{"id":376,"date":"2015-04-03T14:43:33","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T21:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hollywood-nobody.com\/blog\/?p=376"},"modified":"2015-04-03T14:43:33","modified_gmt":"2015-04-03T21:43:33","slug":"staying-in-the-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hollywood-nobody.com\/blog\/?p=376","title":{"rendered":"STAYING IN THE ROOM"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Unknown\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Not long ago, I experienced an epiphany\u2014one of those sudden moments of revelation that James Joyce compared to the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It came to me, as such godsends often do, under the most commonplace of circumstances\u2014a tutorial with a student who alerted me to the existence of a screenwriting manual humbly entitled Save the Cat<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The book, perfectly designed for the Millennial Generation, is a wonder\u2014so clear in its step-by-step instructions that you don\u2019t even have to read it!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A quick glance at the table of contents tells you everything you need to know.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Make sure your hero does something nice in his introductory scene.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Include the fifteen plot points every script must have.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Take care to place those plot points on the correct page.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do all these things, and you can\u2019t fail to produce a guaranteed-to-sell screenplay!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If I\u2019d only known!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Oh, the wasted years!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Watching all those movies!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reading all those scripts!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fumbling around, clumsily trying to teach myself the craft of the screenplay when all I\u2019d have had to do is peruse Save the Cat<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m now embarked on a new adventure as a writer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m attempting to write my first novel.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(Well, my second actually. I did my first back in the eighth grade, but the manuscript has\u2014much to the regret of literary historians, I\u2019m sure\u2014been lost.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m attempting to write my first novel, and I\u2019ve vowed not to repeat the mistakes I made when I fumbled my way into the screen trade.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For help, I\u2019ve turned to an old friend.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Acclaimed novelist Ron Carlson.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Author of ten or twelve books of fiction and director of the creative writing program at UC Irvine, Ron has published what I\u2019m hoping is the fiction writer\u2019s answer to Save the Cat<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He calls it Ron Carlson Writes a Story<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hmmm.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

An odd title.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I myself would have preferred something along the lines of The Twelve- Step System for Writing Great Fiction.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

No matter.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s see what Ron considers the first step in writing a story.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ah!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Finding an idea.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Well, not finding it so much as selecting it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ron insists that every experience, whether the author\u2019s own or someone else\u2019s, is a potential seed for a story.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That\u2019s pretty vague, Ron. Can you be more specific?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If an idea, an experience, an image or an event matters to the author, then Ron feels it\u2019s worthy of exploration.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But what are the rules? What are the five elements of a great story idea?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There are no rules, Ron insists, and every idea is different.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All you have to do, he claims, is choose an idea or experience that you the author care about\u2014something that you yourself would like to read about.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ron chooses, as the subject of his eponymous story, the time he lost a mattress off the back of his pick-up truck.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Uhhh\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2026I know Ron knows what he\u2019s doing, but\u2026how many of us are going to want to write about the day we lost a mattress?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How is his choice going to guide us in making our own choices?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Well, perhaps he\u2019ll be more helpful when it comes to developing a character or crafting a plot.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

No. Apparently not.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He claims that when he wrote the first word of his piece, he had no idea who was speaking and even less idea where the story was headed!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He insists that writing a story is a journey\u2014a journey of discovery, a journey that requires focus, attention and effort\u2014and that the most important thing a writer must do after writing the first sentence is stay in the room.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Resist the temptation to refill your coffee cup.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ignore the television screen that beckons from the den.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Forget about the chores crying to be done.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The carpet that needs vacuuming.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The lawn that needs mowing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Barricade your mind against all the wonderful excuses you can invent not to write and stay in the room.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stay in the room and write the next sentence and the next and the next.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stay in the room and watch the characters reveal themselves.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stay in the room and watch the story unfold.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But\u2026but\u2026but\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Where are the steps<\/em>, Ron?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Give us some rules<\/em>!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Some blanks<\/em> to fill in!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Some dots<\/em> to connect!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard for me to admit because Ron is such a good friend, but the fact of the matter is\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2026I\u2019m disappointed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019d hoped for Seven Days To a Better Novel<\/em>, and all he\u2019s given me is some malarkey about the mystery of creation and some advice about how to nurse that process along.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I have to face it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ron Carlson Writes a Story<\/em> offers me next to no guidance on how to write my own story.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I wonder.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do you suppose the For Dummies<\/em> series includes a volume on crafting fiction?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I certainly hope so.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In fact, I\u2019m going to check into right away.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But in the meantime, I think I\u2019ll send Ron a copy of Save the Cat<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Blake Snyder could certainly teach him a thing or two.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yes, Ron can claim rave reviews from shabby journals like The New York Times <\/em>and The Washington Post<\/em>, but he\u2019s never written anything to compare to Snyder\u2019s Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After all, what are a Booklist Starred Review, an NDEA Fellowship in Fiction, a National Society of Arts and Letters Award, or a Ploughshares Cohen Prize alongside a Golden Raspberry for Worst Writer of the Year?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Share<\/a>