I just don't get it. Movie remakes (Prequels?)

I just don’t get it.  Lately, all the movies that have been coming out are remakes of movies I saw as a child or teen.  Just like the styles repeating, Hollywood is going retro.  What’s the point in that?  I mean, come on, I’m a big fan of the Lifetime Movie Channel.  The stories keep me watching, so I know there’s enough material out there to go around without having history repeat itself.

Sure, some movies need to have a sequel – but a prequel?  Really?  I’d be lying if I didn’t say I liked some of the prequels, but I also believe there are some great books just itching to be screen plays.

In fact, as I write I see the “production” in my head.  That doesn’t mean I have any illusions about my books becoming screen plays and ending up as movies.  It does, however, allow me to “see” what I’m writing.  As I write, I picture the scene.  Then it’s my job to tell the reader what I see, using as many senses as possible as in my earlier blogs.

The best part about this is where I get to go.  I’ve been lucky enough to travel the U.S. a few times as well as abroad.  I love to travel and I’m convinced I should have been a long distance trucker.  Ah, well, guess I’ll just have to write about that instead.  Anyway, since I haven’t been to every city in every state, I get to invent my own.  How’s that for power?

On the rare occasion that I write about something non-fabricated, I do a lot of research first.  I start simple and then delve deeper as my own plot takes momentum.  I make sure that seasons and scenery match.  I make sure cities have the buildings I describe and gather pictures of those buildings so I can describe them to readers who haven’t been there yet.  I try to capture the essence of the people who live there.

Growing up on the East Coast, I can’t tell you the culture shock of just moving to the West.   There is truly a different mindset here.  I would totally misrepresent these places if I didn’t research true places I have chosen to write about.  That’s why most writing teachers will tell their students to write about what they know.

Of course, there is a little of me in all my books.  I just look different in each one!  That’s another cool aspect about writing.  As your characters develop and surprises you (oh yes they will!), there is a feeling of pride.  Their presence is larger than the big screen Hollywood production going on in your head.  Just as the reader lives through the characters, the writer has been there first.

Authors who are lucky enough to have developed a character which readers fall in love with, are also smart enough to present that character in future novels.  Now here’s the stuff for movies, right?  One heroine, spurned by true love, throws herself into her work, or perhaps a flawed detective who we all fall in love with solves many a crime.  These characters are as alive to the reader as any on the silver screen.

So how do we show the reader our own production?  We carefully form the world around them.  Whether there are flashbacks, fight scenes or lustful love trysts, we must produce interest, emotion and realism so the reader can see the story we have created on the page.

Will we all be asked to do a screen play for our books?  Wouldn’t that be lovely?  But for most of us, we prefer to relive our story in its original form and not the “made-for-TV version”.  Still, the draw is there and the possibilities are as endless as our own imaginations.

Encouragement to write

My granddaughter just turned a year old..  I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting her yet, as her parents live over 2000 miles away and money is limited.  What?  A writer who is struggling?  Did you know in 2009, the United States alone published more than 288,000 books?  Very few saw instant success, my friends.

So why continue to write?  When I was a kid in grade school, I was very sickly.  That meant that on the playground, I didn’t do a great deal of the running around that most kids do to blow off steam.  I was the one with the dress and the pants under it that sat on the cement steps alone.  Sometimes I was joined by other recess recluses.  That’s when I began to tell my captives my stories.  Now these were very imaginative stories which lasted several days, sometimes weeks!  Of course, there was always a damsel in distress and she was always rescued by the handsome man of her dreams.

When I was in the sixth grade and was in the midst of what I thought was a very interesting story, one of the recess teachers came over to listen a bit.  When the bell rang, she told me she wanted to see me after school.  As I waited outside her classroom, I wondered if I could get into trouble for telling stories which I made up as I went along.  She called me in at last, sat me down and asked, “So what happens to the little girl?”  Of course, she was talking about the little girl in my story.  I must have looked quite shocked, but I answered honestly.  I told her, “She hasn’t told me yet.”  My teacher took a bit to recover and then replied, “Wow.”  After a brief staring contest, she whisked me out the door to catch the bus.

The next day, as I entered the classroom, I was pleasantly surprised to find a writing tablet and a box of #2 pencils on my desk.  There was a yellow lined paper on which the recess teacher had written, “Write it down.”

That’s when I first began to record where my imagination sent me.  It was – and is - one of my most favorite things to do.  As a matter of fact, little pack rat that I am, I still have some of my first stories.  Of course, these were not the ones in grade school, but the ones which I typed on my manual typewriter (how’s that for a generation gap).  They are simple in both vocabulary and plot, but still dear to my heart.

Like all things practiced, you can only get better at them.  What starts out like a school girl’s story can soon develop into something deeper with significance to your audience.  Frustration will find you as you write.  That’s a give-in.  It’s also part of the learning process.  Since it’s your story from your imagination, you can ask for help from others, but only you and your story can decide what fits and what doesn’t.  That also means you can make mistakes along the way.  Your “friend editors” will be quick to point them out.  Don’t be mad, that’s what you asked them to do.  As a matter of fact, don’t expect everyone you like that you ask to read your story to fall in love with it.  That’s just not going to happen.  Sometimes it’s the story, sometimes it’s the friend, but you will find that choices in favorite genres are as different as favorite food choices.

As a child, my friends asked me where I got the ideas for my stories.  I told them that I read a lot.  That’s what made me a good story teller and that’s what will make you a better writer.  I’m not saying you’ll revel in reading every book in your chosen genre, and I’m not saying that some won’t remind you that you’re “just a beginner”.  What I will tell you is that while you are writing and publishing your work, keep your day job.  This is an art, just like painting, acting, dancing, etc.  Because it’s an art, it’s also hard to break into on a grand scale.  But think about this – how many actors had first parts as starring roles?  That’s right. They clawed their way to the top by taking those smaller roles and becoming noticed.

So what if your first few books don’t make the best sellers’ lists.  You’re competing with hundreds of thousands of writers for Pete’s sake.  So don’t give up.  Do what my teacher told me years ago – write it down.  It won’t be long before someone asks you as well, “What happens to….?”

My corelation: video games is to writing...

Did I tell you I love to play video games?  Of course, I can’t play the ones in first person because I have motion sickness.  Yep, it’s not just for amusement parks or long rides.  For me, it’s that same sickening feeling when I’m not playing a third person video game.

I love the RPG games because I’m always surprised to see where they lead me.  It didn’t take me long to realize some great authors are responsible for these quests.  And character development?  Wow!   Most of the games I play involve killing people.  That’s something I would never think to do in my own life.  I don’t own a weapon and don’t believe in violence.  I’m the one who always looks for alternative methods while I’m bursting inside to do like the RPG characters.

That’s what I like about writing.  I can be young, old or any character in my books. I can be all of them – I’m omnipotent.  As my story develops, I can be the hero or the victim.  I can save the hour or make it worse than it was before my fingers touched the keys.  There’s this great feeling of power when I write.  I meet one challenge and then I’m faced with another, just like in my video games.

However, sometimes I have to repeat a “level” several times before I get it right.  I decide exactly where I want to go with my story, but after I get there I realize that’s not where I want to be at all.  But, I don’t throw the game away because I can’t beat the level.  I just try the level again.

When I play my RPG’s (and no, I don’t do MMORPG’s) I have a goal, at least for each level.  When I reach that goal, I quit.  There’s no sense pushing it, right?  Sometimes the goal is easily attainable, but most of the time it requires several chapters to set up the goal and several more to reach it.

Another thing I love about playing RPG’s, is that I’m sometimes surprised at who I meet along the way.  This reminds me very much of real life scenarios.  For my own personal information, I’ve been asking friends and co-workers for years where they met their significant others.  Now these are people that I feel comfortable asking, of course, but I’m always surprised by their answers.  Some have been married for years, yet met in the most unlikely places (considering where they are now).  I’m also surprised by the type of people they were and who they are now.  Some of my friends were WILD in their younger years; a few still are, I’m afraid.  So when an RPG character sometimes does something I don’t expect, I’m as shocked as when my friends tell me where they met.

I guess the best part of the RPG’s is when I beat the game.  It doesn’t happen that often and I take soooo much longer than my children to beat it, but I’m proud to finish just the same.  That’s how I feel when I finish a book.  I sit back and allow the glow to wash over me.  Sometimes there are tears, like I’m leaving an old friend.  Other times I’m dancing around the room for joy.  And the best part about this?  Those are the same reactions that my “informal editors” (my friends whom I have preyed upon to read my next work) act as well.  Sometimes they cry and sometimes they are elated!  That’s when I know I can’t stop writing.  And it’s just like when I finish a good RPG – I can’t wait for the next one to begin!

How did I come up with the idea for Suffer Not the Children?

I don’t know how it happens.  One minute I’m just spacing out listening to music or making dinner – you know the mundane things in life we all do without giving much thought to them.  Suddenly, a character, an idea, a story plot flashes in my head.  I see it as clearly as I’m watching a television screen.

Is it a whole story?  Boy, I wish; but of course, it’s just a fragment.  When I was writing Suffer Not the Children, I had a dream the night before about a boy who was reaching into a dumpster for something to eat.  That was it.  Of course, I had also had similar things happen to me in my own life.  One of my adopted daughters was forced to “dumpster dive” with her brothers nightly for her own survival.  But this was different.  I saw the boy reaching in the dumpster and then he turned and looked at me.

In that instant, I knew his life story.  He stared deep into my subconscious and told me he was orphaned and alone and that I needed to help him find his sister.  I took in every detail of his face, saw his life, saw his future if I didn’t help him.

I woke up, but usually when I dream I don’t remember much of it; you know, just little pieces here and there.  This was vivid.  It was burned into my mind and I couldn’t shake the thought it was my responsibility to write his story.

Of course, this was the first time a character had entered into my dream world.  Usually, something in my conscious imagination says, “Hey, that’s a great title to a book about…whatever.”  For the next few minutes after that, I’m engaged in thinking about building characters and where the story will take place and what time period.  Then I jot it down and usually forget it for a while.

That’s another thing about my writing.  I tend to have several stories going at the same time.  In fact, sometimes I neglect a story so long that when I go back to write again (in hopes, of course of finishing it), I find that I don’t remember everything I had written.  Sometimes I even laugh at something I had forgotten about or think, “Wow! That was a great sentence!”

What I’m trying to say is that it’s not always like how they tell you to write in high school or college.  Sometimes it’s not about the outline, the graphic organizer or the details.  Sometimes it’s just some thought that sends your mind on to ‘the next great novel’.

As you begin to develop your own style of writing, don’t abandon ideas or plots because they don’t seem perfect.  Life isn’t perfect.  Besides, most good writers will tell you that as you develop your characters and your plot, you’ll know when something isn’t right.  Maybe you’ll think, “She would never say that!”   If that’s the case, take it out and revamp it a bit.  If the setting seems wrong, does the time period seem wrong as well?

Lastly, when writing becomes unpleasant, stop writing! It doesn’t mean you have to never write a finish to that story, it just means you need a break from it for a while; a time out, if you will.  I love to write and will probably continue to do so until my demise.  I’m compelled to do it, even if mine are the only eyes which read the words.  Writing is so personal to most authors.  It’s not only an extension of themselves, but a nagging little voice inside their heads that says, “Hey, isn’t that a great idea for a story?”

Emotions

I wanted to talk about emotions for a minute. This year I really decorated the house to the nines because my granddaughters were coming for the week. I fussed with the “displays” I made and tried to capture the magic of Christmas. As this was done in different areas of time (mostly after my teens were in bed), I tried to have themes for the areas I decorated. For instance the front hall had a white mini-tree on a table which I covered with a white table cloth and then used red and white decorations and white lights. I used red candles and fake poinsettias to finish the theme of the front hall. I did a Santa theme in the kitchen with various mini areas with Santa Claus characters. I had a traditional Christmas tree in the living room, but did a lovely Nativity Scene on the other end, complete with angels and lights.  

Taking my creativity outside, I did a life size Nativity scene using an antique crib which still needs refinishing and three straw angels. The only doll I had belonged to my granddaughter, so I had to cover Tinkerbell’s head in order to make it work. When I was finished, I asked my teens what they thought. Here’s a sampling of their insight (paraphrased):

          "Mom, Christmas is about the smells! It’s the Christmas cookies you make and the cinnamon pine cones in the front hall. It’s the oranges in the dish on the kitchen table punctured with cloves. It’s the ethnic food for Christmas Eve. It’s all about the smells.”

          “No, it’s not! It’s totally about the hearing the Christmas music that constantly plays – even when we’re trying to watch television. It’s you and Alex singing Christmas carols along with the music and hearing your voice crack on the high notes. It’s going to bed to the sound of the wrapping paper and scissors as you wrap presents in the living room and yell for us not to come upstairs without notice. It’s the laughter that seems more prominent at Christmas time. It’s the songs we sing in church that make me feel so close to God.”
          “For me,” my oldest in the home explained, “it’s seeing the lights – in and out. I love what you did with the house this year, Mom! It reminds me of when we were little and had trees in our bedrooms. I love the house at night when we watch television by Christmas lights and we take long rides to vote on which houses we like best. When the decorations are down in January, I’m depressed until Valentine’s Day.”

I was amazed at how Christmas effected each of them differently and what they gleaned out of it. It made me think about my writing. I’m the first one to admit I get a bit flowery. I try to incorporate the senses into my writing to explain things in detail and make sure the reader understands what I believe each character is feeling. Some readers will relate more to a character than others. For instance, one reader told me she hates a character in my book because he has such a condescending tone it reminds her of her father. That’s good! I want the readers to relate. I want them to feel the emotions, just like my children did at Christmas time. It has to be real to the readers or why will they bother to finish the book! So I will continue in my flowery style in hopes that others will follow. I encourage you to do the same!

Introducing Leira Nomis

I wasn’t an only child, but having a much older sister, I grew up in the house alone. I guess that’s why, at an early age, I began to tell stories. First there were stories to my dolls, then my parents and finally my friends.
            By the time I entered school, I knew that I had a talent for story telling and could take the most mundane subject and give it life. I can’t begin to tell you how many stories I wrote in my free time. Both my parents were a bit older and in and out of the hospital with various chronic ailments. My free time was spent watching re-runs in the hospital rooms, or writing. I preferred the latter. It was an escape into worlds which I created.
            By the time I hit high school, writing was a thing of the past. Occasionally, I’d get the urge to write down something other than a diary entry about my latest flame, but it faded quickly with a plethora of long homework assignments.

Predisposition about subject

               In our city, it is well known among the junior high and high school students that if you are in “just a bit of trouble”, you may have to do community service as a consequence.  Most of the time this requires approximately one hundred hours of doing duties around one of the schools, parking lots which the city owns, graveyard mowing and trimming – just something to wake the students up a bit before they get into real trouble.  This seems to work very well among the students.

In addition, a lot of our junior and senior high schools also offer legitimate jobs to outstanding students who need a few bucks a week for spending money.  They are usually employed after school doing a variety of custodial duties.

My son is adopted.  He is also not Caucasian.  This has never been an issue in our home, as we have several adopted children.  Our home is a melting pot of ethnicities, races and creeds.  However, we sometimes forget that this is still an issue with society – even today.