Writing + Directing Flashcards
Scheduling a Movie Night -Spike Lee
Schedule a movie night with your crew and have an
informal discussion afterward. Gathering your team
in a relaxing environment is not only a great bonding opportunity, but can help you, as the director,
set the tone for your set.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - Do research.
If you know you want a scene in a library
for your novel, start visiting libraries. You may know
everything about libraries already, but being on the scene
will give you critical sensory details that you can use later.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - “You learn more from finishing a
failure than you do from writing a
success.”
“You learn more from finishing a
failure than you do from writing a
success.”
Aristotle on Plot
- Plot
Aristotle put plot as the first essential element of storytelling, referring to it as the life and soul of any story. He often referred to plot as action — the arrangement of incidents. Without action, there can be no character. Without action, there can be no implementation of an idea or concept.
“If you string together a set of speeches expressive of a character, and well finished in point of diction or thought, you will not produce the essential tragic effect with a play which has a plot and artistically constructed incidents.”
What Aristotle is saying in that passage — and about the importance of plot over everything — is that a great character can not hold the weight of a story. That character must be forced to take some form of action, be it external or internal, in order for the story to come alive. And that action is a direct result of the plot that you, the writer, conjures in the form of conflict thrown at the character.
He further states that all plots must have a beginning, middle, and an end. This is likely the root of the three act structure writers know today.
Acting -Spike Lee
Spike admits that even though he knew a lot of
technical information when he left film school,
he had a lot to learn regarding how to communicate and work with actors.
Acting is a craft
and actors must be directed with sensitivity and
respect. It bears reminding that being an actor is an
act of vulnerability, both in the work of portraying
characters and in the audition process. These artists are judged not only on their talent, but also on
body shape, hair texture, features, skin tone, etc.
A director begins dialogue with his cast well before
the camera starts rolling. Spike likens his role to
being a coach of a sports team. That said, just as all
athletes are not the same, neither are actors. The
job of a director is to quickly recognize how to draw
out the best performance. Sometimes that means
watching an actor’s past work.
Another must-do
before filming? Read-throughs. Have your actors
read the screenplay aloud—without acting. This can
help the director better know what works in the
script and what doesn’t. When Spike does a read
through, he’s listening to hear how the language
sounds. Do the jokes land? Does the language seem
natural? Take notes, which you will incorporate into
the rewrite.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - Internal monologue,
Internal monologue, though not strictly a type of
dialogue, is a technique that conveys a character’s
voice on the page. It means letting the reader see a
character’s thoughts as they happen, and it often shows
the things they won’t say aloud: She stood in front of
the restaurant, wondering if he would be late, hoping
he would. She realized suddenly that she didn’t want to
meet him.
Whether you’re new or experienced, The Fiction
Writer’s Guide to Dialogue (2015) by John Hough,
Jr. will help you craft dialogue that is authentic and
natural. It will also help you avoid many common
mistakes.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - Choose memorable details
As Neil said, most people
already know what a tree looks like, so describe a tree
that has a unique feature, or explain why a particular
tree is important to your character.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - “You can have your plot, you can
have some characters, you can have
an idea, you can have a starting
place. But what’s it about?”
When expanding your narrative, you’re going to need
to create conflict for your protagonist. For this, you’ll
need forces of antagonism that work against them. In
genre writing, antagonists are usually arch-villains, but
they don’t have to be people—they can be any oppositional element that thwarts your character’s main
Neil Gaiman on Writing - descriptive details
In his book The Art of Fiction (1983), John Gardner
says that descriptive details are like the elements of a
mathematical proof—they are necessary to convince the reader. The writer “gives us such details about the
streets, stores, weather, politics, and concerns of [the
setting] and such details about the looks, gestures, and
experiences of his characters that we cannot help
believing that the story he tells us is true.” Specific and
concrete details are critical to successful storytelling,
and the best way to make details concrete is by appealing to the reader’s senses.
Neil uses the following techniques to rev up descriptive
prose.
David Sedaris on Writing
LOOK TO OTHER WRITERS TO WRITE BETTER YOURSELF
As David says, “you can’t write unless you read.” Find your own way to books you love and trust
yourself if you have no one making suggestions. Read people you can understand and evaluate, not
writers who might intimidate you when you are starting out. And when you love someone’s work—a
phrase or a paragraph or an entire book—really take it apart and be able to say why you like it.
Memorize endings that thrill you and speak them out loud. Let the work get under your skin. Know
why you love something and let it live inside you as inspiration.
Aristotle on Reversal of intention
Reversal of Intention is a “change by which action veers round to its opposite.” This is essentially a turning point in a story. For example, you look at First Blood where we see John Rambo trying to reconnect with a fellow soldier from the Vietnam war.
He discovers that his last remaining brother-in-arms has died, leaving Rambo left standing alone. As he is clearly trying to move on from the horrors of that war, he is confronted with the turning point of being wrongfully arrested.
This leads to Rambo having to return to his warrior ways, as opposed to him trying to move on from them when the story began.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - Turn
In traditional storytelling, every scene should have a
turn. This means shifting the emotional charge of the
scene to its opposite. For example, if your protagonist
is delightedly anticipating the arrival of his fiancée,
the scene doesn’t turn until something has altered his
delight, such as his fiancée showing up with another
man. This shifts the emotional charge from positive
to negative. However, there is a debate among writers
whether or not scenes must turn in a short story.
Sometimes your protagonist will resist all change, or
decline a critical moment of transformation. Some
short stories offer snippets of experience that don’t
adhere to traditional forms. For a fuller discussion of
this topic and of structuring short stories in general,
read “The Shapely Story” in Alice LaPlante’s The
Neil Gaiman on Writing “If you’re going to write... you have to be willing to do the equivalent of walking down a street naked. You have to be able to show too much of yourself. You have to be just a little bit more honest than you’re comfortable with...”
Essays are a natural way to learn more about individual writers and how they view their subject matter.
The voices you’ll encounter in essays tend to be more
personal than the ones you’ll find in novels or short
stories. The essay collections below provide plenty
of great topics to encourage your own thoughts. Do
you agree with the authors’ opinions? If not, write a
response or an essay of your own. Try to “show too
much of yourself.”
Film is powerful —SPIKE LEE
Film is a very powerful medium. Films can help people. Films can hurt people. It’s not something to play with. Images are very powerful.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - FOR YOUR NOVEL
A historical event related to your world
An artist, poet, or writer related to your theme
A clothing style
Landscape
A branch of science
A religious or spiritual belief
Important physical locations in that world
Neil Gaiman on Writing - “Dialogue is character. The way that somebody talks, what they say, how they say it is character. And dialogue has to show character. It also has to show plot. And maybe it can be funny along the way.”
On a technical level, there are numerous ways to
convey dialogue in writing. Just remember that at the
heart of dialogue is a character’s voice.
Direct dialogue is when you quote the character:
“I wish I could see you tomorrow,” she said.
Indirect is a narration that doesn’t show quotes but
often gives the feeling of being there: Had she agreed
with him already to meet at the restaurant at six
o’clock? She couldn’t remember. He’d said he had a
meeting at five and it might run over.
Summary tells the reader what happened from a
distance: They’d discussed meeting up tomorrow.
David Sedaris on Writing
GET READY TO REWRITE
Writing is rewriting. David writes an essay 12 to 18 times before giving it to an editor. He takes it
as far as he possibly can on his own and then rewrites it yet again after an editor has seen it.
When you’re in the midst of a tough revise, keep the following in mind:
• Don’t be afraid of “breaking” your piece. Chances are a rewrite will make it better, not worse.
• Expect a first draft to need major retuning.
• Often all of the “ingredients” of a good piece are there. Sometimes a revision is less a matter of
rewriting and more a matter of reordering, digging deeper, slowing down here, speeding up there,
and giving the reader the guts and odors on top of the skeleton and shadow.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - Make sure that your story provides a satisfying
answer to the major dramatic question
Make sure that your story provides a satisfying
answer to the major dramatic question. Ask yourself, if you were a new reader of this book, would its
ending satisfy you? Would you feel that the promise
you started out with has been fulfilled? If not, go back
through your manuscript and find ways to buttress
your major storyline. This could mean suggestions for
significant revisions.
EDITING -Spike Lee
In BlacKkKlansman, Spike intercut between three
seemingly unconnected scenes to create a stark
contrast between love and hate. In one scene, a
Black professor recounts the story of a lynching to
a group of Black students. The other two scenes
show the Klan: one shows an initiation and the other shows a group of Klansmen watch The Birth
of a Nation. Spike ties the two worlds together by
including a voyeur in each—characters looking
on with horror at both the lynching and the Klan
screening. But it’s not enough to shoot all of these
scenes. You have to work with your editor to bring it
all together to tell the story you want to tell.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - WRITING EXERCISE
Go to a busy, public place where you can observe other
people. Choose one person and invent a few details
about them. What’s their name? Why are they there?
How do they feel? Now write a one-page description
of them. Find one detail that will make them distinct
for a reader. Show their thoughts, but try to blend
it in with the world around them. Don’t be afraid to
make their inner world completely different from their
appearance or surroundings.
MUSIC IS KEY -Spike Lee
Jazz dominates the scores for both Spike’s blackand-white classic She’s Gotta Have It (composed by
his father Bill Lee) and Mo’ Betta Blues (composed
by the Branford Marsalis Quartet and Terence
Blanchard).
Sometimes a director uses music to juxtapose the
action. This use of contrasting elements is called a
“counterpoint,” when the music is the opposite of
what’s happening in the scene. Spike employed this
in Jungle Fever in the scene where John Turturro is
walking down the street dressed for a date with his
Black girlfriend. His friends follow behind him, ridiculing and insulting him for his choice. While Frank
Sinatra’s “Hello Young Lovers” plays in the background, a brawl between the guys ensues, lending
a potent emotional intensity to this key scene.
Historical Story-Spike Lee
If you’re telling a historical story, remember your
audience. You want your audience to make the
connection between the period you’re depicting
and today, so that it has urgency. Humor is a powerful tool that can help you make this connection;
don’t be afraid to use it if it’s there and it feels natural
to do so. Endeavor to make your story more than
just a history lesson.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - “‘And then what happened?’ Those words, I think, are the most important words there are for a storyteller. Anything you can do to keep people turning the pages is legitimate.”
“‘And then what happened?’ Those words, I think, are the most important words there are for a storyteller. Anything you can do to keep people turning the pages is legitimate.”
Aristotle on tragic incident
The Tragic Incident is a “destructive or painful action.” This is an event of large causalities, destructiveness, or overall danger that is ensued. Movies like Titanic, Patriots Day, The Towering Inferno, Deep Impact, and Independence Day are prime examples. Such stories can be based on true events — as is the case with Titanic and Patriots Day — or are fictional events which we now refer to as Disaster Movies. Characters are forced to deal with these tragic incidents and their character arcs are solely embedded within that framework.
David Sedaris on Writing
Exaggerate
Stretching a scenario into the most ridiculous version you can imagine
can be another way to get a laugh.
APRIL 28, 2019, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA
At last night’s signing I met an emergency room doctor. We got to talking and she told me about a patient she’d
seen earlier in the week who had shoved a dildo too far up his ass. The door shut behind it, so he tried fishing it out
with a coat hanger. When that proved the wrong tool for the job, he snipped it with wire cutters, then went after both
the dildo and the cut-off hanger with a sturdier fresh hanger. You hear this from doctors all the time: their patients
shove lightbulbs up inside of themselves; shampoo bottles; votive candles and they always concoct some incredible
story to explain their predicament. “I tripped,” is a big one.
And OK, I’m pretty clumsy. I trip all the time, but have never wound up with a pepper grinder up my ass, not
even a little bit. I’m pretty sure I could tumble down all the stairs in the Empire State Building, naked, with a
greased up pepper grinder in each hand, and a box of candles around my neck, and still end up in the lobby with
an empty rectum.
STORYTELLING WITH
CAMERA COVERAGE -Spike Lee
According to Spike, film is all about movement.
Telling a story isn’t just about recording the
action, but how the images are captured. So
much can be conveyed through basic camera angle. You can shoot a weak character from
above so that they appear smaller. Conversely, you
can shoot a strong or heroic character from below
to make them appear larger than life. A volleying
camera suggests rising tension. A character facing
the camera suggests intimacy with the audience.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - Revisit your notebook
Go back to your compost heap
and look for things that inspire you. Sometimes a single
word or object can trigger a whole scene or setting in your
world.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - Do a cold open
Opening your scenes in the middle
of the action draws your reader into the story right
away. You can then weave in description throughout
the scene
Neil Gaiman on Writing - Let your reader know things your characters don’t.
This is the opposite type of suspense and is known as
“dramatic irony.” When your reader knows that the bus
roaring down the highway is headed for an elevated
freeway junction that hasn’t been completed yet, it fills
the audience with anticipation and dread for what they
know is coming: the passengers’ horror and shock.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - Remember the rules
Every world has rules, and ideally
your characters will discover those rules the hard way.
Come up with a quick list of rules that might exist in your
world, and remember that you’ll probably discover more
as you go along.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - Neil shares Heinlein’s list of rules—often called
Heinlein’s Business Rules—because they regard getting
published.
- You have to write.
- You have to finish what you write.
- You have to send it out to someone who could
publish it. - Refrain from rewriting—except to editorial
request. - When it comes back, send it out again.
- Neil’s rule: Then start the next thing
Neil Gaiman on Writing - “You get ideas from two things coming together. You get ideas from things that you have seen and thought and known about and then something else that you’ve seen and thought and known about, and the realization that you can just collide those things.”
One of the big questions Neil raises in this chapter is
the origin of ideas and inspiration. Neil posits that
ideas come from confluence, or the peculiar combinations of thoughts and experiences that are unique
to you. Many writers would agree. Others have found
ideas in dreams (Stephen King and Stephanie Meyer),
in sudden flashes of inspiration (J.K. Rowling), in a
casual joke (Kazuo Ishiguro), while doing a mundane
task like visiting a yard sale (Donna Tartt) or while
grading papers (J.R.R. Tolkien). Still others find
inspiration in the people they know (P.G. Wodehouse,
Agatha Christie, and Ian McEwan). Roald Dahl kept an
Ideas Book (his own compost heap) and found an idea
for a novel from an old comment he’d written many
years before. In her book Big Magic (2015), Elizabeth
Gilbert goes so far as to say that ideas are a “disembodied, energetic life form” and that creativity “is a force
of enchantment…like in the Hogwarts sense.” In order
to collaborate with these life forms, you must simply
engage in “unglamorous, disciplined labor” and write.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - Ernest Hemingway
A pioneer of the concise, “masculine” style which came about because of his background in journalism and his general disillusionment
about war.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - epic story
In classical terms, an epic story was an adventure,
often written in poetic form, like Homer’s Odyssey.
Today, epic stories tend to be referred to as “hero’s
journeys,” and often include works of fantasy or
historical fiction. Joseph’s Campbell’s influential
work, The Hero With a Thousand Faces (1949),
analyzes the monomyth behind this genre.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - Make your descriptions do more than one thing.
You’re not just describing a tree, you’re moving the
story forward by creating a sense of foreboding or
developing the character who is looking at the tree.
Having a voice -Spike Lee
As a writer-director, it’s important to have
your own voice. This means having a distinct
approach, whether it’s via a favored camera
angle, lighting, or the city or culture your
stories explore. Voice is what gives your work style.
One way to have a unique voice is to tell unique
stories, and no better way than to mine your own
life for material. Many of Spike’s earliest films were
inspired by his personal experience. She’s Gotta
Have It originated from conversations he and his
friends had about women. School Daze was reminiscent of his college days at Morehouse College
and Clark Atlanta, both HBCUs (Historically Black
College and University).
In Do The Right Thing, Spike
recalled a time in New York City when race relations
were at a fever pitch, particular between African
Americans and Italian Americans. He knew versions
of those characters growing up in Brooklyn—how
they spoke, their mannerisms—and recognized the
growing cultural tension. The result was a powerful
story that not only resonates, but is sadly reflected
in real life to this day. Stories which originate from
your own life will often be the ones about which
you’re most passionate and know intimately. Let
this passion carry you through the tough but rewarding task of taking your film from conception
through to completion.
Trust your instincts when writing your screenplays.
Don’t be afraid to break the rules.
For example,
when Spike writes, he doesn’t think about his work
fitting into a three act structure. Some may consider
this blasphemy, but Spike believes it’s important to
question the norm. It also takes courage to create
characters whose thoughts and opinions may be
wildly different from your own—unsavory even.
But if you can write two characters who are at odds
and yet they are both somehow right, you’ve hit the
drama jackpot.
David Sedaris on Writing
F
or a nonfiction writer, connecting to your reader hinges on your ability
to be honest with them. Emotional honesty, embracing who you are,
and admitting what you don’t always want to admit are a few things that
distinguish a great essay from a good one. A reader knows when a writer is
being fake or dishonest. It takes practice to let go of the urge to paint yourself in a good light.
“I hope you understand that this is some hard sh*t to do. It takes dedication, it takes love, it takes compassion... It’s a continuing process of educating yourself, getting experience, and being the best you can be.” —SPIKE LEE
“I hope you understand that this is some hard sh*t to do. It takes dedication, it takes love, it takes compassion... It’s a continuing process of educating yourself, getting experience, and being the best you can be.” —SPIKE LEE
Neil Gaiman on Writing - Genre
Readers are always looking for something fresh,
so you must sail against the expected, but at the
same time, readers expect certain things. To
navigate these tricky waters, you’ll need to understand
reader expectations, which means having a grasp of
the genre your story belongs to. Only once you’ve
mastered the promises you make will you be able to
subvert your audience’s expectations and provide the
kind of surprises that readers adore.
Any genre—or category of story—is made up of
conventions. These are specific characters, events,
settings, or outcomes that define the type of story
you’re telling—and that the reader will be expecting.
For example, a romance is generally made up of two
people who fall in love and who cannot express or
fulfill that love until the end of the story. You must
assume that your audience understands genre thoroughly, and therefore you must understand it more. In
every scene you write, you are raising a question or
making a promise to your reader. Most people know
instinctively what promises are being made. If you’ve
got a dead body in chapter one, and an investigator
comes to look at the scene, you’re making an implicit
promise to the reader that they’re going to find out how
that person died. You must be able to anticipate the
audience’s reactions and expectations—only then can
you keep their interest and deliver surprise.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - Find the emotion in it.
Description can be dry, but if
it carries emotional weight for you or your characters,
be sure to include that to engage the reader
Neil Gaiman on Writing - “You always have to remember, when people tell you that something doesn’t work for them, that they’re right. It doesn’t work for them. And that is incredibly important information. You also have to remember that when people tell you what they think is wrong and how you should fix it, that they’re almost always wrong.”
Once you’re ready to share your work, it can be
a challenge to find the right reader. If you haven’t
got one, consider joining Writer’s Café online. It’s a
resource that will help you connect with other writers
who are willing to review and edit your work. Usually
you’ll read their work in exchange. The site also
provides writing groups and courses in the craft.
David Sedaris on Writing
EXCERPTS FROM “THE SPIRIT WORLD”
•“Unlike Lisa and Paul, who are on the west side of the house and could probably sleep on burlap without noticing it,
Amy likes nice sheets.”
•“Amy sat up and moved closer, so that her head was between my seat and Gretchen’s.”
•“If I’m right about the sister as well, the person I’m talking to will become like a cat released into a new setting, very
low to the ground and suspicious.”
•“We were returning from a walk and came upon our father in the middle of the street a quarter mile from the house.
He was dressed in jeans and had a flat-topped cap on his head. His flannel shirt was untucked, and the tail of it
dropped from beneath the hem of his Windbreaker.”
•“Her shoes looked like she’d found them in a trash can.”
24
EXCERPTS FROM “UNDERSTANDING UNDERSTANDING OWLS”
•“The man who owned the shop was so much taller than me that, in order to look him in the eye, I had to throw my
head all the way back, like I do at the dentist’s office.”
• “‘Me?’ For some reason I looked at my hands. ‘Oh, goodness no.’”
• “The taxidermist invited me to guess again, but before I could, he blurted, ‘It’s a Pygmy!’”
•“The three of us can walk into a crowded party and all zoom in on the person who’s missing a finger, or who has one
regular-sized ear and one significantly smaller one, while my sister Lisa will pick up something else entirely.”
Characterization
One of the most common pieces of writing
advice—“show, don’t tell”—is a good rule to keep
in mind when introducing characters. You have
a choice between direct characterization, which
is a simple description that tells your reader what a
person is like—“Jane was a horrible girlfriend”—and
indirect characterization, which creates a scene that
shows exactly what makes Jane such a horrible partner.
The second method is usually more powerful when
introducing characters because it allows the reader
to experience them firsthand. It requires more of the
reader, asking them to the do the work of visualizing
the scene and forcing them to ask questions about the
character. Neil’s jinni coming out of the lamp is indirect
characterization: “I stretched my neck to get out the
last of the cramp. It didn’t just feel good. It felt great
actually. I’d been squashed up inside that lamp for so
long.” It gives a sense of the jinni’s relief at being free,
and at his previous isolation and loneliness. It wouldn’t
have been as compelling if Neil had written, “The jinni
was relieved to be free.”
financing -Spike Lee
There are a multitude of ways to approach finding
the capital you need to make your film. Here are a
few points of entry:
— Sundance offers a variety of funding opportunities and creative labs for directors, screenwriters,
producers, and independent storytellers of all
genres. Review their opportunities here.
— Similarly, Tribeca All Access offers funding and
support services for independent filmmakers.
— Creative Capital provides artist grants to fiction
and nonfiction filmmakers.
— IFP is a non-profit that offers grants, fiscal sponsorship, community, and resources to filmmakers of all genres.
— Cinereach is a nonprofit that offers developmental funding and filmmaker support to fiction and
nonfiction filmmakers.
— PBS offers a comprehensive grants database for
documentary filmmakers. Dive into it here.
— Documentary filmmakers can consider partnering with a fiscal sponsor like IDA. Review their
funding opportunities for nonfiction filmmakers
here.
— Kickstarter and Indiegogo are the go-to crowdfunding platforms for creatives. Crowdfunding is
not only a revenue source, but it also puts your
film on the radar of sales agents and investors, and
serves as a proof of concept to potential buyers.
— Spike references a “bond company” in regards to Malcolm X. In independent film, a producer
can work with a bond company to get upfront
financing for the a film. It works like this: the producer gets a distribution contract that promises a
minimum distribution guarantee payment upon
completion, but needs that money up front to
fund production. So, they use their distribution
contract as collateral to get a production loan
from a bond company. The loan is essentially an
advance on their minimum distribution guarantee. The producer—along with the distributor and
the bond company—all sign a completion bond
agreement (also known as a completion guarantee), which is a promise to complete the film as
per their contract and deliver it to the distributor.
The bond company then takes the minimum
distribution guarantee as repayment of the loan.
Under this kind of agreement, the bond company
has the right to take over the film if it is going over
budget—such is the situation Spike faced with
Malcolm X
Aristotle on beginnings
The beginning of your story often isn’t the result of something that came before it. The complexities of character (see below) can surely point to previous moments in that character’s life not shown, but the beginning of the story is where the actions first begin to take place. You show the character’s world and then confront them with some form of conflict that they must take action on.
Aristotle Diction
“The expression of the meaning in words; and its essence is the same in both verse and prose.”
Dialogue is an important element that can not be taken lightly. Too many scripts suffer from on-the-nose dialogue — words that are more interested in relaying information and exposition, as opposed to displaying the emotions, fears, struggles, and intentions of the character. The verse is the chunk of dialogue and the prose is the way it is written.
We’ve said before that there is no secret answer to great writing dialogue — but that doesn’t mean there is no place to find it. And the way you find great dialogue is by living through the characters that you write. What would they say? What would they not say? How would they say it? What would they gain from saying it? What would they gain from not saying it?
On a secondary note, verse and prose can be a vital part in scene description within a screenplay — or novel for you authors out there. The diction of your scene description can play a vital role in how the read of your material is experienced by the powers that be.
In both cases, pay particular attention to each and every line of dialogue or scene description. Ask yourself, “Does this need to be there? Am I saying the same thing twice or more? What repercussions are there for my character saying that line and am I ready to go down that road with them? Does the reader need this much detail or can I say more with less and let them fill in the rest?”
David Sedaris on Writing
Once you’re in the habit of writing everything down, you might be tempted to whip out your notebook in the middle of a particularly juicy conversation. But resist the urge. “You don’t want to end it,”
David says (of “the moment” in question). “I was in London and I was in a taxidermy shop. And the
owner of the shop showed me these owls that he had for sale. And then he showed me a pygmy
skeleton. And then he showed me an amputated arm. And then he showed me a girl’s head. So he
had some human things that were for sale. And by that time my life really felt like a story. But I
knew that if I pulled out my notebook, everything would have ended.”
Instead of ending the moment, let a situation play out naturally instead of drawing attention to it by
taking notes as it’s happening. People might feel self-conscious if they see your notebook, or, even
worse, they’ll become aware of the way they’re being observed by you. That will alter or shut down
what might have happened without the notebook. You can always jot down notes once the moment
is over
Neil Gaiman on Writing - climax
Traditionally, a book’s ending delivers on the promises
you’ve made to the reader throughout the story. When
Neil suggests thinking of a short story as the ending of
a novel, he means that much of what you’re creating
in terms of your characters and world will not make it
into the final story. Instead, you want to hit the most
important moment—the story’s climax. At the same
time, you need to convey enough information that
your reader is not lost. In order to do this, consider in
medias res—a writerly practice that means opening the
story in the middle of the action and filling in details
later. This takes you straight to your important scene.
Casting I -Spike Lee
Choosing the right cast for your film is critical
and should not be rushed or taken lightly.
Taking time on the front end to audition actors
can save precious time and money on the
back end, as it can be difficult and costly to fire an
actor or edit out a bad performance. Do not be
afraid to ask an actor to audition more than once.
It is through this process you can witness the actor’s
approach over time and ultimately trust them with
the role. Don’t be afraid to cast people who might
not look the part, as Spike learned with Halle Berry
in Jungle Fever. Spike initially believed Berry, a former pageant contestant, was too attractive to convincingly play the role of a crack addict. He and his
casting director, Robin Reed, called the actress back
to read five or six times.
On one of these auditions,
Berry dressed the part to convince them she had
the acting chops, which won her the role.
When casting two leads, Spike believes it’s integral
for the actors to read together before they get the
role to ensure there is chemistry. He asks these
fundamental questions: Do they get along? Do they
interact? Is it believable that these people
Neil Gaiman on Writing - allusion
A
n allusion is a short reference to another story,
usually through the use of well-known elements.
For example, you can quickly reference Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by mentioning a
white rabbit. Allusions generate interest because they
set a context for the story you’re reading while hinting
at the similarities or differences in the two works. Neil
uses allusions often, and they are just as wide-ranging
as his storytelling interests, referencing Egyptian and
Greek mythology, Victorian fairy tales, Beowulf and
Norse mythology, Shakespeare, Tolkien, and modern
cinema, to name a few
Neil Gaiman on Writing - ritual
When rejection begins to weigh you down, the simplest
things can keep you going. One of those is ritual.
Murakami said, “The repetition itself becomes the
important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize
myself to reach a deeper state of mind.” If you’re feeling
deflated, set up a routine for yourself and stick to it.
These tools can help you organize and stay on track:
• The online Writing Schedule Calculator can give
you an estimate of how long it will take you to write
your novel. Answer a few basic questions, and you’ll
have an idea of what to plan for.
• The Marinara Timer from 352 Inc. is an online,
customizable productivity timer that you can use to
create sessions for your writing.
• Streaks is an app that allows you to create daily
goals for yourself and them gamify those goals by
winning credits when you reach certain milestones.
• SquareSpaceNote is another useful app. It will sync
all of your electronic information and writing so
that you can have everything in one place for when
you sit down to write.
For help on building positive routines, check out
Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good
Habits and Break Bad Ones (2018) by James Clear.
This book is full of practical advice based on the idea
that making large-scale changes will happen through
small, manageable steps.
Writing Process-Spike Lee
The story that you keep thinking about over
time is the story you’ve got to write.
Spike begins his writing process by jotting
down ideas about the story in a notebook—character names, dialogue, plot points, et cetera. Once he
feels like he has everything down, he transfers his
notes onto index cards. He then begins the process
of ordering. Using cards allows him to order and
reorder until he feels that he’s gotten it right. This
work—plus research—gives him an abundance of
material, which he eventually transforms into a
script.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - “As a writer, you’re always going
to be rejected, and that’s basically
healthy.”
“People ask me, “How do you cope with rejection?”…And there are only two ways to do it—one of which is you go down. You get sad. You put the thing away. You stop writing. You go and get a real job, go and do something else. And the other is a kind of crazed attitude that actually the most important thing now is to write something so brilliant, so powerful, so good nobody could ever reject it.”
Aristotle Spectacle
Aristotle lists spectacle as the least important element of storytelling.
“Spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet.” That is an amazing line to read considering the text was written thousands of years ago — but it rings true today, doesn’t it? How many special effects-driven studio tent poles have failed at the box office — and why did they fail?” Because they are void of the principles listed above.
The spectacle can be intriguing and certainly does draw in a certain audience, but it should never prioritized above any of the other principles. It doesn’t matter what great action, horror, or comedic sequences you can conjure. If the story is void of plot, character, thought, diction, and yes, even some music — wink wink — the spectacle doesn’t matter.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - genre
Think of genre as a set of expectations that your reader
already has, based on the type of story you’re telling.
In a murder mystery, for example, the reader expects
a murder, an investigation, and a resolution of the
crime. It doesn’t mean you have to provide all of those
things; you only have to be aware that your reader
will be expecting them, and that if you don’t provide
them, you risk disappointing your audience. While
there are hundreds of genres, it’s important to start by
understanding the three primary ones: epic, tragic, and
comic.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - Focus on your character’s sensory experience
Use
the strongest description sense for the scene. If your
character is in a gutter, smell may be more provocative
than sight
Neil Gaiman on Writing - “What is a story? Eventually what I decided was, the
story is anything fictional that keeps you turning
the pages and doesn’t leave you feeling
cheated at the end.”
E
very story has a big idea, the thing that you
would say your story is about. Deciding on your
story’s big idea is generally straightforward—it is
the thing that prompts you to start writing in the first
place. However, this will evolve over time. For Neil,
Neverwhere came from a desire to write about a world
beneath London. He soon realized that the story was
about homelessness and the people who are overlooked
in big cities. It can be challenging to come up with a
fresh big idea that is meaningful to you. Often, it will
come about through the merging of disparate topics
that you weave together because of your particular
obsessions or interests. Keep going back to your
compost heap to find those things, and begin to draw
threads between your various interests.
Neil Gaiman on Writing. WRITING EXERCISE
To practice honesty in your writing, choose one of
the following moments and write a few paragraphs in
your journal about it. As you write, pay attention to
your inner register about what you’re writing, noting
the particular things that make you uneasy. Try to be
a little “more honest than you’re comfortable with.”
Remember that being brave doesn’t mean you’re not
scared; it means you do it anyway.
• A time when you were deeply embarrassed.
• When you regret something you did.
• The saddest moment of your life.
• A secret you are afraid to talk about.
Take the work you wrote above and either read it aloud
to someone you trust, or read it alone and pretend that
you have an audience. Listen to the way you sound and
pay attention to the sensations in your body as you’re
reading the difficult moment. Consider what you’re
afraid of being judged for, or afraid of saying out loud.
Write those things down.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - rules
Even if the world you’re building is exactly like our
world, it’s going to have rules. In the real world, those
rules are built-in, since most readers already know
what they are. In a fantasy world, the rules may be different—and part of what makes your setting interesting.
Maybe magic works differently in your world, or
your characters must obey certain laws. Because your reader doesn’t know those laws already, you’ll have to
make them clear. (Ideally, only the important ones.)
It’s good not to spell them out directly to your reader,
rather let your characters grapple with them. In the
best cases, rules create drama and character conflict,
so let the rules become apparent from your characters’
experiences.
If you’re going to have magic in your world, know that
a lot of writers argue that magic has to make sense or
have some sort of internal logic, even cause-and-effect
behaviors (all of which undermine very old notions of
magic). For those who argue this, placing pseudo-natural restrictions on magic is practically a requirement.
You don’t have to create a super-system that can stand
up to scientific scrutiny, but it’s good to remember that
there are different types of magic. To create any system,
consider these laws of magic for crafting a story with
this trope.
THE ART OF THE TRAGICOMEDY
David Sedaris on Writing
When David started writing, he wanted to make his reader laugh. He learned how to do that well.
Then he wanted to do more—he wanted to suffuse comedy with tragedy. When sorrow is attached to
humor, an essay has more gravitas and is more memorable. The sadness can’t be forced or formulaic, but it’s important to always look for a way to move people, to add meaning, with more than
laughter. David found inspiration for this in his own work by watching Whoopi Goldberg: Direct From
Broadway (1985). Goldberg created monologues and stories that made the audience laugh before
turning to something surprisingly painful or startling or tragic. You’ll notice that David has become a
master of this as well: He can make you laugh and cry all within the confines of the same 12 pages
(consider essays like “Now We Are Five,” about his sister Tiffany’s suicide, or “Why Aren’t You
Laughing,” about his mother’s alcoholism)
David Sedaris on Writing
Don’t get lazy
After many years of reading on a stage, David
has a sense of who his audience is, which
makes it easier for him to connect with them.
But he never goes for the low-hanging fruit
by making a joke that appeals to a particular
audience’s sensibility. Sacrificing cleverness for
something people will applaud and agree with
will never be the most satisfying laugh.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - Go back to your influences for inspiration.
Make a list
of your favorite childhood books and authors and try to
recall what you loved most about them. Write all those
things down, and then brainstorm ways to use that inspiration while avoiding any clichés.
David Sedaris on Writing
A diary can be a recording of details that make up your days. It can be simple events or facts,
especially when you begin. In fact, let yourself
start with those things. A diary can train you to
write every day and to notice the world around
you. Don’t judge what you are putting down or
worry about whether it’s good or clever or funny.
Recording anything in your diary is enough.
Let your diary be the beginning of writing every
day—of developing habits that will sustain the
compulsion to write. But don’t read what you’ve
written at first. Don’t review it. David sees his
diary as a warm-up exercise in the same way a
musician might play simple scales ahead of a
more complex piece.
David Sedaris on Writing
• Say yes to every invitation to read.
• Always read something new—don’t hop from
open mic to open mic with the same piece.
(Chances are some of the same audience
members will be there, and you don’t want to
bore them.)
• Don’t let the audience see how many pages
you have, and don’t announce how many
poems or essays you’re about to read.
• Don’t go over your allotted time.
• Dress up for the occasion
Neil Gaiman on Writing - “When you begin any story, you
have an infinite number of forking
paths. Every decision, every word,
every paragraph is a fork.”
Every story decision you make puts you on a path, and
the choices for your characters will narrow as the story
draws to its conclusion. Let’s say you begin a novel
with Richard hoping to go to outer space. At this point,
your novel could be about a number of things. Perhaps
Richard falls in love and discovers that marriage is
more important to him. Maybe he gets injured and puts
his dreams of space exploration away. Maybe he joins
the air force and goes to war instead. In the beginning
there are a vast number of forking paths. But as
the novel progresses, it should become clearer in the
reader’s mind not only what climax your protagonist
must reach but how that climax will probably occur.
If you spend 200 pages following Richard through
training to become an astronaut, then the reader will
be expecting him to get on a rocket—or tragically fail at his quest. Crucially, this resolution is the only climax
that will satisfy the audience. The climax does not have
to mean fireworks, but it does have to mean a profound
change, either for your protagonist or for their world.
Whatever that change is, you’ve been building the
whole story toward this moment. You’ve been making
a promise to the reader that this conflict would eventually occur—and get resolved—and good storytelling
will deliver on its promises.
In his book, How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Stepby-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling
(1987), James Frey describes the crucible effect, which
is when an environment or situation becomes inescapable for your characters and forces them toward
a story’s climax. This crucible usually comes about
as a result of a character’s decisions, which is a result
of the pressures put upon them. Not every story will
have a crucible, but most of them do. For example, in
Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (1954), what if Frodo
had decided not to bring the ring to Mordor? Tolkien
spends a great deal of time showing that Frodo is the
only one who can carry the ring, and suggesting what
might happen if he fails. All of this work creates the
crucible effect for Frodo, making him (and the reader)
feel that he has no choice but to reach Mordor, no
matter what it might cost him.
Withhold information.
This is the most common
way to raise interest. When your character is driving
frantically down a dirt road in a Winnebago wearing
nothing but his underwear and a gas mask, your audience is going to have questions.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - Suspense
No matter what type of story you’re telling, suspense
is a valuable tool for keeping a reader’s attention and
interest. Suspense involves raising a major dramatic
question that the reader wants answered. It is usually
based on a character’s desire, and if it is not answered
by the end of the book, the story will not feel complete
for the reader. For example, Tolkien’s The Lord of the
Rings (1954) is driven by the reader wanting to know:
Will Frodo be able to return the ring to Mordor and
defeat Sauron? Multiple subplots engage the reader throughout the book, but this is the central storyline
that touches all the others. This “What’s Going to
Happen?” game drives any story forward. There is an
implicit promise that you will answer the questions
(at varying paces), but in order to sustain interest, you
must continue to raise questions.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - Reveal less
As you saw in Chapter 10: Character Case
Study, painting pictures in light brushstrokes can be
evocative because you’re asking the reader to do the
work of imagining.
David Sedaris on Writing
Write Everyday
David wrote every day for 15 years before his first book was published. You don’t need to have a particular story to tell. You don’t have to be special or important. Your experience doesn’t have to be unique. You just have to be compelled to write, and you have to write every day. If David wasn’t published and selling books, he would still be putting pen to paper every day because he is obsessed with the act of writing itself. You have to write because you can’t not write.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - “Each story has its own voice. But
the attitude, the soul, the thing you
take away from it, hopefully that’s
all me. And that can be all you.”
“Each story has its own voice. But
the attitude, the soul, the thing you
take away from it, hopefully that’s
all me. And that can be all you.”
Casting II -Spike Lee
As an independent filmmaker, be open to working
with new acting talent. If you’re able to hire a casting
director, utilize their resources to help suss out new
talent.
Good casting directors often have connections to agents and talent, as well as a sharpened
eye for choosing the right actors for your project.
Several famous folks got their first movie credits
with Spike, including Halle Berry, Martin Lawrence,
Rosie Perez, and Queen Latifah.
Spike found Rosie Perez at a dance club in LA. She
was dancing on top of a speaker, and when the
bouncer told her to get down, she cursed him out—
in a Puerto Rican-Brooklyn accent that captivated Spike. He cast her as Mookie’s girlfriend in Do the
Right Thing, and made the character Puerto Rican
for her.
David Sedaris on Writing
Forcing yourself to rely on other people is one way to create built-in encounters with strangers.
David, for example, has never learned to drive a car. As such, public buses, Ubers, planes, and
trains are all opportunities for meetings that can lead to diary entries and essays. These are situations that you don’t choose or orchestrate, but they can lead to a chance connection that you might
end up writing about. These fortuitous interactions are part of what makes life worth living for David.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - “Whether or not you write an outline or you don’t write an outline, you are still going to be moving from point to point with a lot of things that you don’t know happening on the way.”
If you’ve reached that chapter where you’re not sure
what happens next, take Neil’s advice and write
the next thing you know. It may be a scene from six
chapters in the future. It may even be the ending, but
go ahead and write it. Try writing it in your notebook
by hand. Sometimes the physical act of writing can
stimulate new thinking.
When you’re stuck on a scene, try listing all the characters who are not “onstage” at the moment. Describe
briefly what each of those characters is doing offstage.
Sometimes brainstorming what the novel’s other
characters are up to can trigger fresh ideas for how to
proceed.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - Pacing
It’s important to keep a balance between two types of
narration: dialogue and exposition. Dialogue refers
to the things that characters say, while exposition
refers to descriptive narration. If you have a very long
section of dialogue, it’s good to insert brief sections of
exposition to keep your reader grounded in time and
place—and the reverse is true as well, so break up passages of exposition with brief dialogues. Generally, dialogue tends to speed up the pacing of your story, while
exposition will slow things down. Pacing means how
fast or slow the story is moving for the reader. This
is determined by the length of a scene and the speed
at which you distribute information to your reader.
To prevent the pacing of your story from becoming
monotonous, strive for a balance between dialogue and
exposition.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - READING EXERCISE
Read Chapter 1 of American Gods, and identify the suspense questions being raised. What are you wondering
about? What makes you curious to see what happens
next? What things are left unsaid? Finally, take a guess
at the book’s major dramatic question.
Neil Gaiman on Writing - Tragedy
traditionally shows someone’s downfall
and is supposed to provoke pity and fear. For much
of Western history, this type of story was restricted
to powerful and wealthy characters only, but in
modern times, tragedy occurs with all sorts of
protagonists.
