Writers Fun Zone: Writing who I’m not!

Here is a link to an article I wrote for writing coach and novelist Beth Barany: Writing What I Am Not.

http://www.writersfunzone.com/blog/2016/02/26/writing-not-david-strom/

I decided to write this article when a gay minister friend of mine gave me advice on my story starring Super Holly’s friend Fred “Flex” Lexington, the superpowered gay barbell boy with the ray of sunshine personality. I also discuss the advice I have received from women over the years about writing Super Holly. I am neither gay nor a woman, so I sought advice their advice. In this article, I say how I used it.

Thank you, Beth. You are a great writer and an inspiration to us aspiring writers. Check out her site. And her weekly Blab chat every Wednesday at 2pm (I suggest you use Chrome for Blab).

 

My video Blab with writing coach Beth Barany!

I joined a chat on Blab with Beth Barany. She asked for guests to join the video, so I joined. If you want to find out what I sound and look like, (and get good editing advice from Beth), click the URL link below. I show up about 13 minutes into the video. The subject was editing your own writing.

https://blab.im/b55de0e0d104414aa05aa8bc2de7adc6

Beth had good advice. She is a writing coach, after all. She suggests reading the story you are editing in a different format, such as on a Kindle or on paper. Or reading it out loud. Also, we writers write for ourselves, but we edit for our readers. Oh, yes, that is so true!

P.S. Harrumph, I could not embed the Blab video into my blog, but you can click the link above.

My article on Writer’s Fun Zone

Beth Barany, writer coach and author of kickass heroine Henrietta, asked me to write an article about how Alfred Hitchcock influenced my writing. I wrote it. I sent it. And she posted it on her Writer’s Fun Zone website.

Click here and check it out! I had fun writing it. And it links to a few YouTube videos of Alfred that are fun to watch. FUN FUN FUN!!!

For every story action, there must be a point-of-view reaction

Beth Barany, writer and writing coach, did an hour-long live twitter chat today. I tweetily asked “What is the best way to really get your reader into the POV character’s head?”

She tweetily answered, “Create empathy by showing the thought processes, emotions, action from the inside out. #askawritingcoach”

Thank you, Beth. You packed great advice into 140 characters, including the hash tag.

I asked because I am working on two short stories due on Oct 1 (Scripting Change and Fault Zone). They feel dry. Why? I related actions and dialog, but not nearly enough of the point-of-view (POV) character’s thoughts and feelings. For nearly every action to the POV, the POV should have a thought/feeling reaction.

One story POV: Karate Queen, a supervillainess gone straight. Confident, poetic, arrogant, but regretting her past and helping poor abused women. What does the Karate Queen think after tossing Super Holly (the woman who put her in jail) onto the mat three times to help teach those women self-defense? Happiness? Satisfaction? Boredom that Holly didn’t make her sweat even a little? How does she feel when a villain tries to steal one of the abused women by turning Holly’s repressed anger at the Queen up to 1111, and then the Queen discovers that her powers can no longer stop Holly’s super-sledge-hammer fists? Fear? Desperation? Courage? How do I say that in her confident, poetic thoughts?

Another story POV: Cal the Intellectual, a mix of Roger Ebert and Mr. Spock, and a little bit of Batman for scaring crooks. What does he think when the super-hulking Harry Headbutt glares down at him while Super Holly, the love of his life, is preening and posing for paparazzi? Confusion? Fear? Frustration at Holly not doing her job? Calculating how to dodge Headbutt fists that can squash him flatter than a Swedish pancake? (I know those things, I have made and eaten them for decades.) How does he feel when Holly, who was possessed by Bobby Breaker (the evil Soul Surfer), finally fights back against Bobby by machine-gun punching herself in the face because she can take it and Bobby can’t? Love? Pride? Hope? How do I say that in his super smart, movie critic thoughts?

My current critique group said that in my Kittygirl story, they rode in Kittygirl’s POV head. Goodie. I was doing some POV thoughts and feelings in my latest two stories. But I need … nay, I want … nay, I LUST for more!

I can’t wait to work on my two stories again! Strap myself in and ride those two heads! Cranial rollercoaster, here I come! Except I am limited to 2500 words. I’ll likely need to cut some. There is always a little fat.

P.S. This POV lust started burning with me reading Call Me Pomerory. James Hanna strapped me into Pomeroy’s head, and I rollercoaster-rode every arrogant thought and lust-charged feeling of that crazy narcissist in reaction to everyone in the people who need to know his greatness. FUN!!!

P.P.S. In my previous post’s YouTube link, Alfred Hitchcock did not care about what the story was about, just how to use that story to evoke an emotional response. Action is the story, but without emotion, action dries up.

Novelist Beth Barany put me in Writer’s Fun Zone!

Beth Barany, a local fantasy novelist (Henrietta The Dragon Slayer and lots of others), was nice enough to put me on her Writer’s Fun Zone website. This was a perk from my winning the Honorable Mention in this year’s Carry the Light. Beth writes, coaches, and does other great stuff that helps writers. I can (and should) learn so much more from her.

I think it might have been Beth who, about a year ago, told me that the little girl Holly saves in my novel’s first chapter seemed to be oriental. I ran with that, and thus Kittygirl’s real name is now Katsuko Kimura, and Kittygirl’s mom is a small and tough Japanese woman. If I am right, thank you, Beth. And since I think Beth likely helped me get into Carry the Light (I have not asked that yet), thanks again.

Here is a link to my interview in Writer’s Fun Zone. Thank you, Beth. I am honored again.

 

I am being HONOR(able mention)ED! And published again.

I will be published again. YAY! I got an email from Beth Barany, writing coach and fantasy writer of Henrietta, a kick-ass heroine. (I think Henrietta would get along with Holly.)

.

“Congratulations, you’re a Winner in the Genre Novel First Chapter contest!  In fact, you’re a Carry The Light winner, for your entry, Fanboys Shrugged. It was a close contest!”

.

Carry The Light is an anthology from SF peninsula writers. You can link to previous versions here (but I am not in those). I got an honorable mention for the first chapter in my novel. Chapter Zero, Holly Hansson’s Superpowered Origin Story. I think nearly everyone who enters gets into Carry The Light, but I also think that not everyone gets a prize. I took my prize: a couple of Beth’s ebooks for authors. I am reading The Writer’s Adventure. It’s good.

.

I will post a link when the 2015 edition with MY TOTALLY AWESOME NOVEL CHAPTER is published. If you are going to the San Mateo County Fair, you can likely buy a hardcopy at the fine arts stage. Also, it will likely be sold through Amazon. I’ll buy both. First time I will be in a printed book, if you don’t count technical manuals or my old Strom’s Index column.

.

I will be editing my novel chapter on the advice of the pro editor. She wanted more description of the comic book shop. It is another chance to geek up my writing! The pro editor liked Kittygirl and her mom in this chapter, by the way, so I intend to send her a copy of my Kittygirl short story after my final polish. I think she’d like it.

.

I also changed the name of my novel from The Comic Book Code to Fanboys Shrugged. I’d rather satirize Atlas Shrugged than The DaVinci Code in my title. But I will likely have a chapter named The Comic Book Code. And I have set a goal: finish the entire first draft by my birthday in October as a present to myself. I will be the big SIX-O.

Who’s on first? Who’s on third? The reader should be, that’s who!

As in First Person instead of Third Person. As in writing, “My head hurt,” instead of, “Holly’s head hurt.” Which one makes you feel Holly’s pain? Question: Which one puts you in the driver’s seat? Answer: It hurts more if it is your head that hurts.

I have been working on my point of view (POV) in my writing. Point of view as in you see a novel chapter, or a short story, only from that character’s point of view. And I mean WORKING on it for the past several months. Last Saturday, I was at the San Mateo County Fair’s literary stage (check them out on Author Day on June 14 Saturday). I had some lady authors—Beth Barany, Laurel Anne Hill, and Sandra Saidak—briefly review the first chapter of my novel. Sandra laughed, Beth and Laurel were more serious. They were good critics. One big comment was that I should work on POV. For example, Laurel said, “Where is the narrator?” Beth said that we need Holly’s emotional reaction to a character’s artwork. (Alfred Hitchcock’s movies, Alfred said, were about evoking an emotional response. Strong POV is emotional.)

The book “Rivet Your Readers with Deep Point Of View” by Jill Elizabeth Nelson discusses getting into the POV character’s head, even when you are writing third person. Lots of good advice in that book. It set me on the POV path.

But there is another way to get close POV. Write in first person. It forces you to get into the POV head and STAY THERE! So I will rewrite my short stories to be first person. Yes, even the bad hair day story, which really should have been on Amazon by now! I think the novel will still be in third person (as in close third, deep POV) because it will have more than one POV character. maybe I’ll write the novel chapters in first person, and then find and replace “I” with the name of the POV character.

Anyhow. I have been very bugged with how parts of my stories drifted out of the POV head and into the omniscient narrator cloud, and clouds don’t make for great reading. (Galactus was a cloud in the second Fantastic Four flick, and clouds make boring villains!) I want the first person trick to fasten me into the POV driver seat with thick seat belts. I want my readers to see, hear, smell, taste, touch, feel, think, and get FURIOUS at what Holly does! (Or what Cal the Intellectual does, I have just started a new story with his POV.)

I am well into rewriting the bad hair day. I’ll see how it goes. (Yes, I saved the old copy!)

P.S. Tense? I use past tense. (Except for a few short sections in the novel, and that is for a very special reason.)