(To see this technique handled by a master, read back over any of John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee stories.)
How have I come to all these conclusions about maintaining interest? Well, back in the ’50s, I was assigned to script two films on boredom for a mental health group. It was an enlightening experience. In essence, boredom, I discovered (though it’s hardly a tremendous or unique insight), is a conflict state, in which duty, conditioning, or some other element demands you do one thing, when consciously or otherwise, you want to be doing something else.
Apply this to your situation as a writer. In essence, when you grow bored, you’re tired of whatever it is you’re writing. You’d much rather be partying or fishing or playing poker or lolling on the beach. But conscience or economic necessity say you should be hammering out words.
But why are you bored? The answer is that your story no longer stimulates you, excites you.
Why doesn’t it stimulate you?
There can be all sorts of reasons. But one of the most common is that you’ve drawn too much from the well without refilling.
The well, of course, is your own head. Your brain. Your consciousness. Your imagination. You’ve drained it of things that interest and intrigue you.
Or, to put it another way, you’ve used the same story elements too often: the same ideas, the same settings, the same twists and complications, the same characters.
Especially the same characters.
Has this necessarily been a conscious process? No, of course not. It’s just that, reaching out for the next phrase, the next sentence, the next development, your tired gray cells (to steal a term from Agatha Christie’s famed Hercule Poirot) came up with familiar fragments, bits and pieces you’d used or at least mulled over before.
That brought little excitement to you or your copy, any more than scrubbing the floor for the thousandth time turns on a housewife. The difference is that scrubbing or dishwashing is mechanical. It doesn’t demand new, fresh patterns or procedures.
Writing’s something else again. After awhile and a hundred or a thousand reworkings of essentially the same pattern, you found your mind wandering and, quite possibly without even being aware of it, you wished you were doing something else.
Indeed, were I to face you in person at that moment and accuse you of such feelings, you might very well be outraged. “That’s just not true!” you very well might protest. “I’m working, working hard. But the words just won’t come right.”
So far as your own awareness was concerned, you’d be right. But your enthusiasm would still be gone.
How, then, do you maintain your enthusiasm, your zest for work?
The answer is, refill the well! Search out new experiences. Give the mind-pool that is your imagination, your subconscious, a chance to accumulate new stimuli.
That means, work with more and different raw material—fresh settings, fresh plot concepts, fresh story people.
Especially fresh story people.
The reason for this is that plots and settings are by their very nature more or less limited. (Remember George Polti’s The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations? Other analysts claim to have stripped the total down to three, or four, or a dozen.) But characters are not. Infinite in variety, beyond measurement in numbers, they strike sparks in your imagination without conscious effort on your part. For example:
• the young woman, tired of mowing her lawn, who outraged her neighbors by replacing grass with gravel.
• the old man who had his tombstone carved with a date of death while he was still alive.
• the attorney who infuriated a judge by wearing a turban and see-through shirt in court.
These are only springboards, of course—jumping-off places from which a character or story may develop. You have dozens more as enlivening in your own head. But explored more deeply, amplified in terms of a thousand “what ifs” and permutations, it’s just possible that they or others like them will excite you—rouse you to enthusiasm, or even zest.
What is zest?
“Hearty enjoyment,” the dictionary says. “Gusto.”
In your case, a sudden, surging desire to make something out of nothing.
A story.
If you can capture that feeling, that pulsing excitement of snaring and twisting and molding and expanding new ideas, you’ll never stop writing. Though you may slow down or, like Somerset Maugham in his last years, officially retire, the pictures of unique people in tension-creating situations will still rouse you, the way they say the firebell used to rouse the old firehorse.
Listen to Martha Kay Renfroe, mystery author, referring to one of her series characters: “. . . I like Conan [Flagg]. I plan to stick with him for a long time to come.”
With that cornerstone around which to build your life, what more can any writer want?
To all of you, then, may each character you create prove a new thrill. And may those story people delight you and your readers!
APPENDIX: FOR FURTHER READING
Let’s face it, I’m a book freak. Consequently, the temptation to load you down with an endless bibliography is strong upon me, but I’m going to do my best to hold it within reasonable bounds.
With a few exceptions, the works included in this list deal with either (a.) writing or (b.) human psychology or sociology. In most instances, they’re down to earth. They offer practical information and ideas which, with luck, you may be able actually to apply to your own work.
One word of warning: Please don’t let poking around in these books or any others come to serve as a substitute for putting words of your own on paper. A writer’s job, ever and always, is to write, remember, so the basic issue is—Write On!
Adler, Alfred. Understanding Other People. Cleveland: The World Publishing Co., 1941.
Aronson, Eliot. The Social Animal. 5th ed. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman & Co., 1988.
Bedford-Jones, H. This Fiction Business. New York: Covici-Friede, 1929.
. The Graduate Fictioneer. Denver: Author & Journalist Publishing Co., 1932.
Bickham, Jack M. Writing Novels That Sell. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.
Blinder, Martin. Lovers, Killers, Husbands and Wives. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985.
Campbell, Walter S. Writing Magazine Fiction. Chapter 2, “Characterization.” New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1940.
Card, Orson Scott. Characters & Viewpoint. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 1988.
Cleckley, Hervey. The Mask of Sanity. New York: New American Library, 1982.
Cohen, Betsy. The Snow White Syndrome. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1986.
Davis, Flora. Inside Intuition: What We Know about Nonverbal Communication. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1972.
Egri, Lajos. The Art of Creative Writing. New York: The Citadel Press, 1965.
Glasser, William. The Identity Society. New York: Harper & Row (Colophon Books), 1975.
Goldberg, Herb. The New Male-Female Relationship. New York: New American Library, 1984.
Harral, Stewart. Keys to Successful Interviewing. Chapter 3, “Are People Predictable?” Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1954.
Harris, Foster. The Basic Formulas of Fiction. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1944.
Henslin, James M. Down to Earth Sociology. New York: The Free Press, 1981.
Hite, Shere. The Hite Report on Female Sexuality. New York: Macmillan, 1976.
. The Hite Report on Male Sexuality. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1981.
Keesing, Felix M. Cultural Anthropology. New York: Rinehart & Co., Inc., 1958.
Kerr, Walter. How Not to Write a Play. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1955.
Lasswell, Marcia, and Norman M. Lobsenz. Styles of Loving. New York: Doubleday & Co., 1980.
Macgowan, Kenneth. A Primer of Play-writing. New York: Doubleday & Co. (Dolphin Books), 1962.
McGaw, Charles. Acting Is Believing. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1980.
McHugh, Vincent. Primer of the
Novel. New York: Random House, 1950.
Melville, Keith. Marriage and Family Today. New York: Random House, 1977.
Monte, Christopher F. Beneath the Mask: An Introduction to Theories of Personality. New York: Praeger Publisher, 1977.
Mystery Writers of America. Mystery Writer’s Handbook. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest, 1976.
Noyes, Arther P. Modern Clinical Psychiatry. 4th ed. Chapter 4, “Mental Mechanisms and Their Functions.” Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Co., 1953.
Palmer, Stuart. Understanding Other People. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1955.
Peck, Robert Newton. Fiction Is Folks. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 1983.
Putney, Snell and Gail. The Adjusted American. New York: Harper & Row (Colophon Books), 1966.
Ray, Marie Benon. The Importance of Feeling Inferior. New York: Ace Books, 1957.
Sheehy, Gail. Passages. New York: Bantam Books, 1977.
Sicard, Gerald L. and Philip Weinberger. Sociology for Our Times. Glenview: Scott, Foresman & Co., 1977.
Swain, Dwight V. Techniques of the Selling Writer. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1974.
Terkel, Studs. Working. New York: Avon Books, 1975.
Walters, Barbara. How to Talk with Practically Anybody about Practically Anything. New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1970.
Whetmore, Edward Jay. Mediamerica. Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1982.
Whitney, Phyllis A. Guide to Fiction Writing. Boston: The Writer, Inc., 1982.
Whyte, William H. The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. Washington, D.C.: The Conservation Foundation, 1980.
Wolfe, Linda. The Cosmo Report. New York: Arbor House, 1981.
INDEX
Page numbers refer to the print edition but are hyperlinked to the appropriate location in the e-book.
Abilities, 21, 25; planting of, 178
Abruptness, 109–112, 120–121
Academy Players Directory, 8
Adams, Ramon, 24
Addams, Charles, 8, 119
Adjective of manner, 16–17, 18, 131
Adventure, desire for, 40
African Queen, The, 104
Age, 67; in dominant impression, 15, 16
Agnes of God, 25
Alger, Horatio, 136
Alien, 105–107
Alternatives, 109–112, 117–120
American Eccentrics, 77
Ancient Lowly, The, 72
Ancient Society, 72
Anodyne Necklace, The, 80, 91
Antagonist, 101–102
Anticipation, 115–117
Appearance, 21, 23–24
Applicability, 110–112, 118–120
Architectural Digest, 167
Arsenic and Old Lace, 83
Asch, Sholem, 49, 159
“Ash the Flash,” 80, 91
Assault with Intent, 91
Assumption, 109–112, 115–116, 119–120
Attitude, 21, 47–50, 59, 62; dominant, 48–50; and point of view, 48
Auntie, Mame, 78, 92
“Author omniscient” viewpoint, 93–95
Avallone, Michael, 90
Ayatollah Khomeini, 21
Background, 61–75; See also Principle of parsimony; body and, 65–68; environment and, 68–70; experience and, 70–71; how to build, 64–65; ideas and, 71–74; reasons for building, 64
Bacon, Francis, 65
Bakunin, Michael, 72
Barnard, Robert, 123
Barr, Roseanne, 108
Barrett, Jr., Neal, 161
Bartok, 8
Bates, Norman, 80
Batman, 3
Batman syndrome, 104
Baum, Frank, 78
Bergen, Candice, 28
Bergman, Ingrid, 104
Bergson, 126
Bester, Alfred, 87, 162
Better Homes and Gardens, 167
“Biafra Baby,” 22
“Bible,” 30
Bickham, Jack, 14, 90
Bimbos of the Death Sun, 122
Bit-players, 103–104
Black Beauty, 106
Blavatsky, H.P., 49
Blind Pew, 183
Bloch, Robert, 30, 34, 87, 135
Block, Lawrence, 7
Blume, Judy, 179
Body, 65–68
Boesky, Ivan, 3
Bogart, Humphrey, 104
Bond, James, 7, 91, 148
“Boy Named Sue, A,” 22
Braun, Lilian Jackson, 112
Briarpatch, 24
Brown, Fredric, 87, 106, 123
Brown, Murphy, 28, 169
Buchwald, Art, 108
Buck, 106
Budreau, Father, 91
Burnett, Carol, 71
Burns, Robert, 113
Butler, Rhett, 183
Bylinsky, Gene, 162
Cain, James M., 161
Caine, 12
Calder books, 159
Call of the Wild, 105
Campbell, Dr. John Duval, 86
Campbell, Joseph, 46
Campbell, Walter, 26
Captain Hook, 66
Caring, importance of, 1–3
Carter, Nick, 30
Casablanca, 104
Cash, Johnny, 22
Cat Who Knew Shakespeare, The, 112
Catch 22, 73
Category character, 150–152
Caught Dead in Philadelphia, 123
Caunitz, William, 22
Challenging element, 3
Change, 55–56
Character-in-depth, 104–105
Characters, antagonist, 101–102; attitude, 47–50, 59; boring, 2, 6–7; category, 150–152; deviant, 76; dissatisfaction, 42–44; dominant attitude, 48; dominant dynamic, 3; dominant impression, 15–17, 19, 2; dossier, 30–31; drive, 44–47; dull, 88; false impressions, 35; finding the right one, 5–7; flaws, importance of, 28; goal, 42–44; happiness, search for, 39–42; incidental, 103–104; interesting, 88–89; key element of, 1–3; love interest, 102–103; memorable, 89–92; motivation, 33–38; non-human, 105–107; out of time, 157–168; protagonist, 98–101; rationalize, 8; “real” people, 8–9, 21, 59; relationships, 26; selecting, 5; series, 30; study, 182; traits, 180; viewpoint, 48, 92–98
Chauncey, Checkers, 91–92
Cherry Blossom Corpse, The, 123
Cherryh, C.J., 162
China Dawn, 150
Christie, Agatha, 77, 184
Chronicle, definition of, 43
Citizen Tom Paine, 179
Clark, Mary Higgins, 71
Cline, Terry, 86
Cdit, Lillie, 77
Coit Tower, 77
“Concerto for Orchestra,” 8
Connoisseur, 167
Context, 12
Cosby, Bill, 108
Cosmopolitan, 167
Courage, 59–60
Criminal Investigation, 149
Crossing Delancey, 99
Cyteen, 162
Dailey, Janet, 159
Dalton, Jack, 92, 93
Danger, 55–56
D’Artagnan, 7, 183
Darrow, Clarence, 72
Darwin, Charles, 72
Davidowsky, Moshe Wolf, 49
da Vinci, 65
Dear Dead Days, 8
de Bergerac, Cyrano, 66
Debtors Anonymous, 167
del Rey, Lester, 105
Demara, Ferdinand, 77
Demolished Man, The, 87, 162
Demosthenes, 66
Dent, Lester, 92
Description, 128–136
Destry, 183
Deviant characters, 76–87
Dialect, 24
Dialogue, 137–145; advancing plot through, 141–143; age, 139; background, 139; definition of, 137; function of, 137–143; occupation, 139; sex, 139, 140; status, 139; tags (of speech), 140
Dick, Everett, 160
Dickens, Charles, 77, 159
Diller, Phyllis, 108
Direction, 39–42, 53–60
Disbelief, 169–181; inadequ
ate research, 174–175; lack of planning, 177–178; M/R gaps as cause of, 176–177; non-likable characters, 179–181; telling 175–176; too much realism, 178–179; viewpoint weaknesses, 170–174
Dissatisfaction, 42–44
Distaste, 178–179
Dominant attitude, 48
Dominant dynamic, 3
Dominant impression, 15–17, 19, 21, 131
Don Camillo, 183
Donahue, Phil, 168
Dossier, 30–31
Dostoyevsky, 135
Down in the Holler, 24
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, 6, 37, 169
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 83
Dracula, 66
Dramatists Guild, 155
Drew, Nancy, 30
Drive, 44–47
Driving Miss Daisy, 101
Drummond, Miles, 94
Duncan, Robert L., 86, 150
Eads, James, 77
East River, 49, 159
Eastman, 126
Easy Rider, 167
Eccentric, 76–80; definition of, 77; as viewpoint character, 86–87
Einstein, 65
Elkin, Aaron, 90
Ellis, Havelock, 72
Emerson, Earl, 173
Emotion, 53–60, 106–107, 128–130, 143, 149, 150, 182–183; definition of, 53
Environment, 68–70, 74
E.T., 105
Everyday Psychiatry, 86
Exaggeration, 120, 124, 126
Executive Female, 167
Experience, 70–71, 74
Fagan, 183
Falling Woman, The, 23–24
False impressions, 33–35
Falstaff, 7
Falwell, Jerry, 73
Family Circle, 167
Fanny Hill, 130
Fast, Howard, 179
Fat Tuesday, 177
Fatal Fascination, 149
Fear, 37–38
Feeling, 13, 53–60, 106; in reader, 128, 182; in writer, 13–14; rationalize reasons for, 3
Feep, Lefty, 135
Film Scriptwriting: A Practical Manual, 58
Film/TV, 156
Finn, Huck, 183
First-person viewpoint, 97
Flagg, Conan Joseph, 22–23, 185
Flanders, Moll, 7, 183
Fleming, Ian, 91
Fleshing out, 21–32
Fletcher, Jessica, 169
Focus, 92
Fonda, Jane, 25
Forward, Robert, 162–163
Foster-Harris, 160
“Four wishes,” 40
Freddie, 169
Freud, 126
Future, 157
Future history, 161–163
Future Magic, 163
Future Man, 16
Galileo, 114
Creating Characters: How to Build Story People Page 22