Industry Month In Review: From Page to Screen (and Back Again)

Having had the pleasure of interviewing author Jay Asher for last month's From Book To Screen (and back again) series and still reeling from all the great information I learned from the Your Best Books Workshop in Charlotte (you can find great blog reviews from my fellow workshop attendees Janis Marziotto and Carol Baldwin),  I thought it would be fitting to have an Industry Month in Review that reflected on news that crossed the lines between screenwriting and novel writing. 


As we've seen, over the past few months, there have been a number of Young Adult novels optioned for film including dystopian and fantasy novels Marie Lu's Legend, Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone and YA Muse Veronica Rossi's Under The Never Sky and more contemporary fare John Green's The Fault In Our Stars and Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall. 

With the continued success of books to features such as the Hunger Games and Twilight series and the highly anticipated Divergent series not to mention books to television such as Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars, we're sure to see the film rights of YA novels continue to be picked up for some time.  

While we continue to blur the lines between books and screen, there are still fundamental principles that stand the test of any medium.  A friend directed me to an old post by Script Shadow entitled Ten Screenwriting Tips You Can Learn From The Breakfast Club, and even though it's from spring 2011, it help re-emphasize all the things I learned in Charlotte (plus I LOVE the Breakfast Club).  Crystal clear characters, challenging dialogue, and conflict.  They are things we hear over and over again but getting them right is the biggest challenge. 

Finally, from one of the master authors whose bridged that page to screen gap many a times comes one of the best news stories of this year (for me at least).  A group of students in New Brunswick, Canada sent 1,100 letters asking Stephen King to please visit them before Halloween and guess what?  He did!  Here are a few tidbits from the man who wrote what some would consider the bible on writing:

Before his first story was accepted for publication King used to display rejection letters on a nail on his wall. After 60 or 70 rejections, the nail fell down.

“There’s always going to be room at the bottom, because people like me are going to croak.”

Finally, I have the pleasure today of also guest blogging for the YA Muses, you can check out my blog on "the best piece of writing advice I ever received" here.
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Industry Month In Review: Back To Basics

It's been a great August so far with sun, surf, and the SCBWI LA Conference and with everything that's going on, it's easy to forget about the little things ...like reading a good book on a lazy summer day.  

Wrigley's LFL, Toronto

If you don't know which book to read, good news, the NPR just released their favorite 100 best ever teen novels list.  It's filled with classics like The Catcher In The Rye, To Kill A Mockingbird, and The Hobbit, fan favourites like The Hunger Games and Harry Potter as well as contemporary gems like Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (whom I'll be interviewing later this fall for a my Book to Screen interview series).  Take a look at the list and see how many you've read to date.

Don't have a library within walking distance to borrow that book you just read about on NPR's website? There may be a little free library in your neighbourhood.  I'm proud to say that in my home city of Toronto we have quite a few.  Cute little wooden boxes (some built to mimic the bricks and mortar libraries nearby) that generous home holders have placed on their front lawns and filled with an abundance of reading material for kids and adults alike. 

The other fun thing to do this summer - write, write, and more writing of course!  What all the novels on the NPR list have in common is that they're all written by writers who've done what F. Scott Fitzgerald told aspiring young author Frances Turnbull to do: they sold their hearts.  

F. Scott Fitzgerald

For those of us who aspire to be great writers and are inspired by great writers, this letter is a reminder of what it takes to be just that.  We need to push the boundaries of our writing, dig deep into the characters and bring out emotions, experiences and actions that aren't easy.  Fitzgerald puts it best when he writes "you wouldn't be interested in a soldier who was only a little brave."

The nice thing about enjoying the little things is that we can do them all year round.  Next up: curling up on the sofa beside a warm fire with a good book.

Industry Month In Review: Yay, Yay, YA!

It's time for this month's Industry Month in Review.  Good news!  The Washington Post noted that sales for children's and young adult fiction increased 12!  


Let's revel in it for a second...okay, now back to work.  


More, more, more!  We hear this all the time.  More is always better right?  Wrong.  Movable Type Management Senior Literary Manager Mary Kole reminds us in her July 9th blog The Law of Diminishing Returns that in the case of fiction, this may not always be true.  Kole uses the example of action scenes to prove her point.  A great action scene leaves the reader excited and wanting more, but five in a row and you'll have the reader screaming cut!


Last month Pixar storyboard artist Emma Coats posted her 22 rules of storytelling.  This month, we have Joss Whedon's Top 10 Writing Tips.  


As Canadians know, no YA library is complete without a copy of ANNE OF GREEN GABLES (it's practically burned into our brains). It's interesting to note that in the recently published The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery, the PEI Years, 1889-1900, the teenaged author of the Canadian classic wrote journal entries in the late 19th century that were filled with the same gripes and angst that we hear from teenagers today.  Some things never change. 


Finally, I leave you with this most awesomest of little people youtube videos. Written by a cool kid and brought to life by fun adults...did I mention it guest stars Joss Whedon? How can it not be awesome!  

Industry Month in Review: Smart People, Smart Stories

Welcome to another edition of "Industry Month in Review".  It seems like just yesterday we were at the tail end of May and now voila, summer is officially here!  I have a bit of a loose theme for June's IMIR.  Smart people, smart stories.  You'd think that would be a natural compliment.  Often times it's questionable.  How do you define what's a smart story?  Does a smart story have to be a best-seller? 


In Nathan Bransford's June 11th blog post, Bransford ponders the randomness of bestsellers.  He notes:

"There are more sophisticate and more accessible and more edgy and more simultaneously sophisticated/accessible/edgy books than Girl With a Dragon Tattoo. Why was that the one to take off?

Why was Girl With a Dragon Tattoo such a success? I think it was a good story, surrounded by a good story (sadly the all too sudden death of it's author Stieg Larsson) and a great marketing team. 

That's my two cents.  I'd like to think that my thoughts and writing are smart (or at least can be), but after reading the next article, I'm not so sure.  

The New Yorker recently published an article entitled Why Smart People are Stupid.  

The first paragraph poses the following question:

"A bat and ball cost a dollar and ten cents. The bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?"

If you said 10 cents, you're wrong, think again.

The article discusses the many mental shortcuts that we as humans take which often leads us to make foolish decisions.  While the article is science and not fiction, as a writer, I find that it lends itself nicely when thinking about some of the characters that I am developing and why they make certain decisions.

If there's one person that was a smart person and a smart story teller it would be the late Ray Bradbury.  The legendary sci-fi writer passed away earlier this month at the age of 91. This article from the Atlantic Wire sums up Bradbury's venerable career.  

The article quotes an interview that Bradbury did with the Paris Review in 2010:

"Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn’t exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible."

I couldn't help but think of a recent post I'd seen that ties in nicely with Bradbury's quote (and also made me giggle). 

Finally for those of us who are continuously seeking bits of wisdom in our journey to writing smarter stories, I leave you with this article from io9 where Pixar storyboard artist Emma Coats discusses her 22 rules of storytelling.

Now go forth writers, and prosper. 

 

Industry Month In Review: For The Love Of Fiction

We’re rolling out the red carpet for the first “Industry Month in Review”.  Brought to you every last Monday of the month by moi (curses, there’s that Canadian in me again).

For this IMIR, I’ve chosen an article I found particularly interesting.  One whose question dates back hundreds perhaps thousands of years.

The article is slightly older, April 29, 2012 to be exact but I think still relevant a month later.  It’s entitled "Why Fiction Is Good For You", written by Jonathan Gottschall and published in the Boston Globe.

This is the article you can use as backup when you tell others you’re writing a book - a fiction novel no less and they give you that lifted eyebrow – you know the one. 

Who needs fiction and story telling in their lives?  From the studies in this article it looks like all of us.

Fiction has its haters, as Gottschall notes but new research in psychology and broad-based literary analysis shows that fiction molds us, influences us and for the most part (here’s the good news) for better, not worse.

 “Fiction enhances our ability to understand other people; it promotes a deep morality that cuts across religious and political creeds.  More peculiarly, fiction’s happy endings seem to warp our sense of reality.  They make us believe in a lie: that the world is more just than it actually is.“

Enjoying your weekly dose of Modern Family or Glee?  Gottschall cites studies that show that:

“Reader attitudes shift to become more congruent with the ideas expressed in a [fictional] narrative…..So when we watch a TV show that treats gay families nonjudgementally, our own views on homosexuality are likely to move in the same nonjudgmental direction.”

It’s a feel good read that'll have you singing the praises of fiction and thinking about how your view of the world has been influenced by the stories you love to read and the shows you love to watch.

Still looking for more novel news in review?  Check out Nathan Bransford’s May 15th blog post where he highlights a number of newsworthy items including the cultural phenomenon known as what else, Facebook, a nice debate on the future of publishing and (more good news!) the 72% uptick in Chidren’s and YA book sales (yay!).