Matt Lichtenwalner

Mobile mapper for Ushr - roaming the US and Canada constantly. Maybe a bit of art and/or writing here and there to spice things up.

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A long time ago, Mark and I had a discussion about movie creation methods, and he said something that I've been thinking a lot about recently as I start to put this book together.
The basic idea was this: There are films that are written, like Gone with the Wind. They're lovingly crafted because there is a story that is crying to be told. Then there are movies that are engineered. Think of any Steven Seagal movie ever. There's a formula to be followed and at the end of the line, you have a "movie" (or in my case, a book) that should be some level of popular based on prior data.
Of course I want my book to be more Gone with the Wind and less Steven Seagal. The problem is that my personal tastes and (I think) writing skill are far more Seagal.
Hell, even as I'm starting to put the book together, the skilled writers among you may have already noticed that there's a sort of assembly happening. Here's the setting points I want to get across. Here's the character development points. Here's what I don't want the book to be.
Not one mention yet of the story's plot. No thought yet to the timeline. Well, not enough thought to put it down on paper anyway.
It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if this turned out a little more engineered than written, but I suspect a good deal of how well I will feel I did will be wrapped up in how far away from the engineered end of the spectrum I manage to get.

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3/7 '16 5 Comments
Have you written a book before? If not, use ALL the crutches you can reach. Don't let perfection be the enemy of the good. There is such a thing as a second novel after all.
Oh, and I've never _finished_ writing a book before. Started a bunch over the years.
I like what Shelle says she's going to do: write write write. Finish a draft. No matter what. THEN edit.
Me 3. I've signed up for Writechain as well now. It kinda reminds me of the mindset for NaNo, but with the focus shifted to longevity. Seems like good stuff. I guess the proof will be in the pudding. :)
Absolutely agree. Still, I have done so much reading (especially over the last 3 years) that I don't want to make all of the _obvious_ amateur mistakes.

Going to be tricky doing the one while avoiding the other, but there's only one way to find out if I can...