Category: writing

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?

………………………

By Gayle Bartos-Pool

The writing class I teach might be based on Aristotle’s Sage Words from his classic work, The Poetics, but I do add my own thoughts. The main one is a simple reminder. I hand out a 5 x 5 inch card that reads:

Always Ask Yourself:

Does it Advance the story?

Does it Enhance the story?

Is it Redundant?

The first point is actually something new writers don’t see until it’s pointed out by their editor or their friends or writing group that gets a chance to read an early draft of the story. It might be the result of the writer trying to beef up the number of pages in the book so it looks like a novel and not a short story. Actually, several good short stories can be published in a collection if the writer has a bunch of those shorter works. Nothing wrong with that. I’ve published several myself.

But if the writer wants to turn out a novel, those sections that just take up space don’t help the story. In fact, they slow it down because the reader starts wondering what is the point of the book if it’s full of stuff that doesn’t add anything to the plot except pages.

Whether it’s a mystery, thriller, adventure or romance novel be sure to have each section add something important to the story. Every Murder: She Wrote episode has a part in the beginning where characters are introduced but there is always that one thing that happens or is said or is pointed out in those first ten minutes of the show that points to the killer. Good ol’ Jessica Fletcher doesn’t recognize it then because the murder hasn’t happened, but she sees the light in those last few minutes of the show when she puts all those earlier pieces together. But the clue was there.

So, when you’re writing those scenes in your book make sure the scene is relevant. Maybe it introduces a few characters, one of whom might be the killer in a mystery or the new man in the leading lady’s life. Each subsequent scene or chapter can add a few new details or roadblocks to solving the murder or finding the love of the gal’s life. But a gaggle of gals in a tearoom or a bunch of boys at a neighborhood bar talking about a new dress shop in town or a bargain at the local hardware store might not add anything to the underlying story.

If the ladies talk about a gal in town who seems to frequent a certain divorce lawyer’s office a little too often or the guys mention a neighbor who seems to have come into a little extra money right after a bank robbery, then there’s a reason for the scene. But I have read books where there are scenes that provided nothing to the book at all. Personally, I never make a point of trying to figure out the killer ahead of time in a mystery, but I do like to keep track of the characters so I can make sure the clues were given even if I didn’t figure out “whodunnit” by chapter five. I just like to make sure the plot makes sense and the clues were really there.

I recently read a book by a famous author who writes an equally famous series. Names won’t be mentioned just to be nice, but this particular book had so many characters I needed a scorecard to keep track of them. To top it off, three people had contact with the deceased. One pushed him down a hill and thought they killed him. One actually killed him. One moved the dead body thinking that would protect who he thought did the deed. None of these people knew about the others. I thought yet another person, a woman, had done the deed. She didn’t though she had good reason to bump off the bum. Several others had a motive and might as well have done it since nobody liked the dead guy in the first place. The killer basically got away with it, not that nobody discovered the actual facts, but the killer was mentally challenged and he needed hospital care not a jail cell…

Overall, I was disappointed that the plot was so bloody confusing with way too many suspects and some other stuff packed into the plot that really didn’t add to the story at all. Did they advance the story…No. And they lowered the likability of the main character as well.

In Aristotle’s Poetics he listed the “Five Basic Elements of a Story.” Those Elements are Plot, Character, Dialogue, Setting and the Meaning of the story. I’ve discussed this in previous blog posts. Aristotle wants you to make sure you have some good characters in your story. I added my own requirement to the “character” qualifications. I want there to be at least one character you’d want to invite into your own house. This “famous writer” didn’t have a single character I’d invite over for a beer…Not even the hero.

Others may see the book in an entirely different light and like it. I will still write my books with a bunch of characters that most people would invite into their homes. I want those characters to have values and standards, but with some of the things I see on television I’m afraid a lot of those standards have disappeared. I’ll still craft my heroes with the standards I grew up with. I’ll continue subtly passing them along to readers through my stories because I learned things by reading good books, watching good movies, and a bunch of the old television shows that had those same standards.

As my characters learn things through various encounters at the beginning and the middle of my books they can solve the crime or make it to the destination they are seeking and the readers can enjoy following that journey because I kept advancing the story chapter by chapter because that’s the goal of a writer: Get the reader to the end of the book…and look forward to reading the next one.

So, this is part one of a three part series. See you later for part two. Write On!

from Gayle Bartos-Pool

The holidays come fast. School gets back in session in September, then it’s Halloween and then Thanksgiving. We all see Christmas decorations pop up in stores along with the ghosts and goblins and before you know it…It’s Christmas.

Do I have a problem with that? No. I start decorating right after I take down the Halloween tree and stocking.

Since I’ve been collecting Christmas decorations, especially Santas, I have a lot to unpack. I’m glad this new house in Ohio has a finished basement so I can keep some of the things out all year.

So, enjoy the season…family, friends, decorations and especially the Reason for the Season. You might celebrate this time of year in a hundred different ways, but we can all take time to wish everyone Peace on Earth, Good Will to All.