no matter what you do with your life someone will criticize you. Cashier? Waiter? Truck driver? Someone isn't going to like something that you did. Some people were born to be d***s.
So fuhgeddaboutit. Write, be criticized, and keep writing. If you're going to be criticized, be criticized for telling your own stories/doing your own thing.
The audience has always wanted to absorb stories, always wanted to braid them into their social, intellectual and emotional tapestries.
...It’s about asking, “What do I want to write? What do I love? What do I want to read?” It’s about creating stories and art that are products of wonder and madness
picture this scenario. We notice emergency lights ahead. The oncoming traffic lane is shut down and looks like a debris field. Two mangled cars lay in ruins, and there are still figures draped with blue blankets surrounded by somber EMTs. Do you feel badly? Unless you’re a sociopath, of course you do.
Now…
You look into that same oncoming lane, and one of the cars you recognize. It belongs to the nice family you chatted with in line at Wal Mart when you had to wait 40 minutes in the customer service line. You even helped the dad load groceries and put away their cart so the mom could buckle in their babies. You had to stop for gas, but 30 minutes ago that family was alive and well and now the coroner’s van is showing on the scene.
Before you cared…now you are connected.
“Let’s just say I will give you $50,000 if, in the next hour, you can find 5 people who would love your book.”
...Now, with $50,000 on the line for a mere hour’s worth of work, your mind begins racing. You get super specific. You think of the core themes or topics in your book; you think of competitive books who have an already established audience. Then you consider the exact physical places you can go to reach these readers; the ways these people are already organized – already self-selected and filtered based on previous behavior and interests; you think about who has access to these people; you consider where these people are online and off; you focus on actual names of people you can call at this very moment.
Consumers buy books according to the principle of self-interest. They need to know what’s in it for them... {whether} pure entertainment, personal inspiration, or fascinating information.
romances, fantasy, westerns, and so on – sell so well precisely because the audience does know within certain parameters how the story will end {and the emotions that will be evoked}.
One trick many writers use to create immediate, low-level empathy for their protagonist is to introduce the character in a situation that the reader is likely to have physically experienced. The trick usually serves dual purpose by also generating curiosity as to why the character is in that situation.
bored/shivering whilst waiting for something/someone; eyes swollen with crying; standing/walking in a cold wind.
let the emotion come from the subtext. If we, as readers, know how a situation is going to affect the character—how this will make their goals harder to achieve, how this will hurt them, how their subdued reactions hide their true pain—then we will sympathize
Do you excel at creating tension? Unpredictable plot complications? Sympathetic characters? Suspense? Romance? Historical detail?... relish the satisfaction of leaving a particular, distinguishing mark.
“Who’s your reader?”...http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/who-is-your-target-reader
When an editor or agent asks... they aren’t just looking for a demographic – they’re looking for your motivation.. the implied question...“why are you the right writer to tell this story?”
See this question as an opportunity to show both the businesslike and passionate sides of yourself – i.e., why this is a marketable book and why you alone of all the souls on earth were born to write it... {to e}xplain where your ideas come from and how they develop over time.
“Who’s your target reader?” ... “9-13 year old girls. It really bothers me how they’re pressured to grow up too fast. Last Christmas I was talking to my niece and it hit me that her childhood is so different from mine, that….”
Most genres carry a target audience with them like a parade float... there’s an ambiance that readers expect when they enter that world. As a novelist, you violate that expectation at your own peril.
“Once upon a time, there was a little girl who always wore a red riding hood. . . .”
{T}ell it as a spy thriller... as a historical romance... as a deep-space science fiction.
a great setting... makes us imagine how we'd react if we were placed in that world. And it makes us wonder whether we have the makeup to thrive within it.
Giving the reader a question she wants to know the answer to is not the same as withholding the interesting stuff until the end.
The very best time to write is right now, before you’ve had anything published, before anyone knows who you are and what your voice sounds like. You can write without any publisher (or reader) expectations. You can do whatever you want. ENJOY THIS TIME! As soon as you publish a book, that changes.
don't just go for the standard car chase or love scene. Build your set pieces on what's original to your story.
“the big, audience pleasing scenes that deliver on the genre elements of the movie.” In a successful comedy they’re the scenes that have you clutching your sides with laughter. In a good action movie they’re the scenes that put you on the edge of your seat holding your breath. In a horror movie they’re the scenes that make you cover your eyes in terror. In a romance they’re the scenes that have you reaching for your loved one’s hand.He recommends 5-10 set pieces per movie.
Ask yourself “logic questions”... they’re one of the first things pitchees and potential buyers ask. Logic questions are about internal consistency and world cohesion, e.g. “Why is the monster attacking this specific town?”, or “Why does she agree to marry him when she’s shown to be terrified of commitment?”, etc.
Change. Most of us fear it in life, but we crave it in fiction.
I have a theory that if the author is excited by the scene they are writing, excited by what is coming next... that excitement and anticipation can carry over to the reader.H.R.Filmore's Reminders To Self, March 2011.
timelessness comes from the themes and characters and experiences more than from references or other small details. Regardless of dated elements, we still read the classics because they’re good stories and great voices…those will always be the key to staying relevant.http://kidlit.com/2010/11/19/references-and-dating-your-manuscript/
Do an emotional pass… not for the protagonist, but for the audience. Go through each scene in your script and ask, “What do I want the audience to feel?”. If you can’t answer, the scene’s probably either muddled or unnecessary.http://screenwritingtips.tumblr.com/ #507
