Tag: writing

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“On Ghostwriting”

Donald L. Vasicek - Rabbit Ears Pass - Colorado

I’ve been ghostwriting books for several years. See
my portfolio. What I have experienced is that each
book is unique. Each person who wants their book
ghostwritten is unique. Each person has their own
kinds of information for the book. The amount of
information provided can cut down on research the
ghostwriter might have to do. In turn, then, this
decreases the amount of time the ghostwriter has
to spend on writing the book.

The subject matter of the book has to also be taken
into consideration. Will there be illustrations, photos,
etc.? Ghostwriting a book eliminates writing credit for
the ghostwriter. Because of this, the charge has to be
higher than if the ghostwriter was getting the credit for
writing the book.

There a host of things to consider before giving
a quote on how much it will cost to ghostwrite a book.

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How to Write Visually

by
Donald L. Vasicek

Award-Winning Writer/Filmmaker Donald L. Vasicek

Fiction writing is a visual medium. Thus, writing must reflect visual images.
The more detailed these images are, the more visual what you are writing is,
and in any writing, detail is everything. Remember show and tell in
elementary school? When writing fiction, showing tells. Telling
doesn’t show. It is vital to show. How does the writer do that?

One way to improve one’s writing is to focus on verb usage. The use of
action verbs always sparks up the writing, gives the writer the opportunity
to be more detailed, and makes fiction writing more visual. Verb
usage “forces” the writer to write visually. The use of action verbs “forces”
the writer to be more creative and more visual.

For example, “John is blind.” This is telling. The key here is the verb.
The verb, “is,” is passive. It tells what John is, which is fine, depending
upon the kind of writing you are doing. Passive verbs, however, usually
make sentences boring when the writer’s goal is to be entertaining.
When writing fiction, the writer cannot afford to be boring. “John’s blank eyes
reflect a zombie-like look.” The verb here, “reflect”, is more visual. It shows
the reader how John’s eyes are, and then, leaves it up to the reader to
wonder, “What is going on here?” The reader will then hungrily read on
to find out what is going on.

Another aspect of making writing more competitive is to keep the
writing lean. It gives the reader a better opportunity to move through the read
faster, something most all people want to do who read scripts and manuscripts
as part of the way they make living. Editors, publishers,
agents, producers, directors, actors, etc. usually have manuscripts or
scripts stacked up on their reading table. They need to read, and they
need to read as rapidly as they can. So, one of the goals for you, the writer,
is to make sure you write in a way that makes your writing easy to read.

So, what you might want to do is go back through what you have
written. Focus on the verbs. Change those verbs to action verbs
where you see that it makes your writing more detailed, and
more visual. This will shorten what you are writing, but in the
same stroke of the pen, make it more vivid, more graphic, and
more visual. And the bonus here, is the reader will be more
attracted to what you have written.

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First, Write the Ending

The ancient Chinese military leader, Sun Tzu: “Begin with the end in mind.

Screenplays That Get Produced
“If you want to write screenplays that you can sell and get produced, you might want to consider writing your ending first. What? Yeah, well, check movies out that get produced. You know, those you pay $8 to $10 to see in the theater depending upon where you live and what time of the day and week you go to see them, and then read about the millions of dollars they made at the box office each weekend.

The Main Character
In almost every one of these movies, inevitably, the end is the defining moment in top box office movies. It is where the main character experiences an epiphany. The main character is challenged to confront and conquer his fatal flaw or go down to defeat. If you want to write screenplays that you can sell and get produced, you must build your screenplay to this moment in the movie. The tension must be wound so tightly that it feels as though everything is going to pop, like the drawn string releasing from a bow. SNAP!

The Villain/Antagonist
How can you create this kind of tension that is so necessary in great drama unless you know where you are going in your screenplay? The villain (in fiction, the villain represents evil) or the antagonist (in fiction, the antagonist can represent someone or something that is not evil, but who or what is competing with your main character or protagonist for the golden ring) must represent your main character’s fatal flaw. In other words, what your villain or antagonist seeks or has is what your main character has been seeking to overcome (your main character’s goal)throughout your screenplay. So, you must have your main character defeat the villain or antagonist in order to overcome his fatal flaw and win.

Movie Example
The movie, “Ransom”, starring Mel Gibson is one of many examples. Mel Gibson plays a good person. His son is kidnapped by an evil man. Through a series of events, Mel’s character has to become less and less nice with others if he is to save his son until he is confronted with defeating the kidnapper or losing his son forever. He is forced to kill the kidnapper, and in true Hollywood fashion, not only kill him, but obliterate him. Not that I condone this kind of violence in movies, because I don’t, but the example is there. When Mel’s character finally overcomes his “niceness”, it is only then that he saves his son.

Another Movie Example and Character
Another example, in “Warriors of Virtue”, a $56 million MGM movie for which I was a writer/consultant, Ryan, the main character seeks to conquer his disability, he wears a brace on one leg. In order to accomplish this, he has to overcome his fear of being too weak to succeed in physically achieving in entity. It all happens in the climax when he is confronted by evil itself, Komodo. Will Ryan win, or will Komodo win? It all circulates around Ryan’s disability which is really in his mind even though he has a disabled leg. Komodo wants to destroy to Ryan. How will Ryan escape? Or can Ryan stand his ground and defeat Komodo?

9 Writers and 4 Producers
How did nine writers and four producers arrive at this ending/climax? By determining beforehand how we wanted the movie to end. We spent days and weeks obsessing over this. The question was, what was Ryan’s goal and how does he achieve it? How could we attract an audience and incorporate this story idea? A teen boy. Did he smoke? Shoplift? Beat up other kids? Or run away from fights? Was he physically strong or physically weak? What kind of boy was Ryan? With his disability, we knew we had to come up with something that gave him no possible way to achieve his goal because that’s what high concept movies are all about, to have the main character overcome all odds and win. One of the producers came up with the suggestion that Ryan is afraid of life because of his physical disability.

Character Transformation
How could we write a story where he could learn how to overcome his fear of life because he is physically disabled, and thus, inept with respect to physical activities of most all teen boys? Well, I suggested, let’s first look at how he will be after he wins at the end of the movie. I suggested we create a character transformation arc. In order to this, I suggested that we take Ryan from a fearful boy to a confident young man. Between that kind of beginning and that kind of ending, I suggested we build the arc. So, I asked, how will Ryan defeat his fatal flaw and Komodo?

The Ending/Climax
The producers told us to each write the ending/climax. A combination of endings appeared. It wasn’t easy. Actually, writing the ending first felt like trying to empty the Pacific Ocean with a coffee cup. After several hours of musing over the endings which the writers wrote, the producers sent off two writers to write the screenplay with a couple of endings they selected. Eight months later, they called me to rewrite their draft. The first thing I looked at was the ending. The first thing I did was rewrite was the ending.

“Warriors of Virtue”
Three years later, “Warriors of Virtue”, was released in over 2,000 theaters in the United States. The Sunday afternoon I slipped into the theater with my wife to see the movie, the theater was packed with kids and parents. I watched the audience more than I watched the movie that Sunday afternoon, particularly when the ending/climax appeared. Guess what, I felt a special thrill when I noticed the audience sliding closer and closer to the edge of their seats as Ryan’s transformation evolved. At the end/climax, many of them crouched from their seats to cheer Ryan on as he defeated his fear and Komodo in a most unusual way. It was at that point I was convinced that writing endings first in my screenplays is one way to write screenplays that sell and get produced.

Donald L. Vasicek

Award-winning, writer/filmmaker, Donald L. Vasicek, dimensionalizes Olympus Films+, LLC’s services. He will bring you 35 years of writing and film making experience. Need to put your project together in a coherent fashion, but are stuck! Your storyline is rocky! What shots are you missing? Does your theme escape you, runs like an Olympic sprinter, away from you? Whatever else needs repair so that you can move to the next level in your film, you will benefit by contacting Mr. Vasicek at dvasicek@earthlink.net or 303-903-2103. Rates, fees negotiable.

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