IMPROVISATION

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Beginning with the Drama Club at the Y and continuing with classes in acting, the teacher always set aside some time for improvisation. Approaching one member of the class, he or she would speak in a low voice and say something like this:

Example 1:

“You are a spy and you must make this man fall in love with you. You must find out what information he has.”

The instructor would then approach your acting partner.

“Find out why this woman is here. What she knows. Do anything you have to but get the information.”

Example 2: The assignment for the next class was becoming an animal. Most of the class chose the ones with four feet. I lived closer to the aquarium and spent an afternoon studying a fish.

Sleepless one night, I began to think about those days as an actress and realized improvising had a lot in common with writing. You begin with your idea of what the characters should do, why they’re doing it and what the story and the theme is about. Then, sometimes without any warning, your characters decide they want to go in another direction. Your villain isn’t your villain anymore, an unlikely heroine emerges, and a chapter or two or three or more needs to be cut, completely rewritten or put in another spot. You try to keep to your original idea but your characters are stronger than you and you think-Oh, what the hell, I’ll try it their way.

Usually they’re right.

I’m into the first draft of a new book and my characters are beginning to misbehave, another character doing things I never expected of him, my sweet ingenue is not as sweet as I originally thought she was and my amateur detective has become something of a wise-ass--always telling me what to do. I can see we will definitely be having a few discussions about the right direction for the novel. How much of a say, do you allow your characters?

Best,

Elise

EXPECTATIONS

     Dare to Stand Out Photo by Jamie Wilson Dreamstime.com

    

      What do the characters we write about want, need, expect and wish for? Our characters emerge from our imaginations and, like their creators, they would like to be someone a reader thinks about, discusses with friends, and recognizes after the last page of the novel where he or she resides is reluctantly closed.

     The baddie prefers to be a multi-dimensional scoundrel—a rakish fellow—perhaps someone the reader finds attractive. Does he despair of ever being understood and does he ask you to blame his childhood, his parents or his genes? Did someone do something that made her vow revenge? Is she immoral? Reprehensible? Why? She/he certainly doesn’t want to be a common, everyday stereotype.

     Heroines tire of being just another buxom, big-bosomed blonde or an innocent, big-eyed waif—they need that special something that no one can name. It? Sex appeal? Depth? Perhaps a touch of wild ginger?

     Our heroes want more than divine ancestry, muscles, courage and a body to drool over. They often request intelligence—more of those “Little gray cells,” Hercule Poirot talks about.

     And what of our secondary characters, they yearn to be noticed. Casting directors are fond of saying, “There are no small parts, only small actors.” We are asked to insert a quirk, a tick, a line that enables the secondary character to keep the chapter and plot going. Tidbits that will make the person stand out without overshadowing the plot or the principals.

     Do you give your characters what they ask for?

Bests,

Elise

LOST AND FOUND

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     Sometimes a former love will become a character in one of my short stories or books. The outer appearance will change—at times it’s an improvement—but his essence becomes part of a new man. The outer shell may be used later in another character.  I guess you can change someone for the better although we’ve been told you shouldn’t even try—but that’s in real time not in fiction.

     The first—a neighbor with the stereotyped red hair and freckles usually found in descriptions of mischievous boys—pulled my braids because he liked me. Much to my mother’s dismay, I chopped off the braids. In a short story, the hair remained and a romance began.

     In my teens, I danced all evening with a fellow who made me feel like the most beautiful, intelligent and charming woman in the world. But we were two different faiths and he was studying to be a minister. I later heard he became a television producer instead. His faith lost a lot of converts but I gained writing material.

     Then there was my season as an apprentice in summer stock. I met an actor who was jobbed in one week to star in a play and we met after the show. He wanted to go into the wood and explore, I just wanted to talk about Shakespeare. We both were disappointed. Both in theatre and writing—use the material.

     As we mature, we often travel different paths from people we once held close but memories come back when we write and their traits, manners and features often appear in our stories.

     I offer a toast to those that we once loved and haven’t completely lost.

Bests,

Elise

SMOKE AND MIRRORS

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     One of the definitions the dictionary assigns to the word Medium is—an intervening substance through which something is transmitted or carried on. Another is—An Agency by which something is accomplished, conveyed or transferred. As writers we fit that description as we summon events from the past or gaze into the future, ask long-gone friends about their life in another sphere and transform their words, their history, their period into a happening that transports the reader into another time and place.

     Some Mediums claim to be taken over by spirits who use their voice. We listen to our characters who often change the way we first envisioned them. A hero may turn into a villain and the plot we’ve worked so hard on will be altered as the people that inhabit the pages of our short stories or novels choose a different path.

     Near the beginning of history attempts were made to communicate with spirits and mentioned in the Old Testament. In 19^th century England and America Mediums gave lectures and became authors. Some even wrote best-sellers. A Medium will do a reading for a particular client known as a “sitter.” We read our manuscripts aloud to ourselves and support groups who sit around a table waiting to offer suggestions that will help us to see if the manuscript is ready to be submitted to publishers.

     Then there is the Trance Medium where a spirit uses the Medium’s mind to communicate and said to center attention on the thoughts being conveyed. When we sit down at our computers or tablets or pick up a pad and pencil, we focus our attention on the words that we write. We do without trumpets, cabinets, levitation tables, darkened rooms and smoke but we do employ mirrors.

When you tell your story, do you ever think of yourself as a Medium?

Bests,

Elise

I KNOW THAT CHARACTER

A dear, longtime friend of mine was given an eReader for Christmas. The first ebook she bought was the book on Thomas Jefferson and the second my cozy mystery titled Scene Stealer.

I received a phone call.
FRIEND
I liked your book, I really enjoyed reading it and I know who the characters are.

ME
(Confused)
You do?

FRIEND
Sure. You’re Augusta Weidenmaier. You based the lead character on yourself.

ME
Uhh…no. Miss Weidenmaier is much older than me. I never taught children. She may be loosely, very loosely based on an old character actress I worked with.

FRIEND
C’mon. And what about the actor that does hand commercials? You had that fat tenor we worked with at the beach in mind, didn’t you? I could just see him. It has to be him.

ME
What fat tenor?

FRIEND
You know. What’s his name?

ME
I don’t remember what’s his name. Actually, part of him is a her, based on the ex wife of a dancer who did hand commercials and had her husband do the dishes. And the character is not fat and can’t sing a note and has extremely small feet just like a supervisor I once worked for.

FRIEND
Well don’t tell me I’m not Annalise. I could sing, I could tap and I certainly worked off-off Broadway.

ME
Oh, my God.

FRIEND
Don’t worry—I’m not going to sue you or anything. I like being in your book.
At that moment I thought of a teacher who told us not to worry about the meaning of what we write. “If people like what you write,” he said “they’ll tell you what it means.”


Bests,
Elise

DIFFERENT HATS

Stick to one genre? It works well for others but it’s not for me. I love to travel and travel leads to non-fiction articles. The people I meet, an off-beat place or a different slant on a well-known tourist spot encourages me to write. A site—with a mystery that has never been solved, or an overheard conversation lends itself to fiction—if I don’t know how a story ends I have to invent one. History goes along with travel—time travel—back to the past. How did people live, would I have been the same person I am today if I lived then, what was it like in different lands, under different laws? How did people eat, cook, dress, rule and love? Dig into history and there’s another tale to be told. Mysteries, romances, science-fiction, literary, you name the category—narrative that doesn’t fit into a short story—pieces that fit together with the actions, speech and thoughts of characters that demand to be heard become a novel.
When it comes to writing I play the field. Please let me know your thoughts—do you wear different hats?

Bests,


Elise

My cozy eBook titled Scene Stealer is available at Carina Press, Barnes & Noble, Amazon and wherever eBooks are sold. An audio version has been produced by Audible.com

Billy Boyle

Found a new mystery writer in James R. Benn. I've begun reading his first, titled Billy Boyle, in his World War II mystery series and finished half the book last night. It's a page turner and I will finish the book tonight and look forward to reading the other titles.

The hero, a cop from the south side of Boston, is sent to London--his family pulled a few strings--hoping to keep him from getting killed. They're distantly related to General Eisenhower and he joins the General's team. Add espionage and a murder and Billy is handed the job of finding the spy. Billy is a charmer and I am completely attached to him. All of Benn's people are real and I'm glad I discovered the author and series.

Bests,

Elise

My cozy mystery, Scene Stealer, is available at Carina Press, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and wherever eBook are sold. An audio version is available through Audible .com

Who?

A friend called this morning. she had been given an eReader for Christmas and was in the middle of reading Scene Stealer. We had worked in musicals together and she asked if a character in one of my chapters was based on a tenor we worked with. "Who?" I asked. I finally remembered the man she was talking about but I guess He hadn't made that much of an impression on me and he wasn't the character. Different height, weight, sexual orientation, outllook--in my mind he was completely different than the personality she imagined. Prhaps that's why when a book is made into a picture, many readers are disappointed.

Writers--have you had an experience like mine?

Bests,

Elise