Writing Problem With a Silver Lining?

To read or not to read, that is the question.

Have you ever watched a movie and wondered, “Could the book have been this good?”

That’s not how it usually works.  Traditionally, the book, or source material for a movie, is the superior product and the movie does a decent job translating that to the big screen.  That’s if the movie is any good.  Watching Silver Linings Playbook, I was left thinking about the source material this movie is based on.  For me, the movie was just perfect.  So much of the strength of the whole thing was in the incredible actors involved and the performances they gave.  And of course, credit is due to the director and screenwriter and all the other talented people involved in the creation of something as big and ambitious as a feature length movie.

So how could the original book have conveyed what those actors did in the movie?  I was one of the people who saw the first Harry Potter movie before reading the book.  I enjoyed the movie (little did I know how much better they would get with each installment) and decided to go back and read the book.  I thought the book was fantastic.  Much better than the movie, and the experience of reading the book is what drew me into the franchise.  I also saw Twilight before reading the book.  The movie was unique and stood well on its own, but the source material was more engrossing and a more complete expression of the author’s intent than the movie could ever be (and yes, those just got worse as they went on).

I’m tempted to read The Silver Linings Playbook, but I’m afraid.  How could someone have expressed on a page what was shown so expertly through the amazing acting, facial expressions, and tone of voice of Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, and Robert DeNiro, when they embodied those characters so perfectly?

I think reverse engineering performances like that into our writing is the real challenge.  I’ve never thought about it that way before, but characters in books need to be just as vibrant, just as quirky, and as visually fascinating as actors on a screen.  If your reader can’t see the scenes unfolding in front of their mind’s eye with the realism, grit, and humanity that a real, live actor can bring to a role, then we haven’t created a character worthy of being read about.

I may still read Silver Linings Playbook.  And maybe I’ll be surprised to find what the author was able to create on the page after all.

Goodreads Review : Looking For Alaska

Looking for Alaska by John Green
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Right up front, I’ll say I really enjoyed Looking For Alaska. My first John Green read came with a lot of expectations and I wasn’t disappointed. That’s a lot right there. I will also say, I came right off of reading The Perks of Being A Wallflower which was also a strong book and had some similarities to this one. There were times when I compared the two, but by the end, they both stand as their own books and I would recommend reading both.

I can’t help but read books with an eye for what I might have done differently. If I’m thinking of what I would do differently early on and frequently, that’s probably not a good sign. As long as I only come up with a few things, and mostly after I’ve read the whole story, that’s fine. That’s the case for this book. In my mind, I kept thinking the title of the book was Finding Alaska. I had to correct myself many times as I thought of the book, and I think I know why. I wanted to find out something about Alaska Young. Minor spoiler here, but something happens midway through the book that gets the characters looking for Alaska. The big question for me was, “Will they find what they’re looking for?” The answer is, basically, no, but the author got me to a level of acceptance about that by the end. Feeling what they felt was a key point of the book, and that was accomplished. We did learn something about her before the end, but it was easily guessed long before it was finally revealed.

This is not a book of happenings, it’s a book of character relationships and introspection. The characters are very well developed and the relationships are very believable. Look elsewhere for an adventure.

I will waste a little more space with a pet peeve of mine, something that started developing with Perks and has intensified with this book. Why do authors feel that in order to make their teenage characters interesting and deep they all have to be chain smokers? I’ve read so much about people smoking in these last few books I’ve got sympathetic emphysema. Obviously, people make bad choices in life and teenagers are especially apt to pick up bad habits without concern for long term effect. But come on. Couldn’t we do a little better as authors to set a healthier example for our readers and stop using smoking as a crutch to provide self-inflicted harm on our teenage characters to show how ‘invincible’ they believe they are? Early in the book, I was convinced one of the main characters was going to develop lung cancer before the book was finished.

I guess I’ll just have to wait for the sequel : Looking for a Tracheotomy


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Goodreads Review of The Perks of Being A Wallflower

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky


Dear Friend,

I wasn’t sure who to write this book review for, but I heard someone talking in the cafeteria about you and that you liked books, and although you don’t know me and I don’t really know you, except for what I heard in the cafeteria, I thought you might like to hear about this book anyway. It’s called The Perks of Being A Wallflower. I read somewhere that the author had great ‘voice’ and since I’m always interested in improving my writing ‘voice’ this sounded like a book I should read.
I know you are supposed to give out stars or thumbs up or things like that when doing a review, but I don’t really feel like that applies so I’m going to skip that part. I hope this doesn’t ruin your enjoyment of this review. Even when I do think about giving this book stars, I always want to give it fractional stars, like four and a half instead of five or just four. Some reviews do that and others don’t, and since I’m not sure which kind of review this is, I’m going to just leave all that up to someone else.
I think the author of this book did a lot of drugs, or does a lot of drugs. He likes to drop in names of books and songs, and if you don’t know anything about them, it makes you feel a little left out, or ignorant. I don’t think this is on purpose, but that’s what happens anyway. I also think he smokes and drinks, probably all while he’s writing. It’s on his mind a lot. Some of the best writers in history did this, so I guess that’s ok. I don’t really do any of them, so I wonder if I can be a great writer. People say, “There’s a first time for everything.” I’ve heard that before, so I can hope that can apply to me. The first great, sober writer. I’d like it if that could be possible.
I thought the last third of this book got slow. It started to feel infinite, but not in the standing-in-the-back-of-a-truck-in-a-tunnel kind of way. There was more drama in the first and second half than there was in the third, and it was a little bit of a letdown. It finished in a satisfying way, and I was glad to have read it when it was done, and I think that’s probably the best thing you can say about a book anyway. You may not agree.
There is a good twist at the end of this book, but by the time it comes around, things have slowed down so much, it doesn’t have the impact I think it could have. Also, I suspect the way a certain relationship ended was designed to allow for a sequel, which cheapens the whole thing a little in my opinion. I hope this last thought doesn’t discourage you from reading the book. It really was quite good.

Love Always,

Shawnie


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Kind of a review of Beautiful Disaster

These guys did it with music, why can't authors with books?

Having just finished reading a book, I was trying to decide whether to write a review or a rant when I realized any review I’d produce would quickly become a rant, and, more importantly, that writing a review generally requires there be an actual story involved.  Well, I think you can already tell by the tone of this post which way I went.

So, what happens when you write a story that basically has no plot?  The book I just read, Beautiful Disaster, was kind of just that.  Beautiful is a bit strong, but the writing was actually just about what it needed to be for the genre, the characters were all fairly interesting, and the dialogue was appropriately cheesy but not so much as to trigger adult-onset lactose intolerance.  The greatest, glaring, most disasterous omission was the lack of plot.  I won’t say there wasn’t a story, because the book began, it proceeded, and then it ended.  There were even pieces of plot scattered through out like breadcrumbs dropped by an ADD author who had every intention of following them to some meaningful twist or emotional conclusion along the way.  But that never happened, so now I come to the aspect of this book that actually fascinated me the most:

The manufactured drama!

See how I put that out there by itself and even added … wait for it … an exclamation point!?!  Try drawing the words out, emphasizing different syllables.  Say it the way Jenna Maroney from 30 Rock says ‘Actor!’  Get it real dramatic-y.  See how you still don’t care?  That’s the manufactured part ruining the whole effect.  I learned an important lesson as a writer while reading this book, and it’s that you can’t elicit emotion with manufactured drama. 

Manufactured drama, by my definition, is the addition of a scene or event for the sole purpose of creating friction or tension or changing the dynamic between characters.  Now, scenes and events are actually the conduits for much natural drama in a story, but the key seems to be in how you get to the scene or event.  When the scenes are just hung together, one after another, like a long string of paperclips, or an event has no significant or meaningful place in the timeline of the story, that’s when the drama seems to fall flat.  It’s kind of like the difference between buying a photo album with the little slots in it that say ‘place photo here’ or building a scrapbook from scratch, adding all the little mementos, handcrafted decorations, and trinkets from your cross country vacation to every page.  I want the trinkets.   

Is it enough to have interesting characters that say the things they need to say within environments that suit the needs of what they’re saying and doing?  My conclusion is no.  This book is not an adventure, not speculative fiction, not even a cozy mystery, but that does not exempt it from the basic requirement of having a current of plot below the underlying relationships that are the emphasis of the book.  The question ‘Will they or won’t they?’ that morphs into ‘Will they or won’t they forever?’ is not a plot.  It’s not enough to carry the weight of overwrought emotion oozing out of an industrial sized pipe on the side of the drama factory producing this story.  To give all of that meaning, you need a clever, engaging, and even self-supporting plot to carry along the characters, to make you care about their journey and feel like you’re getting somewhere during the read. 

Factories are great for mass-producing tootsie-rolls, ho-ho’s, peeps and other super sugary confection.  They don’t have the finely tuned equipment for crafting a story that will keep you from feeling hungry again an hour after you’ve consumed it.    

Nothing to See Here Ladies, Move Along, Move Along.



Despite the marbles in his mouth, this guy had no trouble being understood.



After reading GONE GIRL I fully expected to write a review for my blog.  I will go ahead and say the book is good, really enjoyed it, well written, etc, but I’ve actually decided that there are more important issues to address than adding the two-millionth review of this wildly popular book to the internets.

It’s at this point in the post that I’d like to respectfully ask that all the ladies log off, power down, or, just generally, look the other way. 

Are they all gone?  Is it safe for us guys to talk now?

Good.

I have one big take away from this novel, and it’s this:

Women be trippin’. 

Guys, you don’t even know.  If you haven’t read this book yet, I highly recommend you do, if only for its value as a cautionary tale.  I’m not even sure how this thing got out into the mainstream.  It was clearly written as a how-to-manual for disgruntled wives, girlfriends, and long suffering fiancés everywhere.  My wife (love you, honey) recommended this one to me, much in the same way I think the Corleone family put a horse’s head in Mr. Woltz’s bed to encourage different behavior from him.  Yes, you read that correctly.  I’m saying GONE GIRL is a severed horse’s head dropped into the bed of men all over the country. 

Without giving away too much plot, the married couple in the book, Amy and Nick, are hitting their five year anniversary and things are not good.  The story revolves around the two different approaches these characters take to addressing that problem.  Did I mention earlier, women be trippin’? 

All I can say is, men, regardless of whether you read this book or not, find out what your women are doing!  Don’t zone out, don’t tune out, and don’t just nod while you’re watching the game and their lips are moving.  They are constantly giving us clues, constantly dropping hints.  Eye rolls are not an ocular-stretching exercise, exasperated sighs are not just a release of excess air, and toe tapping is not an involuntary reaction to an amazing song they’re thinking about in their heads.  And if this book is any indication, by the time these not-so-subtle clues become secret bank accounts, secondary e-mail addresses, and an overly intense interest in infomercials about Ginsu knife sets, it’s too late!   

If you’re concerned that you may have already missed too many warning signs (and, yes, you have) here’s my advice.  Without getting stalker-ish, find out what your woman is doing during the day.  Is she out having lunch with girlfriends? Is she holding down a secret job?  Obsessively bleaching the kitchen floor?  You may need to know these things. 

The tagline for this book could be (and may actually be) this: Do you really know each other at all?  Apparently, there’s a price to not clearing up that question with some urgency.  So once you do take the time to get to know your better half again, don’t forget to let her know that.  She might be dealing with lip from the kids while letting you look like the white knight.  Maybe she’s starting the laundry on Thursday so you don’t have to worry about it during the weekend.  Did she whip up your favorite little dessert without asking?  Whatever it is, notice (see above), appreciate (thanks, babe), reciprocate (picked up the girls, caught the dog, cupcakes!).  Repeat.

Then follow these steps like your life depends on it.  Just in case.

Writing Contest

Check out this contest from Chuck Sambuchino at http://t.co/zMyasOaw

Entries have to be received by the end of the month.  Sci-fi and Young Adult entrants accepted.

The Best Blog Post Since We Beat Hitler!

Is it me, or does she just not really look into it?

I’m noticing a new trend in our culture, and most prominently, with the talking heads that squeeze themselves into the rectangular shaped boxes in our living rooms, bedrooms, and above our keyboards (fine, on our ipods, ipads, ibooks, and idontcares as well).  I’m not sure how to describe it with nuance or subtlety, so I’ll just pull a page from one of their playbooks to tell you about it.

It’s the worst trend I’ve seen since Hitler started making an entire race of people wear armbands to identify themselves as genetically inferior across the face of Europe!

Ok, so did I overreach a little there?  I don’t care, because these commentators and faux-experts on misplaced rage and incorrectly identified injustice use scare tactics and propaganda to force their worldview on people the same way ….

Wow, it’s really easy to slip into that (slowly pulls off shiny black, goose stepping boots). 

I want to connect this to writing in some meaningful way, even though the issue is indicative of a problem that’s become pandemic throughout our entire society.

Let’s call it “The Hitler Conversation Ender”.

Now, imagine that in your book or story you were ready to introduce your villain, maybe in chapter three or so.  Let’s even make him a very straightforward villain, not a lot of shades of grey (one or two at most, but, please, not fifty).  Now let’s write an opening scene for him.

Trevor Gluth was sitting in the dermatologist’s waiting room, flipping lazily through a fourteen-month-old copy of Field and Stream.  His eyes skimmed across the surface of the pages, never causing a ripple, never picking up a word.  With every turn of an unread page, Trevor stole a glance across the room and absorbed a piece of Whitney Moon.  The color of the stitching running along the hem of her skirt, the way stray hairs fell over her ears even though the rest of her hair was pulled taut behind her head, the way the carotid artery on the left side of her neck rose and fell with the twist of her head.  Trevor looked back down and savored that last detail like a burst of crepe filling in his mouth as he skimmed the next glossy page.  Just like Hitler would have.

So, were you starting to get creeped out?  At least a little?  Hopefully you wanted to know the connection, if any, between Trevor and Whitney.  Maybe you wanted to know why he was obsessing over her circulatory system.  If you’re a guy reading this, maybe you were curious about those Field and Stream articles going unread.  Whatever your interest in the passage and the character, I’d bet my last Deutschmark I lost you as soon as I jumped to Hitler.  There’s a simple reason for that.  Wait, there’s actually an even more simple reason for that.  Nobody’s like Hitler. 

Thank God. 

I’m willing to concede there may be people in the world today with minds as dark, as twisted as Hitler’s was, but the world is a different place, filled with people determined never to let someone like that commit global-scale atrocities again.  Now, I’m sure this basic argument could be countered by people with more social awareness than I have, citing genocide in dark corners of the globe that the mainstream media is uninterested in shining much light on, but I think for the purposes of this analysis, there is no one like Hitler.

Again, pretty glad about that.

So what does it do to your argument, or your writing, when you jump straight from a double dare to a triple dog dare in the form of a Fuhrer comparison?  In my opinion, it completely invalidates the most important character reference for the validity of a person’s perspective: their judgment.  I just don’t believe what anybody has to say after they throw Hitler into the mix.  Here’s my logic:  Comparing someone with whom you have a difference of opinion with to Hitler is crazy.  I don’t listen to cray-cray, ergo, I don’t listen to you.

Lumping someone in with Hitler seems to be the go-to argument ender these days.  “If you agree with this other person, you agree with Hitler, so now you have the blood of innocent millions on your hands.  So who’s right now?”

Well, no one can argue with that logic, and if you try to, I’m sure there’s a nice camp somewhere you can be sent until you see things the right way.