Category Archives: Writing

Writing

Back Story

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I like the way National Treasure handled back story. This has implications for me, as a writer of fiction, for the movie is really an illustrated novel. In fact, it probably was a novel before it was a movie.

The prologue of young Ben Gates learning about the treasure and how his family became involved with it is essential to understanding the story. It did not have be a prologue, obviously, but I think the prologue works better, rather than working this in as remembrances by Ben during the story. In just a couple of minutes, the stage is set for the rest of the story, including the estangement of Ben and his dad. Very well done, IMHO.

The movie then cuts to the scene in the Arctic, many years later, with Ben and companions on the quest for the Charlotte. No information is given as to how Ben learned: that Charlotte was a ship, not a person; which Charlotte among other ships; learning its itinerary; and figuring out its final resting place. All this is for the viewer to imagine. Even during the balance of the movie, almost no hints are given about the missing years. The only ones I can think of are when the FBI folks are digging into his background. So we don’t know what Ben did to get to the Arctic.

But, we don’t really need to know. An intelligent viewer can figure out in broad concepts what he did. He spent his entire life after the attic scene looking for the treasure. He obtained education in fields that helped his search. He dug around archives for a person named Charlotte who was connected with Charles Carroll or other signers of the Declaration of Independence. He figured out that Charlotte in the clue was a ship, not a woman. Etc. Etc. He traces the ship to an Artic voyage of no return, and somehow figures out where the ship ended its fateful last voyage. All of this comes to the viewer in an instant, in the cut from the attic to the Arctic. Well done.

Also well done is the lack of back story about the relationships: Gates with Ian, Gates with Riley, and others. The story is not harmed by lack of knowledge about these, even with only limited back story supplied during the movie (poker buddies, windowless cubicle). Sufficient for the viewer’s enjoyment is that these people did meet, form relationships, and start working together. The specifics are not important.

May my handling of back story in the fiction I write be as good as in this movie.

Church History Novels, critique group, Doctor Luke's Assistant, Writing

Getting Things Done

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For some time now I have thought that a wonderful name for a magazine column would be “The Wonderful Feeling Of…”. The continuation would be different for each column, things such as:

– Telling the Truth
– Saving Money
– Helping Another
– Meeting Old Friends
– Getting Things Done
– Saying a Prayer
etc.

These would be uplifting columns that explain how these things serve to enhance one’s life.

For this weekend, Getting Things Done is definitely the correct column. I did nothing on my own writing, but when I dropped into bed Sunday night I had the feeling that I had indeed accomplished much. Taking down the outside Christmas lights, undecorating and storing the Christmas tree, boxing minor Christmas decorations, sharing Sunday lunch with good friends, balancing the checkbook (done on Friday, I think), completing 2007 budget tracking (somewhat depressing) and setting up 2008 spreadsheet, taking 2-year old children’s church on Sunday–with 11 of the little darlings present and mostly accounted for, resting Sunday afternoon, and even getting to read a little. All of this was good stuff, and very fulfilling.

The main writing work I did was completing the critique of a chapter of another writer’s book. I met Jon at the HACWN conference in Kansas City in November, and we discovered our main works-in-progress were both in the same historical era, though in different parts of the Roman world. We have stayed in contact, and swapped chapters for reading, with the openess to critique. Well, I dug into the critique part. Saturday evening I pulled up the Word file, and using some handy macros I’ve written, did a lot of double strike-through and redlines, all with explanatory notes. Jon may not have bargained for this, but I did not cut down his story. I mainly showed him some places where a reader might have some problems with the setting, and where clarification was in order.

This was very fulfilling work. I think I learn more about my own writing when I critique others. I see things they do that I’m not looking for in my own work. The mere act of critiquing causes me to think about word use, grammar, clarity of descriptions, use of modifiers, consistency and immediacy of voice, etc. I find no better way to spend two or three hours improving my writing than to critique the work of another. I have one more critique to do, for another writer I met on line, then I’ll be ready to work on marketing Documenting America.

Church History Novels, Doctor Luke's Assistant, Writing

Took a Day Off

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Yes, yesterday I took a day off from writing. Having finished this round of edits of Doctor Luke’s Assistant, and with the television coverage of the Iowa caucuses, I decided to spend the evening in a combination of relaxing, balancing the checkbook, and filing family financial papers. I’m not saying DLA is done, for I’m always open to improvement, but I will not re-read it or do any more edits except in response to comments from others, be they beta readers, editors, agents, whoever.

For the next few days, I will have about four writing-related tasks. First, file the mark-ups for DLA. I have a bunch of them, not just from this round, but from the previous as well. Second, print a copy for file and beta readers. Third, critique two different bits of writing from two authors I’ve met either on-line or at conferences. One of these I have already made extensive mark-ups for, and just need to type them in a Word file and mail them. I have found that critiquing the work of others is one of the best ways of improving my craft. Fourth, begin (again) marketing research for Documenting America. That will be the subject of my next post.

writer's platform, Writing

I Blog, Therefore I Am

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Herein I enter the Blogosphere, with my personal blog that will, hopefully, deal with my writing life as it develops, as well as other interests. With time, I may find that splitting this into different blogs is the better way to go. A separate blog for writing, for genealogy, for politics, for Christian interests. We’ll see how this goes.

At first, I will write some posts about my proposed newspaper column, Documenting America. This may be the first work I am able to get published. The Benton County Daily Record published four of these in 2003-2004 in the guest editorial program, which tells me it is probably a viable concept.

Later, I’ll talk about my fiction ideas, still later some non-fiction ideas, and of course poetry. Should anything I write appear to be nearing publication, I’ll talk about it more.

This blog will be the first piece of my web presence, later to be joined by a home page, specific, non-blog pages for specific items, and hopefully message boards for specific documents. Of course, at present all of this is pie-in-the-sky, but better to get the basics going now and build everything slowly as success demands. If nothing else, making frequent posts will be writing practice and discipline buildings. Having the blog to feed might just help me break the computer game habit. Possibly I’ll even add some engineering stuff.

Time to add a post I prepared a few weeks ago about Documenting America.