Anyone Can Write

Copyright © 2004 by Barbara Rose Brooker.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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Contents

PROLOGUE

THE BESTSELLER CLUB

KEEP THE TITLE SHORT. LET IT SELL!

FINDING MEMORIES

WRITING MY FIRST NOVEL

PREMISE

THEME

VOICE

LOOKING FOR STORIES

FINDING MY MUSE

CONFLICT

JOURNAL WRITING

TIMELINE

POINT OF VIEW

FINISHING MY FIRST NOVEL

REVISIONS

HOW TO SABOTAGE A GOOD BOOK

SETTING

LOGLINE

TV GUIDE BLURB

PEARLS

WATERCOLORS

REFLECTIONS

RECAP

STORY STRUCTURE

STORY LINE

SETUP

SCENE

IMAGERY

DREAMS

MY MEETING WITH A FILM AGENT

STORY

MORE AEROBICS

PLOT

INNER PLOT AND OUTER PLOT

BACKSTORY

BACKSTORY WOUND

INCITING INCIDENT

FLASHBACKS

WRITING PROCESS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STORYBOARD

OUTLINE

BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS

NARRATOR

NARRATOR’S VOICE

NARRATIVE

DIVING INTO THE SOUL AND STAYING THERE

RECAPPING STRUCTURE

CHARACTER AND CHARACTERIZATION

CHARACTERIZATION QUESTIONNAIRE

DIALOGUE

CHARACTER AND DIALOGUE

STORY BOX UPDATE

CHECKLIST

STORY DEVELOPMENT

STYLE

SECOND NOVEL

A WRITER’S MUSINGS

SUMMARY

PRE-PUBLICATION AND POST-PUBLICATION

PUBLISHING ON THE INTERNET

THE QUERY LETTER

FINDING AN AGENT

THE STEP OUTLINE

ON WRITING THE TREATMENT

SOLD!

CONTRACT

WORKING WITH AN EDITOR

SELF-PUBLISHING

REFLECTIONS

POSTPARTUM

UPDATE

EVERYONE’LL BE THERE

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

REVIEWS

Acknowledgments

I dedicate this book to my muse; spirits who grace my life; all of my students; Marci Mandersheid, who gave me my first teaching job at San Francisco State University; Mira Pasikov; Barry Miller; David Weiner; Elayne Epstein; Bradley Bessey; Aries Acarmona; Ava Greenfield; WMA; special thanks to David Featherstone an excellent editor and friend and my soul mates and daughters, Suzy Unger and Bonny Polse, my niece, Keran Davison and Daniel Falatko for his help. Janet, Paul Sipos, my brothers, Robbie and Richard Rose, Susan Savage and Dr. Barbara Khurano, and to all my writers and my muse.

God did not single out Mozart, Einstein, or Tolstoy. Creativity is in all of us in different ways.

* * *

Music.

Go under the sea.

PROLOGUE

I have a dream.

I’m at the Academy Awards and my name is called for best screenplay. I stand, kiss my daughters, and rush up the aisle, careful not to trip on my diamond stud stiletto heels. I accept the Oscar and hold it close to my heart. I’m wearing a black long dress with no back and long sleeves and a white rose in the side of my shoulder length hair. The applause is deafening.

I haven’t won the Oscar but I’ve published several books and still have my dream. You have to keep your dream alive. I didn’t get a book published until I was almost fifty. If I can write and publish a book, anyone can. I was supposed to be a Jewish princess married to a rich man, and to dabble in the arts. Anyone Can Write is not about how to write or what metaphor you should use, it’s about identifying your personal voice.

In my years of teaching creative writing to adults, I hear the same fears: I have a story, but I need a ghostwriter. I don’t know how. The market is flooded. I don’t have the time. There’s no money in it. All fallacies. There are no rules in art. When you’re true to yourself, you’re true to your creativity. There are no obstacles in art. Creativity asks new questions. It is perpetual discovery. During my years, teaching creative writing, I kept notes on dreams, snippets from my life.

Are you sitting in your secret place? I always sit in a corner, in a chair with the shades pulled. Or are you at Starbucks and writing by hand? Or on a bus? I recommend a binder with fresh sheets of paper.

In Anyone Can Write: A step-by-step guide for new writers, I share anecdotes about my struggle to find a personal voice, and my experiences as an author with agents and publishers. I will help you develop a personal voice, find your voice, premise, theme, logline, inciting incident, and develop your story into a beginning, middle, and an end.

By the end of this book, you will have a binder with a title and cover, a table of contents, a logline, a TV Guide blurb, a story line, a three-act synopsis, an outline, and a step outline, all of which can be integrated into a screenplay. You will have the beginnings of a full draft. Your book will be ready to start.

Open your workbook. I have to have the music on. Some writers like complete silence. Take a few deep breaths. Relax. All you have to do is to believe in yourself. Begin.

PART A

Process:

Start Your Book, Find Your Story, Find Your Voice

THE BESTSELLER CLUB

That’s what fascinates me … to make something I can never be sure of, and no one else can either.

—Willem de Kooning

I am on the ferry to Larkspur Landing in Marin to teach a creative writing class at Book Passage, an upscale Marin bookstore. Sunlight lights the San Francisco Bay like a candle. I love working with adults, and guiding their concepts to drafts and some to publication.

It is a hot day and even on the San Francisco Bay there is hardly a breeze. I open the bottled water and drink it fast. My long hair straggles into a ponytail and sticks to my head. As I gaze at Alcatraz floating in the middle of the Bay and at the beauty of the Golden Gate Bridge, I think about the novel I am trying to finish. Most of the time I’m obsessing and distracted, plotting new plots, and feeling like an imposter.

I open my notebook and write exercises about ways to get inside your deepest emotions. I highlight the writing aerobics and decide which ones to use for my class. Next, I study my eight-week course agenda.

The ferry docks at Larkspur Landing. A whistle solemnly blows and I get off the boat. I follow the passengers along a wood bridge, to the landing. The air is so hot I can hardly breathe and my backpack sticks to my arm. A shuttle bus drives me to Corte Madera. Slightly dizzy from the heat, I hurry to the classroom. The sun is still bright and the sky is streaked with orange lines.

In the back of the bookstore is a large classroom and the store manager has placed a pitcher of cold ice water, glasses, and my enrollment list. I arrange my handouts along the table, making sure that the piles are separated and neat. No matter how many times I plan my classes, each time I teach a new class it starts and ends differently. That’s the beauty of the creative process; there are no rules, only constant discovery.

Soon, thirteen students trickle into the room. They look nice. Men and women of different ages, mostly from 30 to 70 plus, a few in their 20s, sit around a long u-shape wood table. After we introduce ourselves I hand out the Aerobics and the course syllabus.

There are no rules. Anyone who wants to, can write, I emphasize. I ask each person what they want to write about. Concept is the premise, I explain. There is immediate excitement. The air is electrified. Each student recites what he or she wants to write about. Some tell too long a story. We work at trying to compress their story idea into a concise premise. That way you will know the roots of your book project, I say.

An older woman with a worn, handsome face and long silver hair, stands. She breaks into tears. In a tentative voice she wants the class to know that she had watched her father and then her husband kill themselves. Her premise is, she explains, Can a daughter who witnessed her parents kill her father and husband kill themselves, avoid suicide? Can the legacy of suicide be broken? Everyone applauds. Some hug her. Next, Kelly, an attractive 35 year old CEO is writing a novel about her parents who died from Alzheimer’s. A young girl about 22, with vibrant red hair, is writing about her country Ireland and its famine in the 19th Century. Another woman in her twenties is writing about her life as a jockey. A tall, handsome 40-year-old man, who teaches Criminology at Stanford, is writing about a serial killer, based on a real case.

I lecture for an hour about structure. Some students take notes, others have tape recorders. A woman eats corn chips and types on her lap top computer.

After a ten-minute break, we begin writing five-minute Aerobics on premise and title. Each student recites what their project title is and I see books developing. I already love this class. I don’t teach the traditional workshop way and I make arrangements to read their manuscripts and to be available for office hours. Three people a week will read. No long, useless critiques, I say.

Eleven weeks later, every single person in the class has a title, premise, table of contents, outline, and several chapters. Mostly, they have passion and are on their creative journey. Several want to continue. At my studio we form a Bestseller Club.

On Sundays, we work. Eight weeks pass. Several drafts are finished. We have a party. The Alzheimer project is sold.

"So who’s to say who can write and who can’t? It’s not possible that anyone can write, says an erudite colleague. It’s a gimmick," she argues. I argue that anyone who wants to can write and develop a book. Writing is about passion and discipline.

You are your life’s collaborator.

KEEP THE TITLE SHORT. LET IT SELL!

To copy the objects in a still life is nothing; one must render the emotion they awaken in him.

—Matisse

The title of your book reflects what your book is about. A good title sells a book. It’s important to have working titles as the title reflects your themes and premise. I always have my students begin by composing a title, not that it’s set in stone, but it’s a good way to make the book real. Name the baby. Make it real. Begin with a title.

A title can be inspired by a single image, a piece of a dream, or anything that reflects your themes. It is important to name your work before you write it. Naming your project is acknowledging your central idea. You are the author of your concept. You are beginning your journey.

The title contains your premise and the central idea that made you passionate about writing your book. Think about what central idea inspired you to write your book project, what impassions you.

Writing Aerobic: Find Your Title

On this page, select one or several of your working titles of your book and design your book jacket.

Remember these titles? Absalom, Absalom; Madame Bovary; The Great Gatsby; The Crying Game; The Godfather. Think about your favorite titles and how they reflect their themes.

Write several working titles. Pretend that your book is in a bookstore and you are looking at the title. Behind the title lays the premise.

Sample Book Cover

Have fun with this! Get creative. Do the unexpected. Design your cover.

FINDING MEMORIES

Keep a small notebook in your pocket and, when you can, jot down memories that slide into your mind. This swirl of memories can lead to a great title or scene or push story development. Like collecting seashells from a beach, collect memories, insights, themes, and pieces of dreams. And place them in a notebook or file on your computer. I keep a file of memories and often integrate them into scenes or into my character’s thoughts and miniflashbacks. They come in handy. They’re like blueprints to your inner life.

A good way to find premise and title is to write a list of memories. Inside the multitude of memories that float in our conscious every day is our theme. once you identify theme, then premise, you will find your story. The memories can be tiny snippets of things—childhood memories, thoughts, a sudden image, and like scraps of material that a seamstress will sew into a whole dress, they will integrate into your books.

Writing Aerobic (Using Images to Create a