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Monday, July 15, 2013

Developing Heroes and Villains

I received this article in an email. Feel free to read it. Click on the link below to read the full article.

How to Write Better Heroes and Villains: Archetypes

Today's newsletter is from Victoria Lynn Schmidt, who is our Instructor of the Month. (I highly recommend this.)

Archetypes are the core character models of storytelling, found in nearly all books. The famous psychologist Carl Jung is known for his work on archetypes, and he also developed a personality typology that sheds light on how humans approach life and do what they do. This information can be adapted and applied to the task of creating motivated, compelling characters.

For example, we all know that James Bond likes martinis. But let's go a step further: Deep down, who is Bond, really?

Bond's identity as a spy is the most important thing in his life. He's a real workaholic and is highly observant and analytical. He sets several traps, and in different rooms. He calmly checks all of them. He anticipates what the villain might do, drawing on his years of experience. His deep inner world is that of a man who is suspicious yet professional.

Bond is an archetype: the Businessman.

Knowing the archetypes and their traits is key to decoding what motivates your characters-and bringing them to life for readers. Here are some of the main archetypes.

Female Heroes and Villains

The Seductive Muse

• Loves to be the center of attention, is smart and creative, enjoys sex, loves her body and feels deeply. Think Cleopatra.
• As a villain, the Seductive Muse becomes the Femme Fatale who deliberately uses her charms to control men.
• Physically centered, extroverted, great at listening.
• Occupations: artistic type (poet, sculptor, actress).
• Belief: All acts of love and pleasure are sacred.• Motivated by: self-actualization.

If you love Victoria Lynn Schmidt's advice, you should check out this heavily discounted package of all her books on writing.

And for more Archetypes of Female (and Male) Heroes and Villains, click here.

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Need help with your writing? Try my services.

Film Scripts Service

Edit and Critique combos: $75.00 discount flat fee.

Edit - covers proper formatting, grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure.

Critique - cover the follow:
-Introduction
- Development
-Climax
-Conclusion
-Character development
-Mid point development

Turnaround time is 3 weeks

Edits and Critiques will continue to be offered separately if a writer just wants one or the other.

Edits: $48.00 flat fee
- covers proper formatting, grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure.

Turnaround time 2 weeks

Critique: $58.00 flat fee
-Introduction
- Development
-Climax
-Conclusion
-Character development
-Mid point development

Turnaround time 2 weeks

Query letter Service

I provide query letter writing service for scripts and books.

Query Letter: $28.00 flat fee

Turnaround time 2 weeks

Book Consulting Service

I only provide Critique service for fiction novels. Why fiction only? Because fiction is my strong point.

Critique: $87.00 flat fee

Turnaround time 3.5 weeks

I do not edit books. I only critique them. Editing books requires a lot of time consuming detail.

Payment

Payments are made by Paypal. If you do not have a Paypal account, payments may be made as cashier checks or money orders by postal mail.

If you are interested in my services, feel free to contact me at

ahicks4298@q.com or call at (360) 696 - 4298

I will be happy to work with you.

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Friday, July 12, 2013

Screenplays: Action Paragraphs

Hello, Readers!

A few days ago I completed a critique for a script writer. Her action paragraphs were long and detail. They ran from 5 to 8 lines. Some were 4 lines. I wrote in the critique to condense her paragraphs to 3 line and less.

She sent me an email complaining that 3 lines takes away what she is trying to express. She wants the reader to know the details.

I sent her a long long reply explaining why it is important to keep the action concise.

Please please, writers, cut out all details of feeling and thoughts and descriptions of appearance of people and places. That is not for you to describe. Just tell the story as simple as possible.

If you’ve written 5 lines of action, reread it and ask yourself, “What are the important points I want the reader to come away with, and how can I express these points in 1 to 3 sentences?”

Another thing to do is leave out all adjectives and adverbs. Use present tense verbs only. Don’t tell every single movement a character makes. Example:

Bob reaches for the door. He twists the door knob. He pulls the door open. He walks out the door. He closes the door behind him. He slams the door.

That is so boring. Just say:

Bob leaves, slamming the door.

I will have to gave a special writing on this.

Hello everyone,

If you plan to enter a screenplay contest and would like to have your script proofread or critique by a fresh pair of eyes, I am offering a discount on my service:

Edits: $43.00 Contest discount

Critiques: $53.00 Contest discount

Edit and Critique Combo: $ 65.00 Contest discount

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Not entering a contest but need help with your writing? Try my services at regular prices.

Film Scripts Service
Edit and Critique combos: $75.00 discount flat fee.

Edit - covers proper formatting, grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure.

Critique - cover the follow:
-Introduction
- Development
-Climax
-Conclusion
-Character development
-Mid point development

Turnaround time is 3 weeks

Edits and Critiques will continue to be offered separately if a writer just wants one or the other.

Edits: $48.00 flat fee
- covers proper formatting, grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure.

Turnaround time 2 weeks

Critique: $58.00 flat fee
-Introduction
- Development
-Climax
-Conclusion
-Character development
-Mid point development

Turnaround time 2 weeks
Query letter Service

I provide query letter writing service for scripts and books.

Query Letter: $28.00 flat fee

Turnaround time 2 weeks
Book Consulting Service

I only provide Critique service for fiction novels. Why fiction only? Because fiction is my strong point.

Critique: $87.00 flat fee

Turnaround time 3.5 weeks

I do not edit books. I only critique them. Editing books requires a lot of time consuming detail.
Payment

Payments are made by Paypal. If you do not have a Paypal account, payments may be made as cashier checks or money orders by postal mail.

If you are interested in my services, feel free to contact me at

ahicks4298@q.com or call at (360) 696 - 4298

I will be happy to work with you.
***********************************************

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Thursday, July 11, 2013

Affordable Book & Screenplay Writing Services

Learn Something new!

This is an update of my script service fees. I uses to do edits and critiques together at a discount. I stopped and started doing them separately. It made more sense to critique first, next do the rewrite, then once the story is up to par do the edit. However, people have been requesting edits and critiques together. Well if that is what the customer wants that is what the customer gets. Fees are still affordable.

Hello everyone,

I'M BACK, MY BELOVED READERS!

Hello, Everyone!

Long time no see. I’ve been busy helping several script writer clients who sold their scripts recently. It has been an exciting experience for us all. Among them is a writer I started working with last year. She had sent me her two scripts to critique. She used the critiques to make changes to the her stories. However, she did not use all the changes and suggestions I told her to do. The producer she queried read the scripts and told her to make the very changes and suggestions that I had told her to do a year ago, then send the scripts back to him to review.

She excitedly contacted me this spring and told me what he said. “I told you so,” I said. So we have been working together, sending the scripts to and for until we got them to par. The producer read the final draft, was impressed, and offered to the writer a small up front payment(it’s a small independent production company.)

So this is how it has been for me for the past 5 months with several of my clients. It makes me feel good their success is based on the service I gave them.

I’m tired out now. Currently I’m helping a client turn his script into a musical. This is a fun and challenging task.

I have not abandoned my blog. You will see more posts. So stay tune and enjoy your summer.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

The 9 Ingredients of Character Development

(I got this in an email. I want to sure it with everyone. It is written by a professional who is making the very statements that I have been telling writers.)

Today's guest newsletter comes from the Guide to Literary Agents blog and is written by Tom Pawlik.
I remember back when cameras had something inside them called film that you had to get developed. For those of you college-aged or younger, that’s where a technician would treat the film with some chemicals inside a mysterious darkened room, and an image would magically appear on the special paper. But if the process went awry, you could end up with an underdeveloped image that was dark or fuzzy, or one that was over-exposed and therefore too washed out to see clearly. The key to getting a crisp clear photograph largely depended on how the technician developed the film.
If we want readers to have a vibrant mental image of our characters, we have to spend some time in the dark room. And that is what’s called a metaphor.

WHAT IS A CHARACTER-DRIVEN NOVEL ANYWAY?

I don’t write character-driven novels. Heck, I’m not even sure what the term means. I used to think it was when an author spent hundreds of pages muddling around inside a character’s head just to fill the gaps between a couple paragraphs of action.
I prefer to write plot-driven suspense thrillers. But how does the low-brow thriller writer create good characters? I’m still a novice on the subject so this is by no means a definitive exposition, just 9 ingredients I jotted down to make a clever acrostic: CHARACTER.

1. Communication style: How does your character talk? Does she favor certain words or phrases that make her distinct and interesting? What about the sound of her voice? Much of our personality comes through our speech, so think about the way your character is going to talk. Her style of communication should be distinctive and unique.

2. History: Where does your character come from? Think out his childhood and adolescence. What events shaped his personality? What did his father do for a living? How about his mother? How many siblings does he have? Was it a loving family or an abusive, dysfunctional one? What events led him to the career choices he made? You may not need to provide all this background to your reader, but it’s good to know as the writer. It helps give him substance in your mind as well.

3. Appearance: What does she look like? This may be the least important ingredient to make your character a person to the reader, but you should still know it in your own mind. Not every character needs to be drop-dead gorgeous, by the way. Most people aren’t.

4. Relationships: What kind of friends and family does he have? How does he relate to them? Is he very social or reclusive, or somewhere in between? People can be defined by the company they keep, so this can be a good way to define your character.

GET CRITIQUED: Let our professional editors help edit your manuscript, query letter, synopsis and more to get it ready to ship off to agents and publishers for consideration.

And ... for more INGREDIENTS OF CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, click here.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

How to Push Your Characters to Their Limits
How far can a character go before she's "out of character"? Here's how to use the interplay of context, conflict and contradiction to your story's advantage.
Click to continue.

10 Questions with Humor Writer Dan Zevin, Author of Dan Gets a Minivan
As part of my 10 Questions Series, humorist Dan Zevin took a minute to talk with me and answer 10 fascinating questions about humor writing-covering the writing process, finding an agent, important advice for aspiring humor writers and more-that anyone who has ever considered writing humor should check out.
Click to continue.

How to Write a Novel: 7 Tips Everyone Can Use
Here are some basic tips that you can use (no matter what genre you are writing) to help improve your novel.
Click to continue.

Monday, May 13, 2013

5 Ways to Make Your Novel More Suspenseful

Today's guest newsletter is from Hallie Ephron, author of Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Order Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel (or anything else from our shop) today and save 30% off the price with the code WD3013. (Sale ends May 11.)

"A character who unknowingly carries a bomb around as if it were an ordinary package is bound to work up great suspense in the audience."
-Alfred Hitchcock

Suspense happens when a scene becomes charged with anticipation. It's the possibility of what might happen that keeps the reader on the edge of her chair.
Think of the classic suspense scene in the Alfred Hitchcock movie Suspicion. The Joan Fontaine character believes that her charming, wastrel husband, played by Cary Grant, is an embezzler and a murderer who is now out to poison her.

There's a long shot as Grant mounts the stairs, and then the camera focuses on the nightly glass of milk he carries up to her. Everyone in the audience is wondering: Is it poisoned? To heighten the threat and foreboding, Hitchcock had a light bulb placed inside the glass to give it an eerie glow.

To create suspense, your job is to do the literary equivalent of what Hitchcock did by putting that light bulb in the milk: Build dramatic tension by making the ordinary seem menacing.

The writer's tools for achieving this are sensory detail and the slowing down of time.

1. Turn up the Sensory Detail.

By focusing on the right sensory detail, you can heighten the sense of potential menace in everyday objects.
Take this example from my co-written novel, Amnesia. Peter Zak and Annie Squires approach a house where they suspect one of Peter's patients is being held captive.

Tall bushes shrouded a shadowy front porch. Only a sliver of light between drawn drapes suggested anyone was home.
Someone had made an effort to dress up the house for Halloween. On the small lawn, dried cornstalks were teepeed around a lamppost. A pumpkin grinned from the top of a wheelchair ramp. Opposite the pumpkin was a little barrel of chrysanthemums. Beside the front door, barely visible in the shadow, a scarecrow dummy wearing a cowboy hat was slumped in a chair. I exhaled, realizing I'd been holding my breath.
Annie got out and eased the car door shut. I did the same.
We moved up the side of the house, crouching as we passed under the dark windows. I was conscious of every sound-my own breathing, traffic whooshing up and down the adjacent streets, the far-off pulsing wail of a siren. At every step, the sound of leaves crunching underfoot seemed thunderous.

Here the traditional trappings of a New England autumn, like a pumpkin and a scarecrow dummy, seem ordinary and ominous at the same time.
Now let's take apart the pieces and look at what happens, alongside the sensory details that are used to create the suspense ...

30% OFF EVERYTHING: Take advantage of our Spring Sale and get 30% off your total order using the code WD3013. (Offer ends May 11, so order now.)

For the rest of 5 Ways to Make Your Novel More Suspenseful, click here.