TFWScribes: Around February I was invited to jump into writing discussions with writers Jamal Hankins, Christie Taylor, and Chandra Harkins. What later formed was a closely woven family of artists who have committed themselves to challenging discussion of social issues and the craft as well as the advocacy of each other’s goals. This group is more than just a writer’s group, they are truly kindred spirits.

Completion of New Novel : In the spring of 1997 I wrote a short film that became a turning point for me in how I approached the craft. It was driven by heart and inspiration rather than heady ideas. Since then that work has evolved as I have grown, never ready to be told. In 2011 that old story spoke up and demanded to be written as a manuscript. I’m happy to say it got its wish. The book is called THE TRUBAKER ORPHANAGE and God willing it will be out over the summer of 2013 if not sooner.

Progress in Dark Province Sequel: How great it is to be reminded from time to time that there are readers who are counting the days for a sequel? It’s extremely gratifying. As an artist there is no way to know how that piece will taste when it does finally reach their dinner plate. But having completed half of the manuscript and all of the story summary, I can say that SHE IS RISEN will be sculpted with the same fervent passion and love that her predecessor was.

Twitter followers: I am so grateful for chats at all hours about every and any thing that is life or writing. You’re funny, thoughtful, passionate people who have joined my journey to the tune of 2,915 of you. I am thankful for you all.

Facebook friends: Whether you’re in my writing world or friends from the various eras of my personal life you have kept me connected, creative, and inspired. Thank you so much!

LitChat/StoryCraft/UFChat/WriteChat/Writersroad/Bookmarket:  A freelance writer in Manhattan Beach, California told me back in 2009 that twitter was a great place for writers to come together. I had no idea. Twitter chats have been amazing. While my graduate school program and volunteer work kept me away for the latter part of the year, I am still a Litchattic and every other chattic there is. Thanks to the great moderators who keep these excellent forums open and vibrant.

Dark Province Webseries: On November 6, a group of actors came together in Los Angeles to read the first 7 episodes of a Dark Province web series that is in the exploratory phases. What angels they were to put their considerable gifts to action if just for an afternoon table read. So much love to each one of them.

Kat Magendie’s “Writing Out the Fear”: The first guest writer on my blog was author Kat Magendie. Not only does this author have a beautiful soul but she can write like southern soulful cooking! She graced my blog with some motivational words of encouragement to any writer who hits a wall and struggles to keep the flame lit. Thank you Kat! I hope your heart is mending well this holiday season.

Guest posting on Cathryn Louis’ Blog: As Kat blessed my blog with a little inspiration, Cathryn Louis gave me license to be scandalous on hers. I was honored to post a little symbolic cross-section of my literary infidelity as I swung back and forth between the worlds of RISEN and TRUBAKER. Thank you and God bless!

Yes, I’ve given this at least some “serious thought.”

In this age of new media and the ability for artists to bridge the gaps between themselves and readers/viewers, I truly believe the landscape if changing. I have said before that I believe e-book is the new paperback. In the same way I am starting to believe that the web is the new “small screen”.

The web allows viewers three key conveniences:

1)   Whether it’s Netflix or Hulu or some other web-based viewing channel, the viewer can watch a show they like at a time of their choosing. As a dad, director, author, coach, I just don’t care enough about any show to watch or even DVR at a designated time of the week. That doesn’t mean I won’t love it. I watched the re-imagined BATTLESTAR GALACTICA on Netflix and think it’s possibly one of the top 5 shows of any kind television has ever produced.

2)   If you come into the middle of a show, all the previous episodes are there waiting for you so that you can easily catch up. And not just one at a time, you can watch two or three episodes on that day you have time and then a couple more three days later when you have time again. This is true of short form web series as well. I jumped into THE GUILD during season 3 and went back and quickly caught up.

3)   Short form web series gives you the intimacy of something different, something niche that can build its way to a larger audience. THE GUILD is a comedy about online gamers. ANYONE BUT ME is a show about a teenage lesbian couple and the challenges of being who they are to the world and to each other. Both shows may have been met with skepticism by mainstream TV but were just what the doctor ordered for their adoring audience on the web.

The face of web series is also changing. The top shows online don’t appear like the budget-less pioneers of a second ago.  No show encapsulates that for me than Electronic Arts’ new DRAGON AGE: REDEMPTION. This is a fantasy action adventure series in short form starring (and written by) new media entertainment empress Felicia Day. Sure it’s no AVATAR but there nothing budget-less about this exciting new venture.

I can’t help but be encouraged by this new inspiration. It feels…right…fun…refreshing. THE DARK PROVINCE is a fantasy adventure that I feel can translate well to this format. It’s dark, introspective qualities would thrive there, and scores of people who might not otherwise get to experience the story might get to visit this world and these characters that I’m so passionate about.

First things first, the script. Actor’s reading on Sunday. I’ll post and let you know how that goes.

Transcribe, scribe! Onto the computer I go. Most of you probably know by now that I write longhand in pencil. I seem unwilling to go high, mid, or low tech with the writing of my first drafts. One might think that transcription is a royal pain. Why type 80,000 words right after you wrote them? Isn’t it doing double work?

Nonsense! It’s actually a pretty cool process. Here are three reasons why:

1)   It’s like a mini-vacation. Yes, I did say vacation. Where’s the special destination? Your story! The reason I call it a vacation is because you get to “tour” your hard work with no pressure at all. You don’t need to change a thing. I actually recommend that you leave most of what you wrote by hand as it was. This isn’t the time to dive into revisions. This is the time to get acquainted with your accomplishment. Some of this you haven’t seen for months, reintroduce yourself.

2)   It gets you prepared for some serious revising and rewriting. Sometimes I call transcription a “half pass” meaning, yes—I do correct little things, a sentence here or there, add a sentence that I don’t have to think about. But if I have to wonder for more than a nanosecond I leave it alone. When I have questions or things I want to explore changing, I write them on a separate piece of paper and save it. When it comes time to do that first major rewrite I have not only familiarity with the piece as a whole but direction. I feel like I did my homework and I can proceed with confidence.

3)   It gets you pumped up! Dude, dudette, you just finished a novel! That’s what I’m talking about!! Get pumped, celebrate. Enjoy those moments when your fingers fly because you put together an inspired scene that came out how you wanted! (They didn’t all come out that way, but there will be some. Enjoy them!)

I am about halfway through transcribing THE TRUBAKER ORPHANAGE. Another few weeks and I should be done with this step. Do you write longhand and transcribe? Share your stories!

The roughly 80K draft was written in exactly five months, longhand in a pair of notebooks. Upon finishing I have the same feeling that I did when I finished the Dark Province draft—I feel good…but…I’m motivated to keep working.

The next step for me is transcribing the work onto a computer, which I am about 10,000 words into at this time.

Things that were similar to the process of writing THE DARK PROVINCE:

• Again I went with the plotter method. I wrote a nine-page summary before starting the draft process.
• The story is told in the voice of the primary storyteller who is also the main character, Carlton Trubaker.
• I was inspired by themes close to me. For TDP it was religion/faith and sex in culture. With TRUBAKER, it’s about family…what makes a family and how all children—all people—desire to feel a part of something.

Things that were different from the process of writing THE DARK PROVINCE:

• I drew great inspiration from actual places. The small desert down in which the story is set is modeled after the city of Beaumont in Riverside County, California. I have made several trips out to Beaumont for inspiration including an overnight trip years ago when I was developing the story. (Couldn’t exactly visit the Dark Province…that might have put a bit of a strain on my marriage.)
• The love story was front and center. The romance element of THE DARK PROVINCE is significant but not the primary engine for the story’s action. TRUBAKER is a gutsy love story about two childhood friends above all else. It made the journey of writing feel more like an exploration of love and partnership than a quest for salvation as it was in TDP.
• American social issues came into play such as racial tension and at-risk kids in the foster system. This required a different kind of reflection and research to write.

What I learned from writing this draft:

• I am partial to a strong narrative voice coming from the main character. I like to tell stories from the perspective of someone who experienced the story they are telling. I began this draft in third person intimate. About halfway through the story I switched to first person and it rolled from there.
• Once again, a plotter never has to be subservient to their summary. My summary changed for the better both times I used this method.
• When you’re working on a piece and your soul says change course and write this other piece and you have a clear vision of the story beginning middle and end, listen to that voice! I took a break from the DARK PROVINCE SEQUEL to write this on March 1. Five months later I have a new draft in my hand. Now that this story is on paper, I will soon be back underway with the DP sequel.

It’s a fascinating thing to realize, particularly for this piece which holds so much personal sentimental value. It’s a story that has been with me since late in my college years. It’s evolved, grown and matured with me as I have grown as an artist and a writer. It represents moving on from dark times and disappointment – an allegory about loving myself first so that I could love others.

There should be no surprise, then, that The Trubaker Orphanage is a love story–a gutsy love story about two childhood friends who owe their lives to a small town’s patron saint and owe each other a chance at a future together. Nothing stifles love like old hurts, however,  and nothing stifles the future like the past. This year, I have personally said goodbye to some old ways of thinking and the space vacated by these long overdue expulsions has been replaced by the determination and inspiration to finish the job.

I realize as I steam toward the light that I’m not alone. In addition to my amazing readers of THE DARK PROVINCE, my friends, loved ones, and writer comrades on twitter and facebook–two old friends particularly feel close by. One was a young man, fellow theatre artist, and college comrade who who took his own life thirteen years ago. He had agreed to play the brother of the main character in its original manifestation as a short film, Bus Stop, way back in 1997. That character that he played, “Jack”, has morphed to “Jake” the main character and narrator’s father. The female lead, Libby Nakamura was inspired on a day spent with another old friend, a true cheerleader of my dream to write and share my stories. She was a television actress in her childhood and was preparing at one point to play the inspired role of Libby in the piece’s second manifestation: a short film called Dream Girl. She passed away at age 28 in 2002 of an extremely rare disease. Today they’re both gone but I feel them close by. As I realize that I can count the days until I can hold a new finished draft in my hand, I am thankful to them—to the challenges and to the choices I’ve managed to make this year to make space for a new creation.

3-4 weeks.

3-4 weeks.

Alright, enough stargazing. Back to work.

Before I was published, whenever I’d read about an author who wrote a book and never wrote another one, I’d say, “If I had the chance, I sure wouldn’t be hesitating. I’d sure be writing to beat the band!” I simply couldn’t understand why a writer who had the chance to have his/her next book published would not jump on that chance with all the glee and energy and writing writer write they had, especially if that book was a success.

Until my own books were published. Then came the understanding of how fear plays such a part in this business.

An artist and I were in a conversation about not letting the negativity get in the way of creativity. I said to the artist how we have to have the dark and the light in our work, but we have to make sure the dark is not someone else’s shadow. Much of what you hear after you publish your book is Everyone Else’s Opinion—if you are not careful, you begin to listen to too many voices/opinions. Finding a way to separate the “should not listen to” versus the “this will help me in my journey” is a difficult one.

After my first book, Tender Graces, was released, I woke up with anxiety so fierce that my stomach tied in a snarl of knots. Fear of what someone may say about my work. That I’d disappoint readers. That faded as time went by, because I stomped over it—how else could I go back to work? But it came again with the release of the Secret Graces, and then with Sweetie. Will people still love me and my characters? Did I do okay? Are my words reaching anyone? Will I be loved?

My friends, I understand why some writers do not write that second book. An author can become paralyzed with fear. That fear can permeate and penetrate and become so prevalent that creativity is stifled. Imagine writing a book and being compared to other writers—but—imagine writing a book and being compared to yourself! Harper Lee, Stephen King, Oscar Wilde, Gail Godwin, Ralph Ellison, Margaret Mitchell, Elizabeth Berg—all have one thing in common: they wrote a book. What they don’t have in common is some went on to write more and others never wrote another book, or at least one that we know about.

If I had not stomped over my fears, skirted around the dark that is someone else’s shadow, ignored my terror, more work would not have come to me and then to readers. Writers and artists and singers and dancers and actors—all those whose work is out for public consumption and review and deliberation—must find a way to stop the: “I have to be loved by everyone. My work must be adored by everyone. I am afraid of what will happen. I am afraid of success/failure/mediocrity.” And instead, we must do what we love and do it the best we can and do it with love and hope and strength and honesty.

Of course, we must also do it in a way that sells, don’t forget that. Art aside, love of books and reading and writing aside, it has to be deconstructed into the business side of things as well. Heart and Brain go hand in hand in this business. What a terrifyingly fascinatingly wonderful business!

Am I still worried about the books I write to be released into the hands of readers? Well, yes. But am I letting that stop me? No. Step out from that shadow and show yourself. Be brave and hearty in whatever you love to do. How will you know what you can create until the creating is accomplished?

*     *     *     *     *

Kathryn Magendie is the author of Tender Graces, Secret Graces, and Sweetie. Her novella Petey will be released in the anthology The Firefly Dance along with authors Sarah Addison Allen and Augusta Trobaugh in July 2011. Her final Graces novel will be released fall 2011. Visit her at www.kathrynmagendie.com, www.tendergraces.blogspot.com, follow her on twitter @katmagendie, or on Facebook at Kathryn.magendie

What is it that makes a love story a good or compelling one? I don’t have the answer for every reader or moviegoer but here are a few thoughts on my criteria as I busily construct one of my own.

The characters must be worthy. I know this may sound uppity and judgmental but I don’t think we’ll go on a journey of love with just anyone. We as readers and watchers of film can be as discriminating as we are with partners we would choose. When characters fall in love, for us to follow we must have a certain threshold for loving each of them individually. One of my favorite love stories in film is that of the characters Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun Fat) and Shu Lein (Michelle Yoeh) in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The basic premise of their love story is that she was once married to his brother who has since passed away. Though it is obvious that they love each other, both have chosen to show restraint out of respect for the fallen brother. They are noble warriors yet gentle and kind to one another. The respect that they have for each other and their sense of control over their considerable gifts make them a compelling couple. We want these two together and that in itself is more than half the battle.

Love itself must be treated with the respect it deserves. We’re all familiar with “love is patient, love is kind” (1 Corinthians 13:4) but I think love in the context of storytelling, like in real relationships, is also very personal. It is universal yet unique to the people involved. It is as weighty as an ocean and lighter than the air above that ocean’s surface. And like water and air it takes the shape of whatever physical bodies that enclose it. So let us not pollute it with the feeling of something mass produced on an assembly line. The old “A look, a kiss, and a screw” approach has had enough reps. Let’s give the love in our story the dignity of an identity that reflects the players involved. Again, with Li Mu Bai and Shu Lien the story spends so much precious time with the “look” that says so much between them—that carries the ocean-sized weight of their convictions to remain apart we want to jump through the screen and force them together. Honor is divine for them and so they choose not to blaspheme while delivering moment after moment of step zero-point-five. This is their love; unique to them and it helps to make it compelling. Once we want the characters to have their love the last thing we want handed to them is some kind of generic passion that doesn’t befit them.

Pacing, Pacing, Pacing. Please…foot off the accelerator and out of the slow lane! Story pacing is important in itself (and another conversation altogether) but the pace of advancing love is even more delicate. Too fast and it’s shallow. Too slow and the passion is undermined. Again this is determined by factors unique to a story, world, and characters. Tension by way of grand restraint is the way of things for Shu Lien and Li Mu Bai in Crouching Tiger… As I said just moments ago, they spend much of the picture on “the look”. They peer at each other through a fortress wall they build in the name of honor and respect. Just as they appear about to demand that wall be torn down they are separated. With worthy characters and a unique affection that befits them, now it’s just time to sail the delivery ship at just the right clip.

There is a love story within so many stories. Crouching Tiger… isn’t even about Shu Lien and Li Mu Bai as a couple. The story centers most on Jen Yu (Zhang Ziyi). She has a love story of her own that plays out over the course of the film. I use this story and couple because it is one of the few love stories that I can experience again and again and still be moved.

What makes a good love story for you?

Traditionally when working on a project I would write 2-4 times a week for 3 hours. That worked great for THE DARK PROVINCE but now is a different time. I only had one child when I wrote my first book and I wasn’t going to grad school.

New times and new stresses have demanded more of my writing. For the moment I have jumped on the daily writing train to find my answer. For the last week I have written everyday for at least an hour. In that hour I can get about 500-600 words out long hand. This morning I went longer and cleared 1000. It’s a good way to get 4000-5000 words done a week but there’s more!

I am one of those writers that need to write for their sanity. If I haven’t written in too many days I start to get the shakes. I get anxious. I’ll be working on other work and I can’t convince myself to focus because my need to express through written word is too hungry to keep quiet. By writing once a day I have a powerful tool in negotiations with my creative side. I can reassure him that he isn’t being neglected—that he was tended to earlier that day and that he is on the schedule for the next day. And the day after that. And so on.

That’s another thing that helps, setting a time for the daily ritual. For me, right now, it’s 9:30-10:30am. It also helps that it is one of the first thing I do so that I can tell my creative side that he has priority. He likes that.

So to sum it up, writing once a day is a good way to make real progress on a manuscript If you write 4000 words a week you’ll arrive at 80,000 in 20 weeks. That’s just 5 months. It can also satisfy your creative needs so that you can be more focused on other obligations like, say, your children.

Don’t have an hour? Give it 30 minutes a day. Even 150-350 words a day will accomplish a great deal if you stay with it. Just a little prescription in a moment of writing bliss from my workstation to yours.

Here are a few photos from a recent visit that I thought would be enlightening to share and give a breath of how this type of visit can generate inspiration.

“There’s something about a town where stores most people would recognize are far and few between.”

The road into town begins with a secluded drive off the interstate. One of the things I love most about this town, like so many small towns around the world, is that nobody’s heard of it. Consider the energy of that; consider what that can represent. There is a sense of privacy inherent in a story set in a place that a relative few have heard of or been to. It can feed a sense of intimacy and at the same time a sense of isolation for the characters. This being a love story about childhood friends that come of age a little late in their lives, I get the benefit of both.

“He chose the mountains that rose toward the sky beyond the town to anchor his frustration and let the words come to him.”

This mountain range guides your drive into town and hovers above the flat desert city. It can be seen from virtually anywhere you stand giving the tiny community an even greater feeling of being hidden. The mountains feel like the walls of a fortress keeping its secrets. In the summer they are bold, arid structures of stone that rise from the desert floor. In the winter they are dressed in green and at times adorned with a misting of fresh snow in the highest elevations.

“If you haven’t played the game of basketball in desert heat, you haven’t truly played the game. The sun nearly scolds your brow and the concrete is like the devil on your shins.”

The main characters, Carlton and Libby, are childhood friends. They’ve spent a great amount of their adolescence right here on this basketball court in the town’s main park. There is nothing glamorous here. Dusty desert soil covers the edges; there are no lines on the backboard. The rims don’t always have nets on them. Glamour, however, never measures how much a place can be called home.

“Morgan’s taxi turned onto Main Street where her glad eyes welcomed more of the same—an antique mall that was less like a mall and more like a pair of Siamese storefronts.”

These antique shops are the centerpiece of the main thoroughfare through the old part of town. They are part of an ensemble of unique, locally owned storefronts that welcome Morgan to town. She is the most significant supporting character, and the lone outsider in the story. With her comes a more objective viewpoint of the setting. I feel that her appreciation for the community’s hidden quality helps to seal off the outside world and reveal its true warmth.

“Do you miss her? I mean, outside of the saintly stuff—do you ever just wish she was still right there at home where you could go and talk to her?”

Estelle “Stella” Trubaker, Carlton’s mother, is something of a town legend. She died when he was eight. Stella was the founder of a children’s home located in the old part of town. With Libby having grown up in that home, Stella is the most intimate thing that she and Carlton share in common. But their memory of the saintly woman differs greatly. While Libby remembers Stella clearly—her face, her voice, the old soul songs she used sing to herself during visits to the home—Carlton has no memory of her at all.

Whether you build your world from scratch, chose a distant land you’ve never visited, or your own hometown you’ve spent most of your life in, choosing a setting is one of the purest joys a writer gets to experience. If it’s based on a nearby town that intrigues you, consider a day trip or even spending a night (I’ve done that too!). If it isn’t nearby, search the internet for pictures from the city or town. If it doesn’t exist on this earth but instead a fantasy world, you can still search online for architecture in real life or fantasy art that you feel a connection to.

Happy location scouting!

Those were the condescending words of a man I looked up to that read a film script I co-wrote with a female student in college. On paper he was a good choice of a reader—a professional director with a lot of experience with scripts of all kinds. But wow it took some shaking off. I was insulted for my absent writing partner who he belittled with broad swipes and I was hurt by his overall aggressive style. Did he help make my script better? Yep. Did it feel good? Nope.

Feedback is supposed to help our work. We want our work to be better. So how is it that taking criticism the right way can be so much easier said that done? It is part of being human, I suppose. I don’t know if we ever become immune to the emotional stress of hearing a less than glowing response to our work. But it’s crucial we get good feedback on our writing during the process if we are planning to sell or publish our work. Here are five tips in managing the emotional aspects of receiving feedback.

Make it formal. Treat it like business. Set a specific time to review your manuscript with your critique partner and be prompt. You can even wear business casual attire if you want to. What you wear can help influence your mindset. Get out of the clothes you wrote the draft in. Wear something that is comfortable but that will place you in a more distanced mood.

Prepare in advance for a feedback session. This is a big one for me. Go over your manuscript or script and write down anything that you felt unsure about. Be specific. If there was a scene that you thought went too fast, write that down. If there was a date scene that didn’t have the tension you intended, write it down. When you get into session with the person providing feedback, ask specifically about those scenes. “How did you find the pacing in the date scene between Harry and Bryn? Too rapid? Did the dialogue cause it to drag?” I find this empowering to do because it puts me in the mindset that I am going to the meeting to get work done.

Take copious notes: Write everything down. Everything. This way if there is a note that doesn’t make sense, you can ask about it right away and get clarification. It also makes sure you don’t forget the valuable notes you received during the session. If nothing else it gives you something to do with your hands so you don’t wring them nervously.

If you can, have the initial feedback sessions close together. Syd Field says in his book Screenplay once a draft is completed and cleaned up for viewing that it’s best to have three pairs of eyes looking at your script for the initial feedback. I agree with this number. More gets confusing, less isn’t enough perspectives. I would recommend agreeing on the date you’ll sit down and discuss the work prior to handing it over to the reader. This way, the reader has a target and even if goes past that time, if they are a dependable reader it won’t go too far past. This also allows you to set the meetings within a few weeks of each other and makes it easier to avoid the temptation to start “fixing things” after just one of the meetings. It is important to hear them all out before beginning revisions.

Put the story aside for a time after the sessions are over. Again this is made easier when the sessions are close together. Plan on taking the time—perhaps even have something else you’re working on to get your mind off that piece being critiqued so that you aren’t tempted into diving into it right away. I find that it takes time to process the feedback and most importantly, let any uncomfortable emotional vibrations settle so that clarity can return. For many, their new writing is as dear to them as a new baby and they feel the need to protect it. I think that as a result even solid constructive feedback can register in the mind like an argument with a member of their family and those often take the most down time to shake off.

Happy revising!