#WW Writer Wednesday, Choosing the Right Format

I recently became interested in writing screenplays. I had an idea for a 'noir' novel and then read that Meryl Streep was calling for more screenplays, not just for women, but for older women. I thought my 'noir' was perfect for an older actress (two, actually). So I took a screen writing course and set myself to learning all I could about the process. While writing the screenplay, my 'noir' became a romantic comedy (par for the course for story-telling in any form!)  I've fallen in love with screen writing; it feels liberating and yet requires a concision even more than short stories do. For me, the constraints of the format actually free my imagination.

My foray into screen writing has made me consider, though, just what form is best for the kind of story you want to tell. Making movies is expensive and a lot of work. Your story might be wonderful but is it suited to the screen? Is it visual? Does the tone translate to the screen? The audience can't see into the character's heads, you can only show who they are. Maybe your character would be best written in first-person narrative in a novel. Moreover, perhaps it isn't a novel, with all that entails: a plot and characters that carry it for the length required. It may be best suited to the precision of a short story. A poem? Flash fiction?

Although I finished my screenplay, and am happy with the result, I'm still working on writing the story as a 'noir' in novel form. Same characters, similar plot, but as a 'noir' it has a very different tone and, as a novel, a different set of problems to work out. My point being there are a variety of ways and forms to tell a story and it's worth thinking about before you start.

©2015 Selaine Henriksen

NOT Selaine!

Selaine Henriksen has supported her writing habit by working many different jobs over the years from bookstore clerk to Research Technologist. Currently a Fitness Instructor and mom to two editors-in training, she lives in Ottawa, Ontario where she is a member of Capital Crime Writers. She blogs at
http://miss-selaine-ious.jesande.com reflecting an eclectic taste in reading, as well as writing, although
she is a firm believer that at the heart of every good story is a mystery. Selaine also has two self-published books at http://www.amazon.com/Selaine-Henriksen/e/B00RLWGB6C# and http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/Bainer.

Thanks, Selaine, for a great piece on trying out new formats!  

READERS: We hope you enjoyed this week's edition of our #WW Writer Wednesday Series and that we'll see you again next week when our guest is Tom Irish with a new short story. Until then, "Butt in chair, WRITE!

~ The Black Cat

Buddhapuss Ink LLC is proud to be a small, but solid house, known for great fiction and nonfiction books, that are written for readers with brains, by authors who have more than just one book in them.

80-Foot Tower Built from 30,000 Books

Recycling books has never been so monumentally beautiful — and ultimately lasting — as when 30,000 volumes were assembled to create the “Tower of Babel.”

mage: Estrella Herrera/Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires
An 82-foot-tall tower made out of thousands of books — 30,000 such “bricks” to be precise? We can see book lovers’ eyes light up with glee in view of all the reading material, only to be extinguished by the thought of such a waste. But bookworms and environmentalists can relax and rejoice! Not a single volume was harmed in the process of building this massive structure. On the contrary…

The “Tower of Babel,” as it is officially called, was the brainchild of acclaimed Argentinean artist Marta Minujín. Minujín devised the tower in celebration of Buenos Aires being chosen as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) 2011 World Book Capital. The used raw materials were donated by libraries and readers eager to help, as well as more than 50 embassies.

The 30,000 books, in dozens of languages, were draped over a seven-story metal scaffold structure, which stood from May 7 to May 28, 2011. For nearly a month, this “Babel of Books” was a place where many languages flowed together, allowing visitors from even the remotest locations on Earth to find a book in their language.

This visual experience was supported by an audio installation of Minujín’s music along with the artist saying the word “book” in dozens of languages. A full literary immersion, so to speak.

Image: Ayngelina Brogan

Just laying out the books like tiles on the walls of the tower took 10 full days, but the effort was well worth it. Minujín explains: “Building this tower has been a miraculous experience… A hundred years from now, people will say, ‘There was a Tower of Babel in Argentina… and it didn’t need translation because art needs no translation.’” A wonderful thought, indeed, and it got even better.

Image: Marcus

At the end of the installation, some lucky visitors were allowed to take home a book each. And to make up for the fact that those who came to see the tower could not actually browse through the books (they had been wrapped in plastic to protect them from the elements), the rest will form the basis for a new book archive called the “Library of Babel.” Book lovers will know this to be the title of a popular short story by Jorge Luis Borges, one of Argentina’s most famous authors.

In our age of eBooks and eReaders — in which the number of brick-and-mortar bookstores keeps dwindling, making way for online enterprises — it is a joy to see an installation that celebrates books in their physical form and builds them into a monument, even if only temporary. Taking second-hand books that have been read and rifled through is the icing on the cake, confirmation that books need to be shared to be fully appreciated, and a reminder that recycling can take many forms.

The new library and archive will be another long-term haven for book lovers, uniting many languages and books under one roof. We’ll try to keep you updated when it ultimately open its doors.

Image: Marcus

Minujín is one of Argentina’s most famous artists. She studied art at the National University Art Institute in Buenos Aires and started exhibiting her work in 1959. In the early ’60s, a scholarship brought her to Paris, where she got the inspiration for her “happenings” — art installations as events that involve the community. Among the most memorable of these happenings were her assembled mattresses — “livable” artworks that were later destroyed by fellow artists as part of the installation.

After a decade in New York, where she rubbed shoulders with Andy Warhol and other contemporaries, Minujín returned to Argentina in 1976. Celebrating the country’s return to democracy in 1983, she created her first book structure, the “Parthenon of Books.” It too was made up of of 30,000 titles (in this case banned books) to celebrate the newly gained freedom of expression. More fascinating projects and happenings can be found on Marta Minujín’s website.
Additional sources: 1, 2

About the author

Simone is a writer and editor at Environmental Graffiti, an innovative green site currently looking for writers! Imagine having your work seen by up to 10 million people every month, writing for one of the Internet’s most trafficked environmental websites and getting paid for it. Whether it is extreme sports, conservation, art or freaky nature that floats your boat, Environmental Graffiti gives you a platform and a voice to share your knowledge, and meet people like you. You control the news, the news does not control you...…

Learn more about Simone Preuss

New Book Stats Describe the Flat Trade In New Ways--Including $838 Million in 2010 eBooks

After a couple years of no industry-wide statistics and many years before that of poor, illusory numbers, the publishing industry is back on the road to measuring itself with the new BookStats, prepared jointly by the AAP and BISG, released in highlight form to trade media on Tuesday.
All of the new numbers as you will read about them are modeled estimates rather than actual data--but they draw on data supplied by just under 2,000 publishers, and the methodology for extrapolating the estimates was far more careful and rational than the process used by the BISG alone for its annual Book Trends numbers, and has introduced fewer errors of gross exaggeration-by-multiplication. (More on this later....) Book Trends was abandoned after publishing data for 2008, and the BISG did not compile any statistics for 2009. The AAP has published annual estimates though they were considered less complete. So the new data effort covers 2010 but also compiles industry numbers for 2009 and 2008 using the same new method.
In the headline numbers, BookStats estimates trade publishers' 2010 sales at $12.59 billion. That's a slight decline from $12.71 billion in 2009, when sales were 7.4 percent higher than the year before, which registered $11.83 billion in 2008.
(Here's our first point of divergence with some other accounts: we calculate trade sales as adult fiction, adult nonfiction and juvenile sales. BookStats has put the "religion" breakout inside trade in their general press release. There is some overlap, but with $1.35 billion in wholesale sales, we're more comfortable leaving "religion" outside of the trade basket.
(Here's our second point of divergence: the official BookStats press release celebrates all of the increases in publishing, some of which can only be derived by looking at changes over a two-year period, instead of the traditional year-over-year view. And 2008 was when the economy plunged in the final quarter, so it may make for a skewed baseline, particularly on a two-year comparison. We are breaking out percentage changes on year-by-year comps, and our focus is on changes in the past year.)
*From Publisher's Lunch

SAVE YOUR LOCAL BOOKHOP DAY, June 25th!

We received this note and  now we are passing it along to all of you because we care, and we hope you do too!

"Hi everyone,

I’ve gotten sick of reading the bookstore obituaries in the publishing news, so I’m starting a viral campaign to get people, on one day, to go buy books from their local bookstore. Might not end up changing the tides, but it’s something small I can do and I’m getting a good response so far. Here are the details for you to pass on to your friends/family/fellow booklovers:

Who: You and all the book-lovers in your life
When: June 25th, the first Saturday of Summer!
Where: Your local bookstore
Why: Because bookstores are dropping like flies and we want them to stay alive

Thanks for passing this along to whomever you think would want to get on board.

Warmest,
Kelly

Kelly Sonnack
Andrea Brown Literary Agency


Prefer to read on your *!*%$ (I left out a blank, blank word from Bailey) Walmazart Kindle? Then buy a book for a book-lover you know!

Mark your calendars! DO IT!"

You heard the lady - Just DO IT!