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Writing Days: Good and Bad

August 17, 2017 by Jan Bear Leave a Comment

Romancing the Stone

At the beginning of the 1984 movie, Romancing the Stone, we find romance author Joan Wilder, played by Kathleen Turner, finishing her new novel. As the heroine and hero ride off into the sunset, the camera turns to Joan behind her typewriter, with her face transfigured by the story. She’s been crying, and she gets up and walks around the house looking for something to blow her nose on. No Kleenex, no toilet tissue, no paper towels. All used up. At last she takes a note off the bulletin board and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: The Craft of Writing Tagged With: Romancing the Stone

The Villain’s Journey

May 20, 2016 by Jan Bear Leave a Comment

The Villain

In some stories (my own included, sadly), the villain moves through the plot like a chess piece in a rigged game. These stories may have action, but they lack depth.In a great story, the hero and the villain engage in a kind of dance, each illuminating the other’s options and choices. There’s a sense that the story could be told from the villain’s viewpoint, inside-out and backwards, but still with desire, motivation, rising and falling action, and a satisfying ending.It’s like the two essential … [Read more...]

Filed Under: The Craft of Writing

Log’s Eye View

August 9, 2014 by Jan Bear Leave a Comment

Gleneden Beach, Oregon, through the eye of a log

A week at the beach has been a good time for learning to create a zone for writing. In the psychological fantasy I'm working on, I find that the sound track is the David Lynch station on Pandora. Why David Lynch? What attracted me most to Twin Peaks was not the story, which was a series of loosely related events that didn't build in any direction. What gave the thin events texture and richness -- what continued to affect me after the credits -- was the soundtrack. Exploring the sources of that … [Read more...]

Filed Under: The Craft of Writing

Stakes in Fiction-Writing: The End of the World

May 26, 2014 by Jan Bear Leave a Comment

In fiction, the stakes of a story are defined by the terror of the change that the character is facing.

In fiction, stakes are always about the end of the world. I’ve been resistant to that because I think oncoming asteroids and alien invasions are boring (even though I like science fiction). But that’s because I’ve defined the “end of the world” too narrowly. The end of the world can happen on every level, from universal (Star Wars) to global (War of the Worlds) to geopolitical (Lord of the Rings), to the community (It’s a Wonderful Life), to the individual (impending death, life changes, … [Read more...]

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Progress on Ghosts

November 25, 2003 by Jan Bear Leave a Comment

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, 2003, it's Regina Carter on iTunes tonight, and Mocha is off elsewhere. But I had intended to write at least every day or two and now it's been almost two weeks. So, Jan, where've you been all this time? Thanks for asking. I've made progress on my novel, Ghost Songs of Oregon City. I'm ordering the scenes so that I'll know what to write. I actually wrote the first scene, just felt like it, and it feels like it's good. I know, it needs work, and when I come … [Read more...]

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