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Creating characters that are believable takes time and discipline. Creating dynamically real individuals and not imposing your own thoughts and impressions upon them is not easy to do, and is often the difference between a novel or screenplay that sits in a closet and one that finds its way around town and into the hands of audiences. Spending your time building your characters before they enter the world of your story makes the process of writing an easier and more enjoyable ride, and creates a finished product that agents, publishers, producers and readers can truly be excited by.

You must first agree to operate from the understanding that the three-dimensionality of your characters is not created magically. Talent equals discipline multiplied by time and you must practice (daily) the art of developing your characters. As a development executive with LA Film Lab Entertainment (a literary development and production company), I have developed a framework to assist you in creating rich and complex characters. The complexity that you desire comes through 1) labeling their desire essences, 2) labeling their fear essences, 3) getting specific about their past, 4) labeling their behavior, 5) raising their stakes, 6) not meddling in their lives, and 7) letting them play. Asking provoking questions in line with these steps, answering them thoroughly, and then repeating the process, provides constant individual growth in your characters that mirrors life. Now let’s take each step in turn:

1. Label the Desire Essences of each of your main characters: The first key to deepening your work is finding the major motivators in the lives of your characters that drive their actions. We all have deep aspirations that drive our choices, our thoughts, our actions and reactions. These needs are what differentiate us from one another and we will refer to them as “Desire Essences.” Some examples of DESIRE ESSENCES are: the desire to be intellectually brilliant; the desire to be socially famous; the desire to hide from the world; the desire to belong to a group; the desire to be loved; the desire to party; the desire to die.

2. Label the Fear Essences of each of your main characters: What is at the root of each of your characters’ darker sides? For every desire they have they should also exhibit the antithetical fear of failing at that desire. These fears will battle their aspirations for control over their behavior. Labeling and understanding the darker sides of your characters is imperative to creating the dimensional and imperfect characters you are after. Some examples of FEAR ESSENCES are: the fear of being stupid; the fear of being ordinary; the fear of being socially exposed; the fear of being rejected by a group; the fear of being loathed; the fear of being boring; the fear of having to face life.

3. Get specific with your Backstory: Human behavior is made up of a string of moments and reactions to those moments. A character’s current behavior is a battle between fear and desire and their immediate choices are made based on very specific (yet unconscious) experiences from their past &ndash experiences that leave imprints much like DNA. Though your characters should be unconscious of these past experiences that are influencing them, you the writer must create these in your preparation of their backstory be fully aware of them. Here is an example of what won’t benefit you vs. what will when getting specific with backstory:

Bad example of getting specific: Rachel is a pretty girl who thinks she is unattractive. She prefers to live in her books as opposed to being with friends or family. Her father has abused her sexually throughout her youth. She hates attention.

Better example of getting specific: On her graduation day, at a party her Mother is throwing for her, Rachel’s sexually abusive father shows up drunk and congratulates her, hugging her too closely, grabbing her rear end with both hands, and calling her pretty in front of a room full of her friends and family. She runs away humiliated and hides in her room, escaping into one of her fantasy books. That night she moves out to stay with a friend and doesn’t tell her friends where she is going. Two weeks later she finds out through another friend that her father died in a car accident. He had been drunk.

In the better example of getting specific, the reader can have a visceral reaction to the words. This is caused by the detail. The generality of the bad reaction is logical, but lifeless. In the better example it is easy to determine what the essences of our leading lady might be: desire to hide, maybe even desire to die, desire to live in her books, desire to be valued for her intellect instead of her body, fear of loneliness, fear of her appearance, fear of the opposite sex, fear of losing a loved one, fear of being abandoned.

4. Describe their Current Behavior: Take the essences and the specific examples you have now created and determine what kind of behavior your characters might exhibit as a result. Don’t limit yourself with these, but rather excite yourself with the possibilities.

Simple examples from our leading lady - a woman who: hides her body; avoids friends from her past; mistrusts anyone who comments favorably on her appearance; desires to control her education and her intellect; avoids alcohol.

5. Raise the stakes: Emotions are extreme. Play in the realm of this extreme when dealing with the fears and ambitions of your characters. These essences are all encompassing; meaning that we spend our lifetimes with them. Don’t cheat your characters by being afraid to raise the stakes as high as you can. Needing to find a precious stone to sell to an art dealer by midnight to raise the financing to save your character’s mother’s house before the bank takes it away from her tomorrow is exciting! Look back at your own life and think of how seriously you take your essences &ndash when your essences are threatened will you fight to extremes to defend them, just as when they are fulfilled, do you enjoy some of your greatest moments in life? Play in the realm of the extreme. Raise the stakes. Your essences are life and death to you &ndash let them be that way to your characters.

6. Don’t meddle: Of course you might be saying to yourself, “How do I not meddle &ndash I’m the writer!” But a truthful story is going to grow from your willingness to let your characters make their own decisions based on how you have defined them (which after these exercises will be in great depth). As their parent, you have to let your children go; this is the point at which your story truly begins. DO NOT MEDDLE IN THEIR LIVES. Continually remind yourself &ndash it’s not about you. You just serve the story. Let your characters make their own decisions. If you ever find yourself not knowing what decision they might make &ndash question your homework and rework their essences, behaviors and stakes until their choice becomes obvious.

7. Let your characters play: Once you have developed several characters by labeling their essences, getting specific, defining their behavior, and raising the stakes, you are ready to begin to let them interact. It’s like the first day at a new school; ripe with possibility. When properly developed, there is no way to predict how your characters will behave in any given situation, but they are so full of life and their own agendas that they are ready to interact with other characters who have been developed to the same level. If you have done the work to get to this place &ndash this is where your characters will begin to write themselves.

Follow these steps to create the richer characters you want to be writing.

Find the Essences:

To find the essences of your characters, you have to look to their history and their genetics. Just like real people, your characters’ current behavior is defined by their DNA combined with experiences you create in their past. We all have the basic fears and ambitions of survival, shelter, and food, so when working on these essences focus on the ones that really drive each character. Consider ethnicity, religious beliefs, and major life events. Address sex, drugs, music, parents, siblings, education, appearance and intelligence for sure.

Start by writing out twenty DESIRE ESSENCES that feel right for each main character. Then determine one polar opposite of each DESIRE to create your twenty FEAR ESSENCES. Go back and toss the ones that you now feel less attached to. Repeat and refine the process until you have at least ten of each for each character that really excite you.

Get specific about Backstory:

Get specific about how your character’s essences have come to be. Create definitive moments in your characters’ lives that detail when these fears and desires were initiated. Come up with five supporting examples of moments in their lives when each of these essences was tested and eventually vindicated in the name of the fear or in the name of the desire. Failure vindicates the fear and success vindicates the desire. Write at least one half page of text supporting each -Yes that will give you a total of twenty-five pages of essence work. Do the work.

10 Essences (a desire and a fear for each) x 5 samples for each = 50 descriptions (each a half page)

Label the Current Behavior:

Using their essences and their specific past, come up with ten sample behaviors for each character. Simple example: a character who has a desire to hide and a fear of being publicly humiliated, has a specific past incident of continually having their pants pulled down in public by a sibling. The current behavior - they might always wear a belt, or might always look behind themselves in a very specific attempt to never be humiliated again.

Raise the stakes:

After looking over your newly created examples, it should be easy to determine some issues that might be going on in their lives that would increase or decrease their stress. A decrease in stress generally excites people to take greater chances, while an increase in stress tends to shorten people’s fuses.

List five possible increases or decreases in your characters stress level.

Don’t meddle and let them play:

Now put two of your fully developed characters into the same room. Implement two or three increases in stress to one character and two or three decreases in stress to the other character and let them bounce off of one another. Go into this exercise with no preconceived notions of what might happen. If you have done your homework, they should affect one another.*

*If you need a jumpstart &ndash add an element that one needs from the other and give the other a strong reason for not wanting to provide what that character needs. Could be tangible or emotional.

If you are a webmaster you will know that writing articles for publication in ezines is an excellent way to get free publicity for your website. One thing that holds many would be writers back is that they don’t think they will be able to find enough to write even on a subject they know well. Webmasters who have never written an article before tend to feel their minds go blank at the suggestion of writing for publication. One of the most common reasons for not writing articles is that people do not think they will be able to write enough about a topic. This worry is usually overcome during the writing process but, even if you run out of words too soon, there are a few useful tricks you can use to increase your word count.

Most article directories will not accept an article consisting of fewer than 500 words; the most suitable length for an article is between 500 and 700 words. Let’s go for 500 words for our first attempt. That might sound a lot but, if you look at the structure of most articles you will see that they are broken down into three sections: introductory paragraph, main content and closing paragraph. In turn, the main content will be broken down into 3-5 paragraphs.

If you plan your article to have three paragraphs of main content, you only need to find 100 words to write in each paragraph and that is a far easier goal to think about than finding 500 words. When you write the article, you obviously won’t have exactly 100 words in each paragraph but this rule of thumb gives you something to aim for. Decide in advance on the sub-topic of each of the main content paragraphs, you can give them subheadings if appropriate, otherwise just use the sub-topics to plan your structure.

To get a feel for structure, let’s look at an idea for an article. Our subject can be planting spring bulbs and our plan will look something like this:

Introduction - general information eg about types of bulbs available for spring flowering, type, varieties available, colors available, best time to plant, benefits of using bulbs in preference to other forms of planting.

Para 1 - choosing the right bulbs for particular situations eg shaded ground, containers, mixed planting, indoor displays etc.

Para 2 - planting techniques e.g. choosing growing medium for containers, choosing containers, depth to plant different species, color schemes

Para 3 - general care e.g. watering, when to cut down, propagation, naturalizing

Closing - brief summary of topics covered or something along the lines of “if you follow this care guidance, your bulbs will provide a colorful display year after year”.

In this plan our closing paragraph is very brief but there should be no problem in writing well over 100 words for the first paragraph. In fact, if you are a bulb expert, you could write several articles based on each of the sub-topics.

If you feel you need to write an article on a particular subject but really run out of things to say, there are a couple of simple ways to bring your word count up to the level required by the article directories. Make it a rule, however, that you never use artificial padding to inflate your word count. The trick is to add words that enhance the value of your article, not just puff it up. These are legitimate ways of boosting your word count:

1. Add a sub-title to the article and use sub headings (if appropriate) for each paragraph.

2. If you use acronyms or initials, place the full term in brackets after the abbreviation. eg if you are talking about PPC, add “(this stands for Pay Per Click advertising)” after the abbreviation to add seven extra words.

3. Use quotations or statistics. Some articles can be uplifted by the use of a famous quotation. Inserting the quotation and author name adds several words but you can expand this by adding a brief biographical note about the author eg “the famous Russian metaphysical poet”. If the article is not suited to the insertion of quotations, you might be able to add an interesting statistic. The information together with details of its source will add more words.

If you follow the steps set out above, you should find it comparatively easy to write an article of sufficient length for Ezine publication.

From its early British heritage, the English language has evolved and it will continue to do so as it creeps its way into societies all over the world. The English you know may not be what another person, who lives in another country, knows. Marquez Comelab, author of The Part-Time Currency Trader , explains.

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From its early British heritage, the English language has evolved and it will continue to do so as it creeps its way into societies all over the world. The English you know may not be what another person, who lives in another country, knows. Different countries have developed their own unique way of using English. For example, the Australian English, a dialect I have grown accustomed to, uses the letter ‘ u ’s in certain words. They use suffixes such as &ndash ise instead of &ndash ize as well as &ndash t instead of &ndash ed . Below are some examples of the common differences between how Australians spell words and how these words are spelt elsewhere.

• Centre rather than Center

• Endeavour rather than Endeavor

• Colour instead of Color

• Armour instead of Armor

• Dreamt instead of Dreamed

• Spelt instead of Spelled

• Learnt instead of Learned

• Jeopardise instead of Jeopardize

• Organise instead of Organize

• Organisation instead of Organization

When I wrote my book: The Part-Time Currency Trader , I had to think about who my audience was. People who might be interested in this book were not just going to be Australians. In fact, currency trading is big in America , Europe and Asia . I would have to communicate with them as well. Therefore, I had to do a little researching and what I discovered for myself would be relevant to all writers, website owners and anybody who wishes to communicate with the global community and compete internationally.

From its early British heritage, the English language has evolved and it will continue to do so as it creeps its way into societies all over the world. The English you know may not be what another person, who lives in another country, knows. I found it most intriguing that there are so many English dialects.

Below are the types of English dialects (Source: .wikipedia.org):

Types of English that evolved from the British Isles :

• English English

• Highland English

• Mid-Ulster English

• Scottish English

• Welsh English

• Manx English

• Irish English

Types of English that evolved from the United States:

• AAVE (Ebonics)

• American English

• Baltimorese

• Boston English

• California English

• General American

• North Central American English

• Hawaiian English

Southern American English:

• Spanglish

• Chicano English

Types of English that evolved from Canada :

• Canadian English

• Newfoundland English

• Quebec English

Types of English that evolved in the Oceania :

• Australian English

• New Zealand English

Types of English that evolved in Asia :

• Hong Kong English

• Indian English

• Malaysian English

• Philippine English

• Singaporean English

• Sri Lankan English

Types of English that evolved in other countries:

• Bermudian English

• Caribbean English

• Jamaican English

• Liberian English

• Malawian English

• South African English

Other Classifications of English:

• Basic English

• Commonwealth English

• Globish

• International English

• Plain English

• Simplified English

• Special English

• Standard English

With this many types of English to cater for, writing can get complicated, especially when it comes to spelling words. If you are writing a book, people expect you not to make any spelling errors. None of us are perfect and I’m sure there are mistakes in most manuscript or on most websites but the last thing you need as a writer, is that your readers attribute spelling mistakes to you because of these basic differences in English.

If you want to know how I got around this problem, I simply wrote my book in my local dialect, Australian English. Then, I added a page in my book where I explain to the reader the most common differences between the Australian English and the English they may be accustomed to.

I just thought I would let you know and I hope this helps when you are reading or writing.

- END OF ARTICLE -

Please activate all hyperlinks and include the paragraph below if you are republishing this article online or in print.

About The Author:

Marquez Comelab is the author of the book: The Part-Time Currency Trader . It is a guide for men and women interested in trading currencies in the forex market. Discusses analysis, tools, indicators, trading systems, strategies, discipline and psychology. See: marquezcomelab.com. His other articles are also published at thefreedomtochoose.com along with other helpful articles.

Creative writing is considered to be one of the most perplexing forms of articulating thoughts and ideas on paper. It turns out to be a hard nut to crack because it requires the ability to think freely, giving thoughts a modicum of leeway, and express ideas and experienced feelings sincerely and openly.

That’s why putting wind in the sails with creative writing is not within every writer’s grasp. It means that a person, who succeeded in process writing approach that is all about planning, revising, re-arranging, and deleting text, re-reading, and producing multiple drafts before producing finished documents, will have the same good results in creative writing.

Surely, it doesn’t imply that creative writing process doesn’t need proper planning and preparation, it means that creative writing permits the author to deviate from the specific writing styles and not to be consistent with all the standards of this style. In a word, creative writing gives the author leeway in terms of presentation and development of a piece of writing.

Since creative writing is not simply a matter of sitting down, putting pen to paper, following smart instructions of emeritus pundits, commence at the beginning and write through to the end. Creative approach treats all writing as a creative act that requires time, positive feedback, and inspiration to be done well. People who engage in creative writing do not merely think freely; they view the world from free-thinking perspective.

Without a doubt, creative writing is not only about inspiration and gift of the writer, and it is far from coming easy to the writer, it also needs a lot of elbow grease in order to produce a piece of writing worth the attention of the readers.

The key to success in creative writing lies in the author’s ability to be frank with his readers and honest with himself. Don’t be afraid to step aside from the established standards of the particular writing style, and open the door of your brain to the new ideas that cross the threshold of your imagination and knock around your mind.

Remember that process and explorations are the keystones in creative writing, rather than the finished product. Let yourself release your inner genius and vent on paper the most bizarre ideas that amassed in your mind. The source of ideas for your creative writing can be various kinds of resources of creativity such as oral tradition, dreams, childhood memories, sense perceptions and intuition.

Katrina Crosbie, a tutor of creative writing in Edinburgh University’s Open Studies programme, asserts that getting in touch with subconscious mind is the key to original and creative writing. She also claims that every writer can harness three simple techniques to enhance his creative writing abilities, they are mental focusing techniques, harnessing the power of your dreams and journal writing. Harnessing these techniques takes hard work; so, if you are ready, roll up your sleeves and follow these simple strategies.

I. Mental focusing techniques

Mental focusing techniques involve focusing on the positive outcome. It implies that you should concentrate and regulate your mental activity in order to enter a quiet state of your mind. The key point in mental focusing is to get rid of all the stray thoughts and replace it with one thought; this process should gradually induce a calm sensation. The procedure is very simple, you make yourself comfortable in a cozy armchair, and in all possible ways try to awake creativity inside of you.

You should say something like “I’m getting in touch with my creativity source”, and imagine physically how the stream of creativity comes into your mind. Remember the sensation of clear, cool water on your face, or a stream of fresh breeze, which is blowing in your face. Then imagine yourself sitting at your word processor, typing fluently, and writing avidly. After several minutes open your eyes and commence writing.

II. Harness the power of your dreams

Dreams have tremendous power. The subconscious memory can be the direct cause of the certain dreams. “When the mind is centered on certain things, the sleeper goes over his life again and again in phantom fashion. He lives over the experiences of his daily life.”

Overall, your daydreams can be important, just write them down after waking up in the morning. Perhaps, later on, re-reading the notes of your dreams will prompt you some interesting ideas for your creative works.”These can be triggers for an especially imaginative piece of work. American writer Joyce Carol Oates has said that her novel Bellefleur was inspired by a dream of a walled garden which haunted her for years ’till she felt she had to write about it.”

III. Keep the writing journal

This technique of enhancing your creativity is very simple and at the same time highly productive. Buy yourself a notebook, so that you can always have it at hand and write some brief narratives in it on a daily basis.

Don’t focus on the style, mistakes, and, in general, in the way you write. Just write down the first things that occur in your mind, even if you think that this is junk. The main idea is to keep your hand moving and to feel a growing sense of inspiration and confidence. In the course of time, you will become a practiced hand in writing. Surely, you’ll find your journal notes a rich source of inspiration and ideas.

If you really want to enhance you creative writing abilities, give a try to these simple techniques, and bring your craft as a writer into play!

Every writer can benefit from a study of the effectiveness of their individual writing process. You can write more and you can write better by making some adjustments in your writing strategy.

Recently one of my writer friends complained about their declining word output.

“I spend more time at the computer than I ever did before and I’m just not producing like I used to,” she griped.

After spending a day in writing conferences coaching my struggling novice writers, my response came without conscious thought on my part: “Tell me about your writing process.”

“My what?” She asked.

Ah-ha!

I regularly coach my beginning writers about how to develop their own personal writing strategy or process and as a teacher of writing I think about mine quite often, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that experienced, professional writers rarely spend time talking about this critical element.

What a mistake!

It is easy to understand why. Many of us are simply too busy writing to think too much about the actual process. We have deadlines to meet, assignments to pursue, and pitches to create. When we do spend time with other writers our interactions typically fall into three categories–seeking admiration for our success, input for our end product, or escape from writing.

Many writers also take their writing process for granted and simply follow the old adage–if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But what happens when it does break down as it did with my friend? If you don’t understand your own writing process then you can’t fix it. And just like many of the machines in your life, regular maintenance checks just might prevent a major breakdown in the future.

My friend’s problem was easily identified and solved once we actually studied her writing process and writing life. Yes she was spending more time in front of the computer but she had lost a big chunk of her prewriting time due to changes in her home life. Once she understood that problem she was able to make adjustments to her schedule and she is seeing her daily word count rising back to her old levels.

So how is your writing process?

Many writers shy away from the term as it brings back fearful memories of a rigid structure forced on them in school. That is not what I want to talk about at all. Frankly, I always teach my students that there is no such as thing as the writing process.

Don’t get me wrong. I believe we each have our own individual writing process, I just don’t believe in the one-size-fits-all type strategy that many writers were force-fed. Just think about it. How could there be just one writing process–every writer I know is an individual with various strengths and weaknesses and personality traits. Every writer is wired differently from every other writer. That is one of the things that makes reading such a pleasure. It follows very logically then that every writing process should differ just as every writer differs.

Having said that I should point out that although the actual shape and form of each writing process is individual to the unique writer there are certain constants:

~ Generating ideas and choosing a focus

~ Organizing those ideas

~ Writing

~ Revising

~ Editing

The amount of time you spend on each stage of the writing process varies according to the writer and the task and this is especially true for me. Many writing tasks are so familiar to me that I spend very little time choosing a focus or organizing my ideas so I can leap write into writing. On the other hand I often generate four or more pages of fiction in about an hour at the computer because I spend a lot of time generating and organizing my ideas before I sit down.

I have spent years honing my personal writing process and know that the step I actually spend the least amount of time is writing. I have learned to let my creative juices flow and not to worry about such petty concerns as grammar, sentence structure, and word choice. I rarely waste a moment on organization or paragraphing. I just let the words flow through my fingerstips until I have emptied my budget. Then I hit save and print, tidy up my papers and set them aside.

Revision is usually the lion’s share of my writing process. It may take me two or three drafts to reorganize and shape a piece until I am willing to share it with others. Depending on how difficult and/or complex the subject then I may need to loop back through brainstorming, organizing and writing to improve my project. I may make a few minor adjustments to grammar or spelling or sentence structure, but primarily I concentrate on the larger issues of focus and development and organization.

When I am finally satisfied my article, chapter, or essay is working as a whole then I begin the actual editing process of cleaning up word choice and sentence structure and any other stray problems that have been overlooked. I usually spend only one draft on this actual process.

If you are serious about improving your writing quality and productivity then you need to spend time analyzing your personal writing process. You might be surprised by what you learn–and I know you can put the knowledge to good use.

I have lived in New York City my entire life. I often feel privileged to be a part of the energy and magic of this Mecca of celebrity. Under the semi privileged dome of my existence, I encounter the rich and famous at every turn. When I was a teenager, I crossed paths with Jerry Lewis in Times Square and bumped elbows once with Marvin Gaye.

As a passionate college student of Cinema Studies, I dined across the room from Woody Allen and stopped to compliment his latest film. At Caf

Creating a printed book is a bit more complicated than creating a PDF eBook. More steps are involved, just by right of producing a tangible finished product that needs to be handled in the physical world (versus an electronic document that can be distributed by e-mail or online). The basic print publishing process for a print-on-demand publishing cycle for a book that will be sold online through the print-on-demand vendor’s website (and/or other online booksellers like Amazon) breaks down as follows:

1. Complete your manuscript

2. Develop your cover concept (and do a trial run of a cover)

3. Format your manuscript for printing (the final product is called a “galley”)

4. Complete your cover artwork (and proof it with trial runs of a cover)

5. Put your galley and artwork together

6. Create marketing collateral, press releases, etc.

7. Publish!

8. Receive hard copies of your book and send out review copies to press

9. Send out press releases and place advertising and line up interviews

10.Continue the marketing cycle to keep your book in the press

11. Track your sales and order more books for more publicity

I recommend printing out this list and using it as a project plan for your print publishing. And fill in the blanks in the process, where you know there are more steps involved in your own personal experience. Or follow the sample project plan immediately following this section. Having a checklist to follow can simplify what can be a complicated and sometimes confusing process.

Now, one thing you may notice, is that I have listed marketing after the actual publication of your book. I strongly recommend waiting till you have a finished, published book in hand, before you start sending out press releases and generating interest. I’ve had international press people contact me within 24 hours of sending out my press materials, but I had no hard copies in hand to send to them, so that pretty much derailed the opportunity I’d created for myself.

In the traditional publishing world, it’s customary to publicize a printed book at least three months in advance of publication. This gives the press time to review bound galleys and work your publicity into their own production schedules. Now, for traditional publishers who have full staffs and plenty of money and connections and the machinery for publishing, that’s fine. They can pretty much guarantee that a book will come out exactly the way they say it will, exactly when they way it will. But when you’re on your own, it’s a different story. Anything could happen along the way. You could experience delays with the printer. You could experience personal complications. You could find yourself stalled by artwork that didn’t come out the way you wanted… any number of things can go wrong, when you’re on your own.

So, it’s prudent to be a bit more conservative about marketing a book you’re working on. Even if you’re 100% absolutely positively unwaveringly convinced that your book will come out in three weeks, anything can happen in that time, that can hold you up or wreck your carefully laid plans. So, don’t make any promises you can’t keep to the press. It will only work against you.

All this might sound a little daunting, but if you’re reading this, you’re probably an independent type of person, so the inherent risks and dangers will trouble you a lot less than someone who’s never published before and is nervous entering uncharted waters. Certainly, going it alone as an independent print publisher can take a lot more preparation and organization, than operating solely in digital formats. But it’s also very satisfying, to have a book in hand that you can give to friends, families, reviewers, and others who say, “So, you’re a writer?”

And if you format your book well, your work can be indistinguishable from the work of other writers published by mainstream publishing houses. You can get your own ISBN, your own professional-looking cover, a great looking interior, and all the marketing collateral you could ask for… without spending a small fortune. All it takes is determination, the right information, some creative inventiveness, a keen eye for detail, and a willingness to keep going, no matter what.

With a little extra care, some advanced planning, and an eye for detail, you can turn your eBooks or white papers or other digital information products into printed books — and not drive yourself crazy in the process.

EVALUATING YOUR OWN WORK

By Derek Rydall

Founder, ScriptwriterCentral.com

“Words strain,

Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,

Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,

Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,

Will not stay still.”

– T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

WRITING IS REWRITING

As a writer, you may use other script consultants to critique your material, but inevitably you’ll need to master the ability to analyze your own work. This can be a difficult task, somewhat akin to trying to look at your own face (without a mirror). If you are going to write at a level that sells, however, you will need to rewrite.

And rewrite.

And rewrite…

But do not despair, you’re in good company. Many screenwriters struggle over evaluating their own work. I still have bloodstains on my office walls where I pounded my head as I rewrote one script sixteen times before putting it in the market. I once spent so long looking at a single word that it lost its meaning and was reduced to its original, primordial symbolism. Talk about a head-trip! And it’s not just screenwriters that suffer with this. The French poet, Paul Verlaine, once said that a poet never finishes a poem, he abandons it. Marcel Proust continued to correct proofs for Remembrance of Things Past on his deathbed. Henry James rewrote some of his novels long after they were published. And Oscar Wilde once proclaimed that he spent all morning adding a comma and all afternoon deleting it. Boy, do I know that one!

So how do you analyze your own work without becoming an alcoholic or a guest at the Mad Hatter’s tea party? First, you have to accept the fact that you will never have a completely objective perspective. Second, you have to learn when to just grit your teeth and conclude that the work is finished — even if you have the uneasy feeling that more can be done. Honestly, I still feel that way about almost everything I’ve written. It goes with the territory.

There are certain things you can do, however, to gain some perspective:

ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW (LESS) FONDER

Writing is a love-hate relationship. We start out hating everything we’re writing, and end up blinded by love for every word we’ve put on paper (or the other way around). In order to gain objectivity, we must get distance. Putting your work away for a while &ndash sometimes weeks or months &ndash can allow you to come back not so enamored by it. (Falling in love with a new piece of material can also help.) It gives you a chance to read it almost as if it’s someone else’s. This is the first, and perhaps most important, step for evaluating your own work. If you find yourself getting hung up again, wanting to save all your babies, stick it back in the drawer and move on to something else &ndash or send it to a trusted friend or script consultant.

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD — OUTLINING AGAIN

Deconstructing your script back to an outline form can make the process more analytical again and give you some much-needed objectivity. It allows you to see the basic building blocks and recognize if this house will really stand. Then you can make the necessary changes in outline form before you go back to script.

HAVE A READING

Getting a group of actors together to read your script aloud can be an anxiety-producing experience — but almost always an illuminating one. Hearing the actors speak, and often stumble over, your dialogue, definitely gives you a fresh perspective on it. You begin to see that some of your words don’t fall trippingly over the tongue, but cause the tongue to trip and fall over the words.

After the reading is done, you can elicit feedback from the actors &ndash or the audience, if you have one. But I must issue a word of warning here. Having a group of actors give feedback on your script could be one of the most painful experiences of your creative life. The first time I did it, the group ganged up on me to proclaim just how bad the script was. It was downright ugly. AND THESE WERE MY FRIENDS! Even my mom was part of the lynch mob! It dealt a crushing blow to my fragile writer’s ego. I promptly threw the script away, indulged in the nearest libation, and curled up in a warm and cozy depression. A couple weeks later, however, I emerged from the near-suicidal encounter with a ton of insights and a much better script.

THE FAST “NO-BRAINER” READ

Your unconscious already knows what’s wrong with your script, it just can’t get through the filtering of your conscious monitoring mind. So sometimes, just riding over your script roughshod, writing every note that comes to you without considering the absurdity of it, can result in some pretty insightful and inspired comments. It might also result in some pretty brutal ones as well. But that’s okay. After the group therapy session you had with your script reading, you’re tough enough to take it.

THE HIERARCHY OF NOTES

One of the toughest parts about rewriting, once you’ve evaluated your script, is knowing where to start. You’re sitting there, staring at a big smelly pile of notes — scribblings and late-night ramblings on every page, legal pads covered in blood and coffee stains. There’s just no way to begin easily and painlessly with that mess. So don’t. Yet. Organize your notes from ‘easiest’ to ‘most difficult.’ In other words, at the top of the list will be the typos and grammatical errors, then descriptive polishes, dialogue polishes, moving on down to the more difficult character, plot, and theme notes.

I know that a major time-management proposition is to begin with the most important goal or task and stick with it until it’s finished. But this ain’t time management, folks. This is art. It’s not rational. So I believe it’s better to start with the easiest damn thing and get it done fast. Then move to the next easiest thing and whip it out quickly. Now, with a little more momentum, you might actually be willing to tackle the more difficult notes with a higher level of confidence and a lower level of antidepressants.

A FINAL NOTE ON GIVING YOURSELF NOTES

Some of you will be way too eager to get your script out to every producer in town &ndash even after the first draft. Your task is to develop patience. You’ve spent this long on the script, what’s another few weeks or months to make sure you’ve got it right.

Just take a breath.

Put the script away. Rewrite it. Whatever you do, don’t send it out there knowing it could be improved, thinking “they’ll just fix it in post.” NO THEY WON’T. The only ‘post’ that script will see is ‘compost,’ because that’s the pile it’ll end up on. So unless you want your work to become fertilizer for someone else’s lawn — chill out, dude.

Then there are those of you who will resist sending your script out into the seemingly cold, harsh world of Hollywood no matter how long you’ve been working on it. This is not only inefficient, it’s creatively debilitating. Think of your script like a plane that has landed and is still on the runway. If you don’t move it along, all those other planes (stories) can’t land. If you’ve done everything you can, had others give notes on it, rewritten it until the words have lost their meaning — it’s time to abandon your baby. Wrap the little babushka up in a blanket and set it on the doorstep of every production company you can.

With a little luck, someone will decide to make that child their own.

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As a screenwriter, Derek Rydall has sold, optioned, or been hired on assignment for over 20 film and TV projects. He has developed projects for the producer of Ghost, RKO, U/A, Miramax, Saturn (Nick Cage), and many indie producers, as well as worked as a staff writer for Fox, Disney, and Deepak Chopra. As a story consultant/script doctor, Derek has helped writers, producers, actors, and directors turn books into screenplays, secure millions in financing, make six-figure script deals, get hired to exec produce, direct, star in their movies, obtain major distribution, and win awards. And as an author, Derek’s book, I Could’ve Written a Better Movie than That!: How to Make Six Figures as a Script Consultant– Even if You’re Not a Screenwriter, is due out October by Michael Wiese Publishing. For more info, you can check out his site, .scriptwritercentral.com, email derekscriptwritercentral.com or call (661) 296-4991.”

Ms. Preble is an award-winning teacher, a jazz singer and pianist, and the author of The Queen Geek Social Club and its just-published sequel Queen Geeks In Love (both available from Penguin Books). A self-admitted geek, Laura is a science fiction fan and currently lives in the San Diego area with her husband, jazz saxophonist Chris Klich and her sons Austin and Noel.

T.E. Pouncey: I thoroughly enjoyed your novel. Are any of the elements in The Queen Geek Social Club autobiographical?

Laura Preble: Actually, the book is sort of like how I would have been in high school if I’d had better clothes and more confidence. Other than that, a lot of it is based on various elements of the schools where I’ve taught (West Hills High and Mar Vista High in San Diego, CA). I study my students, then take pieces of various kids, stitch them together, and create new characters. It’s kind of like Frankenstein, but with less lightning.

TEP: Do you create a character and then visualize what they look like, or do you visualize a character and then create their personality?

LP: I think I usually have a voice in mind first. For Queen Geeks, I woke up one morning at 3 a.m. and just had this idea, and the character of Shelby in mind. Her appearance developed as I developed her personality; the smart-ass attitude and wry observations definitely shaped her appearance. Plus, she looks a little like me if I’m having a really good day and have access to a foggy mirror.

TEP: The character Shelby Chappelle in TQGSC has a great robot sidekick named Euphoria. Which robot would you rather hang out with, R2-D2 or C-3PO?

LP: Geez. That’s like asking someone to choose which child they’d abandon on The Titanic … but if I had to pick, I think I’d go with C-3P0 because he actually talks. R2-D2 is much more down-to-earth and actually more intelligent, but since he just beeps and sounds like static from a faint radio station, it would probably bug me.

TEP: Speaking of movies, if TQGSC was optioned as a movie, would you want to write the screenplay?

LP: Yes, and if you happen to know of some really powerful Hollywood mover and/or shaker, please hook me up. I love to write dialog, so I think I’d do really well with a screenplay.

TEP: You once said you grew up in Ohio on a diet of hot chocolate and science fiction. Who were some of your favorite authors?

LP: I used to work at the local library, and my job was to go to the basement and bring up back copies of old magazines (this was before Internet … arghgh!). Anyway, when I wasn’t busy, I’d hide in the stacks and read Isaac Asimov and Amazing Stories, Robert Heinlein, Robert Silverburg, Spider Robinson, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, plus fantasy like Tolkien and Piers Anthony. I’m really a sci-fi whore and will read anything anybody puts in front of me.

TEP: Any plans for a TQGSC sequel or do you want to work with a brand new group of characters?

LP: Well, I do have a sequel coming out in November of this year, and it’s called Queen Geeks in Love. It follows the exploits of the same geeky characters (as well as Euphoria), and tackles the thorny problem of what happens when geeks date. Some highlights: attending Comic-Con as homemade superheroes, and putting on Geek Fest, a celebration of talent designed to humiliate those involved as well as those watching.

TEP: You have two sons. How do THEY react to Mom’s being a self-admitted geek?

LP: Ah! They are little geeks in training. The oldest one, Austin, goes with me to Comic-Con. In fact, we did a singing contest together there on a new lip-sync video game. It was also great this year, because Penguin (my publisher) sold the first book at Comic-Con and gave postcards out for Queen Geeks in Love, so Austin would go up to people near the booth, hand them postcards, and say “Buy my mom’s book so she’ll feed me!” Noel, the youngest, is too young to understand the true meaning of the word ‘geek,’ but he’s obsessed with space, aliens, and Harry Potter (at age 4) so I think it’s destiny that he’ll be a little geek himself.

TEP: Is your first novel, Lica’s Angel, still in print?

LP: Yes … I self published it a few years ago when I thought I’d never get a publishing contract. It’s available on Barnes and Noble’s website as well as Amazon and iUniverse. When I do book signings, they often have it in the store also. I started a sequel to that book also, but never got to finish it.

TEP: How did you become interested in jazz music?

LP: My dad had a killer collection of jazz, swing, and Big Band music, and when I moved away to college, I stole all his Duke Ellington records. Then I met my husband, Chris Klich, a consummate jazz professional (sax player), and now we make beautiful music together (yuck! Overt sentimentality!) Our most recent album, Blue Skies, still sells lots on CD BABY (and you can hear it at his website chrisklich dot com). We also had an originals band where I wrote all the music and lyrics, and that album is still floating around out there too, and can be heard at laurapreble dot com, my music site.

TEP: Which is harder to be: a good teacher, a good writer, or a good musician?

LP: It’s hardest to be all three at the same time, which is what I go for. Plus good mom, good wife, and good Olympic discus thrower. (No, that last one was just to see if you were paying attention.)

TEP: Can you tell us about any new projects that will be published before the end of the year?

LP: In addition to Queen Geeks in Love, which comes out November 6 &ndash and I’m hoping every person in the United States, Canada, and all English-speaking countries will buy a copy &ndash I’m also working on a novel titled Punk Boy Mysterious which is not within the Queen Geek series, and I am in the process of finishing Prom Queen Geeks, the third book in the Queen Geek series, which will be out in Fall 2008. I’ve also been writing for Writer’s Digest, and will be doing a workshop at the Southern California Writer’s Conference. And I’m still hoping for a TV show, a movie, an appearance on Ellen, and perhaps a Pulitzer Prize for humorous literature featuring a robot. (Is that a category? It should be!)

Interview by T.E. Pouncey, and reprinted with permission from GeeksofDoom.

Optional Description: Once you become busy as a freelance copywriter, you can’t afford to answer the phone every time it rings. And if you’re not yet loaded with projects, you’d be better to pretend you are. Otherwise, copywriting prospects may think you are desperate for work, and talk you down in your fees. At the same time it’s important to have open communication with those clients who are paying you money to write copy. Here’s my unique solution gleaned from too much time as a child, watching Batman.

–

I recently installed a “Bat Phone.”

Remember the old campy Adam West Batman series? Whenever Commissioner Gordon called, a red phone in Wayne Manor’s library would start flashing.

Alfred would come along, pick it up, and say in that servile English-butler voice, “Yes?… One moment, please.”

Then he’d go grab Bruce who’d be doing something heroic like teaching Dick how to bake no-fat brownies. They both race to the phone to find out which felon had broken out of Gotham City’s Prison.

To the bat poles!

Well, I have two paying copywriting clients who sometimes need to get hold of me ASAP. Often three or four times a week. I’ve not only been writing copy for their businesses but guiding their marketing.

At the same time I don’t want to have to pick up the phone every time it rings — for anybody. It just becomes too disruptive. I don’t even want to have to go and check the call display. Either my wife or my assistant can handle enquiries.

Simply put, I don’t want to talk to anybody who isn’t paying me money for my time and expertise.

I’m also finished with free consultations. Works for some copywriters, doesn’t work for me.

So, I called up the phone company and asked if they could activate an Ident-A-Call number. That way, when one of my copywriting clients calls, the ringer will sound different and I’d know it’s them.

The neat thing was that my area code just introduced a new three digit prefix. I was one of the first phone numbers to use it, allowing me to select the last four digits myself.

Well, going with the Bat Phone theme, I thought (298) 398-BATP would be easy for my clients to remember.

I almost went through with it, until I read it out to the telecom lady…

“Is B-A-T-P available?”

Silence.

“Bat pee?” she asked.

No, that won’t work. Call 398-Bat-Pee!

I ended up settling with (298) 398-HELP* which isn’t as original, but easy enough to remember.

(*That’s not the real number, of course. I’m not revealing the Bat Number in a public email).

Anyway, my clients are glad I got it (as well as my wife) as I tend to only check email and voicemail only once a day. It makes them feel that they are getting their money’s worth and raises my perceived value at the same time.

I’d encourage any copywriter to do the same… or to erect some other barrier around you and your time. If you don’t respect it, nobody will. Let ‘em suck up your time and they’ll suck up the dollars you could have been earning with it.