Anne Helmstadter's, The Story Immersion Project, is one of my many email subscriptions. Her post today mentions writer Malcolm Gladwell. His name didn't ring a bell – I'm not good with names - but I read his David and Goliath - a phenomenal book.
Gladwell has a list of 10 writing rules. In her post, Anne said they aren't only about writing but to live by as well.
Here are three more from his list (I'll save the others for future posts) with some of my thoughts:
Learn Storytelling.
It's a no-brainer, but many elements must work
together to tell a story properly. I don't know specifically what Gladwell had
in mind when he stated this as a rule, but I assume it's character, setting,
plot, point-of-view, style, theme and the use of literary devices (figurative
language, humor, irony etc.).
I'll talk about one (for now):
Character:
While earning my MA, I learned about the Proust Questionnaire. Honestly, I didn't
like doing it, but that only reinforced it was a good idea. I didn't like
it because it was new and slowed me down when all I wanted to do was jump
into the storytelling. Sometimes we need to slow down to speed up. It often produces
better results.
These thirty-five
questions will help. It's essential to know all your characters inside and out –
even if it's irrelevant to the story. It may help you determine how your
character will react in situations. For example, one of the questions is What
is your most marked characteristic? If your character is an adolescent, and has a big,
red zit on their face may mean they stand on the outskirts of the school dance
or choose to stay home.
Above all else, if the reader doesn't care about your main character, they won't care about the book, and you will lose a reader and gain negative word-of-mouth advertising.
Evolve with Time.
I'll begin
with a quote from the man himself:
"I feel I change
my mind all the time. And I sort of feel that's your responsibility as a
person, as a human being – to constantly be updating your positions on as many
things as possible. And if you don't contradict yourself on a regular basis,
then you're not thinking."
That about says it all.
Make sense of criticism.
Dismiss criticism because
you don't understand it, or it rubs you the wrong way, doesn't move you forward in your writing journey. I've said it before; you
will only become the writer you want to be by accepting criticism.
It is as important as building strong, relatable characters. Call it up.
Invite it in. Make it dinner. Give it a long, passionate kiss goodnight.
Years ago, before I knew how to format a screenplay,
I gave a script to a professor. I was excited to have someone read it and tell
me how great it was. The former happened. The latter? Not so much. He
completely trashed it and had nothing good to say about it. Truthfully, he was
an utter jerk. Also, truthfully, he was right. It wasn't good enough. The story
itself was and is very good. But he critiqued it the wrong way. Not because he
was honest but because he was mean and unprofessional. There's always something
good to say. Start with a positive. After that, your criticism should be fair, honest,
transparent, helpful and tactful. I turned my back on screenwriting because of that. Thankfully, I returned to it and absolutely love it.
Avoid mean people - and friends and family. Family typically don't know anything about writing - hence my first firing as a ghostwriter - and will only say it's great because they love you. If we only seek out people that will fluff our ego, we're only hurting ourselves and hindering effective productivity.
Here's a link to the Proust
Questionnaire:
https://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2000/01/proust-questionnaire
Write On,
-rg
P.S. A little ego fluffing is good now and then. :) I'll admit the amazing comments I received this month have given me a boost of confidence. I'm very grateful.
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