I recently took up the art of jewelry making. I did it for a multitude of reasons, but mostly because I needed something to pass the time between jobs. When I began a couple of months ago, I fought a little with the jewelry I was working on. The chain mail I attempted was just not looking right and had to be pulled apart several times. The necklace I had strung broke the moment I had put it on.
I began to read up on it more and more and gather ideas. I learned how to make the proper jewelry knots. I found a way to make chain mail that was easiest for me. The result is that I have a pile of completed pieces and family and friends are putting in requests.
I was blessed with the ability to always be able to write. I've never had writer's block. Some days I fought against sitting down and starting to write, but I was never at a loss for ideas or how to start. There's just too much bouncing around in my brain.
But, what I did have to learn is the art of writing. I had to learn what made a story a story and how to craft that story. Luckily, I learned that pretty young. I was an avid reader all my life and knew all about a five-act structure before it was even taught to me in High School.
What I didn't know then was that there are three-act structures. And four-acts. A screenplay is different from a play. An hour long episodic is crafted differently than a half-hour comedy. These all have their own individual forms, styles, and feels. I needed to read up on them, read examples, and then study them from copy to screen.
After graduating with a M.A., I thought I knew everything there was to know about story structure. Then I took Robert McKee's Story Structure class. The first day recapped everything I already knew about writing from college and graduate school. It was a good refresher. The second and third day, which included a frame by frame film study of Casablanca, blew me away. I was amazed at how much I didn't know and I was very glad I had taken the course. Since then, I've taken McKee's Comedy workshop and Thriller workshop as well. They were equally outstanding. There's a reason why he's called the "screenwriter's guru." I highly recommend them all.
Don't rest on your laurels. Keep learning. My favorite college professor and friend, Dr. Douglas Schwegel, used to love to quote the philosopher (I believe it was Aristotle) who said education is like climbing a mountain. You climb and climb and eventually you will reach a plateau, only to find there is much, much more mountain to tackle.
Not a day goes by where I don't try to learn. I'm addicted to it. I think its part of the reason why we're here on Earth. And, in this day and age, with the entire world easily accessible to us, there is so much to learn!
The more you learn about writing, the better a writer you'll be. The more you learn about anything else, the more
interesting your writing will be.
Please check out my novel
Luke Aloysius: Bloodline on Amazon:
