I’d like to thank Deb for guest hosting today. Deb is a friend of mine and fellow Mystery Ink author and I’m a huge fan of her humorous Southern mysteries. I’m honored she’s at Mystery Writing is Murder today–the day her new Mace Bauer mystery, Mama Gets Hitched, is released. Welcome, Deb!
Thanks so much, Elizabeth, for inviting me to guest at ”Mystery Writing is Murder.” A lot of truth in that blog title, honey.
If you’re a writer, you should be able to write anywhere, right? I was embracing that dictum recently while barreling south on the Florida Turnpike, cruise control set somewhere north of 70 mph.
Don’t get your knickers in a knot, safe driving advocates. Both hands were firmly on the wheel. My husband was in the passenger seat with his laptop, typing away as the two of us collaborated on a writing project. I’d toss out a line; he’d type. He’d toss out a line; I’d wrinkle my nose because it wasn’t exactly the same line I would write. Anything Goes Husband and Control Freak Wife as collaborators. Weird, and the subject of a whole ‘nother blog post. Kerry Sanders and I have been married for 21 years, both from journalism backgrounds. He’s in TV, and I come from print, which is definitely apples and oranges.
I read last month on Elizabeth’s blog about stretching as a writer. It was great advice, and it was exactly what I was doing at 70-some mph (Okay: 80. You get flattened if you go any slower in South Florida, where even the cops pass you at 70). Kerry volunteered us to write a script for a short film competition, despite my imminent launch for MAMA GETS HITCHED, and the fact that the man travels more than 200 days of the year reporting for NBC. We typically communicate via sticky notes and Facebook. Oh, yeah. Did I mention neither of us had ever written a screenplay?
”When are we supposed to write this movie?” I asked, my voice edged with wifely exasperation and a touch of hysteria.
”Don’t worry. It’ll work out,” Kerry said, which is pretty much his answer to everything.
Kerry flew from Louisiana, where he’d been covering the oil spill, to meet me in Boston, where our nieces were graduating. To get home, we had a three-hour plane ride, together for change. We squeezed in most of the writing then. Once back to Florida, he had barely enough time for expenses and laundry before it was back to the Gulf. But first, we did a little turnpike writing on a two-hour drive to an event he couldn’t cancel.
With three of my funny ”Mace Bauer Mysteries” published, and a fourth out next year, I’m in sync with Mace, Mama, and the town I created in Himmarshee, Fla. By now, the books feel like a favorite pair of shoes: Gently worn, but still shiny. Writing a script, especially with such a narrow time window, was like wearing new dress shoes: They pinch, and if you’re unused to heels, like I am, there’s always the chance you’ll teeter and fall on your face.
Exhilarating, right?
If you’re looking for a way to stretch, though, try writing a short movie script (Each minute on film is about a page; so we ended up with 10 pages.) There are plenty of resources to learn the format online or at the library. The experience may sharpen your prose, too. A screenplay forces you to concentrate on skills every novelist needs:
1. Advancing plot with dialogue and action. No room — or audience patience — for long narrative passages.
2. Conveying character quickly through clothing, props, and gestures. (One of our characters carried a tiny designer purse and a long cigarette holder: an instant visual to tell the viewer –or reader– this woman is different from someone who might wear owlish glasses and clutch a book.)
3. Deciding what’s essential and stripping away the rest. (We cut an entire character and his dialogue when we realized he was making the same point we’d already gotten across).
4. Starting your work ”in scene.”
Beginning writers can rarely resist the urge to explain how their characters got to the point where the story’s action truly starts. Our little movie begins at a train station, where a crowd is assembled waiting for a ”beloved” Hollywood icon. She’s returning to the small town she couldn’t wait to quit; the same town she’s trashed during the intervening decades as a backwater hicksville. The scene is set, the characters and action are underway, the train whistle sounds.
Kerry and I didn’t start with what the characters had for breakfast; what route they drove to the station; or the phone call they got two weeks earlier inviting them to come. We started In scene.
The process definitely made me stretch as a writer. I even stretched a bit as a wife. I have to admit Kerry was right. (Mark this day in your calendars, folks!) It did work out.
Deborah Sharp, a former USA Today reporter, sets her ”Mace Bauer Mysteries” in a rodeo-and-ranching slice of her native Florida. She and husband Kerry Sanders live in Fort Lauderdale. No kids; no pets. They had a couple of goldfish once. It turned out badly. You can visit Deborah’s website here.
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Elizabeth – Thanks for hosting Deborah.
Deborah – I like your sense of humor, too : ). As to stretching? I completely agree. I’ve never tried my hand at a screenplay, although it sounds like an interesting way to stretch oneself. I recently got a suggestion from a friend, though, that I think about collaborating with another friend of hers who illustrates graphic novels. I’d write the script, and he’d do the artwork. It hasn’t happened yet, but still…intriguing..
Enjoyed the post and wishing you much success on the launch of Mama’s newest adventure.
Mason
Thoughts in Progress
Great post, Deb! Congrats on the release of MAMA GETS HITCHED. Mama and her gang are real gems, and I’m sure you’ve got them immersed in another hilarious mystery.
Now I can’t wait for the movie!
(BTW, that’s a great scam you’ve got going–getting your spouse to do all the typing!)
Great post! I’ve never tried a screenplay – sounds like a bit of fun :)
I like Deborah’s humor! I’ll have to try my hand at screenplay and see how it turns out. Hopefully better than her goldfish experience.
Hi, Elizabeth … thanks so much for having me as a guest. You have so many great teachers here, such great advice … hope I kept up!
And, hey Alex: Yep, those fish didn’t fare well. Good luck if you do a screenplay, or whatever you choose to stretch.
Radically chaning genres helpe me to stretch, but not sure I’m ready to take on a screenplay.
And nice of your husband to volunteer you!
Working with your spouse can be a challenge. I can just picture the two of you–what did you call him, Anything Goes Husband…The adventures of collaborating could be a story on its own.
Looking forward to curling up with Mama Gets Hitched this weekend!
I not only love your humor (the goldfish made me laugh), I admire that you can work with your husband on the script. I think mine would want to insert a terrorist or spy into whatever we collaborated on.
Straight From Hel
Thanks Elizabeth for hosting Deborah. Stretching is my middle name, well no it isn’t. It’s Anne. I wrote plays for many years mostly with three others. They were musicals. I wrote the libretto with a friend called Malcolm and the music was done by his wife and another musician. Malc and I argue all the time which would frighten his wife but finally she got that is just how we work. We did some very fun plays. And I do try and cross-train from time to time. I’ve never tried to write a screen-play though. The formatting intimidates me. Sonnets, Ginsburgian poems, mysteries, literary fiction, government websites – all can teach me something…
Writing in the car sounds good. One friend and I used to write in the sauna – the ink would start to run just as our brains turned to mush. hot stuff.
Hey Deborah,
Great post. Congrats on the release of Mama Gets Hitched.
Great post, Deb! I think a lot of the advice you give for writing a screenplay applies to writing a novel or short story, too. Especially starting “in scene.”
Congrats on the release of Mama Gets Hitched!
Hearth Cricket
Elizabeth, thank you for sharing Deborah with us!
Deborah-I can tell HERE how much I love your voice! I am going to have to look for your books. You and your hubby are opposites of me and mine… I fly by the seat of my pantslessness, while he tends to all the details, but we’d never go anywhere without me diving in.
Good luck with the script!
Oh, wow! Lots of comments. Man, Elizabeth, you’ve got followers (so THAT’S what it feels like ;-)
To Margot – Let us know what happens with the graphic novel. Cool format!
To my pals, Mason, Dru, Alan, Cricket and Victoria – thanks for coming by to comment and wish success for Book No. 3. Y’all are the best!
L. Diane — Yep, hubby’s a prince among men, and a pro when it comes to volunteering me.
Helen — who says there are no terrorists? Not to mention car crashes and things exploding … nah, just kidding. I vetoed them.
Jemi — give it a try. Great fun.
Jan — I’ll have to try writing in a sauna (Isn’t Fla. in the summer hot enough?)
Hart — Yep, opposites attract. And I’m secretly glad when my caution-to-the-wind spouse eggs on this more nervous partner. Bet your hubby is, too!
Deborah, thanks so much again for posting here on your big day! Best wishes for a really successful release. :) Y’all, Deb is just as funny and warm in person as she is in her books…I met her at the Malice conference and she’s just a delight.
It’s late, but I can’t let that last comment from our wonderful blog mistress go unremarked upon. Awwwww, Elizabeth. I’m blushing! Thanks for having me as a guest. And folks … those nice things she said about me go DOUBLE for Elizabeth. Warm, kind, and a terrific writer. Seeya!
Stretching is good! I recently started writing poetry again, after a decades-long absence. So nice to switch gears from time to time. Good luck!