Month: April 2015

22
Apr
2015

Editorializing with the Fantastic

jurassic worldThe new trailer for Jurassic World came out this week, to what seems like mostly positive buzz. For myself — while the image of Star-Lord leading a raptor pack on a motorcycle makes me as giddy as the next geek — I have to admit I had been wondering, Why now? The first Jurassic Park movie came out 22 years ago. The current members of the #1 movie-going demographic either weren’t born yet or were still in diapers. The two JP sequels were flat, ridiculous monster movies, uninspired and uninspiring. Why return to a well that seems so thoroughly dry?

After watching the latest trailer, though, I think that Jurassic World has ambitions to be more than another mindless summer monster mash. Rather, I think they’re aiming for one of speculative fiction’s most important and valuable cultural functions. I’ll explain more about what I mean after the jump.

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Posted by chriswlester in Culture
16
Apr
2015

Building Character: Who’s Driving This Thing?

This is the second in a periodic series about characterization in writing. Please check out my first post in the series, which looks at a character’s role in the Story Mind as expressed in the Dramatica Theory of storytelling.

A story begins when something changes the status quo.

Luke Skywalker doesn’t start becoming a hero until two droids crash on his planet. John McClane doesn’t become a terrorist-fighting cowboy cop until Hans Gruber takes hostages in an office building. Hamlet doesn’t start on his murder investigation/rampage of revenge until he gets a mysterious visit from a restless ghost. Even a feel-good romantic comedy like Sleepless in Seattle needs a trigger to set things in motion — in this case, Sam Baldwin’s son Jonah calling a late-night radio talk show.

People don’t spontaneously change their lives for no reason; an external trigger of some kind has to change the balance and push the protagonist into becoming a protagonist. Joseph Campbell called this “The Call to Adventure,” and it’s always something outside the protagonist’s control.

What really sets characters apart from one another is what they do next.

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Posted by chriswlester in Writing
06
Apr
2015

Landscape Journals: What’s in YOUR Noggin?

For the last few months I’ve been participating with my partner Melanie in the Montana Artrepreneur Program (MAP), a business course for artists who want to make money doing what they love. I’m attending the workshops both as Mel’s business partner in her photography career and in the hope of learning things that I can apply to my own business as a writer. There are a number of business tools that must be completed in order to finish the course, and one of these that I think is particularly valuable for writers is the Landscape Journal.

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Posted by chriswlester in Writing