NaNoWriMo - Update!

The month is up!  How did you do?  I’ve gotta brag that I made it although I don’t have a finished novel (in order to succeed you technically only need 50k words which, unless you’re writing a novella or a middle grade book, is probably closer to halfway or two thirds of the way to a completed manuscript).  But hey, 50k words in one month!  And, I don’t think they’re all terrible.  I think I’ll definitely try to keep it up and take advantage of the upcoming holiday off time to finish a first draft of this thing.  I mean, I did just dedicated most of my spare time this last month to it, I really should finish it.

I'm a typing machine!

So yeah, I’m glad I tried this NaNoWriMo thing.  It was fun and it forced me to just write and not think about the consequences.  I don't know about you but I know I can personally get super perfectionistic and discouraged by my writing sometimes.  I’ll want to tweak stuff forever or not even start a project if I don’t think what I’m doing is going to be perfect the moment I put words on paper (which it never is!).  But when my expectations were just about getting words down or fleshing out my outline, I found it easier to plug ahead and be proud of the words I racked up and not look back or over think what I was writing (at least not too too much).

All in all, if I have the time I think I’ll definitely do this again next year.  And hey, it feels pretty good to be halfway to the first draft of a novel I've wanted to write (and after only one month).  Even if I eventually end up hating the whole thing and even if it just winds up in my junk pile, at least NaNoWriMo got me off my butt to write it in the first place.

What will you write for NaNoWriMo?

Happy November!  Today marks the day I have to remember to pay my rent as well as the start of NaNoWriMo (say that 3 times fast).  NaNoWriMo actually stands for National Novel Writing Month and it's a grand yearly event designed to get all writers (though mostly baby writers such as myself) off our butts so we can write the next Harry Potter already (or, at least the first 50,000 words of some other new fabulous book).  I believe I first heard about NaNoWriMo when Sara Gruen mentioned in an interview that her bestseller, Water For Elephants, was written during NaNoWriMo (or, I read that just now on the Water For Elephants Wikipedia page).  However I found out, now you know too, so there you have it, NaNoWriMo has some serious street cred!

NaNoWriMo, NaNoWriMo, NaNoWriMo!

Anyway, for more info you should probably go to the official NaNoWriMo website where you can actually sign up and get tools to help you plan your novel, police your word count, interact with other baby authors, and just encourage one another.  Or, you know, you can be a hermit like me and secretly participate in NaNoWriMo without signing up for anything.  Just remember, we’ve only got until November 30th to TCB on NaNoWriMo.  So, do like me...DVR the X Factor, stop watching TMZ, and get going on NaNoWriMo...ASAP.

Novel new "chick flicks"

Read this interesting article yesterday about how the success of movies like The Help shows a new trend in “chick flicks” aka movies about women who don't blow things up.  The article says the chick flicks that are doing well nowadays aren’t rom coms but movies with substance…movies about female empowerment, friendship, and not just girl meets boy, girl loses boy.  While I think there are plenty of rom coms with substance, I agree that movies like The Help are certainly part of a popular (and positive) new trend.  The article points to an LA Times article that notes the success of other recent chick flicks of past years that fit this female empowerment/friendship mold: Eat, Pray, Love, Julie & Julie, The Devil Wears Prada…The Blind Side is also mentioned.

Is "The Help" helping to change chick flicks?

While the article touches on the themes and ideas these movies have in common and why they’re doing better as of late than Kate Hudson/Katherine Heigl-type vehicles…I think the article misses a chance to examine one other important thing that all these movies also have in common.

They’re all based on popular books.

Now, I’m not saying that it’s the marketing machine at work and not the subject matter that’s drawing audiences to these movies.  In fact I think it’s something else entirely.

A novel/book gives a writer a lot more space to explore and introduce a rich cast of characters (or just one great character) than a 100 page screenplay.  That’s not to say a screenplay, even a rom com, can’t have amazing characters or be an awesome character study, but I think sometimes rom coms get bogged down in their hook.  Not that hooky rom coms haven't made some awesome movies with characters that I love…Sleepless in Seattle…woman falls in love with a man she’s never met when she hears him on a radio show…You’ve Got Mail…a pair of rivals who loathe each other are unknowingly each others romantic online pen pals (this is actually based on a play).  I think the problem is that there’s probably only so many good original hooks out there and because of that, rom coms are starting to feel a little tired and derivative of one another (see No Strings Attached and Friends with Benefits...both did well by the way...but not Devil Wears Prada well).

I guess what I’m trying to say is that if you still want to write the type of hooky rom com that would star Kate Hudson while also taking something away from this new trend in chick flicks, maybe a good idea is to first imagine your screenplay not as a movie but as a novel.  Heck, maybe outline/write some of it first as a novel.  If nothing else, maybe that will help you think outside the rom com box, and give your characters more depth.  Or not.  I could be wrong.  Maybe rom coms in general are just "out" right now.  Something Borrowed (which yes, co-starred Kate Hudson) was based on a popular chick lit novel and domestically, The Help has already earned more than what that movie made in its entire run.

Entitled

No, this isn’t a post on nepotism…it’s a post on…titles!

Since I’m working on a new pilot I’ve been thinking a bit about titles lately and what the heck I want to call my new pilot.

Titles are fun…but tough.  Sometimes you have an awesome title that inspires you to write something and other times you have a great concept and can write the whole thing but when you're done, you're still stuck with just Untitled.

What the heck do I call this thing?

This is clearly something writers struggle with at every level (baby and up).  Just looking at the recent pilots, several changed their titles (Rookies became The 2-2, The Rememberer became Unforgettable, Damage Control became Scandal, etc.).  Now, the reason for title changes for pros aren’t always creative…there are sometimes bigger (read: legal) reasons for networks and studios to change a title…but other times it’s just about trying to find that one perfect title.

Here are some thoughts I’m trying to keep in mind so I pick the best title:

Get specific!

I remember Blake Snyder mentioning this in one of his Save The Cat books.  He talked about the movie Four Christmases.  Sure, they could have called the movie Yuletide or Noel or some other generic word that evokes the idea of Christmas, but Four Christmases is specific.  He also mentions a fake title...something like Love or Money, as an example of the sort of title that presents a concept that is SO generic dozens of movies could have it.  You don't want that.

I agree that vague concepts make pretty mediocre titles.  I know someone who recently revealed a project they had been writing and the title they picked was SO generic it could have been for pretty much every other piece of writing in that genre.  My Significant Other also mentioned seeing a driving billboard the other day (one of those billboards on a truck) and it was advertising some YA book called Dangerous Children.  I couldn’t help but think this was a sub par title.  While I like the contrast of dangerous and children (you don’t usually think of children as dangerous) this was SO generic it could have been the title for a bunch of other books like Lord of the Flies, The Hunger Games, or ANY book where there are children who do something dangerous.  All in all this title tells me ZIP about what the book is actually about.

So yeah, get specific and pick a title that could only be for that movie/show/book…I like to use the “no other” test for this.  Imagine the title Humans Vs. Robots…could have been used for several existing sci fi works, but there is no other Battlestar Galactica and no other Terminator.  Likewise, there is no other Harry Potter…no other Hunger Games…no other Jurassic Park...no other Bridge to Terabithia…no other Great Gatsby…no other Ugly Betty…no other Gossip Girl…no other Gilmore Girls…no other Shawshank Redemption…no other Jerry Maguire.   Find that thing, character, element, that makes your script/book/idea/whatever special and unique…and if you can’t find one…maybe you need a new idea?

A little something extra

Another Blake Snyder tip I recall is that a great title will have irony, an unusual contrast, or a double meaning.  His prime example was Legally Blonde which is great because it’s not only a riff/play on words of the term "legally blind" but it also refers specifically to the story of a “dumb blonde” going to Harvard Law.

I think Mad Men is a great title for similar reasons.  Think of all the meanings you can get out of it…(Mad Men as in Madison Avenue men, as a play on the phrase “Ad Men,” and of course "mad" as in crazy).  Also, there are no other Mad Men…another reason it’s an awesome title.

Anyway, just something I’m thinking about…but I think it’s also wise to keep in mind that what you write is more important than the title.  There might be no other Gigli but that doesn’t make Gigli a good movie.  Likewise, plenty of acclaimed books, movies, and TV shows have done just fine with fairly generic titles:

The Killing (couldn’t any crime show be called this/or some form of this?)
Friends (could be the title for pretty much any sitcom)
Election (could be used for any movie with an election)
Pride and Prejudice (pretty much good for any romance/rom com)
War and Peace (that pretty much covers everything…right?)

But then again, for every Pride and Prejudice there’s also a Love Happens.

My amazing side project

Alright, that title is a bit of an overstatement.  In fact, I don’t exactly have a “side project” right now, unless you call watching too much Idol a side project or uh…writing this blog.  But yeah, apparently, I need a side project!  Read on...

According to Austin Kleon’s cool and much passed around article How To Steal Like An Artist, side projects are important and “it’s the side projects that blow up.”  I hope that means I’m gonna win American Idol next season!  On a slightly more serious note, Lifehacker also mentioned side projects in an article last week as a way to make your procrastination more productive (you’re gonna procrastinate anyway, so why not improve yourself/learn some skill you need for success while you’re doing it?).  So yeah, again, I guess need a side project.  But what should it be?  Or...do I already have one?

My latest "amazing" side project?

I’m thinking maybe my reading more novels = write a novel?  I’m already in a sort of impromptu book club with my friend. Maybe I can focus my future reading selections to help me sharpen my own novel writing skills?  I mean...I have been interested in writing a novel for a while, and I talk about it a lot (I've kinda mentioned it on this blog beforeish).  But, I always seem to put it off.  But...maybe I shouldn't anymore.  I mean, I did write a summary and character bios and everything…however...writing a novel is a pretty big “side” project...but hey, go big or go home...I guess?

Anyway, yeah, if I get a new side project in the new future, I think I'll actually write/finish that novel...but only after I finish my newest spec…wouldn't want to waste the 15+ hours of current show episodes I watched to catch up this past week…I guess you can call all that TV watching "productive" procrastination from actually writing (I know I will!).

The Death Star problem in "I Am Number Four"

So, I just finished YA novel, I Am Number Four (a friend lent it to me, we have a sort of informal book club going right now).  Annnnd if you haven’t read it but want to, you probably shouldn’t read this post because it’s gonna be one big SPOILER (also spoilers for The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, and Star Wars).

Oh hey, there's a movie version too.

The book ends with a cliff hanger, or at least, a non-resolution.  WTF.  You can’t end the FIRST book in a series with a cliff hanger.  The first must stand alone!  Right?  You have to make Star Wars before you can make The Empire Strikes Back.  Or do you?  I recently read and loved Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy, and the first book also ends with a bit of a cliff hanger, and yet, that didn’t annoy me.  Why is that?  Am I just biased against James Frey?  Isn’t a cliff hanger a good idea?  I mean, I’ve stressed act breaks when writing TV to hook your audience to stay tuned…isn’t ending your book on a cliff hanger just another way to hook people?  And what about Star Wars, anyway?  Luke doesn’t defeat the Empire or even Darth Vader in A New Hope…so if you look at it that way it ALSO has a cliff hanger.

So...what was my problem again?

Ah yes, the problem with I Am Number Four is that there is NO SENSE of ANY resolution in the book because the book doesn’t set up anyone/thing to defeat outside of what will most certainly be the MAJOR EVIL of the entire series. In other words, the book doesn’t have a Death Star.  While the Rebels in Star Wars haven’t defeated the entire Empire by the end of that movie, the audience feels satisfied that the Death Star has at least been destroyed.  That’s because destroying the Death Star was the main goal in that movie, NOT destroying the entire MAJOR EVIL.  In the book, I Am Number Four, we meet number four/John Smith, and learn he’s on the run from this race of super evil alien guys who want to kill him.  Then, some stuff happens which ends with a big fight against some of those super evil bad guys…and…John doesn’t die…and then leaves town.  That's THE WHOLE book.

Now, I’m not totally knocking the writing in the book (I actually found it very entertaining as I was reading) but, come on!  I think if you want to write a series of books where the protagonist will eventually have to take down a MAJOR EVIL you have to have them take down some Death Stars first.  Otherwise, at the end, your readers feel taken for a ride where your characters pretty much accomplished nothing.  Sounds lame to me, but hey, what do I know?

Looking away from Star Wars, let’s compare this book to book 1 of The Hunger Games which unlike Star Wars, DEFINITELY has a "to be continued" ending.  In that book, the Death Star is the Hunger Games themselves.  Katniss must survive/defeat the games while she is in them before the story can move onto the bigger business of taking down the entire dystopian government.  And how about another popular series of YA books…Harry Potter?  Harry faces weakened/lesser versions of MAJOR EVIL aka Voldemort in each book before he gets to his final showdown.  

Oh, and that’s another thing...while the evil alien race gets a name there are NO individually named bad guys in I Am Number Four.  There is no Darth Vader, no Voldemort, just a mass of nameless evil aliens.

Anyway, just some things to think about if you're writing your own YA novel since YA is so hot...just ask James Frey.

Beyond that, I guess what annoys me most about the lack of resolution at the end of the book is that when I looked up info on the sequel to I Am Number Four, I discovered that book is going to focus on ANOTHER character not seen in the first book.  So…was the protagonist of the first book even the protagonist of the series?  And when will I get to find out what ultimately happens to the characters from the first book?  And more importantly, will I even care by then?  Considering that I have pretty much no interest in seeing the film version of I Am Number Four, I’m gonna guess no.

Does a protagonist need to be likable?

When the movie American Splendor came out it caused a stir among some of my film school friends.  While some enjoyed the biopic about comic book writer Harvey Pekar, others said they hated the film and couldn’t finish watching it because the protagonist was so unlikable -- if you haven’t seen video of the real Pekar (who passed away last year) you should check out one of his appearances on late night TV…he’s not exactly Jimmy Stewart.

This leads me to a question I often hear (usually due to the fact that baby writers get the comment to make their protagonists more “likable”): Does a protagonist need to be likable?  I say: NO…BUT.  Let me explain…

I think it's okay to write scripts about whoever you want, likable or unlikeable to the outside world (if your protagonist is SUPPOSED to likable but isn't, that's a different problem).  So yeah, write an unlikable character...BUT...and it's a BIG BUT, you’ve got to make me understand why that character is the way they are and understand that your unlikable protagonist probably DOESN'T think that they are actually unlikable. Think of your protagonist (and each character) as a real person and get in their head.  If your unlikable character has reasons or justifications for their actions, the audience can buy into them.  I think a good recent example is The Social Network (I guess biopics get less grief for unlikable protagonists because they’re showing you “real people”).  Mark Zuckerberg always has reasons for the "unlikable" things he does.  He fires his best friend because he thought he was hurting the company, he defends his actions towards the frat boy twins because he saw them as rich condescending jerks who couldn’t see the true potential of a good idea…and so on.

Now, this isn’t to say I won’t enjoy something with a likable protagonist more than an unlikable protagonist (let’s get real, do I want to spend 2-3 hours with someone I can’t stand?).  On the other hand, I think “likable” is subjective.  I know people who say Scarlett O’Hara is unlikable and while she goes through a lot of changes, I wouldn’t say her personality does a 180 even after 4 hours of Gone With The Wind.  It’s true, she is basically a spoiled brat who whines, complains, and often isn’t nice.  But, I happened to enjoy Gone With The Wind (the book AND the movie) and I think while Scarlett isn’t the sweetest, I get why she is the way she is (e.g. she's entitled because she was raised that way).  I also think those bad qualities are actually good because they contrast the circumstances she is thrown into and make for an interesting story (a spoiled Southern bell forced to come face to face with the realities of The Civil War).  I would MUCH rather watch THAT movie than a movie about Melanie, Scarlett's friend/rival who is unquestionably kind, nice, and “likable.”

So there you have it.  You can write a script with an “unlikable” protagonist, just think about why they are that way, why they do the things they do, and know that they probably don't think that they are unlikable.  When you do this, you might be surprised to find yourself liking your unlikable protagonist.

Won't move to LA, but still want to be a writer?

LA has heard my complaints about the weather and has responded with a beautiful sunny day.  Thanks!  In other cool news, some recent mail hijinks has confirmed a semi-famous actress lives in the apartment directly above mine (which is funny because I swore a tap dancer lived directly above me...maybe that's just the extra large cockroaches?).  

Looking back, I realize I've met the actress in passing in our elevator but I totally didn't notice because all actors and actresses are actually TINY in real life.  Or, GIANT.  There is no in between.  Anyway, I just had to mention this because despite living in LA for several years, I NEVER see celebrities or pseudo celebrities unless I'm at work and they're asking me for something (usually a beverage).  But now, one lives above me!  Yet another part of my sales pitch for moving to LA (Come to LA!  Land of famous neighbors and tap dancing cockroaches!).

Speaking of which...I was thinking about my last post, and I have a few revisions.  Yes, you wonderful LA hating babies, you don’t HAVE to move to LA (or NYC) if you don’t want to.  Even if Los Angeles isn't as dangerous as you might think, I get it.  LA is still expensive, big, occasionally soul sucking, tough for families, and writers can write anywhere, right?  So, what should you do if you want to be a writer but won’t move to LA? 

Well, the big exceptions I can think of to the LA rule are writers who write books.  I think authors can pretty much live anywhere and still find a way to sell their stuff.  Didn’t Stephanie Meyer write Twilight from her home in Utah in between changing baby diapers?  Yeah, those stories are one in a million and you shouldn't count on becoming the next Stephanie Meyer, but if you have your heart set on a career in writing and won’t live in LA, I’d suggest focusing on novels or nonfiction.

BUT,  let’s say that’s not what you want.  Noooo, you want to write screenplays and TV shows, but won't move.  Then what?  Well, you're screwed!  Just kidding.  I think you actually still have a few options.  More on that next time...