I recently received the following query. Any of you have anything to suggest???
Question:
I really enjoyed the workshop and have gotten so much out of it. I will definitely be contacting you for future plot consultations.
I really want to break through my emotional walls in order to take my writing to the next level. Do you have any recommendations for books that may help with this? I have been looking at Julia Cameron and Eric Maisel. There are so many books on this topic that I wondered if you had any favorites.
Thanks.
Answer:
I used to call Carolyn Myss my spiritual guru. Although I haven’t followed her for a few years, the help and insight she offered remains with me. I especially benefited from listening to the audio version of Energy Anatomy: The Science of Personal Power, Spirituality, and Health.
I have reread The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle more times than I can count and am rereading it yet again now.
Although both of these resources are more spiritual guides than emotional, I found great help and comfort in them. I hope they might serve you well, too.
Martha,
My suggestion is the book Audition: Everything an actor needs to know to get the part by Michael Shurtleff. It is a book written for actors, but I think it has a lot of great advice for writers.
Just think of this as advice as to what you need to put into your writing that an actor would then dig for later.
I blogged about my adoration of that book here:
http://tinyurl.com/y93x7x
I love that book.
Linda
I need the similar help. Agent rejection complains of not being able to connect emotionally to hte characters.
I don’t tend to read books for this. Lately, though, what I’ve found works is to pick a different chair (away from my computer), get a hot cup of tea, put a notebook and pen within reach, but not in my lap, and close my eyes. I pick a place or a scene that I need to think about and I just picture/imagine my hero there and see what he’s doing/thinking, etc. It takes a lot of patience for me to just sit, and I let myself scribble things as they come, mostly to get them out of the way of other stuff in my mind, but its been working. Of course, I did pick a rocking chair–I think I’d go crazy trying to sit completely still in just a plain, solid chair!
Thanks for your offerings here.
Linda, I’m curious to read your reference and one of Livvy’s in the next post. Thanks.
Anonymous, think of every big scene as having at least three parts. Try “showing” (not telling through internal monologue)
(1) the character’s emotional process of anticipation of the coming scene
(2) the scene itself
(3) the character’s emotional reaction to the big scene.
The emotional anticipation and emotional “de-briefing”, so to speak, can be more “showing” of a character and create deeper reader and/or audience connection than how the character acts in the big scene itself.
Becky, what a terrific exercise. The challenge is to quiet the noise and be grounded firmly in the moment with your character with no agenda other than being present in the moment.
And to make it a rocking chair — perfect authentic detail sure to deepen the experience!!
Martha and Becky,
I think the key for novelists understanding the emotional complexities of characters is to behave like an actor, which is why I love the book Audition so much.
If writers have never trod the boards then I think they would do themselves a great service to seek out a local theatre troup and audition for an upcoming play.
Acting is more than just reciting written lines by a playwrite, but it is understanding why the character is saying what they are as well as what is going unsaid.
It is the act of inhabiting the skin of another person and seeing life through their eyes given the circumstances of their life thus far. No one is a villain in their own eyes, so it is important that actors find some kind of rationalization to make their characters sympathetic. Especially if they are the antagonists of the story. You do not have to like the characters you play, but you do have to find the humanity in them.
It has been years since I’ve been in plays, but I remember using inner monologues as an exercise to understand who it was that I was playing onstage. I had to understand the relationships with the other characters (did I love/loathe/hate/idolize/admire/etc them) Also what was my character fighting for?
I know that when I’m thinking of writing scenes for my novel that I allow myself the freedom to tumble different variables over in my brain to discover how each one would impact the outcome depending on which choice was taken. Sometimes it is best to have those mental exercises run in the background when you are doing mindless tasks like cleaning the kitchen, weeding the garden, etc.
Or taking a nap.
Afterwards I rush to write things down when I am satisfied as to which choices provide the most dramatic bang for your buck.
Linda