10 Things Writers Can Learn from Frankenstein

by Gary Fearon, Creative Director, Southern Writers Magazine

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was only 19 years old when she wrote Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus. While she wrote an impressive number of later works including poetry, travelogues, biographies and children's stories, nothing solidified her stance in literature like the story of a boy and his monster.

If you've ever poured your heart and soul into a writing project, you know it can feel like a matter of life and death to make the right words come alive. With props to Mary Shelley, here are tips from the crypt to give your creature life.

1. FIND THE RIGHT BITS AND PIECES
For all his faults, Victor Frankenstein was a discriminating monster maker, selecting only choice cuts that made the grade. Like a postmortem Paula Deen, he'd be quick to reject, say, a lopsided brain. We must be equally willing to discard a weak plot point or a character who drags our story down.

By the same token, we can bravely borrow tidbits of ideas from the vast laboratory of literature that already exists. Be a grave robber if the spirit strikes, and dig up elements of Treasure Island or The Shining to reanimate.
 
2. DREAM A LITTLE DREAM
Mary Shelley is said to have concocted her outrageous tale in a "waking dream".  Today we call that a daydream, and some authors do their best work when they are indeed away from the keyboard. Mulling over ideas while driving, walking, or lying awake at night takes away a surprising amount of pressure.

3. DRAW FROM LIFE
Shelley's original classic contains enough death to fill a mausoleum, but so did her personal life. Her mother, her sisters, even her own daughter, had all met with untimely ends, and the women in her book were no more fortunate. Mary's familiarity with the unfairness of death permeates her pages.

4. KNOW WHAT SIZE YOUR IDEA IS
Frankenstein was originally going to be a short story, but Shelley soon recognized it had too much potential to be caged in, and needed to be fleshed out.

5. INCLUDE A LITTLE ROMANCE
It'll never be confused with Casablanca, but like most popular stories, Frankenstein contains a hint of amor to keep the ladies interested.  Even the monster communicates his need to be loved, and asks the good doctor to sew up a spouse for him.

6. SET A TREND
Dracula may claim he's hundreds of years old, but Frankenstein beat him to the marketplace by a good eight decades. Frankenstein was the frontrunner of fear, the gruesome grandfather of all monsters to follow. Would that we all could craft a story so ahead of its time that future generations of writers will be forced to follow in our footsteps. If a newcomer of 19 pulled it off, why can't we?

7. MAKE THE FANTASTIC BELIEVABLE
This tale of messing with the laws of nature is no less science fiction than The Matrix. But what makes Frankenstein the chiller that it is, is the believability factor. We're not asked to accept alien life forms or devote mental energy to learning the workings of a fictitious subculture. Instead, we're fed possibilities with some basis in truth. In 1818 scientists had already proven that lifeless human tissue could be reactivated using electricity. It was just a hop, skip and a jump away to accept that a brain could start thinking again, and what might happen if it did.

If we're going to take readers on a fantastic journey, it helps to make sure it's not so fantastic that they can no longer relate to it.

8. ENGAGE IN FRIENDLY COMPETITION 
Frankenstein wouldn't have been written had Shelley and three of her writing friends not decided to compete to see who could write the best horror story.  A little motivation, obviously, can create a monster.  Today, writers who participate in National Novel Writing Month (just around the corner) or one of the other organized events for writers have found it a fun and communal way to breathe life into a manuscript.

9. DON'T LISTEN TO CRITICS
Mary Shelley's tale of terror was soundly rejected by the first publishing company that read it. And after it was published, critics dismissed it, condemning it just as much for the fact that it was written by a young woman as for its horrific subject matter. You'll do yourself a favor if you accept up front that your creation will be hideous to certain hapless townsfolk, who may seek to torch it. But in a very short time, Frankenstein found its audience, and so will you.

10. THINK SEQUEL
The Bride of Frankenstein was only the beginning, and of course we're talking movies now. Son of Frankenstein, Ghost of Frankenstein, Curse of Frankenstein, House of Frankenstein; they only stopped short of International House of Frankenstein. The book you're writing right now could well be the beginning of a series. If you've created characters your audience can't get enough of, you don't have to stop at "The End". Leave that door partly open and you'll be able to walk right in again.

Writing isn't brain surgery, but we can take a few of these cues from Dr. Frankenstein.  If we do, we stand a better chance of being able to step back from our creation and maniacally declaring, "It's alive!"

Olympic Gold Writer

by Annette Cole Mastron


Every four years my family and I look forward to the Summer Olympics. We favor the Summer Games because at least some of the sports we have tried, and we recognize the difficulties first hand. The opening ceremonies are always spectacular productions.

London's extravaganza was phenomenal and especially a treat to this writer. Amazing book characters and scenes came to life in snippets that make this writer want to revisit favorite and familiar pages. Hats off to film director Danny Boyle, who is most definitely a reader all authors dream will transform their work into film. Friday night's production, with the whole world watching, showcased some of England's authors' written work, transferring words into a live performance.

The opening ceremonies featured multiple sets and a cast of over 15,000

The mounded pasture scene, complete with farm animals, reminded me of the shire from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Boyle's vision for the scene was from A. A. Milne's Winnie The Pooh or Kenneth Grahame's Wind in The Willows. This scene, however, invoked the hobbits world for me.

The farm scene disappears while Shakespeare's The Tempest is quoted: “Be not afeard: the isle is full of noises.” Charles Dickens' scenes come alive through the evolution from a farm society into an industrial one indicated by five huge smokestacks.

A precocious pig-tailed child is seen closeup reading by flashlight under the sheets while nightmares swirl around her bed. J. K. Rowling read not from one of her books but from, J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan: “Of all the delectable islands the Neverland is the snuggest and most compact, not large and sprawly, you know, with tedious distances between one adventure and another, but nicely crammed. When you play at it by day with the chairs and table-cloth, it is not in the least alarming, but in the two minutes before you go to sleep it becomes very nearly real. That is why there are night-lights.” A forty-foot Voldemort from Rowling's Harry Potter book series becomes the head nightmare, along with Captain Hook, Dodie Smith's Cruella de Vil character from 101 Dalmatians and Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland villain, the Queen of Hearts.

Guess which writer saves the children from the nightmares? Why of course, P. L. Travers' Mary Poppins. Thirty or more float with opened umbrellas into the stadium to save all children from the evil nightmares and bring light to their world.

By far the best of the best was Ian Fleming's, James Bond 007 character played by actor, Daniel Craig. Seen all spiffy in a tuxedo entering Buckingham Palace, stepping over the Queen's royal corgi pups and entering her palatial office standing at attention while she is in a pinkish dress seated at an ornate desk finishing the business of England. He clears his throat. She rises and simple states, "Good evening, Mr. Bond". They exit the palace and appear to be together inside a white helicopter with a British flag painted on the side. They fly past the landmarks of London. The helicopter door opens and the eighty-six year old monarch and 007 are seen leaping parachute laden from the helicopter into the inky night above Olympic stadium just like a scene from an Ian Fleming book. Moments later the Queen appears accompanied by her husband, Prince Philip, and they make their official entrance to the Games. The Queen has a "wicked" sense of humor and must be a reader of spy novels. It was a bloody brilliant entrance.

So are you going for Olympic Gold? Will you write something that will become a classic for generations to enjoy? You'll never know unless you begin to write.

Have you gotten your free online copy of Southern Writers' anniversary issue yet? Get it now! www.southernwritersmagazine.com/july-gift.html 

Trailblazers

by Gary Fearon, Creative Director


Last week I overheard someone on TV claim that the most important movie of our time is Star Wars.  Mind you, he was wearing a Jedi tunic at the time, so I think his opinion was a little biased.

I initially dismissed his declaration, but then I weighed the evidence. Star Wars inarguably spawned its share of imitators, inspired a new generation of filmmakers, and revived science fiction to a popularity it hadn't enjoyed since the 50s. It introduced characters, images, movie quotes, theme music, and special effects that are burned into our collective consciousness as vividly as a light saber.

Not that there aren't other movies just as catalytic.  From The Wizard of Oz to Jaws to Avatar, every once in a while something new comes along that has so much impact on its craft it becomes an instant classic.

We can just as readily spot the milestones of television (I Love Lucy, Saturday Night Live, Survivor all were groundbreakers), music (The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Madonna), and stage (The Sound of Music, Cats, Wicked).  Even beyond their own success and endurance is the obvious influence they've had on many others in their field.

But let's talk books.  Who are the literary equivalents of these pioneers?  Who are the authors whose work has made such a difference that the world of books would not be the same without them?

We look at these authors as if they're untouchable gods of literature to whose level of greatness we could never hope to come near, but in truth they were just like you and me.  They had something to say, so they wrote it down.  Did they have any idea at the time that they would change everything?  Not likely.  But they probably felt the same spark we get when a good idea hits us or we turn a phrase that gives us the momentary thrill of creation.

Is it just possible that the book inside you right now could change the world like Romeo & Juliet or Huckleberry Finn?  I like to think so.  Someone is going to be the next great writer.  Write as if it's you.

Meanwhile, I really do want your opinion.  What authors and what books do you think changed everything?  And who is making a difference right now?