Bebo

There's a wonderful screenwriting book with the title, Save the Cat. It talks about how very early in a movie there has to be some small event that the hero does to establish himself as that. It is usually a small, but revealing act of kindness or bravery like getting a cat out of a tree--though the options are limitless. Just like the poster of a kitten hanging on waiting, the author seems to indicate that we are hanging on, waiting for the cues that tell us who to cheer for, who to identify with, who to watch. In movies and I say, in books too.

I think about how that's true in real life as well. We are constantly looking for the simple, tiny things that reveal character around us. And doesn't that make life more interesting too? It's the different choices that people make to "Save the Cat". Not everyone does it in the same way. Some people don't even save the cat, they do the opposite--I'm thinking of National Lampoon's Christmas for this one. You remember poor Fluffy. And the Christmas lights. Enough said I hope.

I just finished another novel in a month November contest. The characters usually start out cardboard and flat. It's the little things that fill them out and make them suddenly real. It isn't one thing necessarily, but the minute details that do it.

Have you saved the cat today? Has the main character in your book? Maybe it will help your outlook or add to your book's word count to do it in the beginning. To start, if you haven't yet. For don't the small, insignificant things we do add up to the bigger ones? Isn't it easier to save the world if you've practiced by saving the cat? Just a thought...just in time for Advent.

I've felt a little overwhelmed lately. It is easy to get distracted from writing especially if you have a day job or two and try to keep up on publicity for the stuff lucky enough to be published.

Marketing is its own creative field. I was lucky enough to get a book from my editor about offbeat ideas. It reminded me that I needed more than drive and a story. I also need to have fun.

There's Chicken Soup for the Soul and I needed some Idea soup to feel better. The recipe for writers is simple.

1 Read something funny. 2 Stir in some research of something interesting, not necessarily for what's currently being written. 3. Add some REAL down time to daydream, to believe in the future 4 Read something terrible so you know you can do better than that 5 Cook up some friendships 5. Laugh at life 6. Sprinkle in chocolate or caffeine 7 Simmer until timer goes off (recommended between 1 hour to no more than 24) 8 WRITE, WRITE, WRITE until satisfied and filled with full pages 9 Repeat as necessary until the three lousy illnesses of writer's blahs and doubts and putting it off for something more "important" are cured.

Love the latest Nextel commercial. There's a group of firefighters sitting in Congress. "What about the budget?" The leader says. "Balance it.," they chant back.

"What about taxes?" "Lower them." Etc. etc. Then he, the leader, thumbs through a sheaf of papers.

He says, "There's a whole lot of paper here about clean water. You guys in favor of clean water?"

"Yes," they answer.

Then the captain fellow grins and says, "this is the easiest job ever. "

You think anybody involved with the bailout bill this past week (failed and then successful) watched that ad?

I remember how my dog, whose sole goal in life is to catch a squirrel, kept getting confused about where the squirrel went. She never looked up the tree. For almost two years.

And the squirrels, semi-suicidal, would sit still until she was almost upon them before gracefully bounding up the tree, laughing all the way. (These are the same squirrels that love to cross the street in front of my car to provide a thrill for all of us.)

My huntress finally looked up one day and realized she was not chasing the same squirrel over and over that had disappeared and magically taunted her by waiting for the chase again a few hundred feet away. She saw her error and learned to have vision.

Now when she chases squirrels, she actually climbs the tree. Daschunds that can hug you with their paws can also make it up the tree several feet before they realize it is not necessarily their calling. I think everyone should watch a determined dog climb a tree even if it needs help to get down.

The point is that my dog has even managed to get a piece of fur from a lazy squirrel's tail. And she is trying harder than ever.

So we might laugh at firefighters doing a senator's job or dogs climbing trees because these things are so absurdly out of place and ridiculous. But then you think, why not?

The firefighters; quick and simple answers, the dog's response to learning where squirrels hide--what does that have to do with writing?

Maybe these unrelated things are so funny because we need the unexpected twist. Maybe our characters need to do that thing that is incongruous to their purpose and skills.

Maybe the simplest answer is the best.
Cut to the chase. Climb beyond the expected.

Git 'er done like firefighters who are too busy for distractions and inaction.

Keep working to reach your goal like daschunds who are too driven for impossibilities and indecision.

Let me write like that. Short and sweet, determined and grasping. And let me thank firefighters and daschunds for lessons I needed to learn.