Story telling/literary pet peeves.

I have a degree in English, emphasis in creative writing with a minor in theatre.
So basically I have spent a lot of time and money one being able to see a movie, read a book, see a play and point out what they should have done differently.

Now I don't believe if you follow the rules you will end up with a perfect story. That's rediculous. And your loyality, as an artist, is to your piece,  not to your critics.
But here are somethings that I feel are very important for artists to take note of.

1. "In the beginning" (Janelle, if you or any Children of Eden veterans are reading this then you are welcome for the song now pulling you into a post-traumatic stress disorder flash back.)


Writer's, especially beginning writers, begin too early. You need to know what you write. But your reader doesn't need to know all that.

Expostition should be as short as possible.
Who are we with?
Where are we?

Answer those questions and move on to the plot.

2. Deus ex Machina -- Don't do it.
For those of you who had a life in college beyond classic Greek texts this means when a god-like figure arrives at the last minute and saves everything.
Biggest let down for audience or readers who wanted to see how your protagonist was going to triumph against all odds. Now all they get to see is a plot interrupted.

3. CONFLICT

I cannot emphasize this enough.

Now, just in case you are confused. Conflict is not a battle. It is not agent X stopping the bomb with minutes to spare. It is not even your name being drawn in a death lottery.

These things are "external conflict". It does have its place. That is where most the plot comes from.

However, external conflict is never, never, enough on its own. It needs its friend Internal conflict. Faulkner wrote that the only thing worth writing about was "the human heart in conflict with itself".

 For example in the King Arthur legend Guinevere loves Lancelot. Lancelot loves Gueneiver. But she is married to King Arthur. Who is a good king and a good husband. Gueniever refuses to leave him. She loves him. Lancelot hates himself for his love of Gueienver because Arthur is a beacon of all that is good to him. Arthur knows what they are doing behind his back. But he refuses to do anything about it because he thinks that if he admits he knows the truth they will both leave him. They are his family. So one does anything until the enemies of Camelot take advantage and Arthur is faced with a choice-- watch his wife be burned alive or allow the kingdom of justice he has fought for crumble.
See that is conflict!! Impossible made worse by relationships.
Beautiful. That is why the King Arthur legend has lasted so long.
Unfortunately is is a tragedy so in this particular case the situation really is impossible. They all die and the kingdom is destroyed anyway. Sorry if I just gave something away. 

The Irish

Guys the Irish are so nice.

When I first got here my host mom was like "People here are the nicest in the world."
Being my cynical self I was like "Okay." But thinking. Well, you would of course think that. It is just what you are going to think. 


But it is true. It is completely true.

I have lived a lot of places. But the Irish are just so naturally nice.

Like this weekend I was freezing because the heating was off in my acting studio and I already had a cold.
Then this classmate of mine went down to restaurant (we use a room upstairs) to ask them if they would please turn the heating on for us. They weren't able to please turn up the heating. They couldn't because the manager with the keys had left for Mass. "Welcome to Ireland." As my friend said. But then instead of just running back upstairs she bought herself a tea and me a hot chocolate. This is a great girl, but we are little more than aquaintances. But she still bought me a warm drink just because.

Not only that she bought me a warm beverage that wasn't tea or coffee. Possibly the only thing that the Irish and the English agree on is the necessity of tea.

The thing with this film class is the commute. I am sure I have ranted about this before. But, anyway here we go again. To get to this class I have to leave Friday night, 3 hours on a bus. Then stay at a hostel. They know me by name now. Then Saturday I go to class  and then another 3 hours on a bus.

Upon hearing this two people-- neither of whom had known me more than the morning-- offered that I could stay with them. Like it was the most natural thing in the world to offer a spare room to a stranger. Which, at least in America, it isn't. One even said. "I've only just met you but you don't seem like an axe murderer or a thief of any kind. So here is my card. We women have to look out for each other."

Then there are the people at the hostel I stay at weekely (despite the nice invitations my American sense of privacy can't just let me invade someone's home unless we are blood relatives or have known each other long enough we might as well be.)

They let me skip the line to check in or check out.
They give me travel tips.
They are my friends.

Then sometimes when I am walking with my kids ( the kids that I mind)  and waiting to cross a road someone in oncoming traffic will stop, thus stopping all traffic, just to let us pass.

Today this happened. And while I was walking with the little girl across the road she starts screaming. I knew she had dropped her glove. So I told her we would just wait until the cars went by  and we'd go back and get it.

Then the nice guy who had stopped traffic for us pulled over. Got out of his car, picked up her glove and crossed the road to give it to us.

It was so nice.

And these are (relative) strangers. Not the awesome people in my ward or my awesome family. These are just people on the street. Bottom line. The Irish are awesome.