be the story

What Makes Gilmore Girls the Best Show on TV

When I read Michael Ausiello’s recent interview with Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino, two things impressed me. Not what’s going to happen to Gilmore Girls now that the show’s creators have left. Not who fans will blame. Not what will happen in the show’s storyline.

What I noticed was about Dan and Amy:

1. They’re passionate.
2. They’re story geeks!

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Spotlight: The Notebook (the movie) (Review)

Review of The Notebook, directed by Nick Cassavetes, based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks.

An elderly woman (Gena Rowlands) stands, looking out of the nursing home window. An elderly man (James Garner) visits her. She doesn’t know him, but he clearly considers her an old friend. He reads to her a story from a small notebook, a story about young Noah (Ryan Gosling) and his one true love Allie (Rachel McAdams). They fell madly in love one summer. But she comes from a rich family, and her mother doesn’t want her marrying below her class. Allie gets not even one of Noah’s letters. She falls in love with and gets engaged to a handsome busnessman, with her parents’ full support.

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Setting the Mood With Milieu

This is the second part of a series, after Setting the Mood With Expectations.

Another mood-generating device authors use is milieu.

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Pet Peeves: Loose Instead of Lose

I have a long list of pet peeves, some that bug me more than others. One that I see popping up more and more is that people spell lose with two o’s. Lately, I’ve taken to passing over even potentially interesting articles that have this misspelling, such as this recent one: “How inventors and entrepreneurs loose touch with reality.”

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Setting the Mood With Expectations

How do you write moody stories? How do you imbue your prose with overwhelming emotion? It’s all about manipulating the feelings of the audience. Over the next couple of weeks, I want to look at different ways to set the mood. This week, using expectations to set the mood.

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Facts Tell, But Stories Sell

I know I’ve been preoccupied with life recently. So I thought I’d pass along this inspirational tale from Kim Klaver’s blog, “A blind man’s new words get new results.” I originally found it linked from Seth Godin’s blog.

-TimK

Justice, Masthead Style

Magazine Man recently posted a particularly good story on his blog Somewhere on the Masthead. Actually, everything he posts is particularly good, and we’re fortunate to have him in the blogosphere. But this story, in particular, is particularly good. It’s the true story of a bully, a hero, and a jackass with a little power and a lot of empty where his self-esteem ought to be. This story made me fume. It made me cry. It made me smile.

Six parts:

1. In Which McGruff Takes A Bite Out of My Ass…
2. In Which I Cross the Line…
3. In Which Justice Is Blind, Deaf, and DUMB…
4. In Which Scrappers Show Their Scars…
5. In Which No Good Deed…
6. In Which Everything Feels Normal…Almost TOO Normal…

-TimK

Character Ideas Through Substitution

Here’s another way to generate character ideas. Substitute one reaction for another. We all tend to make our characters behave like ourselves or like people we know. So let’s say I’m a computer geek who tends to be shy and reserved, except when I’m talking about computers. Then I’m talkative and outgoing. They say, write what you know. And if I can work these feelings into my character, the character will be more realistic. If I want a character who is different than me, I can feel these same reactions, but apply them in different situations.

For example, I could create a character who is passionate about horticulture or some other subject. He’s quiet and reserved, but ask him about plants and suddenly he’s a fountain of knowledge and amusing anecdotes of our green leafy friends.

Or I could create a character who is generally outgoing by drawing on my own outgoing side and by looking to people I know who are also outgoing. Think of the behaviors they exhibit. But this character has a different background, different passions, different fears, different needs than either I or my friends. She will behave differently than us in the same situations, and she’ll behave the same in different situations.

There are only a few different ways we respond to the world around us. But we each respond differently, with a different mix of these ways, depending on the context. There are only a few character reactions. And a character reaction only becomes a characteristic in a situation. By supplanting reactions and situations, you can produce different characters, each of which is a completely realistic new personality.

Spotlight: Holly Lisle’s Website

Do you love good writing? Do you want to learn to write? Check out fantasy author Holly Lisle’s website.

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My New Blog

I’m not posting today, because last night I started a personal blog. This is a professional and career blog, as opposed to my LiveJournal on which I riff and complain and post creative writing projects (not necessarily in that order).

I’ve been putting off “J. Timothy King’s Blog” for some time, because I haven’t been able to find a block of time in which to install WordPress and integrate it with the rest of my personal site. But it’s something I had to do, and lately I’ve been having so many experiences that I’ve wanted to write about but which are inappropriate for this blog and not right for my LiveJournal.

We will return to our regular programming tomorrow…

-TimK