#indisciple

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. 

eSpecs Books Focus #1: Danielle Ackley-McPhail

I've got a special treat for you this month. I'm going to devote Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays to writers from eSpecs Books. They're a great bunch of folks whom you need to get to know.

First up is Danielle Ackley-McPhail!

Tell us a bit about your latest work.

I just finished Daire’s Devils, a military science fiction novel I’ve been working on off and on for twelve years. It was shelved for a good part of that time as I worked on other projects, but it was always in the back of my mind. One of my friends/fans kept poking me to finish it and I guess the time was right. It is about an elite military team (because aren’t they all?) caught up in a power play between forces inside and outside their command structure. There is espionage and betrayal and loads of action.

The book is set against the backdrop of the Alliance Archives universe created by my husband and fellow author, Mike McPhail, for a role-playing game he’s had under development longer than we’ve been married. (I’m now poking *him* to finish.)

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

When I was about five or six years old, my mother took me to the library and got me my first library card. Once I had it in my hands she turned me toward the stacks and said “You can chose as many as you can carry.” From that point on she was doomed, and my fate was set. I read constantly until even she could tell me over and over to ‘put the book down!’ I would read long after I was supposed to be asleep and even then I would continue the stories in my head once I closed my eyes because I never wanted them to end. With so much immersion into the written word and storytelling it was only natural that English would become my ‘easy’ courses and from there I learned to put my own bend to the tale.

What inspires you to write?

Finding the twist. Taking the unanticipated path. Observing a designated theme, but turning expectations on their collective ear. I love building a world and populating it until the reader is immersed as I was as a child, and still am as an adult.

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Horror Movies That Influence Me As a Writer

As a writer of horror stories and connoisseur of scary flicks, I get asked a lot what my favorite horror movies are. Well, it's not that simple with me (it never is; ask my wife and kids). There are so many and how can one possibly pick a favorite when there are favorites in so many subgenres? (It's like how my wife tells me she can have more than one best friend when "best" is a superlative, not a comparative.)

Anyway, as of this moment in time (subject to change), this is my list of favorite horror movies (and those that influenced my ideas and my writing) categorized by subgenre.

If you want to consider this your own "to watch" list, I won't stop you. It's a fantastic list (at least in my opinion) of the essential horror stories committed to film.

FYI, you will notice some crossover between subgenres, because, well, that's just the way horror works.

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.

Self-Editing Tips and Tricks

For this week's writer roundtable, let's talk about self-editing tips and tricks. What are the ones you use to help you catch as many errors and edits as possible?

Sean Taylor: For me, I use several depending on the story.

1. Shuffle the pages and read them out of order. That takes my brain away from the story and focuses on paragraphs instead.

2. For stories shorter than 5000 words, read them backward to catch spelling and comparably spelled words (or and of, it and is, to and too, for example).

3. Read aloud. Hearing it will often register better than seeing it.

4. Have an app read it to you (this is great for those times at night I can't sleep and just lie in bed).

5. See multiple pages at once on a printout. This forces me to look at pages in context of each other.

Brian K Morris: Me, I use the text-to-speech part of MS Word to read the story back to me to catch misspellings that aren't (from/form or Brian/Brain). after I've visually edited the piece as best I can.

My twist is I use the AI voice that's WRONG for the story. For instance, if I write crime adventure, I find a voice like a little girl to read it back. If I'm putting together a story with some romance in it, I find the deepest baritone I can find. This way, I don't get lulled because someone's reading to me like my mom did when I was a kid.

Matt LaRock: In my head, I read it in different accents. Sometimes it shows me phrases and sentences that don't really work. And it adds a sense of humor so I don't take it too seriously.

Danielle Procter Piper: I let the story sit for a month, then review it with fresh eyes. Then it sits for another full month before I comb through it again.

Jim Ritchey: Bono taught me No.3, of all people, or got the wheels turning. Concentrate on the sound of the words. How they fit together. Started noticing it in all my favorite writers. Steinbeck was musical.

John Pence: Reading out loud is great neuroscience. You have to process it on so many levels: symbols to letters to words, motor-speech, spoken language, heard language, grammar, and memory …

That’s the shit, but I don’t always do it.

Time away is always good, too.

Robert Krog: Reread it. Read it out loud. Read it backward. Wait a couple of weeks before rereading by one of these methods. Of course, all of these take the time I don’t usually have, but they all help to catch typos and such and are worth it. Just rereading aloud is good, but I actually have read stories backward a time or two. Another option is having someone else read the story to me. I find that works quite well. I don’t usually have a reader available though.

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! "