I am the Wizard
My last blog entry explored the Tinman (needing heart in writing). This one is about the Wizard. Of course, it's one of the most famous scenes in a movie EVER. "Do not pay attention to that man behind the curtain," he says as he's pulling levers . . . with Toto tugging on the curtains. The Wizard was manipulating his image. He was rather ordinary (though with a bit of a twinkle in his eye) after all. He was also very astute. He may not have had "magic" powers, but he was able to discern what each traveler to Oz needed. I think every writer needs to have a bit of the Wizard in him or her.
Why? Well, it's all about doing what he did. He created an image, this fierce wizard, with "smoke and mirrors." Isn't that what we do after all? We create a world that's as vivid as Oz. When we're creating a scary or suspenseful short story or novel, we want genuine goosebumps. We want to be able to do what Stephen King or (fill in your favorite horror or suspense writer here) does. Which is get the reader so involved and tense that if the phone rings, the reader jumps or screams or drops the book. (Happened to me. I was reading Just Killing Time by Derek Van Arman and I remember calling my boyfriend at the time, terrified, and asking him to come check all my closets!)
But the thing with the Wizard, the most important thing, is that we not see him pulling the strings and pushing the levers. And therein it's all about craft. Scares and suspense, or even comedy and slapstick, should feel utterly natural and real. One of my editors has an expression: TSTL. As in, Too Stupid To Live. As in you shouldn't make your heroine walk into the serial killer's house unarmed, in the dark, when backup is one minute away, because she's simply foolhardy or TSTL. Because when you do that, it's forced. We see the man behind the curtain pulling the levers.
That's why honing your craft and studying is so important. It's the difference between things that go bump in the night and a slasher film.
What have you learned in your writing about being the Wizard? Where do you have to write carefully so we don't see the man (or woman) behind the curtain?
Why? Well, it's all about doing what he did. He created an image, this fierce wizard, with "smoke and mirrors." Isn't that what we do after all? We create a world that's as vivid as Oz. When we're creating a scary or suspenseful short story or novel, we want genuine goosebumps. We want to be able to do what Stephen King or (fill in your favorite horror or suspense writer here) does. Which is get the reader so involved and tense that if the phone rings, the reader jumps or screams or drops the book. (Happened to me. I was reading Just Killing Time by Derek Van Arman and I remember calling my boyfriend at the time, terrified, and asking him to come check all my closets!)
But the thing with the Wizard, the most important thing, is that we not see him pulling the strings and pushing the levers. And therein it's all about craft. Scares and suspense, or even comedy and slapstick, should feel utterly natural and real. One of my editors has an expression: TSTL. As in, Too Stupid To Live. As in you shouldn't make your heroine walk into the serial killer's house unarmed, in the dark, when backup is one minute away, because she's simply foolhardy or TSTL. Because when you do that, it's forced. We see the man behind the curtain pulling the levers.
That's why honing your craft and studying is so important. It's the difference between things that go bump in the night and a slasher film.
What have you learned in your writing about being the Wizard? Where do you have to write carefully so we don't see the man (or woman) behind the curtain?
posted by Erica Orloff at 6:59 AM
6 Comments:
I have a wonderful little book on my shelf called HOW TO WRITE KILLER FICTION by Carolyn Wheat. She explains various methods of creating suspense through wizardry. One I find particularly useful is for every scene question to be answered by "yes, but..." or "no, and furthermore..."
Example:
In the first scene of my WIP, Nicholas Colt is aroused from sleep by gunfire and shattering glass. His scene goal? To chase the car he thinks the shots came from and at least get a license plate number. Does he get the LP#? YES, BUT when he gets back home his fiance is not in bed where he left her.
Next scene: He takes a flashlight and walks outside to look for her, thinking she might have walked down to the lake to watch the sunrise, as she has a habit of doing. Does he find her? NO, AND FURTHERMORE, when he looks back to his residence he sees the flashing blue lights of a police cruiser.
So, ending a scene with "yes, but..." or "no, and furthermore..."
is one useful little trick we wizards have up our sleeves.
Anybody else want to share a trick or two?
Jude:
That's an awesome tip. When I speak with kids about writing, I tell them every great novel is really a giant WHAT IF. When I sit down to write a novel, that's what I'm really asking. For instance, in HIGH SCHOOL BITES (my YA as Liza Conrad), I ask, "WHAT IF a girl discovered on her sixteenth birthday that she was really a descendant of Lucy in Bram Stoker's Dracula, and WHAT IF she found out vampires were real?"
E
Good point, Erica. Playing "what if" leads to all sorts of interesting actions and reactions.
And when you get down to it, aren't action and reaction the core elements of fiction?
Another useful suspense technique is to pretty much isolate your protag by, say, the middle of the book. To paraphase Billy Joel: Like a boxer in a title fight, s/he has to walk in that ring all alone.
Stripped of all his support systems, David must singlehandedly bring old Goliath down.
After I read Stephen King's 'On Writing' that is the first question I ask myself. Which started my first stand alone horror Corwin Castle. What if is the best way to start a project.
"What if?" is a great way to start. I find that when sharing an idea, "What happens next?" is a great way to keep it going.
Where I find the 'man behind the curtain' showing up is when I'm telling and not showing. It is so easy to slip into. I have to constantly edit that out of my work.
Ewoh:
Telling not showing is one of the things I constantly guard against. My other is making sure my plot seems organic. In chick lit, for instance, you can pile on calamity after calamity, for humor, but it should still feel "real." Otherwise, you're seeing that wizard. In my dark stuff, like THE ROOFER, tragedy was at every turn, but again, given that family's lifestyle (the Westies gang from Hell's Kitchen), their torment was organic, I thought.
E
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