.

Your Chapter One must move along smartly, but in being economical you cannot become vague. Difficult, you say? It’s all in the context.

The genius of books as diverse as Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote and Robin Cook’s Coma lies in the authors’ generosity with good, authentic detail. Cervantes knew that a suit of armor kept in a junk locker for years wouldn’t merely be dusty, it would be corroded to hell—and that would be a problem to overcome. Likewise, Cook, himself a doctor, knew that a patient prepped for surgery would typically be given a calming drug before the main anesthetic—and that some patients, somehow, do not find peace even under the medication, especially if they have reason not to.

If you’re an expert on something, go ahead and show that you know what you’re talking about. One of the reasons my novel Damn Straight, a story involving a professional golfer, won a Lambda Award is that I know golf, and let my years of (painful) experience inform the book. I felt I’d done a good job when reviewer after reviewer wrote, “I absolutely hate golf, but I love how Sims writes about it in this novel. …”

Let’s say your Chapter One begins with your main character getting a root canal. You could show the dentist nattering on and on as dentists tend to do, and that would be realistic, but it could kill your chapter, as in this example:

Dr. Payne’s running commentary included the history of fillings, a story about the first time he ever pulled a tooth, and a funny anecdote about how his college roommate got really drunk every weekend.

Bored yet? Me too. Does that mean there’s too much detail? No. It means there’s too much extraneous detail.

How about this:

Dr. Payne paused in his running commentary on dental history and put down his drill. “Did you know,” he remarked, “that the value of all the gold molars in a city this size, at this afternoon’s spot price of gold, would be something on the order of half a million dollars?” He picked up his drill again. “Open.”

If the detail serves the story, you can hardly have too much.

From:
Elizabeth Sims

8 Ways to Write a 5-Star Chapter One