Author: Peggy Bechko

Peggy Bechko Lays Down the Law: Write Gripping Tales

"Gripping tails." Get it? Huh? Huh? Oh well, sorry, Peggy
“Gripping tails.” Get it? Huh? Huh? Oh well, sorry, Peggy

by Peggy Bechko

A writer writes, but let’s face it that writer also wants to and needs to sell. So the ideas he or she puts out there have to be good ones. Gripping, engaging, exciting, maybe funny. Every writer I know has more new story ideas tucked away in files on computers than can be counted. And most of them are good ideas. But are they GREAT ideas, because that’s what a writer needs to get that work sold whether a screen script or a novel or an article pitch.

So that leads us to the question. How to take one of those good ideas and make it great, a gripper if a novel, a high concept if a script? One that’ll hook the reader whether editor or script reader or your fans.

I’m going to focus mainly on the screenwriter here since we are on TV Writer, but really the principles apply broadly. The truth of the matter is a new twist on that old, yet good, idea is needed. Something that will make the story more compelling and fill seats in the theater or glue eyes to the novel’s page. The “high concept” in the movie biz. And a ‘high concept’ is: A story the writer can pitch in one good sentence that will allow a film exec or an editor to instantly visualize the story. read article

Peggy Bechko: Stuck in the Mud – The Bogged Down Writer

mud

by Peggy Bechko

If you’re a writer there are times when you get stuck. I’m not talking about full-blown writer’s block (which I have a few opinions on but won’t get into here) just stuck. You know, it’s not that nothing will come and you can’t come up with any creative ideas, it’s more like you reach a point where you have to work out what comes next. You might have ideas that aren’t working or you might just be spinning your wheels.

So here’re a few guidelines to help you, the hapless writer stuck in the mire, to move forward. There are basics to story. Characters, what they need or want, what happens if they don’t get it, how they can get there, what’s the worst thing that can happen and how does the character(s) change throughout the story.

It really is mostly the same for scripts and novels. read article

Peggy Bechko: How Talented are Your Characters? How Skillful?

found on beyondmiles.aeroplan.com

by Peggy Bechko

Have you given real thought, I mean REAL thought, to skills, talents, gifts and abilities you might imbue your characters with? How those skills, etc., can add to the texture of your story, move it forward, integrate within it?

Think about it. From the simple every day like being a spectacular baker or gifted seamstress to the more peculiar like a person who has an amazing tolerance for pain or can see unusually well in the dark to someone who can fix anything or has a photographic memory or is gifted with clairvoyance or the ability to discern tastes or smells no one else can.

There are literally hundreds, maybe even thousands of such scenarios. People can be pretty amazing (not to mention irritating, but we won’t go into that). read article

Peggy Bechko Tells Writers: “Keep Writing!”

Keep-Going

by Peggy Bechko

TV Writer? Screenwriter? Novelist?

I won’t mention writers of shorter pieces because that’s not what I’m going to focus on in this post.

The crux of the matter here is do you have a couple of half-finished novels on your hard drive? Screenplays maybe? You get going with lots of steam and a great idea that’s exciting and motivating, but somewhere along the line something happens. Maybe it feels like the original premise hits a dead end or the writer gets confused about where the original destination was or it just isn’t coming together the way it was hoped. read article

Peggy Bechko tells writers how to “Name that Character!”

whatname

by Peggy Bechko

Name that Character!

Sounds like a game, doesn’t it, but for the writer it’s far from it. If you thought you had a tough time finding a name for your kid, listen up. It can be a far more serious matter to find a name for the characters in your script or novel. (Maybe not to a parent, but certainly to the serious writer.)

It’s all too easy to think of naming a character after a friend, a relative or someone you met once because you happen to remember it. read article