The Office of Letters and Light Blog

Unusual, Intriguing Novel Narration

I just finished reading Hannah Pittard’s 2011 novel, The Fates Will Find Their Way. It’s a naturally intriguing story: a 16-year-old girl goes missing without a trace, and her suburban classmates obsessively speculate—in both the short and long term—about what may have happened to her.

Pittard’s choice of perspective makes this narrative even more absorbing. The entire book is told in the first-person plural: the collective voice of the boys who dreamily wonder about the girl’s fate.

We interrogated each other for information, eager to be the one to discover the truth. As it turned out, we’d all seen Nora the day before, but seen her in different places doing different things—we’d seen her at the swing sets, at the riverbank, in the shopping mall. We’d seen her making phone calls in the telephone booth outside the liquor store, inside the train station, behind the dollar store.

The result is wonderfully opaque. A plural perspective can never be definitively pinned down, and so the narrative drifts and bobs—as elusive and unreliable as the certainty of Nora’s circumstances.

What books have you read that make use of unusual perspective or narration? Have you tried this technique in your own novels? How did it work for you?

– Chris

Fruit Frenzy: An Analogy

I’m a fan of a wonderful little iPhone game called “Fruit Ninja”. Have you heard of it? I’m sure the majority of you have, since it’s always ranked as one of the top 10 apps. Anyway, to get to the point (or to get to a point) I was playing the game today in “Arcade Mode”. It was amazing—I was slashing oranges, apples, and my favorite: watermelons. Then, almost out of nowhere, the highly anticipated yellow-and-red-striped banana appeared. I slashed it and a frenzy began—the “Fruit Frenzy”, that is.

Suddenly my small iPhone screen was being bombarded with fruit. Combo after combo, my score was growing until I surpassed my high score of 892. After a celebratory mental high-five to myself, I had an epiphany: “Fruit Ninja”, and its “Fruit Frenzy” could be used as an analogy for Script Frenzy. 

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Getting Unstuck When You’re Feeling Stuck

I’m having a challenging time writing during this Frenzy and I wasn’t sure why until I had a quick chat with our ED, Grant Faulkner. This year I decided to write a feature that is comprised of four shorts linked together by a river. I thought it would be a snap because in my mind it meant that I would avoid the stormy seas of writing the second act of a traditional script. I was wrong. Every single time I sit down to write I feel stuck, and I can’t help but feel a little defeated.

When I mentioned this to Grant he pointed out that it’s probably harder to write four short films than it is to write a 100-page script because I would have to write four beginnings, four middles, and four endings. Bells and whistles went off in my head when I heard those words. In essence I’m doing four mini-Script Frenzy’s this April. I guess it means that I’m a “superstar!” (Said in the voice of Mary Katherine Gallagher.)

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Well, this is embarassing.

So, I know that lying is wrong, but every day when I log in to my Script Frenzy account and still have no more additional pages to add to my count, I have the urge to lie. That’s because on Day 10 I still only have 2 (TWO) pages. There you go; I said it. I have set myself up to be a Script Frenzy failure.

However, in an attempt to be a glass-half-full kind of person, there are still twenty-one days left. If I write about four and a half pages every day, I still have a shot at winning that pretty certificate. The trouble with that is the amount of self-discipline I will need. Or maybe not self-discipline, but concentration and willpower.

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A ___________ of One’s Own

Y’all, I have been working on the ending of a chapter for a month now. The same ending. For a month! Part of the reason it’s dragging on for so long is that I’m falling down on the job of carving out time. Planning a wedding, trying to stay healthy, and running a household after a full day at work makes extra minutes tricky to come by. Well, at least without dinging sleep or hygiene.

But I also know what works for me in terms of my ideal creative environment, and constructing that perfect, maximally productive alchemy for “getting it done” doesn’t just happen at the drop of a hat.

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What’s Your Writing Playlist?

I have this theory that music can influence your mood, and in turn, influence your writing. Has anyone done a study on this? If not, I’d love to be a test subject.

The majority of the time I tend to stray away from listening to music while writing creative pieces. However, once in a while, I find a song that perfectly fits the mood I’m trying to convey. Most recently that song was “Breathe Me” by Sia. It’s a sad, but breathtaking tune that really helped push an emotionally complex short story I was working on. I don’t even know how many times that song looped through my headphones during my writing process. I just know that the song was a perfect mood-setter.

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The (relative) calm before the Frenzy.

Lately, I’ve been having some major anxiety. I keep getting that feeling that I’m forgetting something. Then I remember: April is only a few days away, and all I really have is an idea. The idea is fairly promising (I wrote about it in an earlier blog post, for those interested), and it even has some potential to become more meaningful than I first thought. But there’s that lurking, rookie feeling that I’ll never reach 100 pages in 30 days.

So far my process has consisted solely of imagining and then creating deep and realistic characters. Because of that, it’s also the only part of my script that I’ve started. I have a lengthy character list that instinct is telling me to cut down, which is proving rather difficult. However, I figure I’m going to take the “only write during April” rule quite literally and leave the rest for this Sunday. This lack of general outline is yet another source of great anxiety. I’m usually a huge fan of outlines; they are my road maps.

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Script Tips!

With Script Frenzy just days away, I thought I’d offer an outlining technique that I use to help me set up my scripts. In Viki King’s book How to Write a Movie in 21 Days, she refers to something called, “The 9-minute movie.” This is a way to de-mystify the screenwriting process. She suggests getting nine 3 x 5 cards, and writing on each card what happens on page 1, 3, 10, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, & 100. Once you do that, you have your “9-minute movie”. Post these cards near your computer, and voila! You’re ready to get started.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the common things that happen to characters on those pages:

Page 1 – Set up story, mood, tone, and place.

Page 3 – Introduce the central question your characters will explore.

Page 10 – Tell us what the story is. Tell us what the hero wants.

Page 30 – An event occurs that moves the hero into new territory.

Page 45 – We see the initial growth of your character. You’ll tell us where we’re headed from here on.

Page 60 – The middle of Act Two: your hero is in big trouble, he reaffirms and makes a deeper commitment to what he wants.

Page 75 – It looks like all is lost, and there might even be a scene where the character is about to give up.

Page 90 – The resolution of the problem begins.

Page 120 – The audience gets the resolution they deserve, and the audience is satisfied that you gave them the story you promised.

If you’re worried about not having an outline prepared for Script Frenzy! Don’t fret! It’s never too late to get cracking! I’m prepping my “9-minute movie” on Saturday morning. 

Making an origami star box with my 3x5 cards,

Sandra
Script Frenzy Program Director

What Script-Writers Can Learn from Improv (Part Two!)

David Alger, of the Pan Theater in Oakland, returns to share more tips for beginners in improv, which are super applicable for script-writers, too! (A quick update on Operation: Liberate Laughter, Animal Control says the space we were going to repurpose for our first show isn’t “safe”, and that the raccoons there have “mutated”, but you know what? I think what they meant is “isn’t safe for HUMOR”, and “mutated to develop FUNNY BONES”. Whoo, the show is back on!)

Yesterday’s tips are here.

5. Be Specific - Provide Details!

Details are the lifeblood of moving a scene forward. Each detail provides clues to what is important. Details help provide beat objectives and flesh out characters.

• Example One: You’re the best brain surgeon in all of West Valley, Mark. That’s why I chose you to operate on mom.

Rather than:

• You’re the best doctor in this town, which is why I chose you.

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What Script-Writers Can Learn from Improv

We recently spoke with David Alger, the producing director at Pan Theater in Oakland, in our ongoing efforts to pull together the OLL Comedy Troupe (tentatively known as Operation: Liberate Laughter. Staff has been generally unenthusiastic, and public interest is low, and the budget is nil, but none of that matters right now! Everything’s going to be awesome!). He generously provided these tips for improv beginners, which we think are fantastically relevant for script-writing, too. Read on!

Improv is an art. However, it is also a craft. A craft is something that is learned throgh practice, repetition, trial, error and hard work. Much like any other art (including writing!), skill in improv is acquired over time. The more time spent improv-ing the greater the improvement (pun intended).

That being said, there are rules which can, in general, make a scene better.

As with any art form, you can break all of the rules and still have quality scenes. However, those best able to break the rules are those who first learn and understand them.

So, let’s look at some of the basic rules of improv:

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On procrastination.

Just to be clear, I love writing. I love the surge of thoughts and joy that come from an hour or two of steady outlining or typing that (hopefully…) ends in creative success. What I don’t love? Starting to write. It’s funny how these things work out.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been pondering my script, anxious to see where the plot twists and character decisions will take me. But does that mean I’ve started? Of course not. Instead of writing, I’ve been doing a variety of other things that are generally pointless. These things include, but are not limited to: exploring the Internet on StumbleUpon, watching old episodes of Modern Family, organizing my closet, painting my nails, and playing with orphaned Alaskan Huskies that I’m not allowed to adopt.

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Characters vs. Plot

Next week is my spring break from school (hooray!) and I’ve resolved to use that week to solidify an outline for my screenplay. Although according to Script Frenzy rules I can’t begin writing until April 1st, I probably should have begun my outline long ago. But even though I haven’t settled on a story, I have a good idea of the types of characters that will populate my story, and that’s a step in the right direction.

In the past few years I have become increasingly aware of the lack of well-developed female protagonists in movies, and as a young woman, I find this extremely frustrating. The assumption seems to be that while all audiences can relate to male heroes, only women can relate to female characters. But I can’t help but wonder if it’s because men actually feel alienated from women or if it’s because female characters often lack the dimension and complexity given to male characters.

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