Movies on Paper: Star Wars

I've written many posts about books that became films. Much more rarely, this happens in reverse: people write books inspired by movies. The best example you're likely to find is Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope. It was on film first. Now, it's in everything.

The Film

I'm certain there's nothing I can tell you about Star Wars that you don't already know, except maybe that I find Family Guy's to be the definitive spoof and I'm sorry, Mel Brooks (Spaceballs reference). 

It's basically your classic heroic tale, only set in space. The story, to paraphrase, goes something like this. A pretty young and untried filmmaker named George Lucas got an epic idea for a movie, so he wrote it all out. He started showing it around, and movie studios were overwhelmed. They told Lucas he didn't have a movie in his hand -- he had several movies. So Lucas selected the middle chunk of his epic sci-fi fantasy story and said, let's make this into a movie. The studio said, let's make it three.

So they released A New Hope, technically the fourth chapter in the epic story but the first movie made in the franchise, in 1977. 

It blew everybody away. The special effects were mind-boggling and the story so good, everybody pretty much overlooked the fact that three unknown actors were playing the leading roles. Star Wars has it all: romance, mystery, space battles, scary soldier guys, a creepy villain with an amazing name, a little weird guy who's surprisingly wise, a princess, swordplay...and a Bigfoot. It hits all demographics. 

This was a sci-fi movie to end all sci-fi movies, and the franchise has done nothing but grow for the past thirty-five years. A New Hope spawned (so far) 5 more movies, comic books...and dozens of novels.

The Books

There are way, way too many Star Wars books to list, and the authors are numerous as well. Suffice it to say that a great many authors have been inspired by the first film and its subsequent sequels and prequels. Read them to learn a great deal more about different periods in time and all your favorite characters from the films.

Moved to Write

A good story is a good story in any medium. My Twitter followers might know that I'm a big fan of The Walking Dead, which was inspired by a series of graphic novels, and I am not a fan of comic books. There aren't a lot of movies that have inspired authors to create books, but it is proof that inspiration to write can come from anywhere. 

If you can't find your own story to tell but the words inside you are clawing to get out, why not try an adaptation? Many successful, and wonderful, books have been written as adaptations or re-tellings of other stories. Shakespeare and Jane Austen remain favorites in the adapted classics department, but your inspiration may come from anywhere. Tell us the untold story of someone from one of your favorite movies, or books, or poems or even songs. It's still an original idea if it's something that hasn't been seen before, a twist perhaps on something we have. 

Who knows? Maybe you'll write something so interesting, others will be inspired by you.

Writing 101: Getting an Agent

So, you want to get a literary agent. You've written you book, and it's good. Good? It's great! Agents ought to fall over themselves for it. ...If only you knew how to get to the agents. I can tell you how to do it, but I can't promise you'll be happy with the results.

How to Get an Agent

First, don't bother querying any agents until your book is done, done, done. I'm talking it had better be edited and polished to the nines, or you're only doing yourself a huge disservice. Once it is, I want you to put together a list. Do whatever you can to make sure it's a big list. 

• The List

Let me preface this by saying that this is going to take some time. You increase your chances if you take the time to follow these steps, and even then your chances are slim. That's the nature of the business. Go to Agent Query first. This is a reputable site that contains listings of literary agents. Use the search feature to seek agents who accept your genre. Select other criteria as desired. It goes without saying that if you can't pigeonhole your genre, don't bother doing this. If you want to get yourself an agent, you have to got to sell it. You can't sell it if you can't define it. Again, this is just the way the business works. 

Get out your Writer's Market next. If you don't have one, get one. It's really one of the best tools for writers, and I'm pretty sure it's now available in an e-version so that might be the best way to go. Either way, you have to go through the agent listings (and the book has many; it is quite thick). Copy the relevant information for all the potential agents you find. They will be listed by genre and a good deal of additional information will be offered, so this will take some time. Put the list together and save it. You will need it again. Take care not to get repeats; you will find many of the same agents in the Writer's Market and on Agent Query. 

• The Letter

You've got a nice juicy list of agents -- great! Now, you have to write a great pitch letter, also known as the query. First rule: five paragraphs, no more, and make them short and sweet. Agents receive hundreds of letters every day and they will definitely skip yours if you decide to wax poetic for 9 meaty paragraphs. 

Get right to the point, but let your natural voice shine through. The first line of the letter should be your hook. Ask a question, make a strong statement, say something crazy. The name of this game is to write whatever it takes to get their attention, though I do suggest you relate it in some way to your book. For example, if I wanted to pitch a book based off of this blog, my letter might begin with something provocative like What do most authors get wrong when they're writing books? Then I'll go on to answer that question by pushing my agenda.

The opening paragraph is your hook and your brief intro -- sort of a hey look at this! It's my book and my name is Jade, only much more professional. The second paragraph goes into more detail. Answer basic technical questions by telling them the length of the book, how many chapters, and the basic plot. Again, get right to the point. You don't have to be flowery, just compelling. Show that you have a good understanding of your own material by describing it in a succinct, interesting way. 

The two following paragraphs should go on to explain the book in more detail, and detail your own qualifications and your target audience. Tell them who this book appeals to, and why. Tell them why you're the best to write it, and anything else you can toss in there. Have you self-published already? Do you have a big blog following or lots of fans on Twitter? As the saying goes, if you've got it, flaunt it. Don't pull your punches in this letter. 

In the closing and final paragraph, quickly sum it up. State that you're seeking representation for this project and thank them for their time and consideration. Always include your contact information at the bottom. Do not send anything else. Send only the query until and unless you are instructed to do otherwise. 

And All the Rest

Fifty percent of the time, you will hear nothing back from any agent either way. Of those who do respond to you, most are likely to be rejections. However, if you have written a strong enough query letter you will get at least one response. Write a brilliant query and you may get more. Read the email they send you more than once and follow all instructions to the letter. Good luck! 

Writing 101: If You Don't Know About It...

Then why are you writing about it? As some of you probably know, I spend much too much time reading forums. Often, I'm wading through endless questions about setting, animal husbandry, types of vegetables, head trauma...one guy sincerely wanted information about bear attacks, because the animals aren't native to his geographic region. It's a pretty thin excuse for practicing a really bad writing tactic: overreaching...and I could make an argument for laziness, too. Either way, it's bad - so stop! There are alternatives to asking random questions about the secret life of onion bulbs in open, public writer forums. 

 Totally Unfamiliar Territory

I find it incredibly mind-boggling that so many writers would use plot devices with which they are utterly unfamiliar -- particular when so much stuff could just be changed to fit something about which the author is more knowledable. Let's go back to bear guy, shall we?

In the book he was creating (and this is a general "he," I can't possibly know the sex of the person who posted the question but bear attack feels like a masculine choice to me), one of the characters was going to get attacked by a bear. Yet he knows nothing about bear attacks, so why not ask a public forum group at large for help?

Why not, indeed? Allow me to count the ways.

• Anonymous answers are always the wrong answer: You're writing a book that's meant to be published. The minute you put some incorrect information in there about the habits of bears, I promise you that one of the people who reads your work will be some sort of ranger, zookeeper or animal expert. They will call you out on Amazon and you will feel bad about it. You don't know who's answering your forum questions or what the heck they know about bears or any other subject. Until you get it from three respectable sources, it just isn't true. That's it.
• You should do your own work: I'm an indie author like you, not your personal research assistant. It's rather unfair for anyone to go around on forums asking random research questions. Why? Because I already know you know how to use the Internet; you're posting on forums. Clearly you can find this out yourself, so why are you asking? In the same amount of time, you can discover the info. I touched on this very thing in another forum-related rant (thinly disguised as a blog post), but it bears repeating because it keeps happening.
• You don't know what you are talking about: If you have to look up bear behavior and attacks to finish a scene, maybe change the scene. Why? Because reading text about how bears attack and looking at pictures of grizzlies just isn't the same as facing a pissed off one in the woods, that's why. You haven't been in that situation, and maybe you've never even seen a bear. Why put one in the story? Write the scene to describe an event that maybe you are a little more familiar with, and you'll be able to add so much more to it. Writing what you imagine is great, but it adds a lot more depth when you write what you know. 

As an author, you will have to explore totally unfamiliar territory a lot. You have to think about characters and feelings and motives and settings and events. Don't make it any harder on yourself than you have to. You get to choose the plots and the setting, so try to choose something that you're comfortable with. You can create a scifi world that still resembles your geographic region in some ways. You can invent animals that are similar to the pet rabbit you had as a kid. Interject real memories and knowledge of your own into your stories, and you'll see that you write much better stories.

Writing 101: What Should You Blog About?

I must admit, I've been avoiding this topic for a while, though I see it crop up constantly. Many self-published authors are told to start blogging to build a fan base, which sounds simple enough. Doesn't everybody offer free blogs these days? Isn't design easy thanks to built-in templates? So you create your blog and pick a pretty design...and then horror strikes. What the heck are you supposed to blog about?

Blogs, Books and Writing...Oh, My

It seems like there ought to be a simple solution, right? After all, you're a writer...shouldn't blogging be a breeze? In truth, maintaining a blog can be pretty hard work, especially when you'd rather be hard at work on your next book. It's especially hard if you aren't committed to your topic. So...what's your topic?

In the world of self-published author blogs, there are a few different types of blogs you'll see a lot.

• The author blog: This is a blog dedicated to telling readers about your work as a writer. What are you working on now? What happened today? Allowing readers into the process of your writing can be a very effective blogging style, but make sure you've got stuff to write about. This is why I personally have avoided writing a full-on author blog of this sort; I can't find a way to make typing for 12 hours day sound at all entertaining. Molly Snow's is one of the really good author blogs out there.
• The book blog: If you're a writer, it follows that you love books. This is why a great deal of self-published authors have book blogs. A book blog is a great choice because there's always something new to write about and lots of interesting recurring features you can add. Book reviews, cover reveals, excerpts, sneak peeks and author interviews are all common elements on book blogs. You'll find a good example at Aside From Writing.
• The personal blog: If you're an interesting person, or capable of writing blog posts that make you sound as though you are, you can always maintain a personal blog that features a mix of all your activities and snippets of daily life. Here, you'll talk about your writing, your reading and other aspects of your life. If you're naturally open and lead a pretty interesting life, this may be a perfect choice. A good example of this type of blog can be found courtesy of Annalisa Crawford.
• The niche blog: If you are an expert or an enthusiast in any particular topic, and it happens to pertain to any aspect of writing or reading or books, you should use it. Parlay this interest into a blog, as I have done. Look to Redwood's Medical Edge to find a much better example of a writing-related niche blog.

If you don't want to blog about your own writing, blog about other people's. Or maybe blog about writing in general, books you love. Whatever you choose, blog about something that you are interested in and something you can write about with some degree of knowledge or skill. Make sure the information you blog is correct, or you will lose credibility with readers. And stick with it. Many self-published authors are discouraged by very slow progress, but if you continue to blog and strike up professional relationships with other bloggers you will slowly build up a base of readers.

Writing 101: Hooked on an Ending

Sometimes the end is the first part of a story that reveals itself. When you get stuck thinking about it, you may never have the chance to write it. 

A Love Story

Once, just once, I fell in love with a story. I was so besotted, I couldn't stop thinking about the characters and setting even after the book was done. I imagined new plots, new events, new characters and brand-new jokes. 

I started the sequel almost as soon as I finished the book I so loved. I knew exactly how it would start, the time period I wanted to cover...and I knew just how it would end. With tears, and a poignant moment next to a tree. It's really much better than it sounds.

I was in love again. So I started my sequel, and blazed through the first few chapters like this was the story I'd been born to tell. I was so excited I couldn't type fast enough.

At first. Then I got through all the setup chapters...and realized I was very far from reaching my oh-so-dramatic ending.

I'd forgotten all about the middle part of the book. I knew how to write the ending...I didn't know how to get to the ending.

Beginning at the Beginning

The trouble with falling in love with an ending is clear: it wont ever love you back. I never did finish writing that book, and there's a whole long story about me and writer's block that happens before I resolved that particular issue. There were lots of reasons I couldn't finish that story, but since then I have managed to finish several others. 

Don't think too far ahead. I advocate writing an outline, and figuring out every single step it takes to get all the way to the end. But after that, begin at the beginning of the story...and write it. Don't think about the next chapter, or the final scene. Just focus on the one you're writing in that moment. The end of the story may evolve as you write it, so you have to be flexible. Treat every scene like it might be the last you write; as far as you know, it is. If you're thinking too far ahead, you're not giving the right amount of attention to the rest of the story.

Books on Film: The Help

The Help shot to fame after its 2009 release, becoming one of those "must-read" novels on everyone's book club list. After the novel rocketed up the bestseller list, the subsequent film became a surprising blockbuster. In either medium, the story is fantastic...but if you've only experienced one version, you're missing an awful lot. 

The Book

Kathryn Stockett wrote her debut novel The Help just a few years ago, but the book takes place in entirety in the 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi. She wrote the book for 5 years and got rejected by more than 50 agents before finding someone to represent her. It was on the New York Times bestseller list for more than 100 weeks.

Primarily, the story is told through the eyes of Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter. Aibileen is a maid of African-American descent who cleans house and cares for the children of white families. She is currently working for the Leefolts, her first job after the death of her son. Aibileen keeps the Leefolt house and cares for their young daughter Mae Mobley. Minny is Aibileen's closest friend who has trouble keeping a job -- she's been fired from 19 of them. She worked recently for Hillly Holbrook's mother, Mrs. Walters. Hilly is known to one and all; she's the head of the Junior League and the de factor social leader of the community.

Skeeter, whose name is actually Eugenia Phelan, grew up on a successful cotton farm. She's returned home from college with ambitions to become a writer, though her mother hopes Skeeter will marry. Upon returning home, Skeeter finds that the maid who raised her, Constantine, has mysteriously departed. No one will tell her what has happened.

It gets her to thinking about what it's like to be an African-American maid in Mississippi, and she starts asking questions. For the first time, Skeeter is paying attention to how other white families treat their maids. But the maids are reluctant to talk to Skeeter about their working lives in any way, until one of them reaches a breaking point. Aibileen and Minny eventually open up to Skeeter, and the book is created.

In many novels, this is where the story would end. This is not the case with The Help. In this book, the reader gets to see the ramifications of Skeeter's efforts. The results are pretty hilarious, and touching.

The Film

The big screen version of The Help came to theaters in 2011 and made a huge splash. Awards were passed out and hype was everywhere, for good reason: it's a darned good movie. Skeeter is played by Emma Stone on film, a casting decision that some lovers of the book have criticized. Stone did a wonderful job as the young, would-be journalist, but she is very petite with a slender 5-foot-4 frame. In the book, Skeeter is a big woman. Bryce Dallas Howard wonderfully portrays bitchy Hilly Holbrook, and Octavia Spencer earned an Oscar for her turn as Minny Jackson.

Skeeter initially approaches Aibileen for help with her "homemaker hints" column, the only writing job she's landed. But the more time Skeeter spends with Aibileen, the more she sees the deplorable way Hilly Holbrook and others treat "the help" in their household. After Minny is fired from the Holbrook household, Aibileen helps her find a job working for Celia Foote (played by Jessica Chastain in a highly-praised performance). Still, Aibileen and Minny are the only two willing to share stories with Skeeter. The New York publisher that Skeeter is speaking to urges her to get stories from more maids, and to do it quickly before the Civil Rights "fad" passes. 

When Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers is killed in Jackson and Hilly's maid is subsequently arrested, the other maids start to come forward. Minny tells Skeeter her most secret story, the "Terrible Awful," to make certain none of the white families will admit to having any involvement with the book. Skeeter also learns the truth about Constantine at long last. The book is released, and becomes a huge success, though it does ruffle a few feathers.

The story ends happily enough, as happily as it possibly could. The Civil Rights Act did make things a little better for African-Americans in the United States, and the women's movement made things better for African-American women in particular, but the world would wait 50 years before an African-American landed the highest job in the land.

What Got Adapted?

The movie understandably glosses over some of the harder facts that are openly shared in the book. At the top of the movie, Aibileen mentions that she has raised 17 children for white folks. In the book, we understand that she eventually left them all because they all broke her heart. Though she loved them, these white children she raised learned how to be racists at the knees of their parents...and all began to see Aibileen as something less than them.

Minny's last scene with Celia Foote has been changed considerably on film. Celia, who has been trying to learn how to cook from Minny for months, has prepared a gigantic meal for Minny to tell her that she may always work in her household. In the book, Celia doesn't learn how to cook or to clean and really can't do much of anything useful. She does promise Minny a lifelong job, more or less, telling her that Hilly can't get her fired from this household...but Celia doesn't have a lot of options, either.

Skeeter's mother is also softened for the film. In the movie it is discovered that she has fired Constantine because of some embarrassing behavior committed by Constantine's daughter during a meeting of white society women. On film, Charlotte Phelan's public embarrassment more or less forces her to banish Constantine from the house.

What actually happens is this: Constantine's daughter Rachel is half-white by virtue of the fact that Constantine was raped by a white man before she came to work with the Phelans. Charlotte doesn't even know Rachel exists until the girl turns up at the society meeting applying for membership to the club. Charlotte learns that Rachel is actually Constantine's daughter, and in her eyes the girl is infiltrating white society. This is why Constantine is fired, and Charlotte never feels sorry about it. Rachel's offense is just too great.

Smaller changes are made on film that defeat the message and realism of the book. Skeeter and Aibileen sit at a table together in one scene, for example. This would not happen in reality, and did not happen in the book.

The violence of the times is greatly softened. In the film, Skeeter's book is scandalous. Writing such a book was potentially fatal, however. Sympathetic whites were hanged and killed in the deep south as surely as blacks who fought for Civil Rights.

The ending is also changed on film, something that causes many critics to cringe. You'll have to familiarize yourself with both versions to find out how the ending was changed! The Help is definitely worth the time to read and to watch, so don't miss either version.

Grabbed by Justice

"I didn't know then that it would make me fail my philosophy test coming up due to the fact that it was not a book that was easily put down once started."

"I was definitely not disappointed. This book quickly grabbed my attention and became impossible to put down."

Visit The Schwartz Reviewz to see the newest review for Justice (Deck of Lies, #1), and find out which quote from the book the reviewer liked best.

Writing 101: Multitasking

Do you work on more than one book at a time? Blog, tweet and edit your latest creation all at once? Keep a smartphone in one hand while you get work done on the laptop with the other? Multitasking can be a great idea...but it has definitely got its limits. Too much multitasking can be the ruination of every goal you set.

Juggling Tasks

Self-published authors tend to keep a lot of balls up in the air. They work full-time, promote their indie books and write in their spare time. They have family lives, and friends, and favorite shows to watch on TV. Multitasking is  a natural side effect of leading a busy life and to be frank, pretty much everybody does it. Those social media breaks you take when you're in the middle of a chapter is multitasking, just like maintaining a blog and writing a novel at the same time. You do it, I do it, self-published authors can't survive without it. But if keep on juggling, eventually something's going to fall. Try not to be standing under it when it does.

Multitasking is a fine art form and, for many, a way of life. Master certain tips and tricks to keep all your balls in the air successfully.

• Keep it straight: If you're going to multitask, keep notes and keep all your stuff separate. Don't confuse blog posts with book projects, and don't confuse book projects with each other. Use folders to keep everything organized. And when you go to write, get out all your stuff. I pull up notes, cast lists, outlines and everything I've got. This reinforces the project that you're working on and immerses you in that world. If you lose your way, all your stuff is right in front of you.
• Keep it casual: Setting deadlines is where many authors end up failing. It's very difficult to manage a bunch of tasks and maintain discipline. Give yourself an unreasonable deadline or writing goal on top of it all, and you're going to break. Go easy on yourself. It's important to maintain discipline and work hard, but it's also important to take breaks and get some rest. Be willing to loosen up on deadlines and put some tasks off until tomorrow. Otherwise, you're going to make yourself crazy.
• Keep it balanced: Why multitask? Wouldn't it be easier to complete one thing at a time and then move onto the next? For many authors, focusing on just one project alone can be too draining. A lot of emotion and thought goes into writing a book, and it's necessary to lose yourself in that world to write it correctly. Getting too deep in a single world for too long can make it difficult, nigh impossible, to create a wholly different world. Many authors multitask to bring a certain balance into their lives. If you're working on a dramatic tragedy novel, try spending some time on a more lighthearted project as well. Focusing too deeply on a single project can give you tunnel vision and lead you toward a whole host of problems. Multitasking is a good way to bring balance back.

A Cautionary Tale

Some researchers say that multitasking affects concentration, and that's probably true (after all, they've got evidence and everything). It's the author's job to learn how to focus deeply and concentrate intensely on the creative task at hand. If multitasking seems to interfere with that, stop. The truth is, sometimes it's necessary to take a quick break and to shut off that creative switch every once in a while. When you loosen up your thoughts a little, it's much easier for good ideas to appear.