Several years ago a friend graduated from FLETC (the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center). Naturally, I gave her a refresher course in case she forgot her training, namely all the films I could find that included Secret Service agents. Guarding Tess. In the Line of Fire. Dave. Imagine my surprise when she said none of them were accurate.
The fact is Hollywood gets most things wrong in this world, but no more so than when they portray the life of a writer.
Studying acting is a great way to learn how to create characters as a writer. In my last blog, I wrote about what I’ve learned from acting. In this blog, I am going to delve into the Stanislavski System of acting.
Constantin Stanislavski is recognized as the father of modern theater. He created a system of acting that dug deeper into the emotions of the actor and the work. He created a series of seven questions to help actors approach a character. I have listed those questions below with tips for how writers might use these questions to create better characters.
In many ways, I learned more about writing from my music and drama classes than I did from my writing classes. I learned about rhythm, cadence and flow from music. How to build tension and action to a crescendo in the work and then how to release it for a satisfying ending. Those are the building blocks of music theory. I learned how to explore character, motivation and emotion in my acting classes. All of those are valuable lessons for a writer.
My writing classes taught me the craft, but music and acting taught me how to add depth and bring those mechanics to life.
Every writer has heard the advice to write what you know, and it is good advice to a point. It’s impossible to write about things you don’t understand. But the problem with this advice is that writers can learn. We can research and pick up the facts. We can break down a problem and find experts to explain the mechanics of how things work. Heck, we can even watch documentaries to see how things came about and how to videos to see it in action. What we cannot do is know how those situations feel without understanding the emotions associated with it. We can’t find the story behind things if we can’t empathize with it.
Writing is hard. Words don’t flow out easily and land on the page as genius. They need to be selected, ordered, rearranged, swapped, lined up and perfected. Most times they are not cooperative companions though. They are like the unruly child who doesn’t recognize the word “no” even when yelled and accompanied with hands held face out.
There is a reason so many talk about writing instead of doing it. The trick to making it as a writer is not quitting when it gets tough.
Being a writer for hire opens a world of opportunity. There are many places that need good writers. I’ve written about it before. But within those vast opportunities, there is a clear divide between technical and non-technical writing. Choosing between them is a tough decision. Should you follow the emotion or the facts? The story or the money?
Last week, I covered some great reasons to pursue writing as a career. But there are as many bad reasons to write.
Here are some of the wrong reasons to go down this path:
After offering a series debunking popular myths about writers and writing (insert links), it’s time to look at why you want to write because what motivates you to sit down and write will determine your success and career.
There are so many people who talk about becoming a writer. They share ideas and talk about writing, but only a few actually do it. Even fewer finish. The ones who do succeed are those who write for the right reason.
Not all reasons are equal. Here is my breakdown of some of the right reasons to write. In my next blog, I will cover some of the “wrong” reasons.
Getting published is a dream for most writers. It’s the dream of putting your work out there and building an audience. But for as many as make it, there are just as many myths working against those who have not.
Here are the top myths about publishing:
In this series, we’ve covered myths about Writing and Writers. But even with the many myths about writing and writers, there are even more about the potential barriers to writing and some commonly held myths that are plain annoying.
Here are some myths that prevent some people from pursuing their writing:
There are as many myths about who writers are as people as there are about the process of writing. It’s sort of amazing the popularly-held beliefs about who writers are. Below are some of the top myths about writers. To read the Myths of Writing, read part 1 of this series. Part III and IV will follow this blog.
Warning: This list may get a bit personal as I’ve had each of these “myths” lobbied at me at some point in my career.
Most writing myths fall into four basic categories: writing, writers, obstacles to writing, and publishing. In this four-part series, I will share the popular myths from each category and debunk them.