Saturday, January 20, 2007

Secrets of Writing: Beginnings

How you begin any story is important. You have to interest people from the start. There’s a good chance that some potential reader might pick up your book in the store, read the first page, and decide if it looks interesting. You have to nail them on the spot. You have to make them go: “I gotta buy this!”

So when you sit down to think what that first page is going to show, think of it as the money shot. That first page has the potential to sell your book. It also sets the tone. It can also be used to establish the premise or a theme. In FORREST GUMP, the first image we saw was a floating feather, which was a metaphor for one of story’s themes.

If you do a splash page, you should try to think of an original and interesting opening. One they will pay attention to. Jack Kirby was great with those back in the sixties. When I was a kid, I would grab his comics off the rack just to see what the opening shot was. He always came up with something that made you go “Wow!”

As a rule of thumb, your story should begin in motion. Events should be taking place which are going to upset the balance of your Hero’s life. As we discussed earlier, the first act is going to be relatively short. And the turning point of the first act is going to throw the protagonist headlong, directly at the conflict. So you might as well get the ball rolling from panel one. Start in medias res. Use action, conflict, mystery or humor to get us interested in what is going on. Make the audience wonder and care who the people are and what is going to happen to them. Hit the ground running.

It’s not a bad idea to show the Hero’s life is already in a state of flux. Either he’s between jobs, his wife hates him, there’s no money coming in and he might have to move, something that tells us he’s ready for a change of some kind. Change is what life is all about and stories are metaphors for life. Remember?

Having the balance of things upset at the beginning gives it inertia from panel one. You can then propel the story further along with every panel there after.

In monthly comics it’s hard to have the character’s life in upheaval at the beginning of every story, so many writers try to do it by leaving cliff hangers at the end of the previous issue. This keeps the momentum going, but if done improperly it can also ruin the energy of the story. If you start out with a slam bang at the beginning you have to top it by the end. There’s no way to keep doing this month after month, so it’s not wise to fall into that trap.

Normally, the way to get momentum going in the beginning is with the Trigger Event. Which just happens to be our next chapter.

Rising Action

When a story begins we usually enter into a series of events known as rising action. These scenes establish the momentum of the story from the beginning. The events in this part of the story are a logical progression of what was set up at the start. We’ve met some characters. We’ve been given a rough idea what they want to do. Now they are setting out to accomplish their goals. And naturally, these goals just happen to be in direct opposition to what some other characters want. Or, if it’s a story about internal conflict, what the hero’s inner self wants.

The rising action serves to build the story’s energy toward the first big reversal. The Turning Point. In the midst of all this is Trigger Event, which is the force that starts the whole ball rolling.

The rising action phase of the story needs to be really compelling because this will determine if you’ve hooked the reader or not. If the audience isn’t hooked in the beginning of the story, they may put it down to read later. So already, you’ve bored them. The story isn’t interesting enough for them to keep reading.

If that’s the case, you’re in trouble.

Take a good hard look at the beginning of your story. Is it really exciting? Is it really interesting? Don’t think that a shot of some guy blasting a machine gun at us is exciting. It’s not something we haven’t seen before. They were doing that kind of shot in 1950s war comics. Exciting isn’t just action. Exciting is something that sucks us in. That draws our attention. It can be a naked body. It can be an unusual sight. Or...it can even be a shot of action. But we’d better care about who is involved in that action. Remember the rules of conflict.

The rising action scenes also establish the mood of the story. As we discussed before, once the mood is set, you have to stick with it until the next act. And even then, don’t make the mistake of confusing the audience. There must be a pervasive mood to every story.

You should also use the action to tell us who the characters are and why they are in opposition to each other. In the first act we need to know who the hero is, what he’s after, and why he’s not able to get it. Who the villain is and why they’re in the way should also be clear.

When introducing the villain, make sure his first scene is really interesting. The villain is the linchpin of the story. He has to grab the audience’s attention in a big way.

REMEMBER: Start with momentum and keep us interested from the first shot.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Dubai Private Islands

The World is a series of private islands forming the shape of the word’s continents. Right now, only one home has been built on one. A palace gigven as a gift to a Le Mans racer by an Arab prince. Lots of pictures after the jump. 

Japanese Spiderman

For those who haven’t seen it, these are the credits for a 1978 TV show for kids in Japan. I kinda like the theme song. 

A More Accurate Climatologist

Global Warming War

The degree to which the left and media hacks are trying to ram global warming down people’s throats is starting to create some blowback. Hopefully it will be a fierce battle take out the climate creeps once and for all. This ABC weatherman details the problem.

I have been in operational meteorology since 1978, and I know dozens and dozens of broadcast meteorologists all over the country. Our big job: look at a large volume of raw data and come up with a public weather forecast for the next seven days. I do not know of a single TV meteorologist who buys into the man-made global warming hype. I know there must be a few out there, but I can’t find them. Here are the basic facts you need to know:

*Billions of dollars of grant money is flowing into the pockets of those on the man-made global warming bandwagon. No man-made global warming, the money dries up. This is big money, make no mistake about it. Always follow the money trail and it tells a story. Even the lady at “The Weather Channel” probably gets paid good money for a prime time show on climate change. No man-made global warming, no show, and no salary. Nothing wrong with making money at all, but when money becomes the motivation for a scientific conclusion, then we have a problem. For many, global warming is a big cash grab.

*The climate of this planet has been changing since God put the planet here. It will always change, and the warming in the last 10 years is not much difference than the warming we saw in the 1930s and other decades. And, lets not forget we are at the end of the ice age in which ice covered most of North America and Northern Europe.

If you don’t like to listen to me, find another meteorologist with no tie to grant money for research on the subject. I would not listen to anyone that is a politician, a journalist, or someone in science who is generating revenue from this issue.

In fact, I encourage you to listen to WeatherBrains episode number 12, featuring Alabama State Climatologist John Christy, and WeatherBrains episode number 17, featuring Dr. William Gray of Colorado State University, one of the most brilliant minds in our science.

We have the UN about to release another IPCC report which some fools are calling “the final word” on the subject.

A draft of the report by 2,500 scientists says it is “very likely” that human activities were the main cause of warming in the past 50 years, strengthening a conclusion in their last study in 2001 that it was “likely”, they said.

But the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will also project less extreme bands than it did in 2001 for temperature and sea level rises in the 21st century. That means toning down both the most catastrophic and least damaging scenarios.

What’s interesting is they are stepping up their warnings while downgrading their findings. What does that tell you?

The fact that it comes from the UN is evidence of one thing. It’s crap.

UPDATE: Now the hacks are trying to demonize meat eating the way they are demonizing fossil fuels, cigarettes and junk food. They won’t be happy until we’re living in trees and eating bananas. 

It’s On

Hillary has started a whisper campaign to take down Barack Obama.

Are the American people ready for an elected president who was educated in a Madrassa as a young boy and has not been forthcoming about his Muslim heritage?

This is the question Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s camp is asking about Sen. Barack Obama.

An investigation of Mr. Obama by political opponents within the Democratic Party has discovered that Mr. Obama was raised as a Muslim by his stepfather in Indonesia. Sources close to the background check, which has not yet been released, said Mr. Obama, 45, spent at least four years in a so-called Madrassa, or Muslim seminary, in Indonesia.

“He was a Muslim, but he concealed it,” the source said. “His opponents within the Democrats hope this will become a major issue in the campaign.”

She can’t win, either way. But she’s doing a good job of showing us what she’s made of.

Secrets of Writing: Sequences

Sequences are a section of the story, composed of scenes, relating a major incident in the act. In THE GODFATHER, the first sequence is the Wedding. It’s composed of myriad scenes which show different things happening at the Wedding of Vito Corleone’s daughter. The second sequence is the Hollywood Deal. Tom Hagan goes to Hollywood to try to convince a producer that he must hire an actor friend of the Godfather’s. The producer refuses and wakes up the next morning with a severed horse’s head lying between his legs. These sequences tell us a section of the story which are building toward act’s climax. They serve to narrate a progression of events that the scenes have constructed.

Sequences are generally thematically linked. They form a bigger picture than the scene. The scene is only showing us one event that happened. A sequence tells us how a series of events formed a greater whole and this is the end result.

Like scenes and acts, the sequence builds toward a climax. It has it’s own resolution. It follows the general formula of A>B

Just as scenes should follow a logical order, sequences need to construct the story in a pattern that makes sense. Some stories tell sequences out of order, but this is done to fill in the story different parts at a time until the whole picture is complete. If a sequence is something that takes place out of the continuity of the previous and following sequence, you may want to put it somewhere else. Remember that you are building towards something and the choice of appropriate scenes and sequences are essential.

REMEMBER: Sequences build toward the act’s climax. Order them well.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Great Wall Paintings

Very nice stuff

Coming Soon

From the creators of Half-Life, a really cool puzzle game involving wormhole guns. 

Secrets of Writing: Scenes

Now that we understand polarity, we can talk about scenes. Scenes are the smallest component of the story, after panels. They are like miniature stories within the story. And they should follow the same basic formula of story structure. A>B

A is the hero of the scene. B is the conflict/villain standing in the way. C is the Grail.

If we look at the one act comic strip as an example. We see that one character is usually talking to another character. Character A wants something, be it information, attention, money, etc. Character B is always going to resist in some way. The punchline of a comic strip is how they resist. Usually it’s with some joke that has a negative effect on character A. So we see polarity in action. Comic strips almost always start positive and end negative because humor is usually found in pain.

A scene should follow the rules of the one act story. The ending should have some kind of punchline at the end. A pay off. This gives the scene it’s own premise, which gives it weight.

The average scene in a comic takes up one or two pages. The one page scene is a good size because you can set up a tight series of panels to get to a quick punch at the end. But when you need a long scene you can add pages or panels until you accomplish the length you want.

A scene in a book or a movie can take a few pages (or a few minutes) but remember that the length of a scene controls the energy of the story flow. A short scene is punchy. If it’s too short it won’t have much impact. If it’s too long it can bore the audience or make them lose their attention to what the scene is about. Focus is your critical element. You need to focus on what the scene is about and not be distracted with being cute or showing off something that is not part of that scene. Remember that a scene has to have a point, just like a story. And the ending of the scene has to deliver the story something to move it forward.

When you try to put more than one scene on a page you need to make sure they are compatible. The Audience should have a sense that this next scene is somehow linked to the events of the storyline in a logical progression from the last scene. Otherwise it’s rather jarring to make a jump from one into something completely different in tone and pace.

Another thing to remember when doing one page scenes (in comics) is that even numbered pages are what you see when you turn a page, odd numbered pages are the page you have to turn. Therefore, the last panel on an odd numbered page can be used to set up a surprise when the reader turns the page. The only thing that can screw you up are the advertisements. You may have to find out where they normally get placed or ask that the ads don’t effect something you’ve set up. They can usually play around with the ads to accommodate the needs of your story.

The panel count to a scene should be based on the type of actions taking place. The kinetic principle holds that the shorter the scene, the faster the pace. If you want to slow things down, add more panels and make scenes longer. By the same token, double page spreads are very static to look at, even when they are action shots. A choreographed series of panels showing action cinematically flows in a more exciting manner.

REMEMBER: Scenes are like miniature stories. Make them end with a pay off.