Monster House & Writing Advice

I mentioned in my blog about my niece's visit that we saw--and despised--Monster House. The motion-capture technology they use is cool but the majority of the plot (such that it is) is a huge snore.

 This is too bad, as I think the idea of a house that eats children holds huge entertainment potential. Where did Monster House go wrong?

 They went wrong in that they had an idea but didn't follow through with it.  What's below is copied from my friend Ed's blog  at Side-Show Freaks and is a quote from Gene Wolf:

“When you write a story of your own, you start with a good idea. You work hard because you notice the harder you work, the better the story gets. Then you discovered the story doesn’t have the effect on others that you know it should and you don’t know why. I’m going to tell you – watch my lips.

You didn’t do much with your idea. You unconsciously assumed that because it was such a fine strong, sleek and even potentially dangerous idea, it could run the story by itself.

If I could give you one piece of advice…, it would be this: Think of yourself as a wild beast trainer, and your idea as a big cat in a show; walking out onto stage and saying, “Hey, look at my lion,” isn’t going to cut it. Is your idea going to jump through a hoop of flame? Is it going to climb onto the shoulders of two other ideas and roar?

You’ve got an idea…, and that’s good; now let’s see you put your head in the idea’s mouth.”

In a nutshell, that's what's wrong with Monster House. They had a good idea and thought the story would run itself. It didn't.  

In my writer's group (or any writer's group, for that matter) there's a lot of attention paid to dialogue. Too many writers, me included, get caught up in the details of life. It's like having a phone ring in your novel and your character goes to answer it and the following dialogue ensues:

"Hello?"

"Hi, is this Sally?"

"Yes, this is Sally. Who's speaking?"

"Hi Sally, this is Jim. I met you at the party on Friday night..."

"Oh yes. Jim. I remember. Hi, how are you?"

"I'm fine. Listen, I was wondering..."

Okay, now how boring is that to read? Much better to simply say, "Sally was thrilled when Jim called to ask her out." Now we're moving along. But the above is what Monster House did. They TOLD every bit of boring dialogue that yes, does occur in everyday life but which even novice writers know has no place in an actual book or movie. I can't imagine how this film got past the writers/editors/directors/etc. Isn't Spielberg involved in this??

To be fair, while I didn't like the movie as a whole, I did like the characters in it--Chowder's a hoot. And my friend Trisha's son Max who is almost 9 loved it.  I think the movie can appeal to younger kids but it missed the mark at crossing the line and appealing to both kids and adults.

When An Article Doesn't Work

I'm fortunate in that most of my article-writing skill comes easily for me. I research and interview and put in the time but for the most part I don't struggle to pull an article together.

Not so with this week's project. An editor friend asked me to write a humor article for the medical cat journal she produces for a University. A lot of the articles in the magazine are straightforward, fact-based text. She liked the idea of adding a dash of humor to the mix. We decided I'd do a sort of Letterman Top-1o list about why cats bring humor to our lives. But she also asked I interview a few experts and sprinkle in their opinions, to give the article a bit of weight.

Honestly, I expected to toss this article out in an afternoon.  Hasn't happened. I have been playing with this thing for 3 days now and it's still not coming together. The problems are several-fold:

1. I always tense up when writing for a friend. I have that whole "need to prove I didn't get the work just because it's a friend and therefore I must submit genius-level work" complex.
   
2.  I'm having a much harder than anticipated time melding the "funny" and "serious" aspects of the article.
3. Word Count. A simple 1000 words is usually no problem. But for an article that revolves around a Top 10 list, I'm struggling to fill the space.
   

I was hoping to submit the article this week but it's not in the cards. I need to just stick the article away for a few days and come back to it with a fresh perspective. Frankly, I have the nagging feeling my best bet would be to scrap what I have and start over. I'm working too hard to make things flow which is a red flag that the pieces just don't fit together.

A few dear writer friends have offered to read what I have and give suggestions but egads--I'm so unhappy with what's there I shudder to hand it off to anyone else. Might be time to put the ego aside and do just that though. 

Setting Boundaries

This month and I suspect the upcoming months are going to present a challenge for me in terms of setting boundaries on my time. It's come to my attention that my volunteer and non-paying activities are starting to outnumber and take over my income-producing activities. Someone showed me a T-shirt in a catalog that said, "STOP ME FROM VOLUNTEERING AGAIN!"  That's me.

The problem is, I really like a lot of my non-paying activities. They include:

• Attending a weekly networking meeting
• Participating in a Toastmasters group
• Mentoring two young women as they start their own businesses
•  Reading to middle-grade kids through a disadvantaged youth program
• Teaching Networking skills to women at a non-profit Women's Resource Center
• Serving on the board and as a group facilitator for our local writer's group.
  
• Serving on the board for our local Toastmasters group
• Serving on the board for the International Cat Writers Association
• Attending networking events through our Greensboro Merchants Association
• Meeting with my critique group for children's writers
  
• Blogging
• And soon to include more work on animal rights and establishing a shelter! =)
  

Part of my issue is I think, "Oh, it's only an hour's meeting. I can do that," forgetting to factor in 1 1/2 hours drive time, the fact that meetings run long, and the "to-do" list of things I'll emerge from the meeting with.

I'm taking baby steps to remedy this. I've announced I'm leaving the board of my writers group and stepping down as facilitator.  I'm also (after one more visit, because I promised) going to stop reading to the kids. A good cause, but it's over an hour away and that's just too far. My Toastmasters group asked me just this week if I would serve on the awards committee and mentor a new member and I said no to both. It was hard--I'd love to be on the awards committee and I'd enjoy mentoring a new speaker. But there's just no time.

Some things won't go away because I don't want them to. I love blogging. I love my networking group and my children's writers group. Being on the Board of the Cat Writers brings me contacts and income, since I write for a lot of pet magazines. But I may have to take a hard look at some of the other items.

It's a good problem to have, being interested in so many different things. And it might be a little more manageable if I didn't live so far away.  And it's not that I have a hard time saying no to people as it is I really want to be a part of all these things. But I'd also like a little more balance in my life.  We all would. 

Phone Interviews

I spend a fair amount of time on the phone, interviewing people for the articles I'm writing. I've learned to almost enjoy this process. I am not a phone person and it would never, ever occur to me to call a friend just to "see what's up." Even if Blair and I are apart due to one of us traveling, we'll do a 5-minute "Hey, I got to the hotel okay" call and then won't speak for the next week or two that we're out of town. (He's not a phone talker, either). But interview phone calls have a purpose and are usually under 30 minutes each, so I deal with them.

My first phone interview was years ago with a breeder of Black & Tan Coonhounds for a  breed profile I wrote for Dog & Kennel. I was so nervous beforehand. I was afraid the woman would be able to tell I'd never interviewed anyone before, afraid I wouldn't ask the right questions, wouldn't get the answers I needed, etc. It's funny, as conducting interviews for breed profiles are so second nature now, I don't even need to prepare beforehand.

 But I was supposed to have an interview yesterday with an animal behaviorist and I did prepare for it. I'm writing a humor article for an animal newsletter that comes out of a large research university.  The editor wants a few expert opinions sprinkled in about why animals bring humor to our lives and why that's good for us. So, fine. I e-mailed this behaviorist and we set a time yesterday afternoon to talk.

I called at the time, and he wasn't there. I called back 15 minutes later, still not there (he'd warned me he might be late). I left a message and he called me back about 40 minutes later.  I thanked him for calling and asked my standard, "Is this a good time for you?" pre-interview question.

And he went off. Politely, but still with a lot of tension and nerves behind his voice. He told me it was not a good time and he knew when he set the appointment with me it wouldn't be.  His graduate students needed his attention, his family was sick, he had to travel, plus he's already given interviews to so and so for this magazine and on and on.  I tried to interject once or twice that it wasn't crucial I get the interview that day but he talked over me.  Finally he admitted he didn't want to do the interview, didn't have time.  

I'm fine with that. People have lives and there's always other people I can find to talk to. But after he gave me this litany of reasons why he couldn't do it and that he didn't want to do it, he sighed, sounding exasperated and said, "I suppose I could squeeze out an hour next Tuesday if I absolutely had to--" I cut him off and insisted I would be fine and able to locate another source.  He hesitated a bit and then thanked me and we hung up.

The whole conversation was just very odd. People have such a hard time saying no. It's clear he never should have agreed to the interview in the first place as he's already loaded to the max. But what amazed me was that after he spent the time covering with me why he couldn't do it, and I agreed, he backtracked and was going to find time to fit me in. Even though I could tell he would have been ticked if I'd taken him up on it. 

But most people are happy to be interviewed and what I've found is they are usually much more nervous than me. They want to make sure they sound good and give solid information. So part of my job as an interviewer is to get them to relax, which relaxes me in the process.

But I still don't like the phone...