#indipenned

Movie Reviews for Writers: Paris When It Sizzles

There's a huge difference between the story in your head pre-formed and the actual work of getting it down onto paper or in a digital file. That's the premise this screwball comedy with Audrey Hepburn and William Holden is based on.

Holden is a screenwriter down to the wire with only days to turn in a full 138-page script he hasn't even started writing other than seeing a vague outline of a story in his head called The Girl Who Stole the Eiffel Tower. Audrey Hepburn is his typist who is both bewildered and entranced by the way Holden approaches his craft (or avoids the business end of it in particular). As Holden creates the story, and then re-creates it over and over, the scene plays out as described featuring Tony Curtis as the foil boyfriend for Hepburn's leading lady. As the story grows and changes, the romance blossoms (because this is old-school Hollywood after all). And there's your plot.

But you know from my reviews, that's not what I looking into here.

So, just what does Paris When It Sizzles actually have to say about writing via this zany rom-com from the bygone days of Hollywood's classic flicks?

I think the movie lays out it premise clearly in the scene where Holden and Hepburn meet. After a little bit of flirty wit between the two, she asked point-blank where is the script she is supposed to type for him. He immediately grabs a stack of blank paper and proceeds to place plain, white sheets all over the flat, one at a time, as he describes scene after scene: opening scene, a girl in black on the Eiffel Tower, the girl and the man meet, they fall in love, then BAM!, tension when an obstacle occurs, the girl leaves, the whole romance shifts to the other foot, a cat drenched in the rain, and then the studio-rent-paying, popcorn selling kiss before the movies fades out.

While the sudden kiss leaves Hepburn fluttering, she's not fooled by his act of literary bravado. Instead, she gathers her wits, and basically says, "So you haven't actually written any of it?"

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Movie Reviews for Writers — Scare Me

Think about the first time you met a famous author. Did you at once want to (a) learn from them and (b) impress them -- and somehow at the same time. It's okay. We all want that. We want to be told we're good at something we believe we are good at. That's where Scare Me starts. But then it doesn't just veer off the rails, it destroys said rails with high-grade acid so no other train can ever ride them again either. It's that effective. 

Fred is a wannabe author (let's not empower him enough to call him struggling) played by Josh Ruben. He rents a cabin in the snow-covered woods to work on his werewolf story. On the way, he is ubered by another aspiring writer who treats him the same way "that person" treats you at a writing conference or literary/sci-fi/fantasy convention where you're a guest. Gushing all over you. Picking your brain. Wanting to impress you. You get the picture. It's a natural place to be as a beginning writer. But Fred is having none of it. It's bothersome at best. 

Once at the cabin, he learns that one of his neighbors is the author of the acclaimed horror novel Venus, Fanny, played by Aya Cash. The two don't hit it off exactly, but a storm forces them together to try to scare each other by telling scary stories (that may or may not be from their work). 

The trouble is though, that right off the bat, it's clear that Fanny is years ahead of Fred. Her skills basically emasculate him (or e-write-ulate him) and put his lack of talent on display. He only does his best work when she chimes in and goads him into it. Outside of that, he merely teases ideas rather than telling stories. 

For example, after telling the outline and opening scene of his werewolf novel, Fanny is unimpressed. 

Ricky Ruszin: People Are the Real Monsters

During the day Ricky Ruszin is an elementary school educator. At night he's a writer. Kind of like Batman, except he doesn’t fight crime.

Tell us a bit about your latest work.

My upcoming book Showtime is a suspense thriller about a college student who learns that his grandparents’ television allows him to travel to the past. Once he makes that discovery, he uses it to travel back in time to try and stop the perpetrator of the talent show massacre that claimed his grandmother's life. So, you know, it’s a real feel-good story.

What happened in your life that prompted you to become a writer?

I went to a career advisor and said, “What career can I try that’s incredibly difficult, solitary, and leaves my financial future uncertain?” And voila! I became a writer.

Kidding.

I started writing fiction in high school and later focused on it in college where I earned my BA in English Language and Literature. I wrote my first novel that summer, teaching myself as I went, and have been writing since.

Alexandra Holzer: A Haunted Career

Alexandra Holzer is a multiple threat -- author, ghost hunter, and the daughter of the legendary paranormal investigator Hans Holzer. And you've probably seen her on the Travel Channel (or Hulu).

"Literary success isn’t about having a best-seller although I know many want that. It’s not about getting accolades or awards. These things help you stand out amongst the crowd, I get it. However, it seems rather pretentious to me as so many should win these accolades but get ignored especially if they don’t have a large enough following in today’s world of social media. It’s a blessing and a curse and somewhat of a trap. How can you get ahead without it these days versus back in the day when publishing houses did business differently. Submission via snail mail and having to have a lit agent just to be taken seriously. What hasn’t changed is the agony of waiting to hear back! "

Flat and Round: The Character Conundrum

I learned some terms this week that I hadn't learned during my time as a lit major in college.

Flat Characters: Those who are typically not given any depth in character development, reduced to foils and/or stereotypes as a sort of shorthand for moving the plot along.

Round Characters: Those whose stories, lives, and characters are developed in-depth so as to make them feel more real in the eyes of readers, typically reserved for main antagonists and protagonists.

So, as any good student, I think we should talk about it. I gathered the gang together and posed the questions around the table.

What benefits have you seen in your work for using flat characters?

Gordon Dymowski: One of the benefits of "flat characters" is that they can serve as placeholders, "red herrings" or other devices to move the story forward. Although I try to give as much background to any character (even peripheral ones), using "flat" characters provides immediate shortcuts and can help reflect the main characters' actions.

Chris Norton: Flat characters can be fun to write, sometimes you need some keystone cops action; also you just don't always have the time/space in a novel, and especially in a novella or short story, to fill out every character, unless it's a serial or has a limited number of characters.

I always feel pulled out of a story when an author takes the time to tell us all about a person whose only action is something like ringing up someone's groceries.

The benefits of rounded characters are obvious: empathy with the characters, pulling in the readers, etc.

Bobby Nash: I’ve never heard the term before your question, but I have in the past had henchmen who were basically there to e beat up or shot at while the hero worked his or her way up to the villain. These guys are just there to get their ass kicked so I didn’t really flesh them out.

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Jim Beard: Why Can’t It Just Happen by Osmosis or Something?

"I wanted to be an artist, even went to school for it, but I found out I didn’t have the drive to make it work. I’d always loved creative writing since I was a small kid, and when I realized there was this community of people reviving and refreshing the classic style of pulp fiction, I jumped in, found I could do it, and have never looked back. So, failure at one thing can sometimes open up doors somewhere else."

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One of the things that bugs me as a writer who aims for diversity in my work is that in the eyes of a lot of folks, any attempt to be diverse and inclusive somehow gets automatically declared as woke or virtue signaling.

Now to be fair, some are. But not all of it. And not most of it. In fact, among the stuff worth reading or watching, very little of it.