by Peggy Bechko…In Hollywood – or somewhere!
You’ve no doubt been told some of these things before – perhaps even here on TVWriter™, but it is worth bringing up again and reminding you of some things you should and most certainly should not do in order to get someone, somewhere to read what you’ve written.
You DO want to appear professional, don’t you? In fact I’ve no doubt you want to BE professional. So here goes.
For myself, as a writer, I’ve never really known what direction my career might take. I loved writing novels and I enjoyed creating scripts from the movies in my head.
Yes, I’ve written and published novels; sixteen of them at last count, mostly traditionally published with houses such as Doubleday, Harlequin, Five Star and others, but additionally as an Indie writer.
I’ve also written and optioned a number of screenplays, written blogs (this one included along with being a regular Contributing Editor at TVwriter.net). Be sure to visit. I talk about writing and will be doing a longer, ‘how this all started’ article there.
You heard me and you know what I mean. To make a story really jump, to grab the viewer’s or reader’s attention, you, the writer, have to get in there and raise the stakes. Make it really personal for the ‘hero’ or ‘heroine.” There’s no better way to really rope ‘em in.
So how, you ask, to you raise the stakes like that?
Ask yourself the question, what are the most personal things, things that affect the everyday lives of the people who’ll be watching that movie or reading that book, that can happen if the character fails at whatever his task is?
As I’ve gone through life writing I’ve heard a whole lot of sayings and quotes on the subject of writing, publishing, screenwriting…you name it, and I’ve stopped to ponder a few I thought were worthwhile. Heck I’ve pondered a lot I thought were full of it.
Here are some I’ve liked; or not.
“You need tools in the toolbox to write.” Yep. All righty. And what might they be?
All kinds of writers (fiction, business, non-fiction, etc.) have all kinds of reasons they need to self-edit.
For starters – well it’s the place to start. Even if you have it in your budget to hire a professional editor or you have friends in the office standing by to do a read through, the fact of the matter is you need to do a self-edit first…and maybe last.
Great news is there are all kinds of helps you can use. But, of course there are advantages and downsides to using those tools.