Writing tip #2: Reveal information closer to when it's most relevant
Exploring character development in the movie Music and Lyrics, starring Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant
Dear reader,
Thank you so much for your patience! I have been thinking about this issue of Doing the Write Thing — I know it’s behind schedule! — and wanted to send it to you soon, especially as I’m so grateful that you subscribed. This issue has been almost complete for a while now, and I’m so eager to share it with you!
Thank you for being a subscriber and for reading, and here’s wishing you happy writing!
In this newsletter…
The Heart of Storytelling: Studying character development in the movie Music and Lyrics
The Writing Life: Catching up! Why it’s okay to take breaks from writing and, at the same time, why writing is so important
The Writing Nook (formerly called “Writers’ Corner”): This is where we sit by the imaginary cozy fireplace and talk!
The Heart of Storytelling
This is where I’ll share writing, editing and publishing tips, based on my experience. These tips can usually apply universally to any creative endeavour or goal-setting and -achieving.
I was brushing my teeth when my mind wandered to Music and Lyrics, a movie starring Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore, which I had re-watched recently.
Warning: Some spoilers are up ahead. I don’t think I’ve talked about spoilers before — this is strictly to share this character exercise with you to help support your writing!
As my mind wandered to the movie Music and Lyrics, I found myself thinking about when we meet Sophie. When we first meet her, we know that she’s visiting Alex’s condo to water his plants because she’s subbing in for the usual plant-waterer, her friend, who is away. During one of her visits, Sophie overhears Alex working on a song and she quietly sings some lyrics that pop into her head.
It’s only later that we learn that Sophie is a writer. She studied literature (or something similar) in school and when something horrible happened, she lost her confidence and stopped writing.
When we meet Sophie, we don’t know or necessarily need to know that she has a history as a writer. But, later, when we learn that she’s a writer, we can look back at the moment when she was singing those impromptu lyrics and better understand how her ability to quickly create lyrics may have flowed from her background as a writer. We don’t need to know that she’s a writer to believe she could make up rhyming lyrics so quickly, but it also makes sense and feels neat to see how her writing background fits into that scene for her.
This is an example of how effective it can be to patiently wait to reveal or share a detail about a character until it’s most relevant.
I have seen this storytelling technique of presenting a character and later revealing more “pieces” of them done often and effectively in movies.
When I was brushing my teeth and thinking about Music and Lyrics, I also thought about character arcs — something I’ve become more aware of and am looking out for in my stories. There’s an idea that characters should experience some sort of transformation between the beginning and the end of a story.
At the end of the movie Music and Lyrics, I thought about how much Alex’s character has transformed. Towards the end of the film, he points out that he was living in the past and — thanks to meeting and getting to know and working with Sophie — he finds himself writing a new song for the first time in years (or maybe ever?).
This transformation made me think about how his character made some changes to help compromise with Sophie.
But wait, I thought, what about Sophie’s character — how does she change? What did she do differently as a result of meeting Alex?
It took me a few moments before I could figure out the answer: oh yes, she started writing again! And how does her character compromise with Alex? Oh yeah, he told her he thought she was giving up on the song but she went off and finished it by herself, possibly and probably inspired by his comment.
So both Sophie and Alex did something differently in response to and because they care about the other person’s feelings.
Character arcs is a topic I don’t think about naturally and have purposely put more thought into. I found this exercise to be so interesting and helpful, and I hope you find it helpful too!
The Writing Life
This is where I’ll share updates on what I’m writing and working on.
I recently felt slightly overwhelmed — something I don't know if I've ever said I've felt before. I put editing In Your Dreams on hold for a couple of weeks in September to focus on multiple work assignments that coincidentally piled up at once. It was a conscious decision I made so that I wouldn’t feel “pulled” towards my book at a time when it made sense to put it on hold so that I could focus on something time-sensitive (work).
Even though my evenings opened up again since then, and even though my work consists of writing and editing that I enjoy, I noticed that I was still reeling from the effect of taking a break from editing In Your Dreams.
While I’ve been writing stories since I was five years old and am fully aware of how much I enjoy writing, I didn’t realize until this year that there are even more layers of depth to the benefits I enjoy from writing.
I know I write because I love writing. I know I’ve been crafting stories with the goal of inspiring positive change since I was in elementary school. But what this experience taught me is that, for me, writing is healthy — working on In Your Dreams is part of following my heart and is one of the things that makes me feel light and is exciting and enjoyable for me.
The first time I finally dived back into editing In Your Dreams (the book-appropriate swimming reference came too easily — I assure you, it was not on purpose!), it felt SO good!
I’d like to focus on what I learned from this and how it can help you. First of all, as I mentioned, I learned that I also benefit from writing because it’s healthy for me. When you follow your heart and engage in your creative passion, it can help you in so many ways, from possibly supporting your mental and emotional health to helping you relax and feel fulfilled because you’re expressing yourself.
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have heard me talk about the idea that it’s okay to take a break from writing and to put your writing on hold. Sometimes there are other priorities that matter more, and you don’t have to be writing all the time to be a writer or to be a good writer. In fact, it’s an important skill to be able to know what you need when you need it, and sometimes that means changing plans to take a night off writing to relax or do something else instead. This skill is important because it supports your health!
You may have also seen me talk about the idea that you can make progress with your writing even when you’re not writing. That may sound confusing. What I mean is that even when you’re not actively working on your book, you can think about your book and you may even find that ideas flow more easily this way. I think that often, the feelings we feel in our day to day are what inspire the stories we write and share. (More on those two bolded ideas in a future newsletter!)
How about you — do you know why you write? Does writing help support your health in some way? If you’re comfortable, please feel free to share with our writing community, or to explore and benefit from insights shared by fellow writers.
The Writing Nook
This is where we’ll gather around the virtual cozy fireplace to talk about writing and participate in fun writing exercises and contests!
Hi!
How are you?
Those three simple words mean so much. While they’ve become something that people are sometimes numb to (more on that in a future writing post), when used or responded to genuinely, they open a door to sharing feelings and potentially getting support we want or need. If we’re comfortable with it, asking and answering those three words genuinely can really help us to help each other.
If you’re comfortable sharing — how are you?
And how are you feeling about your writing or writing in general right now?
Thank you again so much for your patience! It means so much to me that you subscribed and I really hope these newsletters help support your writing and your creative goals. Please feel free to let me know how that’s going anytime!
And here’s wishing you well!
Coming soon: An update on how I’m editing In Your Dreams to get it ready for submission to literary agents, and a Q&A with Alisha Sevigny!