Lighting Up Stories
I’ve always loved Charlie Brooker, I was an addict of his show Charlie Brooker Screenwipe – originally on the BBC and then moved to Channel 4: it was sharp, funny, satirical and analytical: everything I love. Black Mirror has made its mark in the TV …
“The question is not whether or not we are capable of making AI more intelligent than us. The question is, will we be able to live with it?” – Dr. Robert Ford, Westworld (2016). This line from the thought-provoking TV series Westworld perfectly captures the …
Like cooking, writing needs essential ingredients. And like cooking, the better your ingredients are, the better is the end result.
So what are those ingredients?
The concept is the core idea of your story. It’s the HOOK.
The concept of your project is what sets it apart and grabs people’s attention when you send out your manuscript or screenplay, making them curious and eager to read it.
The concept answers the question: What is the story about? (in a broad sense).
To create a great concept, you need to start with the very famous What if question. If you can’t put your idea into a what if question, you’ve got a problem.
What if AI wants to rule our world? (Westworld) What if you die and end up in heaven instead of hell where you belong? (The Good Place). What if a great number of people disappear randomly on the same day at the same time? (The Leftovers).
If it’s a good concept, it should present a conflict to come, and we want to know more about it. It creates a sense of excitment. I strongly recommend to start with your concept before writing your story.
The theme is the underlying message of your story.
It could be your opinion as an author. Opinion doesn’t mean that you have to teach your readers a lesson. Writers are not there to do a lecture. It’s more about your UNDERSTANDING of the topic you decided to talk about.
The deeper meaning (or theme) is not always obvious, but it’s always there. It answers this question: What is your story saying? Or Why does it matter?
If done well, everything in your story should reflect your theme: the characters, the settings, the plot itself… The theme is like a diamond, it has different reflections.
A theme explores a universal human experience, what it means to be a human being (love, loss, loneliness, fear, poverty etc…).
For instance, the themes of the TV series Dead To Me (excellent TV series by the way) are Loss, Love and Friendship. And the screenwriter Liz Feldman explores many angles of those themes. Watch it and you’ll see what I mean.
The plot, however, answers this question: what happens in the story?
It’s more about the actions and events that occur in the story and move it forward. That includes all the problems, conflicts, obstacles, and resolutions that shape the journey of your characters.
The plot is difficult to craft, because it should be believable but not predictable.
The key is to follow your characters AND to ask yourself: ‘Is this scene a bit cliché?’. If the answer is ‘yes’ then go against it.
The last ingredient is the reason why people care about your story: the characters, because they identify with them.
The concept, the theme and the plot will attract them to your story, and the characters will make them stay until the end. It’s probably the only thing they will remember years after reading your story.
So take care of your characters, get to know them, live with them, hear them speak and make sure they are unforgettable.
There is no good story without those four elements.
The concept grabs attention–It’s the big idea and should be exciting.
The plot answers the concept in actions done by your characters, and the more those actions are unpredictable, the better your story is.
The theme gives the story an emotional and intellectual depth. It makes people think about it way after they saw your script or your book.
And the characters embody everything mentioned above.
Well…I don’t’ know about you, but now that I’ve talked about cooking, I’m feeling quite peckish… for writing!
Happy writing x
Hey, let me tell you a secret: I’m never in the mood for writing. I think about writing all day and night. But, when it’s time to sit in that chair and work… I do something else. Oh, but I have many good excuses. You …
In life, there is never a time when you say: I’ve arrived! I’ve always thought that we were all part of a big game. The first time I shared this thought to one of my classes, I had a complete silence and shocked eyes in …
Photo by StockSnap @ Pixabay
Two years ago, I wrote a post called ‘Healing with Journaling’. I was a bit naive to claim that we could heal from traumas. What I should have said instead is that writing is a therapy.
So, if writing doesn’t heal traumas, it makes them more apparent. Instead of sliding them under the carpet, we acknowledge our pain, which is the first step to feel better.
Writing is therapeutic.
Our society is contaminated by anxiety.
A lot of people live in fear to be judged, abandoned or rejected. As a result, life can become unbearable.
The source of anxiety is different for everyone:
If not analyzed and expressed, this anxiety will find a way to be released often in an unhealthy way:
Often overlooked, writing is a powerful way to get some emotional release. It’s been proven for reducing stress and physical pain, improves memory and immune system and it also reduces anxiety, which is my point.
By writing down our pain, we honor our authentic self. We can sit down with our sadness or have a conversation with our demons. What if your back pain wants to tell you something? What if we ask our addiction what void it’s trying to fill?
When the emotions come out, our clarity creates room for the change we desperately need.
While fighting cancer for five years, my goddess friend was raising her young children, as well as building a successful business and writing bestselling books. She has my deepest respect.
When she suggested starting a gratitude journal, I was uncomfortable with the idea. She told me that her first times, she was writing things such as: ‘I’m grateful that this day is finally over’. Gradually, she became more open to the beautiful things in her life; it helped her to go through hard times and to fight cancer.
So I tried it myself and I haven’t stopped since.
Gratitude helps to focus on what really matters. It also increases the level of satisfaction with life. It shifts negative moods into positive ones and gets rid of the dark cloud that lingers around our head.
So I invite you to try it too. Write about one thing you feel grateful for today. Try it for a week and see the difference.
Writing is a way to express ourselves and it’s a therapy. It’s not the only one though.
Overcoming our anxieties demands a combination of therapies.
I personally have my own combination, which is my family, my friends, my daily yoga and writing. I’m not past the grief and pain I’m going through but I know that the Universe sends me this combination to continue breathing.
Life itself is pure creativity and we are part of it. Not being creative is against our very nature. Who cares if it doesn’t come out perfectly? The aim is not to suffer while writing as pictured often in the media (the writer who cannot write a line). The writer’s block is nothing less than the fear of being wrong and being judged by others.
Creative writing allows us to connect with our inner self, to fill our potential, to explore our own mystery. Knowing ourselves is a powerful tool which has been discussed since the antiquity as if it was the key that opens many doors…
Take good care of yourself my friend x
If you like this subject, I’d suggest to read ‘Writing as a Way of Healing’ by Louise Desalvo
Photo by Jan Vasek @ Pixabay ‘I have an idea for a film, a book, a play’… ‘Great! When do you start writing your first draft?’ Silence… Usually followed by: ‘Ah, it’s a complex story, I need to do more research’ or ‘Yes when I …
Photo by Jess Bailey @ Pixabay Why would you spend time on a business plan? Probably because it’s the first step to take your artistic career seriously. ‘A goal without a plan is just a wish’ Antoine de St Exupéry If you’re driving, unsure of …
I have never liked January and its New Year resolutions time. I don’t see the point. Each year is what you DAILY make it… for 365 days.
Many times, I saw people making plans and giving them up after a few weeks…
‘Man makes plans… and God laughs’ wrote the Author and Screenwriter Michael Chabon.
Why do we expect so much from ourselves?
Is it to justify our presence on Earth?
I often find answers in Nature.
I love observing Nature around me, trees especially. In shamanism, they are called ‘The Plant people and the Standing People’.
Trees grow tall and strong knowing their purpose. They don’t ask themselves ‘What should I do with my life?’
They just are. They exist and make the world better (by providing oxygen for instance).
Us, the human kind, we have a brain and a heart. With these gifts, we should know what to do. Yet, we probably are the only species on Earth wondering what our purpose is.
Life is chaos.
I know what I’m talking about. Within two years, I lost my home, my beloved country, some close friends, my dignity, and my husband. None of these events were planned or thought. None of these things were part of my ‘plan’. They just happened to me.
Yes, life is chaos and any form of co-creation (coming from the heart) is a way to express or explain this chaos.
When you lose it all, you see everything clearly.
First you see who are ‘your allies’, to quote my dear friend and mentor Lucy V. Hay (Bang2Write). The allies are the ones who pick you up when you fall but also help you to fight back. ‘You can’t do without them’, she says. She is right. As always.
My other Friend and mentor, Kary Oberbrunner, wrote it in his life-changing book Unhackable that there are three types of people:
The Consumer, the critic, the creator.
The consumer consumes, probably to feed their emptiness with stuff.
The critic critics. Spotting the mistakes in others reassures them.
And Creators create. To me, this type is never reassured. They try, they test, and stumble often but they know their purpose. When creators let go of expectations, they become unrestricted and inspiring.
When you hit rock bottom, your needs become simple: food, shelter and love.
If you have those three things in your life, it’s a blessing. Millions of people on Earth do not have that.
When you fall, you realised that friends and family are what count in life.
On your death bed, the number of zeros on your bank account or your job title will do nothing for you. People make the difference.
People you love are the ones who are going to make your life meaningful.
That’s why I have changed the name of my website. It used to be called Inside the Writers Bubble but I felt quite lonely inside my bubble.
My friend and Shaman Catherine Maguire (https://www.inlightenment.it/) said to me,’ your gift is to light other people’s light, you’re a pilot light’. From there, another dear friend – the author Sally Bibb and my brother-in-law – Daniel helped me to put the pieces together.
And that’s how Pilot Light Writing is born.
We can’t do it on our own.
I am not interested in consuming or criticising.
I’m interested in bringing love into everything I do, so I can help other people who love what they do, to shine too.
We can’t get rid of the darkness or the shadow in this world. We can only bring light inside it.
So be shiny my friend. x
This post is dedicated in loving memory of my late husband, who will be missed forever.
Photo montage by Daniel Gardiner Dot 1: Books are Magical Things It’s not you who choose a book, it’s the book that chooses you. Have you ever come across a book that matches exactly how you felt? Or answered a question that you had in …