Everything's More Fun With Friends

I am a firm believer in the old adage "Everything is more fun with friends!" Especially writing.

In the last month, my friend Casey and I have had articles published on the MOPS website. How fun is that. Casey and I have been friends since 1998 when our husbands went to seminary together and we lived near one another in the "fertile valley" housing development. I kid you not. That is what it was called. You had to have four or more children to live in this section of campus housing:)

Casey's five children are roughly the same ages as my five oldest children. While at the seminary, we both homeschooled our children while our husbands went to school and worked full time. Talk about a bonding experience.

We have stayed in touch through the years with phone calls, e-mails and visits. Two years ago, when I embarked on my writing journey, I invited Casey to join me. She was already an accomplished writer having taught creative writing classes in the homeschool classroom for years, but was ready for a new challenge. She joined me at the Colorado Christian Writer's Conference in May of 2007 and we had a blast together.

We met up again at the 2008 CCWC with new goals and a clearer vision of what each wanted to accomplish. Accomplish we did. We made contacts, encouraged one another, and met writers, editors, and agents from around the country. It was great, but the best part about the writers conferences is seeing our hard work in print.

Casey sent in her article Toddler Welcome Wagon for the Military Moms segment of the MOPS website and recently had the article accepted and published on the MOPS website. What fun! She has also contributed to several books and started her blog Life Happens After Java. Casey is creative and loves her coffee.

My article Change Summer Ho-Hum to Summer Fun was also accepted and posted last week. I sent the article in in November thinking it would be well in advance of summer not even expecting to see it published before June, but here it is. The same principles that work for summer boredom can also be applied to the humdrum of winter with slight modifications on the outdoor activities.

We both contributed to Cup of Comfort Devotional for Mothers and Daughters which is now available.

I am looking forward to our annual trek to Colorado for the Writer's Conference once again. We are meeting up a bit early to spend a couple days sightseeing, catching up, and writing...not to mention, acclimating to the higher altitude.

Just another Thought From the Tub,

Lori

Quiz Answer for February

"Too often...we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."
--John F. Kennedy

How true is this statement! I find myself in this predicament more often than I would like, and hate it when I am challenged to think about a long held opinion only to find out that I was...gasp...wrong.

Another Thought from the Tub,
Lori

Movies and Character Development

In the Christian Writer's Guild Apprentice Course, What's My Story, I spent 18 months working through different types of writing: articles, press releases, devotions, newsletters, non-fiction, fiction, and screenplays. My passion is fiction, but I learned a lot from each of the exercises. I even discovered an enjoyment for writing articles.

However, the hardest segment for me personally was the screenplay segment. I'd never heard of how to write a screenplay. I had no desire to write a screenplay and even less to figure out how to do it for my lessons, but I persevered and worked on my assignments. My mentor warned me that learning the process of writing a screenplay would ruin movie viewing for me forever as I would pick a movie apart and try to figure out why the writer included a certain movement or background or what they should have done instead. I learned much from that segment and one of the areas I learned the most in was the character development over the three Acts.

In learning how to develop characters in three acts in one hundred pages, I better understand how to develop characters in fiction. One of my all time favorite movies is Secondhand Lions. I love this movie. The characters are real. I know someone like each character in the movie. But best of all, for me, is the development not only of the tale, but of the characters. Each main character moves from one place to another. They grow. They change. They draw me in so I want to grow and change, and they clearly illustrate the message of the movie.

In Act I, Garth and Hub are feeling old, tired, and useless. Garth not so much as Hub, but both feel they have outlived their time and are merely wiling away the hours until death comes knocking.

In Act I, Walter, a scared, cynical young man gets dumped on Garth and Hub without a word. He's quiet, jumpy, and unsure of the world.

In Act II, Garth and Hub still feel old, but they've taken a liking to the boy and are working on being useful. They spend their money on items sold by traveling salesmen, garden, and generally try to keep themselves busy.

In Act II, Walter moves from being a scaredy cat to working hard alongside his uncles and believing in the stories Garth tells him about their youth in the French Foriegn Legion. Walter's chracter grows the most, but it is fun to see how his character feeds off of the characters of his uncles.

In Act III, Garth and Hub realize how much they love the boy and want to buy him back from his mother. Hub has promised to stick around long enough to give Walter the "What Every Boy Needs to Know to be a Man Speech." He's found a purpose. He's no longer useless.

In Act III, Walter stands up to his mom. He confronts her on her lies and asks her to do what's best for Walter, let him stay with his uncles. Upon his return to his uncles, he tells them what for: they'll have responsibilities like the PTA, Little League, and they need to eat more vegetables.

The growth of the main characters is accentuated by the static-ness of the sub characters. Walter's mom is a liar and remains a liar throughout the movie. The other relatives are gold-diggers and remain such throughout the movie. And the traveling salesman are true to traveling salesmen everywhere throughout the course of the movie.

So if you are looking for a fresh way to study character development, pull out your favorite films and see how your friends on the silverscreen change from beginning to end. This does not work with every movie, but some of my favorites are Secondhand Lions, Juno, Unbreakable, The Patriot, Remember the Titans, and Steele Magnolias. While watching the movie ask yourself the following questions:

1) How does this character change?
2) What motivates change in this character--external or internal motivation?
3) Which character changes the most in the movie and why?
4) How do the supporting actors accentuate the change in the main character(s)?
5) How was the change expressed: verbally, physically, emotionally, or other?

So grab a great movie and learn.

Just another thought from the tub,

Lori