Why You Should Focus on Story First!

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amwriting, Story, storytelling, writers community, writerslife, Writing

Forget About Being a Great Writer and Focus on Story First

Have you ever picked up a book that has been on the bestseller list for months and months and the author is all over the publishing news because all the movie deals coming in and how rich they are—and then the writing is bad, like really bad, and you think—WTF???Yup–been there, done that. Have you ever gone to the movies and so many things are wrong and yet the film is bringing in millions and millions and you cringe at the story mistakes? Yup–been there, done that.

This has been my philosophy for as long as I can remember. 

There is nothing wrong with being great with words or wordsmithing. I admit, it’s not my thing, but if you allow it to get in the way of the story, that is where you will have problems. 

The reason is that people come to you for the story not the words. 

STORY IS ALWAYS FIRST. 

The words should come LAST. 

The sequence of writing a novel should go something like this. 

FIRST DRAFT

REVISIONS

REVISIONS

REVISIONS

NEW FULL DRAFT– I do this from memory with a blank page.

REVISIONS on story, character, at the chapter level.

REVISIONS

Then workshop it. 

Then critique group.

Then if you are really sure this is the best version of your story you get to line edit. (usually about the 8th or 9th revision)

Sounds like a lot of work right? 

Yup, it is. 

Writing novels is hard. 

Think of it this way, if you were to make a wedding cake, you finish with the tiny details you start with the eggs, flour, sugar, etc. 

It’s the same with your story. 

Now, for the screen and TV writers out there, this is the same for you. 

if you waste your time writing clever dialogue, scenes, and jokes but the story isn’t working, your movie or your episode will most likely suck. 

Why? Because story always needs to be first. Great sentences and super clever jokes won’t and can’t carry a story.  

I STRONGLY recommend the below two books by Lisa Cron-they are game-changers.

WIRED FOR STORY & STORY GENIUS 

They will help you get to the root of your story and the exercises she has are invaluable

. 

EXERCISE Make a list of your top ten favorite books or movies (or both) and then write down what you love about it. I bet ya, it’s the story. It may be all the clever jokes or the witty dialogue but at the end of it, it’s probably the story. Example–THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN–very funny, lots of hilarity–but why do we love this movie? The STORY is solid. The character has a want and a need that isn’t happening for him until he is forced to change. Another example is the GILMORE GIRLS--talk about your witty dialogue but is that why you tuned in? Nope, it was the story of a mother and a daughter in a small town. The witty dialogue was just the flower on the icing on the cake. One more. TWILIGHT. Is the writing brilliant? Is she a wordsmith? No, but the story of two teens in love and one of them having a dark secret that is dangerous is one we know and instantly want to know more. Also, 50 SHADES OF GREY.

Now, are you ready to make your STORY stand out? 

I know that you are. It’s hard because it’s been drilled into our heads that we have to be these perfect writers to be successful but honestly, that’s part of it but more importantly is the STORY. 

Don’t forget that. 

STORY first! 

Then pretty words. 

If you like this blog please share on social media and with other writers. 

As well, please get onto my VIP email list so you are first to get weekly writing tips, announcements, and exclusive offers just for you.

XO happy writing!

Tips for Tuesdays

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author, creative consulting, Story, story concierge, Writing, writing community, writing tips

Hello Writers, this week has been a bear!! It’s July, it’s hot and nasty out AND my husband and my dog both need more of me than usual—that said, I’m happy to be there for them but it’s chipped into my mornings.

My little dog wouldn’t eat today so I went to the store and bought stuff to cook for him and he still wouldn’t eat but finally, he did and BOOM! It was noon.

AAAAARGH! 

So my writing TIPS for today are really just ONE. 

It’s OKAY to take a break when life gets crazy. I have been feeling guilty of not writing today but then, it’s 3:30 (pst) and I still have to work my dayjob.. so I’m giving myself permission to not write at the moment and get to the things that keep a roof over my head.

My tip, again, is to know that it’s okay when you have to take a break. 

Take that break.

Recharge.

Start over when you are ready.

When you write when you aren’t focused, you tend to make a lot more story, character and plot mistakes, and then you have to fix them later.

It’s okay to take a day off!!

www.judaniebean.com 

www.youtube.com/stephaniebourbon

GOALS for JULY

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camp nano, creative consulting, Film, novel, Story, storytelling, Television, Writing, writing coach, writing tips

Hey Writers! OMG I am so sorry that I am so late with this post. If I told you, you wouldn’t believe the morning I had, and no, I’m not organized enough to post in advance.

I apologize!

WHAT ARE YOUR WRITING GOALS FOR JULY?

Are you part of #CampNaNOWriMo?

Do you have a deadline?

What are you doing?

I am spending July in CampNaNo, building my writing course #storyconcierge in Kajabi, and am excited about all the possibilities coming for writers.

This is short today as it’s 5:30 and let’s just say, I’m not over the food poisoning I got last night YET—ugh

 

www.judaniebean.com

www.youtube.com/stephaniebourbon 

Shooting Videos FOR WRITERS

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Film, novel, Story, story concierge, storytelling, Television, writers life, Writing, writing community, writing conferences, writing goals, writing tips

Happy Friday writers!!!

Just a quick hello to announce that I have shot the first batch of videos for my new YouTube channel launching next week!

I hope you will subscribe, get involved in the conversation and share with friends!

www.youtube.com/stephaniebourbon

and please sign up for my VIP list to find out how you could win a scholarship worth over $1000 and get a FREE seat in my upcoming course, or win a gift certificate to an amazing writing course, as well as other FREEBIES just for you!

www.judaniebean.com 

As always, happy writing!

xo 

Writing Goals for the Week?

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dialogue, Film, goals, novel, Story, story concierge, storytelling, Television, TV writing, writers life, Writing, writing community, writing dialogue, writing goals, writing tips

 

Happy first day of the new week—because yesterday was a holiday—I hope you did something fun.

My husband and I went to see the new Ryan Reynolds movie—Detective Pikachu and while we totally enjoyed it, I found myself wondering why I didn’t really care about the characters, especially the main character.

Did you see it? What did you think?

We also watched all of DEAD TO ME—and that was brilliant in every way.

The characters were so well developed. There was no telling-everything we found out we did in the right way-they ever used flashbacks effectively. Every episode ended with what I call a page turner (even in TV shows)—it made us binge instead of waiting for the next day. The dialogue was all perfect.

***THIS IS A SHOW TO WATCH TO LEARN craft of storytelling. I can’t recommend it enough.

***Warning if the F word offends you, then it’s probably not the show for you though.

Have you seen it?

So, I’m a day late in posting my goal post for the week-which usually I put out on Mondays. But, since I took most of the day off to recharge I figured that a lot of you did as well.

Now, it’s time to write down those goals!!!

Happy writing!!!

Please subscribe, share here and on social media.

For more on writing, news, tips, and tricks you can find me here!

www.judaniebean.com

www.youtube.com/stephaniebourbon

Join the STORY CONCIERGE FB GROUP 

XO Stephanie

Tips for Tuesday–DIALOGUE TAGS

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dialogue, fiction, Film, Films, Novels, Story, Television, writers life, Writing, writing dialogue

Dialogue tags continue to stump many writers, new and experienced.

I’m not sure why this is, maybe it’s because we as writers feel the overwhelming need to paint a detailed picture. We want the reader to not miss even for a second what we mean—right?

She said angrily. She yelled with the noise of thunder. He howled like a wolf. –these are not needed.

My rule of thumb is when in doubt use SAID.

***The way a character speaks is so uniquely them that it should be obvious who is speaking but sometimes it’s not, so fine–use he said, she said, they said..

Don’t over think it.

In preparing for this blog, I found this article that does a great job of further explaining what I mean.

I have posted the link below. I hope you like it and I hope that it helps!

https://www.novel-writing-help.com/dialogue-tags.html

An exercise: tell your friend, spouse, neighbor, anyone a story about a conversation you had with someone else, do you ever overly describe the way they said it? HINT–you don’t. People don’t. Go do this and you’ll see what I mean.

If you do. If you are the type who uses adjectives to describe the way someone spoke–well that just might be YOU and the way you as a character speaks, but in books it pulls readers out. In screenplays and teleplays, it confuses the actors–or they will follow exactly instead of doing what comes naturally. I would say in scripts—NEVER qualify ever. Scripts don’t need tags.

Tip for Tuesday–DIALOGUE-Be UNIQUE

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dialogue, fiction, Film, Films, Novels, Story, Television, Writing, writing dialogue

I’m traveling to the Iceland Writers Retreat this week so this will be short but to the point.

Dialogue is so important in showing us who the character is. This is true for all writing. Screenplays and teleplays and stage plays rely so heavily on the way characters speak and what they say that it’s even more important to nail it.

This doesn’t mean being overly clever, it means being UNIQUE.

One example that I LOVE is the show, the GILMORE GIRLS. They have a very unique way of speaking. It’s very specific and so much that other characters in the show comment on the way that Rory and Lorelai speak. Watch it. You’ll love it, or hate it, either way, you will see what I mean.

Other shows that have GREAT & UNIQUE DIALOGUE ARE:

FRIENDS

THE BIG BANG THEORY (especially Sheldon)

FELICITY

GREY’S ANATOMY

Homework this week is to watch tons of TV and write down the names of shows that you love or hate because of the way they speak. Why do you feel that way?

Be Fearless Today (and Every Day) THURSDAY

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fiction, Film, Novels, Story, story concierge, Television, Writing, writing goals

Happy Thursday!

So I asked over on Instagram how your writing week went.

I’d love to hear. I was inspired to write this today because so many of my FB friends have been posting about the fear of rejection, especially after getting rejected.

Please, friends, do NOT let fear stop you. 

We ALL get rejected all the time. Even when your book is a best seller someone will hate it. That’s just a fact.

When you are a top showrunner and your show is on HBO, or NBC or Netflix and is nominated and even won awards people will still hate it.

The life of a storyteller is not easy and I am cheering you all on for just being here and continuing to put your stories out there.

I hope that you had an amazing week and even if you didn’t, that’s okay.

What are you working on today?

xo 

Stephanie

 

 

What Are Your Goals Today Writers??

Tags

Novels, Story, Writing

My goals are to write, relax and enjoy time with my new hubby–

I know that I’ve been gone awhile but I’ve been working on my new business.. see the logo.

More soon, but I am creating content for you, CREATIVES!!

I will make s separate post for that, in the meantime–time for Thursday goals!!

 

Happy writing!

Things That Are Wrong with Your Screenplay

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character, Screenplay, Story

This is a link that was shared on social media, it has some great points on what can go wrong in your screenplay, but it is basically everything that is wrong with every story, even the ones that are made.

http://www.fastcocreate.com/3022129/all-the-things-that-are-wrong-with-your-screenplay-in-one-handy-infographic#1

My biggest issues when reading scripts are:

STORY There needs to be a story-period. It has to have a strong beginning, middle and end-period. No amount of special effects is going to help that no matter what Disney, Sony and other big studios show you. It’s one of my biggest pet peeves when people tell me they love a film and I ask them why and they say the 3D was awesome, or the FX were awesome. A screenplay needs to have a solid story.

Why are you telling this story?

What are you trying to say?

Why is this important to you?

Ask yourself these and more questions, and then you should have a good story.

And STOP reading every screenwriting book on how to tell a story, just tell a good story, get that done first, then you can go in and tweek for industry standards.

Second biggest mistake. CHARACTER. You have to have strong characters that have strong intentions, needs, wants, actions and dialogue. This is non negotiable-period. All your characters must have different voice and they must all have their own needs AND everything they do MUST move the story forward.

Don’t ever write anything because, “wouldn’t it be funny if” or “It would be cool if”.. No no no no.. don’t do it.

Female characters—this affects both men and woman.

MEN don’t put them in if they don’t move the story just to have your hero getting laid, it’s boring and overdone and contrary to why you went to films in high school, it does not sell tickets.Don’t put a female in just to please your girlfriend. Put her in because you NEED her to TELL THE STORY. See how it always goes back to story? If you do put in a female character, please make her realistic. Look around you, who are the women in your life? How would they act in a situation? Write that.

WOMEN stop writing female characters just because you think we need more. Ugh I am so sick of this too. I am sick to death of reading bad scripts with a woman lead that makes no sense. If you want to write a strong female, then write her, you are a female this shouldn’t be so hard and yet it seems to be that more and more scripts are written by women about women just to put a woman in a script. Sigh.

STRUCTURE didn’t I just say it didn’t matter? No I said it’s second to story, but it must be there. Read scripts tons of them and format correctly.

There are a million things that can go wrong with your script, or right with it, so just think before you submit about these things and things on that list, but don’t get so bogged down either that you never show your work to anyone.

GOOD LUCK!!