I may have mentioned that one of my goals is to
increase my writing output, increase my publication rate, and increase the
relevance of my writing. In my WRITING ADVICE column, I had started using an
article my sister sent me by Lisa Cron. She has
worked as a literary agent, TV producer, and story consultant for Warner Brothers,
the William Morris Agency, and others. She is a frequent speaker at writers’ conferences,
and a story coach for writers, educators, and journalists. I am going to fuse
the advice from her book WIRED FOR STORY with my recent trip to South Korea. Why? I made a discovery there. You’ll hear
more about it in the future as I work to integrate what I’m learning from the
book, the startling things I found in South Korea, and try and alter how I write
in order to create characters that people will care about, characters that will
speak the Truth, and characters that will clearly illustrate what I’m writing
about.
“Remember when Luke has to drop the bomb into
the small vent on the Death Star? The story writer faces a similar challenge of
penetrating the brain of the reader. This book gives the blueprints.” – David
Eagleman
“The reader expects to feel something, from
the first sentence to the last; and what the reader feels is what the
protagonist feels.”
Like the 70s song of the same name, my writing should be all about
evoking feelings in a reader. If I’m absolutely honest, I need to admit that
not only should I manipulate my reader, I need to manipulate myself.
My time in South Korea with son, daughter-in-law, and grandkids was
really wonderful – but it was wonderful NOT only because I was with them, but
because we shared truly unique times together.
For example, while we were there, we went several dozen meters
underground to walk in a lava tube. We experienced a “5D” movie which was – in the
round, with 3D glasses, and included wind, mist, and “fish darting at you”. We
stared into outer space with small telescopes while a massive radio telescope
loomed over us. We clambered down steep stairs to walk along preserved dinosaur
footprints (the Korean people believe in LIVING their history. There were very
few gates or fences to keep us from experiencing something.) I touched stones
that had survived 1300 years of war – both ancient and modern – and that influenced the astronomical
(not, emphatically, the “astrological”) practices of both ancient Japan and
China. I touched it as I touched the floor of a Roman temple to the Roman/Indo-Iranian
Mithras which was 2000 years old in a deserted courtyard in downtown London.
I FELT something because we shared something, sometimes that “thing”
was as simple as a meal. Eating is something they do well in South Korea! We
had lunch in the “pig market” one day – after passing through recently butchered
pig parts. Another time, we went to MacDonald’s and I had the weirdest
hamburger I’d ever had – with an egg on top. We went to another restaurant where
there were freezers full of beef, pork, fish, and chicken as well as a dozen
different vegetables and another dozen sauces. You gathered what you wanted,
then went to your “grill” table to cook your meal! We had cool apple tea in the
library of a man who sold traditional medicinal herbs and cures. We had “dancing
tuna” on noodles, and heavenly cream puffs from Paris Baguette (ironically a
South Korean chain store!), and triangle kim bop while we travelled. All of
these evoked emotion through memory.
Other times it was emotional – I climbed Hill 303. It took me four
hours, but with my son and grandson, we went to a place I could never have
imagined. I could see down onto a place where the EXISTENCE of the country we
all know as South Korea (and enthusiastically support with our purchase of Samsung,
Kia, Hyundai, LG, an amazing list of beauty products, and POSCO Steel (a joint
venture between Warren Buffet and South Korea). I’m sure there are more,
including the export of the aforementioned Paris Baguette now open in 80 cities
and growing (hopefully soon to Minneapolis where I live!)
In a story that will be in the November/December issue of ANALOG
Science Fiction and Fact, “Kamsahamnida, America” (the first story in my Korean
Solar Expansion (planned) series), I had a great deal of trouble writing the
end of the story because I somehow got emotionally tied up in it.
“Road Veterinarian” (it’s part of the Vertical Village/Unity series I’ve
been writing in for a number of years now) also caught me up because there was
a bit of romantic teasing going on between my two genetic “sport” characters. I
plan on pursuing that as well – though I’m not sure if that will ever come to
any kind of conclusion because they’re so different and shy. So far, the two
reviews I’ve seen LIKE that part of the story, though one of them thought the
science was mostly unbelievable…
I just finished another story that takes place on an alien world in a
universe inhabited only by Humans and the plant-descended WheetAh. I only
managed to finish it while waiting for my grandson to be born because the
emotional state I was in (restrained joy!) counterbalanced the deep reluctance
I was facing in having the main character die, though he was both disagreeable
and obnoxious…and I came to like him by
the end of the story.
At any rate, I’ve discovered that if I’M not emotional about a story,
then I can hardly expect a reader to become emotionally involved with a story,
either.
Lisa Cron concludes, “Ask yourself: Have I given the reader my
protagonist’s train of thought, in the moment, as she struggles to figure out
what the heck to do in each scene?”
Thus far, I’m more-or-less sure I have given my reader something
emotional; and I can continue to work on doing that.
Resource: https://www.creativelive.com/blog/essential-storytelling-techniques/,
https://www.cnbc.com/2012/07/23/South-Koreas-10-Biggest-Companies.html,
https://parisbaguette.com/locations/
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