How screenwriting helped me be a better writer

Screenwriting-
It can help you be a better writer. Really!by Kitty Griffin

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Not too long ago someone asked me what I felt helped me most with writing.

Getting an MFA was good. But ...

     If I were to say what helped me to become a good writer I would say learning to write a screenplay. Had I not taken a screenwriting class I don't think I'd be published.

Why? Because screenwriting teaches two things, a three-act structure and, how to write an electric scene. How to write a scene so that the reader can "see" it. 

The book Arthur is looking at is "Goodnight Gorilla." There are no words. But he gets it. He understands the scenes.

The pictures took him on a journey and he followed it.

That's just what you need to do whether you are writing a picture book or a novel. You want to create scenes that the reader can follow.

When I first started out I heard all the time from editors, "Gee, you're a good writer, but you move so fast I couldn't keep up."

The story was running away from me.

If you ever watched the television series, "Lost" I really think that was a show where the story ran away from the writers. They got lost in their own creativity.

What can you do as a writer? You can take a class at your Community College. You can get books on screenwriting, try Viki King's book, "How to Write a Movie in 21 Days". Also the book, "Save the Cat" by Blake Snyder is a good one.

One of the best conferences I ever attended was the Austin Film Festival. I heard the Cohen Brothers talk about structure. I took a class with Gary Ross, the writer/director of Pleasantville and many more feature films. I stood in line just behind Sandra Bullock (she's tiny!) and I had the absolute time of my life. There were 900 men and maybe 50 women. There was so much testosterone in the air even I felt aggressive. 

It is such a different world from writing for children, but I'm glad I dove in. (I didn't stick with it, although my one screenplay that I wrote took first place in the Moondance Film Festival. )

As I finish up my newest novel, I am going to spend the next few days looking at it from a screenwriter's perspective. What it taught me to do was to look at my scenes carefully, to make sure they help build the story. I want to make sure each chapter has a rise to it. Most of all, I want to make sure that my readers won't get lost.

Spicing up the Scenery

by Marcy Collier

Today is the first day of school. What's with the beach picture, you ask? Wait, I'll get to that part. School in my community starts on September 12th  because of construction on our high school.

Last Thursday it hit me that school would start in exactly four days and summer would officially end. I had been talking about a mini vacation to the beach in September but never planned it. A few weeks ago, hurricanes ripped through the east coast and another one hit last week. Not a great time to plan a trip. I checked all of the beaches. Rain everywhere this past weekend, but only a 30 percent chance in Ocean City, Maryland. Our family took our chances and left for the beach at 6:00 a.m. Friday morning. It poured the entire trip down to Maryland. I received the call from my dad six hours into the drive that he couldn’t get in to my house to retrieve my dog. I changed the garage door transmitter and never reset the garage door code. I had used the “hidden” key and forgot to put it back in place. I wasn’t turning around. I told him to break the glass on the door to get in.

This last minute trip and tribulations reminded me of all the twists and turns stories can take on in both real life and in your made up worlds. Many authors (myself included) complain about the sagging middle. Long, drawn out portions of the manuscript that seem boring to both the author and the reader. Spice up your story. Make bad events worse and throw your protagonist into unexpected situations just like real life.

As writers, we need to experience life as we work on our craft. There’s a water sliding scene in my novel. It just so happened that there was also a water slide at our hotel's kiddie pool. I watched as both the adults and kids got stuck going down the slide and had to scoot their way to the bottom. I told my kids to watch and learn. I flew down so fast, patrons actually stopped to watch. A stranger asked how in the world I picked up such speed. It didn’t hit me that from working at a water park as a teen, I automatically arched the small of my back and crossed my legs and arms tightly to gain a huge momentum. I forgot the feeling of sliding because I hadn’t done it in a while. These are useful details to add to my manuscript.

I people-watched strangers on the boardwalk - woman in stilletos getting her heels stuck in the slats, surfer guy strutting in his wetsuit and the old folks rocking in chairs on a motel porch. All of them painted a vivid scene made up of interesting characters where stories could emerge.    

When you need to spice up your own story or make a boring scene exciting, try getting out of your house, your community and out of your regular writing routine. If you’re writing about wild animals, visit the zoo. If you need to play out a scene in the woods, hike through the woods with your notebook to jot down thoughts, sights and smells. Spice up your stories and your life. Get out there. Live. Write. Have fun.

We lucked out and didn't have any rain at the beach, hit the King of Prussia Mall on the way home for school shopping and are now back in school and the normal routine. For now.