The Writers in Residence

by Gayle Bartos-Pool

In the class I teach on writing, I point out three things in the form of a question that can help you write a good story:

                                Does it advance the story?

                                Does it enhance the story?

                                Is it redundant?

We did the first point in my last post. This is the second point.

Enhancements are the little descriptions you add that make the story feel real. Things like describing the setting. In a movie, the director and set/scenic designer will place the action in the perfect setting whether it’s in the ramshackle house or majestic castle, or maybe a coastline with the waves crashing against the rugged rocks. The camera can go anywhere.

In a play, the set designer and director can add just enough props and background scenery to literally “set the stage” for the scene to be acted out for the audience. They might be limited to the size and budget of the theater, but a suitable set will enhance the action while the actors “trod the boards.”

But on the printed page, the writer has to “paint” that picture and decorate that set with words. It doesn’t have to be so much description that the reader loses track of the story being told. “Less is more” is really something to consider. But do give the reader a taste of the place where the action is taking place. After all, a reader usually has a pretty good imagination or else they wouldn’t be reading a book. They’d wait for the movie if they want the visuals to be handed to them on a platter without using their own imagination.

I’m being sarcastic here, but people aren’t reading as much anymore. They are letting somebody else create the scene in the movie, sometimes with AI or cartoon animations, and literally leave nothing to the viewer’s imagination. That might be okay in the movie, but not in a book.

A good writer will provide “a visual with words.” Wonderful words that let readers use their own minds to finish that painting. It lets the reader become part of the journey.

As for the words to use, the writer will see the visual in their own mind and put it down on paper. Golden sunsets, ice forests, a pristine palace, a squalid dump. A character dressed in rags, or a gossamer gown. Words describe the scene and the characters.

It doesn’t take a lot of words, but sometimes a few more will set the stage even better… She strolled into the glittering ballroom lit by a dozen crystal chandeliers with the attitude of a prizefighter. Instead of a gossamer gown and expensive jewels around her neck and wrists like those worn by the other ladies whose individual bank accounts would choke any horse, this gal had on blue jeans, a torn flannel shirt and a pair of boots covered with muck she must have picked up from some of those fancy horses…

That sets the stage for the action to come. Not a lot of words, just a paragraph, but the reader gets the idea that all hell is probably gonna break loose. Isn’t that the job of the writer? Set the stage for the reader and let them enjoy the scene as it unfolds…adjective by adjective.

The opening of your story should do the most to bring the reader in. “It was a dark and stormy night…” was famous for grabbing readers’ attention. If you’re writing a mystery, stumbling over “another” dead body on the first page just might interest the reader. Then “What If” this wasn’t the first one the protagonist had seen in her life… Everybody loves another “here we go again” whodunnit. The reader keeps turning the pages until the killer is nailed.  

Even if you don’t start with “a corpse in the hot tub,” at least begin with something that makes the reader want to keep reading. That’s the job of the writer. Setting the stage on the page and making that journey both visual and real is how the writer gets the reader to enjoy the trip.

So, enhance those bits and pieces that help tell your story. Write On!

by Rosemary Lord

I always wanted to be a writer. I just didn’t know it. Or admit it.

As a child I read voraciously. And I re-read the same books over and over again.               ‘Heidi’ by Johanna Spyri was my favorite. I wanted to live on that mountainside with ‘Alm Uncle,’ her grandfather, and wander on that mountain grass with Peter the goatherd.

“A Girl of the Limberlost” was another favorite, by Gene Stratton Porter. Published in 1915 and set in America, it was described as: “A young girl’s quest for knowledge and self-worth.”  It tells of a poor girl, Elnora, desperately wanting to attend school, she collects moths to pay for her education! (Now you’ll have to read it to find out what happens!)  As a child, I got lost in that far away world deep in the heart of America.

I was always reading. So were my siblings.  Our parents loved books, encouraging us to read from a very young age.

And I always wrote. About a little girl escaping hum-drum everyday life as she escaped through the window into a magical world.  I wrote fairy-stories, the mystery of a missing cake and about a Magic Armchair! I was always too embarrassed to show anyone my scribblings, as I thought they were silly and not ‘proper writing.’ Writing was my secret world that I did not want criticized or invaded.

Our Mum was a ‘proper’ writer and got paid for it – albeit modest amounts. But she was a professional writer and member of the NUJ: The National Union of Journalists.  We were loath to disturb her as she tapped away on her typewriter – just like Jessica Fletcher in “Murder She Wrote.”   

I didn’t feel that I could ever aspire to Mum’s level of ‘proper’ writing. As a young girl I kept my dreams of writing to myself. I never felt my writing would be good enough. Ever. I stuffed down those ambitions.

But what else could I do when I grew up?

I watched the old black-and-white Hollywood movies on TV: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Humphrey Bogart, Joan Crawford, Greer Garson, Rosalind Russell.   I realized then that I wanted to live in Hollywood and somehow work in movies with Greer Garson and Ginger Rogers. That was my dream since I was about 8.

I got laughed at and ridiculed at school when, in class, the teenage me finally confessed my dream of a life in Hollywood. I was a skinny, asthmatic kid. “Oh yes,” they laughed hysterically, “Rosemary thinks she’s going to live in Hollywood, meet movie stars and work in the movies with them!”

But I got the last laugh. I accomplished all of that and more.

I’ve lived and worked in Hollywood most of my adult life – longer than I lived in England. I’ve met, got to know and worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood’s celestial realm. From Cary Crant to Betty Davis, Jimmy Stewart, Deborah Kerr, John Huston, Alfred Hitchcock and, yes, Greer Garson. I’ve attended the Oscars more than once, the Emmys, the Golden Globes, the Cannes Film Festival, many film premieres and theatrical First Nights.

I have travelled across America, earning my living as an actress and a journalist for many years. I’ve had dozens of different ‘temp’ jobs in between – mostly when I lived in London and was trying to figure out how to get to Hollywood!

But I always wrote. I wrote daily in my journals. I started, but seldom finished, several novels. I earned a living when I wrote pieces on Old Hollywood and interviewed the actors, directors, producers for women’s magazines and newspapers. They were gracious and friendly – and introduced me to their fellow stars to interview, because they trusted me to write fairly and honestly. 

It wasn’t until years later, after I had written two best-selling books on Hollywood and Los Angeles history, that I realized how much I loved writing. I remembered that that was what I had always, secretly, wanted to do. No longer living in my writer mum’s shadow. No longer thinking I wanted to be an actress. I just love writing!

I am a happy member of this writers’ blog and relish creating some magic when my turn comes around. I still write daily in my journal about my hopes, dreams, disappointments and realizations. I’m currently writing the new version of Los Angeles Then and Now for Harper Collins. They bought the ‘Then and Now’ titles and seem excited to work with me on this and other ideas.

And so, I am a very happy writer. And now I finally recognize what I want to be when I grow up:  A writer! A professional writer! And I am!

What about you? Did you always aspire to be a writer?

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