WEbook Blog: A Writer's Resource

Spoiler Alert! The Titanic Sinks

Historical fiction is a popular genre, and can be lots of fun for writers. But when you’re writing a story with a historical setting, you’re battling spoilers from the very first page. How do you keep readers invested in the story?

James Cameron faced this problem when he decided to make a movie about one of history’s most famous disasters.  And he succeeded—we all know the Titanic sinks and that only 700 of the 2200 passengers survived, yet Titanic is almost unbearably suspenseful! In fact, the movie’s dramatic appeal lasts for multiple viewings, making it the highest-grossing film of all time. And now it’s scooping in cash all over again thanks to its 3D re-release.

If only that narrative power could be bought for the price of a movie ticket and a small popcorn…wait a second, maybe it can! Here are a few of the tricks James Cameron and his writers used that you could apply to your writing.

Something’s Missing Titanic opens and closes with a present-day mystery: where is the Heart of the Ocean?  From the first scene of the submarine robots crawling through the eerie sunken ship, the story is built around a search. Why wasn’t the necklace in the safe? Where is it, who has it, how did it get there? Although not the movie’s central dramatic tension, new questions are introduced and unanswered throughout the movie, keeping the audience hooked until the final scenes. 

Young Love Poor Rose – so beautiful and privileged, and her fiancé is such a jerk! Then, she sails on the ship of the ages and meets a feisty young lad who won’t let his disadvantaged life get him down. Romance is a storyteller’s not-so-secret weapon. We love Jack before Rose does, and are deeply interested as their love blooms. Will Jack be embarrassed at dinner? Will Rose obey her mother’s command to stay away from him? Will they ever, ever kiss?? Even before the iceberg, Cameron has us clutching our throats.

Conflicting Hopes Clearly Jack and Rose are meant for each other, and obviously her fiancé is a nightmare. But because the strict social mores of the era are so vivid in the story, we’re also really worried that the stiff angry valet will catch the unlikely lovers in compromising circumstances. What will happen to Rose’s reputation? How will she and her mother avoid bankruptcy if Cal breaks the engagement? Drama!

Make the Spoiler Your Slave A good storyteller can make the how as gripping as a story with an unknown ending. The frame tale establishes Rose as a survivor, with the well-known historical facts feeding into the suspense. And she almost doesn’t make it about a thousand times during the movie. She’s trapped in steerage with Jack! She’s looking for an ax! She’s trapped in steerage again! There are no more lifeboats! Through each close call, the audience, fully engaged, is anxious to see how this one gets solved, and with each escape, the emotional investment grows.

Supporting Characters This one also works with the spoiler instead of fighting it. We all know the captain goes down with the ship, the band plays into the waves, and the Unsinkable Molly Brown, well, doesn’t sink. Cameron introduces us to other characters and makes us care about them—or at least care about what happens to them. You’re probably hoping Rose’s hateful fiancé Cal bites the ice, but do Jack’s friends Fabrizio and Tommy make it to safety? Odds are against them. And you feel a sad pang when you see the ship’s distinguished, kind, and heroic builder stand sadly in the elegant dining room of the ship he built during the final moments. Though we see Rose’s mother on a lifeboat early, most of these characters are fighting for survival until the very end.

If you’ve faced the spoiler challenge in your writing, tell us about it! How have you battled—or exploited—your story’s historical setting? Have you borrowed anything from Cameron’s tool box (and we don’t mean 3D glasses)? Leave a comment and tell us about it! 

And now that you’ve got what it takes to one-up Cameron, try your hand at our All Aboard! Writing contest (less than a week left!).

 

[Photo credit: Featureflash / Shutterstock.com]

 

 

 

Writing a Novel: Experience vs. Imagination

Some of you might remember that I was casting about in search of ideas for my next novel. Eventually, I broke through by researching the germ of an idea, which inspired a legitimate plot, characters, and a range of settings. Afterwards, I realized all I needed was a bit more research and I could sit down and begin outlining and yes, ultimately get to the beautiful slog of a first draft just in time for the start of winter (my favorite season to write).

Choosing a Perspective for your Novel

Over the past week or so, I've been reading Then We Came to the End, by Joshua Ferris. It's a brilliant and funny novel that details the behavior of a group of advertising executives as their agency undergoes layoffs during the late 90's. 

One particularly noteworthy aspect of Then We Came to the End is it's perspective. The novel is written in first person plural (we, us, etc.) which is extremely rare in fiction, especially long form fiction. There are a few famous short stories that use this perspective—A Rose For Emily being perhaps the most famous—but it's generally avoided by writers. 

NaNoWriMo Day 1: Ready, Set, NaNo

William Tiernan's blog coverage of NaNoWriMo continues with the first official November installment! If you need to catch up on what's been covered so far, read Will's introductory post. Be sure to share your own experiences in the comments. You can also start more NaNoWriMo talk in our brand new forum!

College basketball's "Midnight Madness" has nothing on NaNoWriMo. The NCAA’s annual b-ball kickoff includes just a few hundred colleges. That’s peanuts compared to NaNoWriMo’s thousands of writers. Or is it tens of thousands? Or hundreds of thousands?  Whatever the number, a whole host of people starting a novel today is an inspiring proposition. It’s like Critical Mass, only with word processors instead of bicycles.

NaNoWriMo Mania: One Month, One Novel

WEbook veterans will probably remember William Tiernan (penname:TsungChi) who was an editor for WEbook's 101 Things Every Man Should Know, and our community specialist. Anyone who keeps up with writing news is also probably aware that November is The National Novel Writing Month, and it's almost here. 

Well, it just so happens that William will be participating in the NaNoWriMo experience, so we decided to have him document his journey on the WEbook blog. Throughout the month, he'll share his successes, failures, and everything in between via regular blog installments. We also encourage anyone else participating in the NaNoWriMo to contribute their own perspective in the comments section.

The official kick-off is next Monday, but here's a little intro to get everyone warmed up and ready for the long haul.

The Social Network and Narrative Structure

A few weeks ago, we covered a little know fact about The Social Network. That is, the screenplay was actually based off of the book proposal of Ben Mezrich's The Accidental Billionaires, rather than the manuscript. 

I finally got a chance to see The Social Network over the weekend, and noticed some things that also pertain to our discussion about creating original characters and plot lines from last week, and decided that a follow-up post was in order. 

First and foremost, I thought the movie was very good, and well worth the price of admission. Aaron Sorkin (who also penned A Few Good Men, The West Wing, and Charlie Wilson's War) fills every scene with the witty dialogue for which he's known. Plus, it's a well-told and interesting story that was easy for me to connect with. 

How to Create Original Characters

There's a saying I've heard writers throw around, "There are no new plots, just new characters." Some writers even argue that there were never that many plots around to begin with (see Christopher Booker's The Seven Basic Plots). 

I agree with both sentiments, and I think the writer's struggle for an "original" story is both futile and unnecessary. In most cases, the characters are what make a narrative feel new and interesting, not the plot.

However, this brings up another issue: there aren't really any new characters, either. Just like Booker's basic plots (Quest, Comedy, Tragedy, Journey and Return, ect.) there are also basic character archetypes (hero, villain, wise-man, mother figure, ect), and they've all been run through the fiction grinder time and time again.

Giving Thanks, Sharing Stories

Happy Thanksgiving WEbookers! In the spirit of coming together and sharing, we invite you to write a short Thanksgiving story (in the comments section below) Fiction or non-fiction (you can leave it ambiguous, if you’d like), happy or sad, funny or serious, it’s up to you, as long as it is somehow related to family, friends and giving thanks.

To kick things off, I’m going to share an almost entirely true story about my family at Thanksgiving. Names have been changed to protect my dear relatives.

November 25, 2004—The Thankful Leaf

My family is a serious group. Almost all of them are doctors, lawyers, or finance professionals. Because of their serious jobs, they tend to have very serious conversations. There’s lots of talk about mergers and interests rates, Medicare and malpractice insurance, torts and depositions…

I have absolutely no frame of reference with which to join into any of these conversations, so over the years I’ve mastered appearing interested while actually having private day-dreams.

My Uncle Frank, on the other hand, has been unable to adopt this strategy. He makes jokes constantly (nobody laughs), starts conversations about racy things (which he carries on alone), and generally doesn’t fit in with the accepted tone of our dinners.

Even though we are a professional family, each year my sentimental aunt cuts leaves out of multi-colored construction paper and asks us to write what we are thankful for. Almost all of our entries have something to do with the undying love and support of family, the success of respective children in their educational endeavors, and overall happiness and well-being.

Uncle Frank thought otherwise this year. During the leaf-writing time, he planted himself next to my youngest cousin, Sally, and assisted her with the leaf. The time came to read them aloud. One by one each of us stood up, and shared with the family.

    “My son John’s early acceptance into law school,” Uncle George said proudly.

    “The fact that everyone got here safely to share this lovely dinner,” said Aunt Susan.

And around we went. When it came time for Sally to read her leaf, she boldly shot up from her chair, cleared her throat, and enunciated herself with stellar clarity:  “I am most thankful for the agreeable consistency of my morning bowel movements!”

There was a pause. Uncle Frank’s was trying not to burst out laughing. I wanted to maintain my face of concentration. Then, my grandfather let out a chuckle, and Sally’s father and mother, and before I knew it, the entire table was in an uproar, slapping each other’s backs and pounding the table. It was the most I’d ever heard my family laugh. Sally was beaming. Uncle Frank’s joke was a little inappropriate, but we all laughed together and I will always be thankful for that memory.

Ok, that’s it! Hope it stirred some ideas around. Feel free to share anything that comes to mind, and have a funny Thanksgiving!

-- Brian (the new WEbook intern)

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Q&A with NBA Player/Poet Etan Thomas (Part 2 of 2)

Welcome to the second part of WEbook's Q&A with Etan Thomas, the editor of, and force behind, Voices of the Future. For those not familiar, Etan is a professional basketball player, published poet and political activist. He regularly works with youth groups with a focus on creative writing as a form of expression. He has campaigned on behalf of President Obama, blogged for The Huffington Post, and is sometimes known as the “gentle giant” of the NBA. In addition to his stewardship of Voices of the Future on WEbook, Etan will occasionally be weighing in on the WEbook blog. If you want to ask Etan a question for future installments, leave a comment below. (If you haven't read part 1, check it out first.)

One of the topics that you suggest contributors to Voices of the Future write is “Haters” For everyone who doesn’t exactly know what that means, can you explain?

Sure. Its simple. Haters are people who want to keep you down. Want to discourage you from achieving your goals. In my first book I told the story of Doug Collins, who told me my rookie year that he didn’t feel that I would make it in the NBA. He told people around him, other coaches and media people as well. He was a real piece of work. But I wrote a poem about how his words wouldn’t defeat me and that I would make it despite what he thought. I used that poem as motivation for quite sometime. I would read it or listen to it and it would remind me that there were people who expected and sometimes hoped for me to fail. Why you ask? Because they are haters. That’s what haters do; they hate, like it’s their job or something. I want young people to write about the haters in their own lives and how they were going to make sure that they proved them wrong. That’s the best feeling in the world. To prove someone wrong who told you that you couldn’t do something. My message to young people when speaking about haters or people who did you wrong or people who you thought were on your side but turned out to be wolves in sheep’s clothing so to speak is to write about it. Poetry can be therapeutic. Its not good to keep all that inside. You have to have some type of an outlet and this is one that is positive. I utilize this method when having sessions with my guys at the Free Mind Book Club at D.C. Prison. Everyone can relate to haters because they have been around since the days of Jesus. I always quote my mother in saying,” If they hated on Jesus, what makes you think that they won’t hate on you too”? But getting that anger that frustration out in a positive way can really help, especially if you prove them wrong.

A topic that you added late to your topic list for Voices of the Future was “relationships.” In what ways do you think this is especially important for younger people?

I made the decision to add relationships after speaking to a group of young women at a school in D.C. with my wife. I sat on a panel of all women including Dominique Dawes, Ms, Black D.C., my wife Nichole Thomas, and a few other women and we spoke to an all-female group. I was a little uncomfortable at first being the only male, but my wife always tells me that I only speak to young men and that I can’t leave out the young women, so I decided to give it a try. There were so many issues that they explored dealing with relationships, and when I told them about the project, that’s really all they wanted to talk about. They went from Chris Brown and Rhianna, to For the love of Ray J, to divorce and growing up without a father in their lives to Steve Harvey’s book, or their children. It’s a different time now and sometimes these kids have kids of their own. They want to talk about the relationship they have with their children or the struggle to raise them by themselves. It was a whole different type of dialogue than what I was used to. They had a lot that they needed to get off their chests. So I encouraged them to write about their feelings and thoughts and that I would add a section mainly geared toward them.

Beyond the content, how will Voices of the Future be unique?

The book will also contain an insert of a CD with tracks of me reciting some of my poems to beats, similar to the one you can hear on WEbook. I did this with my first book More Than An Athlete and it seemed to go over pretty well. Sometimes, young people like to hear poems as well as read them, its just good to have that option. I remember when I was younger listening to poets like the Last Poets, Gil Scott Heron, and Shakespeare on CDs. Even now listening to poets like Saul Williams, Black Ice, Talaam AC, Queen Sheba, 13 of Nazareth or Nathan James on CDs, you just get a whole different feel for the poems. So therefore, I like giving that option of reading or listening.

Do you have political aspirations? If not, what do you see yourself portraying when the beard is gray?

I have always had a strong interest in politics. I don’t know if I would want to run for congress or anything, but at the same time, I wouldn’t rule it out. There are just a lot of things that I see that aren’t fair, and that’s what drives my passion for politics. Whether it’s the war, the school system, health care, police brutality, and the death penalty, there is just so much in society that isn’t the way that it’s suppose to be. Not to mention foreign policy, immigration, the environment, abortion, gun control, which are topics that simply cannot be ignored. I could definitely see myself looking into becoming a professor at a HBCU. I am going to continue writing regardless. I could also see myself coming back to Maryland and running for Executive of Prince George’s County. I am actually going to shadow the current Executive of Prince George’s County Jack Johnson for a day early in August. I want to learn as much as I can and really see everything his job entails first hand. Who knows what will happen in the future. I am going to try to stretch out my basketball career for as long as I can, and then we’ll see what happens when the next phase of my life begins. I have to say, I am blessed.

--Etan

See Part I of this Q&A.

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WEbooker of the Week is 101 Things Love Guru

 KarenGibson, contributor extraordinaire to 101 Things Every Man Should Know How to Do, is the first WEbooker of the WEek for February. There are myriad reasons why Karen was chosen, but much of it has to do with her “mad skillz” in the romantic arts. And since we’re entering Cupid’s silly season, who better to drop some knowledge on WEbook?

But first, about Karen: She can type about 180 wpm, which is a big part of why she’s been able to catch up on a writing obsession that’s been brewing since she was a kid. “I’m late to the party,” she says, “but I’m ready to dance.” In addition to her contributions to 101 Things (“Be a Chef in the Bedroom” and “Know How to Cook One Thing Well”), she is finishing up a suspense thriller and a non-fiction manuscript about raising a child with Asperger’s.

It gets better. Karen is also gifted in front of the camera. We asked all the contributors to 101 Things to create low-budget short videos about their essays—and guess who was the first to answer the call? Before you read on, click below and you’ll see why we love Karen so much. In case there is any doubt, the vid is her take on “Be a Chef in the Bedroom.” We think you’ll find it very, um, enlightening.

Post-production, we caught up with Karen to ask her about her experience as a contributor to 101 Things, her tips for Valentine’s Day, and her advice for men trying to navigate the holiday.

1. What was your favorite part about contributing to the newly published 101 Things Every Man Should Know How to Do?
One of the best part of contributing to 101 Things was the ability to read everyone else's entries as they came along and get my laugh for the day. I love, love, LOVE the Mr. Man entries. Also, having fellow writers read it, especially the men, and say, "That's bullsh--!, you can do better by us" was refreshing! 

2. In 101 Things, there’s a culinary theme to your two contributions. Are you trying to send a message to the men of the world?
Yes! If you want to get things cooking, learn your way around a kitchen. With the popularity of the Food Network, it's not that unusual to see a man in the kitchen, anymore. But I come from a generation where men were chefs and women were cooks. Thank God that's changed. In the same token, I think we need to realize that although equality is appreciated in the workplace and in society as a whole, men and women ARE different. Viva la difference! Sometimes, I think intimate relations between men and women have become too casual and I mourn that. I want to bring back passion in relationships. It doesn't have to end with the honeymoon! 

3. What was the funniest/best Valentine’s gift you’ve ever received?
Well, with all the above being said, my husband couldn't spell romantic when we got married. Through some very arduous trial and error, after 22 years of learning each other, things are much better. But one early Valentine's Day, he came home with flowers, a box of candy and a teddy bear. Awwww, right? However, what he SAID was, "Okay, I got the flowers, here's your candy and a cute stuffed animal. Happy Valentine's Day, baby! How's that?" Lesson 2 was on "the art of presentation". He's much, much better now ;)

4. In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, what advice would give to men struggling to do something special for their significant other?
Don't rely on the traditional unless that is exactly what she likes and wants. Valentine's Day is all about showing your special someone WHY they are special to you and how thankful you are to have them to share your life with. So, if she just wants YOU to order the pizza and snuggle under the blanket and watch a chick flick with her, then that's the best gift you could give her. When it comes to women, the best gift is your attention. That's what women want most, in my humble opinion. Just bottom lining it for all the men out there.

5. If you could invent a new holiday, what would it be?
A new holiday? Acts of Random Kindness Day. On that day, everyone would perform as many acts of random kindness as they could from sun up to sun down. What a great day that would be, huh? And I think that once everyone realized how great that made them feel at the end of the day, they would do it more often and not need a holiday. Kind of like shopping other days other than the week before Christmas. You can do it anytime.

WEbooker of the WEek

Do you have a line on the wonderfullest writer on WEbook? The fantastickest feedbacker? Or anyone else who goes above and beyond to make WEbook the best writing, reading, and publishing community on the internet? Drop me an email, or visit my profile and send me a message with the title "WEbooker of the WEek" to nominate your favorite WEbooker and he or she will have a shot at joining the ranks of the immortals -- and getting a free WEbook T-shirt to boot.

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-JohnnyWEbook