ScriptSuperhero.com

Marketing pens may not be the specific type of pen writers need to write, but in a pinch, any pen will do. All you really need is an idea and a way to make record of it.

My favorite way, like most people, is a computer and a decent word processor. MS Word is the natural favorite, but considering the lack of competition, that’s not saying much.

What is a growing trend… one I don’t care for… is the increasing use of smart cell phones like Blackberry devices and such… for the composition of longer works. Smart phones are simply too small to be comfortable for me.

E-mails? Sure. SMSing? Yup. Blogging? Maybe.

But longer works like novels? Not a chance… at least not for me.

It takes a good education to become a good writer. But is a master’s degree or even an MFA or PhD required? Probably not.

While a good education can help transform a creatively-gifted individual into a solid writer with all the proper skills of composition and structure necessary to be professional about your writing. But how much education is too much?

Well, it depends in part on what you can afford. Some successful writers paid attention enough in school that a high school education was sufficient. And we all know that if you go on to college, it will mean accumulating debt that eventually you’ll have to repay.

Generally, a four-year BA or BS should be sufficient for most writers, if writing is all you need. A college writing program can give a writer a lot more exposure to good writing, a discipline for churning out pages, and exposure to all forms and formats of professional writing.

But is more than a college degree essential? I’d venture to say, “Only if you want to teach as well as write.” While teaching high school is usually too time-consuming for successful, active writers to maintain as a bread-and-butter career, teaching at a college level can actually build time into your schedule that encourages you to write, although the “publish or perish” pressure will plague you until you achieve tenure.

If teaching college writing courses is your ideal bread-and-butter job, go ahead and get that higher degree like a master’s, MFA or Ph.D. But most writers who actually want to write for a living will be better off stopping at a four-year degree.

Take it from someone who made the mistake; I stayed on past my four-year degree to get my master’s and it didn’t get me better job offers out in the real world, or open more doors for my writing. What it did to was increase my student loan debt, which created a need for me to utilize the services of school loan consolidation programs.

Those are a great help, and you’ll definitely need them whether you stop at a four year degree or continue on. But keep in mind my sad lesson: continuing on for my master’s tripled my student loan debt, and I didn’t even end up with a college teaching job to help me pay it off. If you’re going to be a work-a-day writer, or someone with a day job while waiting for you big writing break, or even a journalist, take my advice: stop at a four-year degree. The extra student loan debt just isn’t worth it. You’re better off throwing yourself out into the work world and trying to get your writing career started.

When it comes to accumulating debt, there IS such a thing as “too much education.”

Whether it’s a car insurance quote or writing a script, timing is incredibly important. In car insurance, getting a quote after that speeding ticket falls off your record will produce a much better quote than if you go policy-shopping just after getting a ticket.

In storytelling, timing is partly about pacing, but timing can also be about offering up the right sort of story at the right time. In fact, it can make or break a project.

As an example, look at the Fall 2001 television season, which gave birth to a couple of hits that are still popular today: Smallville and 24.

While there was no way to know that September 11 was going to happen that fall when series proposals were worked out the previous winter and decided on by the networks in Spring 2001, both series benefited from fortunate timing.

In the wake of the September 11 tragedy, America had never been more ready for the escapism of a Superman-based TV show like Smallville. The hope, optimism and patriotism of the Superman character played well into a post-9/11 atmosphere. The selection of “Save Me” as a theme song was also fortunate, as America was completely ready to express a need to be saved in the wake of the terrorist attacks.

On the darker side of timing, 24’s concept of a “do anything to thwart terrorists” hero like Jack Bauer, and the concept of a terrorism-fighting arm of the US government couldn’t have been more perfectly timed. At a time when all of America wanted to strike back at those who’d attacked us, 24 was just the kind of escapism we needed on the “need for revenge” side of the 9/11 equation.

While the Superman mythos plays well nearly every time it’s tried and done well, one has to wonder if, from a timing perspective, 24 would have even made any network’s fall schedule if it had been proposed in Spring 2007, rather than in Spring 2001.

Timing, sometimes, can mean everything.

When a computer gets too much information jammed into it, all it takes to fix things is a computer memory upgrade. If only it were that simple for writers.

The creative process is a tricky thing; everyone hears about the fear of the blank page, waiting for the first burst of creativity to begin filling it up. Writer’s block is common knowledge, even among non-writers.

Not many people talk about the opposite number of that problem: too many ideas floating around in your head and having no idea how to sort them so you can start working them into a smooth, comprehensible story.

It happens more often than you’d expect, and some folks who write ponderous, rambling novels are the most guilty of it. (Michner comes to mind.) It’s the kind of affliction where you want to tell every single thing there is to know about every single character, an overdose of character depth and richness.

Ultimately, narratives are most moving when only the most relevant bits of back story make it onto the final page. Think about that the next time you are tempted to interrupt a ripping good action sequence to tell your audience about how your hero learned bravery that time they broke their arm in fifth grade.

I recently had an interesting discussion with a good writer-friend of mine. She’s a younger writer, still in her teens, and has been influenced by friends and relatives to doubt her own ability to succeed as a writer. This despite already winning writing contests, money and publications more than once before even reaching the end of her senior year of high school. The negativism of those around her has affected her ambition to write for a living the way Tenuate affects appetite: it’s suppressed it.

What I told her in response is the same thing I would tell anyone being discouraged by others about their writing ambitions. Here is a rough recreation of our exchange.

“Do you actually write, or do you just talk about wanting to.”

“No, I’ve written a lot of things.”

“Do you produce new pages on a weekly basis?”

“Yes.”

“Do you write things to completion?”

“Yes.”

“Have you had anything published?”

“Yes. And paid for it, too! More than once.”

Prior to this exchange, when talking to these naysayers, she constantly referred to herself by saying she “wants to be a writer.” I told her to stop apologizing and hedging.

“Next time, tell whoever is asking the truth. You ARE a writer. You’re there already.”

When she objected to being so bold, I repeated everything she’d just told me.

“You write instead of just talking about it. You produce new pages every week. You write to completion. You’ve been published. You’ve even been paid and won contests. You are a writer already. That’s what writers do. You might be just starting your journey, but you’re on the path. You are a writer. Get used to it.”

That’s all being a writer is, really. To already be there before the end of a high school education gives her a jump start on most. But anyone who fulfills that criteria IS a writer, whether they’re drawing a $50 prize here and there, getting paid for writing blog entries, or getting million-dollar book deals from Simon and Schuster. The only difference is in the scale of success, and if one keeps at it, even that will come with time.