ScriptSuperhero.com

Writing up an ad, say for golf apparel ladies and men would seek from, oh, Wal-Mart or something, is far easier than crafting fiction. Review writing, blogging, even journalism is easier. (And I’ve won awards for my journalism, so I don’t say that lightly.)

The reason is that there’s so much you don’t have to think about in any of those pursuits. Golf ads? Your audience is a no-brainer: golfers! Writing a review of Final Fantasy XII? No need to come up with a subject! A surprising turn of events? Just attend a trial and you’ll report on plenty.

But writing fiction? It’s all up in your head. Nowhere to turn but inward, into the creative world where nothing exists until you dream it up. And to pass it off, it has to be more convincing than reality itself.

No small task.

After nearly five years of journalism, a decade of review writing, and who knows how much goofing off with non-serious “writing for giggles” tasks, gearing back up into fiction-writing mode - supposedly my true first love, creatively speaking - is not as easy as it might seem. It’s not as easy as, say, lighting a fire from the embers of a previous blaze in an outdoor fireplace.

I have a project I’ve been playing around with like a cat with an injured mouse for some time now. It’s a story of a teen girl with a superpower who could care less about having a special ability. It’s basically an X-men-like concept that is set in a far more realistic world than most comic books offer.

It’s a fun, great, dramatic story that, because I’ve tarried so long with it, will now be seen as being derivative of HEROES, blast it. Even though I started working on this a couple years before that excellent show came on.

I’ve been struggling to get back into that world, setting aside the comparisons that will surely be made, even if vaguely, between my graphic novel and that NBC show. And it’s been hard.

Then I hit upon an idea that uncorked my imagination.

Initially, we had envisioned our story - my artist pal and me - as consisting of four 12-page installments as part of a monthly anthology we’d only contribute to. Now we’re re-envisioning it as a 48-page graphic novel.

The key to curing my creative constipation was a new scene as a preface. A scene that will prepare readers better for the tone and dark storyline ahead of them

That did the trick. Now I’m writing fiction again.

I’ll get this out right up-front.

I do a ton of writing. I blog for extra cash. I write reviews for free videogames. I’m slated to start writing sermons for my messianic church’s Web site. I’m researching articles that may lead to my first book, in the area of true crime. And for fun, I write up sports stories for fun through a sports videogame, on that publisher’s Web site.

But when it comes to real, creative fiction writing, my own wife’s outdoing me lately.

I love writing. I do a lot of it. But when it comes to fiction writing, it’s been on the back-burner for me, for far too long.

My wife, on the other hand, isn’t a big fan of writing. At least, not doing it herself. She often feels she’s not up to the task, though I discourage such negative thinking.

But in the first year of our marriage, she’s been going through changes. She’s a much more active reader than she once was, though she’d never admit it. And she has some wonderful ideas for stories that are highly motivated by personal experience.

And no, it’s not an advice book on how to make silk trees. These are genuine, deeply felt stories that she just can’t contain inside herself anymore.

Tonight, she started writing a novel, based on some of those experiences. I’m thrilled for her. After a couple years of worrying over completing academic papers between four to seven pages in length, she is now fearlessly - for the most part - embarking on a long project that could require at least 200 to 300 pages of effort.

But she’s set on following through and tonight - her first night as a prospective novelist - she produced two pages. If this tale of hers goes for even 200 pages, she’s already one percent done and she’ll be finished before the holiday season if she sticks with it.

I hope she does.

But at the same time, it’s a gauntlet tossed down. Not by my wife, but by her example.

I love writing. I do a lot of it. But as my wife is fond of saying, when am I going to stop writing for everyone else and start “doing something” with my writing?

Ouch. Truth hurts.

Time to dig that graphic novel script out and get to work and hope my Canadian artist buddy is still up for it.

How much of your office furniture would you like to put at risk for this one: Name the seven muses and what they rule over.

Aww, skip it. Folks can’t even remember who the current president is, according to Jay Leno’s man on the street interviews. So here it is.

Thanks to Wikipedia for this list:

Calliope was chief of the muses and muse of epic or heroic poetry.

Clio was the muse of history.

Erato was the muse of love or erotic poetry, lyrics, and marriage songs.

Euterpe was the muse of music and lyric poetry.

Melpomene was the muse of tragedy.

Polyhymnia was the muse of sacred song, oratory, lyric, singing and rhetoric.

Terpsichore was the muse of dance.

Thalia was the muse of comedy and bucolic poetry.

Urania was the muse of astronomy.

One thing that bugs me is the trend in screenwriting over the past 10 years is to start a movie or TV episode off with an intense, confusing scene, then cut it off at a critical point, flash up words to the effect of: “Six months ago…” and take two-thirds of the TV episode or movie to get the viewer back to that point.

Sure, the first couple times I saw something structured like that, it seemed clever. But it’s getting overused lately and folks are failing to see the very real pitfall of that writing style: it gives away a lot of the sources for suspense, and the deeper that “catcher” moment comes in a file, the more it ruins things.

After all, after an intense opening where the main character’s life looks to be in mortal danger, one thing you know beyond doubt is that the character will survive at least to that point. Meaning that any conflicts earlier in the movie or episode are, in effect, meaningless, because you know that THAT SCENE hasn’t happened quite yet. Therefore, no need to worry about the consequences of what might happen in between because we know they’ll survive at least until that moment.

It’s that kind of self-spoiling writing that makes me want to toss modern office furniture at dumb writers as they drive under freeway overpasses.

OK, not really, but you get the point. A character’s survival should be in doubt at all times if you’re going to create a sense of suspense at all.

Asking yourself unorthodox questions can be a great window into the next fabulous story idea you latch onto. Here’s an example.

For a long time, brick, stone and mostly wood have been used as the standard building materials. Yet lately, I’ve been hearing more and more about the cost effectiveness of steel buildings. Businesses, homes, schools, churches, restaurants … suddenly, everyone is being encouraged to save money by building with steel.

Now, put yourself in a paranoid mindset, not unlike that of Adrian Monk on the USA comedy-mystery, MONK. Think a bit too much about why steel is being pushed onto the American public all of a sudden. Ask yourself silly questions about the possible motive.

Could enemy nations be working on weapons of mass destruction that are attracted to metal buildings, so they’re setting us all up for massive destruction? Now you have the idea behind a Tom Clancy-esque thriller.

Is a supervillain with metal control powers planning a similar slaughter of billions? Sounds like an X-Men versus Magneto plot to me.

There’s a lot of ways to go with even one simple idea like that. All you need to do is ask yourself a silly question.

Sometimes, a getaway can be inspirational.

We all get the doldrums from time-to-time, or the desire to just get out and soak up the warm weather while it’s here. Here’s a tip for successful writers: do it.

Not every day, certainly; and not too frequently. But do it.

But here’s how it can be productive time for you: don’t go anyplace familiar or ordinary. Do a little research and find someplace to go that you’ve never been before.

It doesn’t require a huge budget or even time off from your day job to pull this off, either. Wherever you live, there’s probably scads of places you’ve never taken the time to experience that someone five states away would love to visit and is planning a vacation around right now.

For example, I grew up in southern Minnesota. A more arid, flat, uninteresting piece of land would be hard to find, at first glance.

Yet here are some things that are available in that area, only some of which I took the time to visit while I lived there:

1) The Mystery Cave
2) The Spam Museum
3) Niagara Cave
4) Mower County Historical Society
5) Audubon Science Center
6) Storylady Doll and Toy Museum
7) Albert Lea Aquatic Center
Bayside Skiers
9) Griebrock’s Toy Tractor Farm
10) Pelican Breeze Cruise Boat

OK… suddenly I’m a bit homesick. You get the point? Even browsing an obscure antiques shop you’ve never walked into, or staying at a local bed and breakfast just to see your old hometown from an outsider’s perspective can serve as a creative spark that could inspire your next story.

Sometimes you have to do odd things to motivate yourself toward taking a professional approach to a writing career.

Some folks choose a day job that requires them to write, such as journalism. That’s a good one. Others prefer to get straight into the sort of creative writing they want to do, but without the “gotta do it” of a 9-5 job to motivate them, struggle to feel like an actual professional, especially in the early going, before the money’s flowing in.

Here’s an idea. Might seem a bit goofy at first, but it has motivated many: invest a bit in your self-image and your professional image by buying yourself a set of, say, 500 business cards.

And I don’t mean the cheap things you can do on your own inkjet printer at home. I’m talking about the ones you have to order at a print shop and pay a few bucks for.

As silly as it may seem, once you start carrying around professionally-made business cards that include your name, contact information and the job title of “writer” on them, it won’t take you long to start feeling a bit more professional, which will motivate you to work more on your writing.

And hey, drop some in those fishbowls at restaurants; it just might lead to some work - or at least a free lunch from some guy out to sell you insurance.

No matter what a person can say about ideas and perspective and prose style and character development, the main and most important key to success in writing is to write to completion in each project you take on.

That requires dedication, not sitting around fantasizing about Orlando vacation home getaways. Or, to put it more simply: sticking to it.

How many lawyers become successful by doing actual work only a couple hours a week? How many doctors become master surgeons by spending most of their time playing videogames?

None.

It’s the same with writing. You need to put the time in and treat it like a real job. Some folks marvel at how much a prolific author like Stephen King gets done. Yet his formula for success is actually quite simple.

He works eight-hour days, every day, with the exception of a couple holidays. That’s all it takes.

Well, that and a lot of talent. But talent cannot become evident while you’re spending most of your time sitting around thinking about writing. It emerges as you write more and more and more.

Write to completion and eventually the publication credits will come. Sit around thinking about it and you’ll never put words on paper, ever.

When writing, you don’t necessarily need to do full-scale market research in order to know your audience. All you need, really, is a few friends who fit the general description of the audience you’re writing to.

While one writer/editor/publisher I once worked for was so unsure of his own artistic vision that he tested, re-tested and re-re-tested anything and everything he wrote. His focus was children’s poetry. Yet never in all his years did he ever write anything that went over as big as Harry Potter.

J.K. Rowling didn’t need to spend hundreds on testing her material on public school kids and parents; she wrote for an audience of one: her son. As long as he was entertained, that’s all she really ultimately cared about.

Considering Rowling’s one of the wealthiest writers living today, guess whose method works better?

A blog like this isn’t purely a work of passion. Well, I mean, sure, it is that. But I don’t know of anyone who’s passionate about writing who sits around dispensing advice absolutely for free, unless it’s to a close friend. Like anyone else, writers have to do things to keep the lights on, the rent paid, food on the shelves and clothes on their backs. Once you have a family, this is even more true.

That’s why Script Surgeon often has links in it; the references may sometimes seem like nonsense at time, phrases ill-devised to fit into the topic at hand, but such link sponsorships keep a small blog like this going.

Usually, I don’t make a big deal about it. But every now and then a special deal comes along that plays well into whatever I was going to talk about anyway, but offers a deal so unique I have to go on about them at length.

Now, I’ve made the point here before that the best training for a writer is to read good writing. Yet it’s not always easy to read. The latest James Patterson best sellers hit the shelved at about $27.95, the latest Stephen King titles for even more, and even Harry Potter books are rather pricey. Then there’s all that reading time; where can any busy, but avid, reader find the right balance of convenience and cost-effectiveness?

That’s where BooksFree.com comes in. Whether your passion is paperback books, audio CDs or MP3 audio CDs, BooksFree.com has plenty of selections, and its growing every month. Whether you’re in love with an old-fashioned “curling up with a good book” or more modern audiobooks experiences, reading by listening to save time, BooksFree.com has you covered.

With a selection that includes, at the moment of this writing, 79,800 paperback titles, 18,000 CD and MP3-CD audiobook titles and 3,200 MP3-CD audiobook titles, the site may have a ways to grow just yet, but it’s well on its way toward its goal, which is to become the book and audiobook version of Netflix. Local libraries are passé and never up-to-date; buying all the books an avid reader goes through can get cost-prohibitive.

As a result, just like Netflix for movies or GameFly for videogames, BooksFree.com is the perfect way to rent books and audiobooks without bleeding money or having to worry about reading a title within a public library’s tight lending deadline. Check ‘em out!