Writing for the Cinema, Part 1

By Doyne Phillips, Managing Editor for Southern Writers Magazine

Award winning author, Michael Hicks Thompson’s, The Rector and The Actress, and I are members of the same writers group. Graciously, he recently gave our group his presentation concerning writing your book with the cinema in mind. He presented four similar workshops recently at Mississippi Writer’s Guild Annual Conference at the Grammy Museum in Cleveland, Miss. Thompson’s presentation at this conference is titled, “7 Secrets to Cinematic Writing.”  His books, The Rector and The Actress are currently being considered for movies because of the way they are written.

Thompson says there are two things an author would rather have more than anything. One is book sales and the other is a movie deal. He shared with us his tips on writing with the movies in mind. Some of his tips include:

Pace in your book should be the actual pace of live action or as Michael says, “Write to movie action. You should write to pace as you see it happening on the big screen,” A good way is to compare how many seconds occurred in the movie action with how many seconds occurred in the reading of your description. Compare and revise to match.

According to Michael setting the pace isn’t complicated but it does mean describing only the most important details of action, characters and the setting. With many authors this goes against the grain because there are many descriptions you could add but shouldn’t. Do not over describe. “Take out the garbage! Take out the unnecessary words and descriptions.” Things that spoil the pace is the use of the following: One of, some, thing, verbs ending in “ing”, adverbs (words ending in “ly”), very and leading words so, most times, in order to, often and often times.  

Dialogue should be real. Michael says, “You should use a lot of dialogue.” I would think so but over the decades this has seemed to change from the dialogue packed movies of the 1940’s and 50’s to todays movies with long periods of silence but expressive scenes through the visual presentation of the actors. Michael warned, “If your dialogue isn’t real, the story isn’t real.” Dialogue is an area many writers have trouble with so Michael recommends, “Study the craft.”

Show, Don’t Tell. The difference is Tell is a description, Show is done with emotion. Michael’s example.

Tell: Sheriff Turnbull then told Martha that Tully Ivey never mentioned that Dawkins said he loved her.

Show: “You wouldn’t understand. Twice now, I’ve heard her reference the note in Andrew’s hand, and not once has she mentioned the part where he says he loves me.” Michael recommends if you have trouble finding a way to “Show” buy yourself a copy of The Emotion Thesaurus. Again, study the craft.

Please know Michael Hicks Thompson is willing to travel to conferences and deliver this and my other Keynote addresses, or workshops. Please contact Michael through his web site, michaelthompsonauthor.com for more information and a quote. His website is interesting and has his current information. My blog post here on Suite T does NOT include all the information told as only Michael can tell in person about his "7 Secrets of Cinematic Writing." Thompson saved his best for last, a number 8, if you will. But I'm not allowed to include it here. You'll need to bring Thompson to your next conference to see his cinematic writing presentation, or his Dramatic Irony presentation, or his "7 Secrets to Mystery Writing." 

Stay tune for Part 2, Writing for the Cinema, Part 2 will conclude here on Suite T Thursday, August 8^th.

Confidence

By Michael Hicks Thompson

What is the one thing— the most important thing—a professional golfer must have to win on tour?

Confidence! If you’re a pro golfer, or tennis player, even a heart surgeon, you need confidence. Not arrogance. Just confidence. A belief in your God-given abilities coupled with the teaching and practice you’ve slogged through. And the determination to be the best you can be.

For novelists, their need for confidence is no different than the professional athlete or the heart surgeon. It’s a long haul with short term goals.

Without confidence, you’re sunk. It’s the underlying cause of the dreaded yips for golfers and surgeons. Or writer’s block for authors.  

I’d just come out of a major inferiority complex dealing with another novel. Actually, it’s a novel I‘d written five years ago. A sci-fi thriller about a world without decent drinking water. It was published as a serial in a year-long magazine.

After that, I wrote the Solo murder mysteries series--The Rector, then The Actress. Lately, I’ve felt a strong urge to re-write the sci-fi thriller, originally titled, JALA, which means water in Hindi. I wasn’t happy with my writing of that story, so I picked it up again. Even changed the title to WATER, 2035.

My confidence had taken leave, along with my senses. Big time. I struggled for months with the story. Couldn’t make up my mind about anything--the protagonist, the antagonist, the POV, their relationship, nothing. I was happy with the sub-plot, but nothing else.

Then, I was the first to sign up for a weekend retreat with Brandilyn Collins in Coure d’Alene, Idaho. That day and a half got me back on track. This was her first time to invite 15 writers to her home. She’s a master teacher.

One fellow didn’t show, leaving me as the only male among 14 ladies and one instructor. If you ever have the chance to attend one of her retreats, I recommend it.

It wasn’t like she sprinkled magic dust over my writing.

After returning home, I still struggled to get behind my computer and work out the scenes, the action, the dialogue. Mrs. Collins edited the first two pages that six of us had sent in a month earlier. She handed them out on the last day, and read them. Our version. Then hers. I sunk down in my chair when my turn came.

I got over my ego fast after reading and re-reading her edits. Then, I realized how right she was. Every day, I’d start from page one and read until I needed to add or correct something. (I didn’t change much from those first two pages.) But, I finally realized I had a good story to tell. And any writer knows the first two pages are life or death for a reader. I used what Brandilyn taught and eventually got in a groove, finally able to determine my protagonist’s deepest desires. If a writer doesn’t know the protagonist’s desires then the reader certainly won’t. And your writing will fall flat on the page.

I’d fiddle with and re-write every word along the way, each morning, progressing slowly through the scenes that needed re-writing for either plot/character changes, or just pure bad writing.

By the third month, my confidence had grown, little by little. The story seemed to take shape. And I was loving it. Still am. Sixty-seven thousand words later, and I’m still in a groove.

My advice to writers stuck in a new genre? Seek the help of from an excellent instructor in a small group setting. You’ll come away a better writer. 

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Born in his mother’s bed and raised on a small Mississippi farm, Michael Hicks Thompson knows a thing or two about strong Christian women, alcoholic men, and Jesus. His fictional writings intersperse his observations of human nature with theology. He’s a member of Kairos (prison ministry), been to Cuba twice on door-to-door evangelism mission trips, been a Sunday School teacher, and a member of Independent Presbyterian Church for 35 years. He and his wife of 45 years live in Memphis, TN, have three sons and four grandchildren. The little ones call him “Big Mike.”After earning his undergrad degree from Ole Miss and then a master’s in mass communication from the University of South Carolina, Michael started a one-man ad agency in Memphis. It grew to 87 employees in two cities, winning numerous national and international creative awards. Michael sold his firm in 2011 and turned his attention to full-time Christian fiction writing. His latest novel, The Actress (his sixth novel), is available in book stores and on Amazon in print, and for Kindle. Having already won four major awards, The Rector was first in the series. Both novels are murder mysteries that take place in the Mississippi Delta.

Old Familiar Friends

By Michael Hicks Thompson

I have no idea if any of those “How to Write a Novel” books (e.g., King’s On Writing, 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the Craft) or any others) taught this, but I’ve not read it anywhere; though, I doubt I’m the only one to offer it up.

I discovered a principle about readers. Simply by reading my manuscript through, page by page, word by word, dozens of times.

Here’s what I discovered. Readers need to encounter familiar friends (even foes) during the course of reading a novel. Why? Because readers need familiar characters to pop up throughout the story. Otherwise, their subconscious asks them, “Where’s that character, Freddie? I haven’t read anything about him for ten chapters.” Well, people don’t think exactly like that, but you get the point.

Think of it this way. If a writer brings up a character in the first third, that character will need to reappear again. Maybe even multiple times, depending on the size of the character’s role in the first third. The more description, dialogue, or substance an author gives to a character, the more that character needs to come back into the story. I had to re-write a major portion of my novel when I discovered that I’d simply written this one scene about a deputy on the Greenlee Sheriff’s Force.

She reached in her purse and retrieved a thin, silver-engraved box of cigarettes. She selected one and inserted it into a shiny black holder. Deputy Cox, who’d been leaning against the doorjamb, pulled a Zippo from his pocket, strutted over, and lit it. She smiled at him, tossed her head back, and blew out a smoke ring as big as my dinner plates. Cox grinned and dropped the lighter in his trousers, while Butch continued.

 And one page over, the Sheriff is telling Cox to take Tully Ivey back to the Grater house.

“Cox, I want you to drive Miz Ivey and Mr. Carr out to the Grater house.”

“Be my pleasure,” Cox said, spreading his cowboy legs, both thumbs wrapped around his belt buckle.

I had left Cox out for the rest of the story. Stupid me. But, it’s easy to do unless you look for such occurrences, and I did, after reading the doggone manuscript over a dozen times.

Leave out old friends, and you’ll leave your reader out.

Here’s what I did. I brought Cox back later, in a subtle way, i.e., not trying to connect his love interest in Tully Ivey, America’s most famous actress, but simply learning from her how Tarot cards work. Eerie.

Haven’t you read novels where a character came into play in the first third with a seemingly big set-up, only never to hear from him again? It happens all the time.

You see, it’s difficult to juggle a mystery novel. To keep the plot moving, the clues, the red herrings, the humor, the empathy, the struggle, yet be aware of every character’s role and their place in the story tell

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Michael Hicks Thompson received his masters degree in mass communication from the University of South Carolina, after an undergrad from Ole Miss. He started a one-man ad agency that grew into 87 employees in two cities, where he was CEO/creative director/copywriter. His firm, Thompson & Company won numerous national and international creative awards. He sold the firm in 2011, and now devotes his time to writing the Solo series. The Rector has already won several major awards. He's been a team member in Kairos' prison ministry for two years; also been to Cuba on door-to-door evangelism trips, and spoken at large conventions as featured speaker on the life of David ben Jesse. You can actually "See Inside" the DAVID books at www.shepking.com, or Amazon. Oh you won't want to miss the photo of Goliath and the Ark of the Covenant. Michael had both of them made for a book signing tour. His latest book The Actress has released.