Class Flash ~ 1st Quarter Class Schedule From Laurie Schnebly Campbell!

online: HIS PERSONALITY LADDER

(Jan. 6-17, 2020)

heartsthroughhistory.com/workshops/his-personality-ladder/

    Track your hero’s arc through the seven core steps he’ll need to climb during his journey from a not-yet-heroic character to one who’s fully earned his victory by the end. Of course, the heroine has her OWN ladder to climb, often in parallel stages...until the finale, when they reach their ultimate triumph. (There’s even a ladder for the villain, although he seldom makes it to the top.)

online: PROMOTION FOR YOUR PERSONALITY

(Feb. 4-15, 2020)

sinc-guppies.org (Sisters In Crime membership required)

   There are so many ways for writers to promote their books, nobody should have to do something that feels uncomfortable for the kind of person they are. Looking at the five birth-order positions, three subtypes, and nine personality types shows which style best reflects you -- AND which kinds of promotion will come more naturally, so you won’t have to dread all the activity that comes with releasing a new title or building a brand.

online: PLOTTING VIA MOTIVATION

(March 2-27)

writeruniv.wordpress.com/classes

    Here’s what writers have said about the course in previous years: “I never thought I could plot my entire book from start to finish, but here it is. This is AWESOME.” / “This month has truly changed the way I think about writing. I wish I’d taken Plotting Via Motivation before giving up on my earlier novels.” / “Now that I look back in the notebook where I wrote all my homework, I realize I’ve got my book right here!”

online: FROM PLOT TO FINISH

(April 6-17)

writeruniv.wordpress.com/classes

    For anyone who’s taken Plotting Via Motivation online or in person at some point, this group gets you plotting a brand new or already-begun book (using your completed 14-point worksheet) from start to finish. No need to prepare a new story idea, character bios, goal charts or anything else, because you’ll see how to plot an entire book -- and actually have it ready to type -- by the end of this hands-on workshop.

Laurie's  Bio:
Laurie Schnebly Campbell published half a dozen romances with Harlequin, including one that beat out Nora Roberts for “Best Special Edition of the Year,” before discovering the only thing she loves more than writing is working with other writers. So she started giving workshops every month, online and in-person, and now has a special area on her bookshelf full of books with acknowledgments from authors who’ve loved her classes.

Mental Can Openers & Writer's Hash ~ The Writer's Gift

      Christmas, that time of year when we stop to consider what we cherish, and what we want to give.  I cherish words – words, and the stories they tell.  Stories were my refuge when I was young and hurting, so stories are what I want to give to others today.

      Words can communicate an idea.  But they can do more than that.  Words can stand up, grab a crowbar and lantern, then burst into someone’s darkened soul.  Words can make ideas sizzle like a branding iron, or words can draw out poison like carbolic salve on a wound. 

      Soft words can swaddle you in reassurance as tenderly as a mother wraps her wiggling nestling.  Action words can be harnessed like huskies, pulling the reader around each dark tree, over each new drift, and finally over the frozen water with an ominous snap.  Stories with ice-cracking plots, mercurial characters you love – or love to hate – quicksilver settings.  Wonderful.  But wonderful stories take crafting, and the artist’s skill.  Skill I did not start out with. 

      In the early 90's, I acquired rejections shoveling out stories like shoveling out a hen house.  Both products smelled the same.  A Christmas story that didn’t just fail, mind you; starving buzzards circled, descended, then left it untouched.  One manuscript regarding fishing sent maggots crawling away.  After a quick read, they took the coward’s way out, leaping into a bucket of Pinesol.  The EPA considered paying me not to write, to save clean-up super-funds. 

      After my writer’s soul had been scorched and kicked like an asbestos soccer ball in the satanic semi-finals, I came across a particular word I had initially ignored.  Crafting.  Sounding like some paint-pottery class, hope now sprang from this word.   How do those paid pros do it?

      Craft is a dance.  It looks effortless, but techniques and practice have gone ahead.  Words Box Step, rather than trip along.  Sentences that sashay, not wander.  Paragraphs waltz, describing marble-floor settings and characters cast chandelier-shadows, until the whole story magically picks you up like Cinderella arriving at the ball.  If the crafting is good, life’s ugly pumpkins suddenly transform into glorious carriages. 

      Craft is timing.  A story that pulls, choosing the magnetic word at that iron moment.  It doesn’t rush forward before the heart’s compass is ready; it doesn’t drag until the mind’s attraction fades.

      Craft is dialogue.  Not chat.  Not, “Good morning. How’s the dig coming?  Okay.  I broke my shovel.”  I want dialogue that forces the Sphinx to blink.  I want banter that reaches out and grabs your throat like a mummy.  “Tell me, Sullah.  Why would a righteous God allow his law to be buried in Egyptian sand?” 

      “He wishes to see who will seek the ark, Indy.  He notes who will dig.  But not with this broken shovel, my friend.”

      Craft is plotting. Events setting out on a wild sea hunt.  Turning points so sharp they harpoon the audience, drawing them into the chase.  Mystery that beckons like Ahab, bound to the pale prize itself. A climax that renders hearts to their essence, leaves mouths dry with Ahab’s thirst, and drives readers to pursue the elusive whale lurking below those crisp, white pages.

      But crafting, skill, and artistry alone can’t make this magic happen.  No matter how cleverly I weave words or stitch sentences together, I must rely on God’s Spirit to fashion the garment through me.  He must awaken the desire for the story.  It matters not how skillful the prophet’s parable if the people’s ears have become dull. 

      Authors, don’t leave your talent forgotten under your tree this year.  Give yourself the gift of crafting words.  There are excellent books, seminars, and classes full of advice and examples.  Topics abound, including how to hook plots, fashion characters, make a scene, time tension, and doctor dialogue. Challenging word exercises abound.  Make sure one (or more) of these grace your tree.  Feed your talent, so your talent can feed others for years to come. 
~ Brad

Screenwriter Robert Gosnell ~ Your Belated Easter Egg

Your Belated Easter Egg

I try to keep this blog confined to the subject of screenwriting, but today, I'm going to do something different. I'm going to promote someone who really doesn't need promoting.

The gentleman in question is Chuck Lorre, the writer, producer and creator of numerous situation comedies; my first love in the industry. If you aren't familiar with Mr. Lorre's name, you will certainly be aware of his track record. He is the creator of such shows as "Dharma and Gregg," "Two and a Half Men," "Mom" and "The Big Bang Theory," among a host of other credits. In the world of situation comedy, Mr. Lorre is a show-runners show-runner.

At the end of his currently airing shows "Mom" and "The Big Bang Theory," Mr. Lorre leaves us a gift, called a "vanity card." The object of a vanity card is much the same as that of a blog, in that it serves to express opinions, thoughts or observations about pretty much anything. In Mr. Lorre's case, it might be industry related, personal or political. It runs from a single line of text to several paragraphs. It is sometimes insightful, sometimes ironic but always humorous.

Before I go on, a word of warning. On the political front, Mr. Lorre leans left, so if you're conservative in your politics, you may be rankled by some of his statements. His first vanity card following the election of Donald Trump consisted of one word:

"Uh-oh."

He is never offensive or mean-spirited, but he is not afraid to tell you how he feels. That's what vanity cards are for.

Finding this little Easter egg can be a challenge. It arrives when the show is over. I mean over, after the last frame has faded from the screen, and you're expecting a commercial to pop up, which it will, almost instantly. Before it does, though, Mr. Lorre's vanity card "blips" on the screen for less than a second.

You can only access the vanity card if you have a DVR and can find just the right second to freeze the frame. If you manage, though, you'll likely be rewarded with a smile.

There is an index of past vanity cards, hundreds of them, on his production company website: http://www.chucklorre.com/index.php so this isn't really a big secret. Still, they don't advertise it, either, so I'm sure many people don't know about it. I consider it a rare gem and felt the need to pay it forward.

Enjoy. 

~Robert

"The Blue Collar Screenwriter and The Elements of Screenplay" is currently available at:
Amazon digital and paperback

CreateSpace 
Barnes & Noble
Smashwords

Find Robert at:
Website (with information on classes)
Email

BIO: 

A  professional screenwriter for more than thirty years,  Robert Gosnell has produced credits in feature films, network television, syndicated television, basic cable and pay cable, and is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West and the Writers Guild of Canada.

Robert began his career writing situation comedy as a staff writer for the ABC series Baby Makes Five.  As a freelance writer, he wrote episodes for Too Close for Comfort and the TBS comedies Safe at Home andRocky Road.  In cable, he has scripted numerous projects for the Disney Channel, including Just Perfect, a Disney Channel movie featuring  Jennie Garth. In 1998, he wrote the  Showtime original movie, Escape from Wildcat Canyon, which starred Dennis Weaver and won the national "Parents Choice Award." Robert's feature credits include the Chuck Norris/Louis Gosset Jr. film Firewalker, an uncredited rewrite on the motion picture Number One With A Bullet starring Robert Carradine and Billy Dee Williams, and the sale of his original screenplay Kick And Kick Back to Cannon Films. Robert was also selected as a judge for the 1990 Cable Ace awards, in the Comedy Special category.

In 1990, Robert left Hollywood for Denver, where he became active in the local independent film community. His screenplay Tiger Street was produced by the Pagoda Group of Denver and premiered on Showtime Extreme in August of 2003. In 1999, Denver’s Inferno Films produced the action film Dragon and the Hawk from his script. In 2001, Robert co-wrote the screenplay for the independent feature Siren for Las Vegas company Stage Left Productions. His feature script Juncture was produced by Front Range Films in March of 2006. 

Robert  is a principal member of the Denver production company "Conspiracy Films." He is frequently an invited speaker for local writers organizations,  served on the faculty of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference in 2002, and in 2007 was chosen to participate as a panelist for the Aspen Film Festival Short Screenplay Contest. Robert regularly presents his screenwriting class "The Elements of Screenplay," along with advanced classes and workshops, in the Denver area.