Yes, it's a pretty long title for a blog post, I know. There are plenty of problems we can easily see in another author's writing as we read them. It's catching these things in our own works that we may have a problem with. I am just as guilty as the next guy so don't be offended; I'm not pointing fingers at anyone in particular. I'm pointing fingers at EVERYONE. (he he) When a story has more than six main characters, it's so easy for a reader to confuse them all. Especially if they have similar speech patterns, sense of humor, etc. Let's say you introduce Bob and Ron as good friends first thing in a story. You describe their physical differences at the beginning and go from there. Two chapters and a lot of dialogue or action or whatever from now, will I really remember which one is a redhead and which is a blonde? Which is tall and lanky and which is slightly shorter? Most likely not.
Now imagine that we have to try and remember this for multiple characters. I tend to introduce new characters smack dab in the middle of my stories so, yeah, now you have someone new to try to keep up with. So let's make this easy on the reader, shall we? Remind us of what they look like. Remind us of their quirks. Is everyone in the room a blonde? Which one is the jokester? Which one cracks his knuckles constantly? This may seem like "well, duh" advice but like I said, it's easier to catch such things when reading someone else' story. When we read our own, we already have a mental picture of that particular character that immediately jumps to mind. We made them. We know them best. We can see every detail clearly. Our reader, however, may not.
An easy way to do this is to stop using a character's name so often. Referring to a character by name only becomes old fast. I see this a lot when I beta read and it kind of drives me nuts. Here is a little paragraph as an example of what I suggest not to do: Ron knocked on the door with vigor. When Bob answered, they said their greetings quickly and moved to the kitchen. Bob made tea for them both and neither spoke as they stood leaning against the counter, blowing in their cups. Finally, Bob looked up. "Should we get to it, then?" Ron sipped slowly and said nothing. Bob continued to stare at Ron in earnest. After another moment of sipping, Ron met his gaze. "Alright then, where's ya tax forms?" Ron asked. Not bad, but it could be better. This is what I would do differently. Ron knocked on the door with vigor, swatting the dark locks from his eyes as he did so. He cursed his long, curly hair and swore to himself that he'd see the barber before the day was out. When Bob answered, they said their greetings quickly and moved to the kitchen. Bob made tea for them both and neither spoke as they stood leaning against the counter, blowing in their cups. Finally, the farmer looked up. "Should we get to it, then?" Ron sipped slowly and said
nothing. His old school friend continued to stare at him in earnest. After another moment
of sipping, the guest met the shorter man's gaze. "Alright then, where's ya tax forms?" Ron asked.
Most of what I write has only a few main characters. One or two have about a dozen who pop in and out of the story. Either way, I like to reiterate certain things every once in a while not only for memory's sake but to keep the story more interesting. And though I use their names, I may not always need to for the reader to know who I'm talking about. Referring to someone as "the redhead" or "the vampire" for a few paragraphs is perfectly fine if they're the only redhead or vampire in that scene.
Again, pretty basic and obvious stuff but keep these things in mind when you're going over your first, second and third draft. Ron said, Bob said, Ron said, Bob said is not going to keep a reader interested for long. And which one was Ron again?
Every year my buddies at Power-Ups Not Included participate in a charity event called Extra Life. For those of you who have no idea what this is all about, here's the rundown. Extra Life is an annual event where gamers pledge to play games for twenty-four hours straight to raise money for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. Each player calls for friends and family to make donations through email, social media and word of mouth. Started in 2008, Extra Life has raised millions for children's hospitals. Last year they raised four million dollars! This year I decided to participate and see if I could raise money for my local children's hospital. Though you don't absolutely have to stay up and play for twenty-four hours, my friends always take the challenge and I didn't want to fall short on my first year. So I got some drinks and snacks together, shipped the kids off to different locations for the weekend (grandparents), had my games ready and set out to raise some dough! My goal was to raise two hundred dollars. The plan was to start on Friday night and finish up on Saturday night, a bit ahead of my PUNI friends' schedules. I started out around 6:30pm by playing Wartune online. I had just started a new server and was making some good friends in my guild. Next, I played World of Warcraft for a bit. When my body was tired of sitting and staring at my computer, I decided to go fire up the Wii. I played Wii Sports Resort for a bit and actually had some of the best gaming I've ever had on that game. I murdered my previous score in Frisbee Dog!
Soon enough, I was ready to switch it up again. I tried to play Dragon Age 2 on the PS3 but I was still towards the beginning and it was so much dialogue. Blah, blah, blah, that was trying to put me to sleep! I swigged a gross tasting five hour energy drink and moved on. I went back to my PC and played Wartune on a different server for a bit. Then I figured I'd play some League of Legends. Now LoL is a fun game, don't get me wrong, but I really suck at it. That's one of those games that I play for fun but have no expectations at all of doing well. Unless, I'm drinking, then I'm decent at it. As night became day, sleepiness began tapping my shoulder. I ignored it. I took some caffeine pills at some point. Then, only a little over an hour later, I drank another energy drink, completely forgetting until afterwards that I'd just have caffeine pills. Big mistake. After hours of PC gaming, it was time to switch up again. I could have spent most of my time on the PC but my ADD wouldn't have it. I played a few games on my phone, all the while beginning to feel sicker and sicker. The caffeine overdose really started kicking my butt. I felt sick for the rest of the day and well into the night. But I kept going. Small trash can at the ready, stomach groaning and bitching, I was determined to push through and finish my first year, even if I had to puke and game simultaneously for the last five hours!
Sitting and playing on my phone had my eyes drooping so I switched up again and played a board game with my husband: Trouble. I honestly can't even remember who won but the competition of a live gamer right there woke me up. After that it was back to the ol' PC to wrap it up. I called on some friends and we played a few games of League of Legends. They even helped me improve on my game some, bless their dear hearts. I need all the help I can get! Unfortunately, after my time was up, sleep didn't want to take me completely. After three hours of dozing I was back up feeling sickly so I decided to hop back online and support the team members who were still gaming. In the end, I raised one hundred and fifty-one dollars. It was actually way more than I expected! I'm really grateful to everyone who supported me as I gamed by donating, sharing my posts and cheering me on. This was one hell of an experience that I hope I can do again. When the day was done, our team, PUNI, raised three thousand, one hundred and seventy-five dollars for children's hospitals. All Extra Lifers raked in over five million, six hundred thousand dollars! And even better, donations can still be made until the end of the year. Please consider donating if you haven't already. It's for a worthy cause. See, gamers are awesome people after all.
We all know that Hollywood has run out of ideas. I mean, their about to redo Ghostbusters. The time for original thinking has passed. Turning to books has become popular but unlike everyone else, I recommend turning to older books instead of those that just came out. I hate it when they're already starting a movie series based on a book series that isn't even completed yet. That's exactly how a lot of anime series go horribly wrong. Anywho, when it comes to children's books, I think the best series to make the leap to the big screen should be Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising Sequence. These five books are a fun fantasy read that I could see as epic movies. If they're told right. And if they're told in order. I actually think that if Disney took the initiative, they could make some real masterpieces. I could even see Peter Jackson directing.
I would so pee myself in excitement if these wonderful books were ever made into screenplays but I'll say right now that there are definitely things that should NOT be done when prepping these bad boys for Hollywood.
Do not: 1. Make the children older. Back in 2007, Fox made the mistake of trying to make the second book in the series into a movie entitled The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising. This was a horrific failure. They literally stabbed my childhood in the heart by taking a huge shit on a Newbery Honor winning book. Of the hundreds of problems with that movie, the one I will touch on here is the fact that they changed the main character's age. He's supposed to be just turning eleven. In the movie, he is turning fourteen. A teenager has a completely different view of the world than a pre-teen does. These books are about children, not horny kids who see every member of the opposite sex as a potential girlfriend/boyfriend. The innocence of childhood is actually pretty relevant to the stories. Don't mess with that.
2. Skip books in the series. Thanks Disney for screwing up the Chronicles of Narnia movies by skipping books. Just because said books didn't involve the characters that you deem most important, doesn't mean you can just pretend they aren't there. It was the chronicles of NARNIA not the chronicles of four siblings. Don't skip Over Sea, Under Stone just because it doesn't involve Will Stanton and is aimed at a younger audience. The Drew children are relevant to later books. 3. Make them American. Don't even think about it. That crappy movie from 2007 did this. Locations in the UK become important in later books so don't screw with this. Also, English kids are so cute.
3. Cut corners. Don't leave out huge chunks of the story because filming them would be a pain. If it would take two and a half hours to tell the story right, then that's how long it needs to take. Don't get slack on the funds because if done right I believe that these could be serious box office cash cows. Don't make every scene involving magic on a computer. When Merriman and Will jump off a cliff and dive deep into the ocean, let's not make that entire scene CG. Part of it, sure, fake bubbles would be cool looking of course. Use real actors people, that's what they're paid for. 4. Make a completely different story out of it. Please don't do this. A few changes here and there are always going to happen, I know, but these books wouldn't have won awards if they weren't excellent stories. There is a scene in The Dark Is Rising where Will discusses religion with a priest very briefly. Knowing how sensitive some Christians can be, I'd leave that out (cause some people are on the lookout for things to boycott) but I honestly can't think of any other situations that would really offend anyone so I see very little that should be changed. And to those Christians reading this, don't get offended. There are fanatics in every religion. I read these books as a child would, seeing only magic and wonder. I don't over analyze children's books. To this day, I haven't told my children about the religious parallels in The Chronicles of Narnia. It's just a story about a magical world and a friendly lion. The conflict here is between the Light and the Dark, two outside forces that try to manipulate people based on the good and evil already in their hearts. Deities have nothing to do with it.
To conclude, I think that if someone took the initiative and wrote some decent screenplays based on this series, the film industry could have some real box office jewels that could become instant classics in family entertainment. I know I'd be happier than a pig in shit.
When I was kid, I was really into the story of Peter Pan. I loved the book, the Disney movie, even the Broadway production where a blonde chick played Peter. But my favorite version had to be the early nineties cartoon show, Fox's Peter Pan and the Pirates. In this version, Wendy and her brothers live in Neverland for an unknown amount of time. Could be years, could be days and who knows when time is different in Neverland compared to here? This cartoon didn't only focus on Peter, Wendy and Hook but also on the other lesser-known pirates which was something new when it came to the Peter Pan legacy. The characters' appearances are different than most previous versions as well. What I loved most about this show was that every day was a new adventure. There was danger, excitement and always a small lesson to be learned about friendship, though Peter himself rarely learned any real moral lessons. I loved that the Darling children never felt any pressing need to return to their parents and their previous life. They were enjoying all the splendors of Neverland for as long as they could.
To this day I can recall a dream I had when I was about seven years old. I remember it in vivid detail. I was sitting in my second grade class, listening as I should, when suddenly from the open window, a ball of light flew in. Little red-headed Tinkerbell had flown all the way from Neverland to my classroom! And she was asking me to go back with her! Of course, in my dream I was ecstatic and immediately left with her, teacher and classmates be damned. With a sprinkling of fairy dust, away we flew and man, was Neverland everything I knew it would be! All of the lost boys were there with Wendy and her brothers. Peter wasn't pleased at first that Tinkerbell had brought a strange girl without his permission but I went out of my way to prove my worth by fighting pirates and befriending the Indian tribe. Oh, the wonders of a child's mind where a simple dream can change a person's view of the world around them. When I woke from this dream I was so sad. Really, really sad. Because you see, I'd returned from a place where magic and games are an everyday occurrence, to a place where broken dreams were a reality. I was constantly bullied as a child. I awoke every day knowing that I would be told how ugly, stupid and useless I was. Nothing I said was right. Nothing I wore was cool. All of my friends were losers. Basically, everything about me was wrong. And adults just didn't seem to notice this bullying. If I complained, I was just being whiny and over dramatic. My tender little mind was having a really hard time with this. But once I dreamed such a lovely dream and woke up so sad, I soon told myself that it didn't really have to end. I could go back there whenever I wanted. And so, every night when I lay down and had trouble sleeping, I'd make up a story. I'd return to Neverland and be the first lost girl ever! (This was of course, long before they made that Return to Neverland movie with the annoyingly serious daughter of Wendy, Jane.) This is when my first real stories began. I soon developed elaborate plots and great ongoing adventures with my Neverland friends. These make-believe bedtime tales went on for years but it was the next year, in my third grade class that I realized my calling. My teacher, Mrs. Baldree, told me that the stories I wrote for assignments were really good. "You could be a writer one day," she said. I'm sure the old woman had no idea what that one sentence did for my little ego. Someone thought I was worth something! I was actually good at something! That was when I told myself that I would be a writer one day. But it took many years for me to really even begin writing anything. I didn't start writing poetry until seventh grade. Later, I began writing on a sweet little drama about children enjoying the wonder and freedom of playing outdoors all summer. And slowly over the years, I began to truly feel that calling deep inside me. It wasn't enough to want to write. No, you have to need to write. Now here I am, published and with so much more left in my soul that it's nearly bursting with stories to share. I'm still not that great at storytelling. Oh, the stories themselves are great but my skills at telling them are still lacking. But I do hope that one day I will evolve into an accomplished writer who can be proud of every short story and piece of poetry that ever poured out of me.
And to this day, late at night when I have trouble sleeping, I return to Neverland and the simple joys of childhood. Nibs and I run through fields of wildflowers and chase fairies. Peter and I laugh and fly wildly at the pirates we harass for the sake of fun. Wendy smiles warmly at me as I tell her of my adventures. And not once do I worry about going home.
