Your Friday Recommendation #21
Today’s recommendation is a recommendation we made five days short of a year ago that deserves to be repeated, a podcast on storytelling tips by Ira Glass, host of National Public Radio’s This American Life.
The podcast is meant for one entering the radio and/or vidcast world, but the message Glass has speaks to writers and performers, too. For the young writer or improvisers afraid of failing and thus, afraid of putting their work out there, Glass proposes you embrace the simple truth that you will fail over and over as part of the creative process. His main point is that one cannot gain experience if one doesn’t put something terrible out there, and this process all leads to truly wonderful work. How many bad stories must a writer write before they hit upon a solid one? How many bad scenes must an improviser be in before they have a solid set? There’s no definitive answer, but be sure it’s in the “more than a few” range.
Glass, too, is self-disparaging and points out the disappointing nuances of an old program while telling what he’s able to learn from such a foray into bad radio. Young writers and improvisers take note - a seasoned professional in his artistic field not only admits to failing but also to learning something from said failure. It gives one hope, doesn’t it?
Take a look and apply what you’ve learned.
-nm
Technorati Tags: podcast recommendation, Ira Glass, storytelling tips
Your Friday Recommendation #16
Last Friday night during my thesis reading Q & A, someone asked me what scripts or screenwriters taught me a lot about screenwriting. I listed a few screenwriters I enjoy (Scott Frank is a genius, David Mamet is precision incarnate, and John August seems to be having genuine fun with the craft), plus what movies I’d been watching during my writing process. Given my thesis was a science fiction adventure comedy, yes I watched The Incredibles and Star Wars a few times, but there were three films in particular I watched for specific reasons:
Raiders of the Lost Ark, Cop Land, and The Guns of Navarone. Today I’d like to recommend the final film in that trio…
If you want to learn how to write about an ensemble of characters which balances both their relationships and their mission, this is a film to watch over and over. Captain Mallory (Gregory Peck) is hand-picked by Major Roy Franklin (Tony Quayle) to lead a six-man group to assault a German artillery battery of giant cannons holding a battalion of British soldiers hostage. They’re joined by Colonel Andrea Stavros (Anthony Quinn), a rogue filled with hate for Mallory and Corporal Miller (David Niven) who has no love of war or death. These four men plus two others sneak onto a Mediterranean island and attempt to knock out the guns.
As an ensemble, the six characters work well together. They each have a specific role to play in their team and relate to each other in specific ways based on both their personality and rank. This is what makes this 1961 film work (and what left it nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award, as far as I’m concerned). The characters’ personalities are at the very heart of how they go about the mission and how they help or hinder each other. One could say the two other men I didn’t mention by name are able to blend into the background more than the other four, but that could be as simple as star power. That said, I’m not sure their stories are as compelling as the others, but that is the nature of ensemble, isn’t it? Some characters rise to prominence while others round out the cast in their own necessary ways?
The pacing is from a different era, and for as much as I love old movies and this movie in particular, I find myself consistently bored with a twenty-five minute stretch of the film. A half-hour into the film, a scene involving a boat landing during stormy weather and subsequently climbing a mountain serve to develop three important relationships for Mallory: his mutual respect for Major Franklin, his mutual animosity for Corporal Miller, and rising tension between him and Stavros. We learn a little bit more about their plan, how Miller feels about the whole mess, and how Stavros plans to Kill Mallory someday, even seeing Stavros have an opportunity to do so. Finally, we see Franklin’s wounding and how it affects the group.
Pretty important plot points, yes? Absolutely, but the pacing kills the film here - they take fooooor-eeeeeh-vuuuuuhr! The film is 2.5 hours long and these scenes total twenty-five minute stretch only a half-hour into the film. In short, it takes a story based on getting a job done in a time crunch and slows it to a halt. The film has a patient pace altogether, so it doesn’t surprise me these scenes take such a big chunk of the film, but still, the pace leaves me fast-forwarding to the Nazi sharpshooter shoot-out that follows.
But let’s not dwell on the detractions. Peck is amazing. Quinn is even better. The story format sets the classic standard of gathering a ragtag crew for one final job. The pace is easy to follow and the stakes - both personal and outward - are high so the audience becomes invested. I’ve not read the novel (I hear it’s quite different) or its sequel and film adaptation, Force 10 From Navarone (a Harrison Ford box-office blunder), but I may have to give them a try.
This is one of those classic movies I watched as a young boy with my father on Saturday afternoons. My father was great at explaining plot twists and character relationships. This memory and a decent first DVD release kept the film spinning in my computer while writing my ensemble-cast sci-fi adventure screenplay thesis. Only through digging for photos for this post did I find out there’s a special edition 2-disc DVD set, so I may have to pick that up.
Any thoughts on this film, dear reader? Any ideas on what it can teach us about writing and story?
-nm
Technorati Tags: guns of navarone, movie recommendation, gregory peck, butcher of barcelona
Your Friday Recommendation #15
How’s this for a recommendation? Thesis reading, tonight only…
(Click the pic for the super-deluxe ultra-mega gigantor version…)
Your Friday Recommendation #14
I snagged a copy of one of my favorite books at a rummage sale last fall and it sat on my shelf for months. This week, I finally picked it up and have been reading a few chapters each night, both enjoying the book now as an adult and remembering the feelings it evoked to read it as a kid. I’m talking about Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume.
I’m recommending this book for three reasons. First, I write YA fiction about young male protagonists. Second, I think looking back on early reading experiences can lend one perspective on how their reading tastes developed. Finally, it’s a great book.
The story of nine-year-old Peter Hatcher, his turtle, Dribble, and his menacing little brother, Fudge, is told by Peter in a confident, authentic first-person voice. Peter is observant; he understands the people around him, even the adults. He both reports events and reflects on them in a perfectly natural way that always feels genuine. Blume’s book is the lesson anyone writing for kids needs to read.
I can only find one photo of the 1986-printing cover pictured above. My Aunt Judy gave me this for my seventh birthday and it’s the first book I judged by its cover. The colors weren’t bold, the brothers didn’t bear huge weapons, and there was no action figure tie-in. Plus, I’d heard of Judy Blume - she was a girl book writer. Was I getting a girl book because my Aunt Judy was a girl? After it sat around for a month and somehow ended up the only book in the family K-Car, I read it. I loved it. Take that, willful ignorance.
As for subsequent books in the four-volume series (five, if you count spin-off and real treat, Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great), I can only speak for the first sequel, Superfudge. It really captures what it’s like to be in sixth grade and noticing girls for the first time. I never picked up the next two, Fudge-A-Mania or Double-Fudge, because it felt like the series was switching its focus to Fudge instead of Peter, and I connected with Peter as a reader. (Edit: I looked up Fudge-A-Mania and the plot is familiar, so I did read it, but it clearly didn’t have the same impression on me as the first two books. Did this happen with age? Fudge-A-Mania came out in 1990 when I was eleven - was I “too old” at this point?)
Maybe I’ll give them a try soon, but please know this - recent boxed sets with all four books have major wording changes, according to user reviews at Amazon: instead of sticking with its 1970s setting and Peter wanting records for Christmas, he asks for an MP3 player. I understand the reasoning behind this, to appeal to today’s young reader, but if I do seek out the rest of these books I’ll be seeking out first or near-first editions.
“Eat it or wear it!”
-nm
Technorati Tags: reading recommendation, judy blume, tales of a fourth grade nothing
Your Friday Recommendation #13
Today I recommend a collection of short fiction I picked up at AWP in January. Well, I bought it there and it was shipped to me a month or so later. I’ve been reading excerpts here and there, and have found myself laughing out loud reading Created In Darkness By Troubled Americans: The Best of McSweeney’s Humor Category.
The length, topics, styles, voices, and senses of humor throughout this collection is the most varietal hodgepodge of ha-ha one could find. You’ll find lists, loads of satire, stylistic parodies, and even some short stories in here. The best part of reading a collection of short pieces is if something isn’t clicking for you, move on to something else. Yet when something works, you’ll relish in it, wanting it to last forever.
Three of my favorite pieces in this collection (and I’m only not-quite-halfway through) includes the opening piece, “A Brief Parody of a Talk Show That Falls Apart about Halfway through” by Tim Carvell, a piece which breaks the fourth wall and then breaks it yet again. Another favorite is “The Newest from Jokeland” by Brodie H. Brockie and R.J. White - featuring terrible jokes all in the sake of self-away irony. Finally, no fan of the Lord of the Rings films can go without reading Jeff Alexander and Tom Bissell’s “Unused Audio Commentary by Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, Recorded Summer 2002, for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring DVD (Platinum Series Extended Edition), Part One.” The satire of both Zinn and Chomsky, as well as the brilliant, biting analysis of the film will make fans laugh out loud, guaranteed.
-nm
Technorati Tags: mcsweeney’s, fellowship of the ring, chomsky, tim carvell, r.j. white, jeff alexander, created in darkness, humor, humor category
Your Friday Recommendation #12
This is my first film recommendation to you, dear reader, but my copy arrived in the mail on Thursday and the Criterion Collection three-disc reissue of Seven Samurai by writer/director Akira Kurosawa is fresh in my mind. and still spinning in my DVD player.
A poor farming village will be pillaged by bandits when their crops are ready for harvest. They seek out wandering samurai and ronin who will protect them for nothing more than a bowl of rice and regained honor. This sweeping, epic tale explores universal themes like honor, sacrifice, family, identity, and trust with the perfectionist-driven Kurosawa behind it, both as writer and in the director’s chair. Often called his masterpiece, the 1954 film sets many “rules” in combining good filmmaking with good storytelling.
This is the film that inspired the 1970s American film school brats like Spielberg, Coppola, Scorsese, and especially Lucas. Watch the original Star Wars and the influence will be clear - the way shots are set up to tell story, the character archetypes who mingle in their collective universe, the manner in which a grand story boils down to a handful of strong underlying themes. Seven Samurai is storytelling at it’s best, and we have a lot of strong storytellers because of its existence.
The 207-minute film is presented over two discs, with a third disc containing supplemental material and a booklet featuring essays on the film, including one by star Toshiro Mifune. The set is presented by Criterion, a company known for giving films painstaking detail in the restoration process and loading their discs with worthwhile extras. Basically, Criterion is the Rolls Royce of DVD companies.
This three-disc extravaganza isn’t the first time Criterion has released Seven Samurai. The film was their second release overall, a single disc which I proudly own (yes, I double-dipped on this one), but the picture and sound quality that made that disc so great are blown out of the water by the clarity and amazing quality of the fresh three-disc version. Currently, you can find it on sale at Amazon.com for the low, low price of $27.27. That’s much more than I’ve ever spent on a single film, but it’s also a low price for such a popular Criterion film, and I think it’s a worthwhile price to pay for any young storyteller looking to see a film that not only tells a great story in a powerful way, but has clear influences on modern American filmmaking.
-nm
Technorati Tags: reading recommendation, akira kurosawa, seven samurai, criterion, George Lucas inspiration
Your Friday Recommendation #11
On Tuesday, Scrawlers sent an email to its users announcing its first contest, The War of Art Contest. One lucky writer will win a copy of today’s recommendation, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.
Pressfield contends that everyone is creative, particularly in creating a subconscious (and likely conscious) level of resistance to their ability to achieve their creative goals. Not a pretty picture, huh? The War of Art confronts this issue and explores ways of getting around self-generated resistance. You might recognize this in yourself already - procrastination, justification, being a “thinker” and not a “doer.” Pressfield argues many people go through these sorts of self-defeating phases because they’re afraid of failure, or very possibly afraid of success. He pushes the reader to push themselves, to break their own cycle of creative blockage and push forward. In fact, the cover image could serve as a pictoral thesis statement: a single, beautiful flower, life pushing itself through a block of cold, hard stone. The achievement of creativity over everything which should prevent it from blossoming.
If that’s too abstract, Pressfield sums up his book with a great two-sentence thesis statement right at the top of the book: “It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write.” If you’ve ever tried to get serious about your writing craft, you know this is true.
This book is on my shelf as one of the Three White Books - three books on writing craft with white covers: The War of Art, The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White, and The Art of Fiction by John Gardner. This was the first book I had to read in my MFA program; Terry Davis made it the opening text for a class in Form & Technique in Prose and his recommendation of such a life-changing book is part of what makes me respect him so much as a writer, teacher and mentor (he also has around a thousand other great qualities, the least of which are not his charm and love of good story). In that classroom, I found myself in the unfortunate position of being the only student who said how much they enjoyed the book and got something out of it.
My clear recollection is being at home reading the book, really getting into it, and suddenly realizing I knew who Steven Pressfield was; he wrote The Legend of Bagger Vance, a film I’d studied in a Film & Religion course at the University of Wyoming. The film (and novel) uses the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita to help the main character focus and overcome his obstacles in a game of golf. The thing about this approach, however, is that it is all in the undertones, in the disguised way the Bagger Vance character coaches the young golf protege. There’s nothing overt about the spiritual or religious context, and I was not aware of Bhagavad Gita teachings until the post-film screening discussion. However, I recognized Pressfield was using the same sort of teachings in The War of Art and to great success, I might add. When I brought this up in class, those who had immediately dismissed the book dismissed it even further, hating that religion was being put upon them.
I found that unfortunate. This is a book to help writers break through their struggles to be as creative as they can be, and those fellow students wouldn’t have even known it used Bhagavad Gita teachings if I hadn’t said anything. To automatically dismiss it because their may be theology involved is willful ignorance, and if anything, that experience made me enjoy and appreciate the book even more.
I encourage you to write a story at Scrawlers and enter The War of Art Contest. If you don’t win a copy of The War of Art, it’s still worth seeking out on your own.
-nm
Technorati Tags: war of art, steven pressfield, legend of bagger vance, bhagavad gita, reading recommendation, writer’s block, resistance
Your Friday Recommendation #10
In celebration of his blog’s seventh anniversary, Neil Gaiman has put up one of my favorite novels, American Gods, for free on the internet for the rest of the month.
American Gods is one of those sprawling, epic tales that combines characterization, tone, and theme to bring everything together. A young man who goes by Shadow is released from prison a few days early because his wife is killed in a car accident. On the way home, he crosses paths with an old man who goes by Mr. Wednesday who knows precisely who he is and offers him a job traveling with him across the country. From there, the book takes a journey into a world of gods - both the new and the old - vying for their right to exist and remain viable in modern America.
Not your typical fare? That’s precisely why you should read it. Gaiman lays out several themes as threads throughout the novel, letting them cross over each other and weave a tight tapestry focusing on identity. The question of who one is, how one sees themselves, and how others understand them is one of the oldest stories, particularly in America - a country founded upon the creation and discovery of identity. That said, the novel is image-driven, never letting the story take a back seat to its themes - a lesson young writers could learn when it comes to balance.
If that doesn’t entice you, keep in mind Gaiman’s American Gods has won the Hugo Award for Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Novel, the Bram Stoker Award for Best Horror Novel, the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel, and the Nebula Award for Best Novel. It’s a New York Times bestseller, and it’s one of my favorite books. If you still need convincing, Neil Gaiman let his readers vote which book to make available for free. How many writers do that?
-nm
Technorati Tags: Neil Gaiman, American Gods, free novel, image-driven, writing about theme
Your Friday Recommendation #9
I’m a fan of great books at great prices, and if you’ve been in a B&M (”Brick & Mortar,” or physical store as-opposed to online store) Barnes & Noble lately, you’ve probably seen a stack of America (The Book) by The Daily Show with Jon Stewart for under $10 a copy - a real steal.
I’m not going to go into the brilliant satire in this book, nor the way the writers of The Daily Show create a streamlined effort to link all of the information they present. The reason I love this book is its presentation.
If you’ve attended public schools in the last thirty years, chances are you will recognize America (The Book) as an amazing parody of a school textbook. The binding, the glossy cover, the library stamp in the front page, the page layout. Over and over, this book goes the extra mile in terms of creating a new level of parody and satire. Yes, they satirize American sensibilities, politics, and history, but to do it in a textbook format, to imply that the way American children learn and are being taught is what really brings this book’s message home.
What’s that? You’ve already read America (The Book)? Then look for America (The Book) Teacher’s Edition. This version has “hand-written” notes all over the place, both correcting the inaccuracies of the original - by inaccuracies, I mean the true parts that were changed so they would be funny - and a snarky running commentary on how the last book was presented. It’s a fun supplemental to the original, and you can likely find this on a close-out table for under $10 as well. Considering these hardcover books were both pushing $20 when they first came out, the price is surely right to those who’ve been waiting to pick up a copy.
-nm
(this post was added retro-actively to assist continuity.)
Technorati Tags: America the Book, satire, parody, textbook parody, public education, reading recommendation
Your Friday Recommendation #8
Today’s recommendation is to take a look at how you get news online and decide if you can streamline it any more than the system you currently use.
I used to check MSNBC.com every morning for the news. Sometimes, I would listen to a streaming audio presentation from Minnesota Public Radio. That was the extent of how I used the internet for the news. Call me late to the bandwagon, but I had no idea what RSS feeds were or how they worked until last year. Now, I have “Really Simple Syndication” feeds for MSNBC.com, TheGuardian.co.uk, and MinnesotaPublicRadio.org, which has many text-based news stories besides its streaming audio. That may not seem like a big leap, and I know there are a lot more news sources out there, but I’m starting small, and frankly I’m just excited I understand how to use another piece of web 2.0 technology.
There’s also room for fun news, too. For example, my news tab also features feeds for WiiFanboy - a blog dedicated to Nintendo Wii-centric news and gossip, Ain’t-It-Cool-News.com - a news and rumor website for films and all things geeky, and WhatWouldTylerDurdenDo.com - a (not-always-safe-for-work) blog lambasting celebrities for their latest “news” in the “infotainment” world.
Take a look at the way you read the news online. If you aren’t using RSS feeds yet, give it a shot. Information is being delivered faster than ever, so make sure you’re receiving it as fast as you can.
-nm
(this post was added retro-actively to assist continuity.)
Technorati Tags: rss feed, online news, reading recommendation, improve your bookmarks
-
-
-
About
Brought together by mutual interest in creative arts and web development, Minnesota duo Barry Hess and Nathan Melcher founded Scrawlers.com in 2006. Scrawlers marries creativity with a web-based outlet for aspiring writers and The Scrawl blog seeks to add fuel your creative fire.
-
-
Recently Written
-
Categories
-
Archives
-
Blogroll
-
LibraryThing