Writing

Marvin H. Albert

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You may recall that I’ve got a guilty-pleasure-passion for the Frank Sinatra’s TONY ROME and LADY IN CEMENT movies, both of which were based on books by Marvin H. Albert (who also co-wrote the screenplay for LADY). Novelist, editor and paperback collector Bill Crider  has written an interesting article about Albert for this month’s issue of Mystery*File magazine. The article includes a complete bibliography of Albert’s work, compiled by Steve Lewis. Albert was an amazingly versatile, if unappreciated, writer whose work included screenplays, novels in several genres, and even movie tie-ins. He was one of a dying breed. 

Doug Lyle Likes to Kill People

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Doug Lyle may be Orange County’s most prolific serial killer.

He’s smashed 18-wheelers into station wagons, tossed dynamite into mine
shafts, hung victims by their ankles, or plain, old-fashioned shot them.

He is also a willing accomplice to hundreds – perhaps thousands – of other
murders.

That’s the opening of a great profile of Dr. Doug Lyle in today’s Orange County Register and his work as a consultant to mystery writers like me. Without him, Dr. Mark Sloan would be an LA screenwriter in his early 40s.

Mysteries of Tie-in Writing Revealed

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Want to know how to become a tie-in writer? Do you need an agent to break into the tie-in field? What kind of deadlines do tie-in writers have to meet? How do the writers approach characters descriptions and backstory? What kind of royalties do tie-in writers get? What is better — fighting for royalties or accepting a flat-fee? These are just a few of the intriguing business and craft questions tackled and answered in the  articles  posted today at the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers (IAMTW) website.

Shamus Award Winners

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Author Harry Hunsicker has clued me in to this year’s Shamus Award Winners from the Private Eye Writers of America:

Best Novel: Edward Wright, While I
Disappear (Putnam)
Best First Novel: Ingrid Black, The Dead (St. Martin’s
Minotaur)
Best Paperback Original: Max Phillips, Fade to Blonde (Hard Case Crime)
Best
Short Story: Pearl Abraham, "Hasidic Noir" (Brooklyn Noir, Akashic Books)

Lifetime Achievement: Sara Paretsky

Procedural Checklist

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Greg Braxton of the LA Times shares his funny, and stingingly accurate, ten-step formula for the typical TV police procedural.

2. The ‘What d’ya got’ scene

The star investigators must
arrive at a crime scene walking at a regular pace or in slow motion. Dark trench
coats are a must, and the stars should look properly stern and speak cryptically
out of the sides of their mouths when asking officers at the scene, "Who’s the
stiff?" Detectives should possess a background in comedy or philosophy: Nothing
kicks off a murder investigation or leads into the first commercial like words
of wisdom or a morbid one-liner such as, "Dinner really did cost him an
arm and a leg."

The list goes on. But Greg left a couple of things out:

1 ) the hero’s  obligatory dead wife (an updating of what was "the obligatory estranged wife").

2) the hero’s  or co-star’s  struggle with an  addiction (gambling, alcoholism, etc.)

3) one lead character eats healthy, the other loves junk food.

4) the irascible boss.

The Big Pitch

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Screenwriter Craig Mazin has some excellent advice on pitching. Here’s an example:

First, understand what it is that you’re pitching.  You’re not pitching a script.  You’re not pitching a story.

You’re pitching a movie. Don’t give me that blank
look. You’ve already done it. Ever see a movie and then have someone
ask you to describe it? That’s movie pitching.

What you want to do is achieve the same effect with the producer or exec.  You want them to believe that you have already seen a great movie, and you’re just telling them about it.

Craig’s pointers also work for pitching a series. But there’s one thing he doesn’t bring up. Be flexible. Be prepared to get, and consider, the input of the person you’re pitching to.  Today we pitched a series to a major production company. The exec we were pitching on got hooked on one aspect of the pitch and said, basically, how would you feel if you just went with that one aspect and tossed the rest? And, what if we added this extra element?

And you know what? It was a damn good idea. We jumped on it. And so did the exec, who is now as invested in the idea as we are and taking it to his superiors with enthusiasm. Will it go anywhere? Who knows. But it would definitely have gone nowhere with that company if we hadn’t been willing to consider other possibilities.

Sitting out Bouchercon

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Everyone in the mystery community is heading off to Boucheron, which begins tomorrow  in Chicago. Well, almost everyone. I’m staying home.  Author Bill Crider, a veteran of 20 Bouchercons, has seen the convention change, and in some ways not for the better.

As the attendance has increased, the focus has
changed. The convention used to be all about the fans. Now it seems to be all
about the writers, with people going just to get a glimpse of their current
favorites, and a lot of the writers seem to be there just to hawk their latest
book. A line I’ve heard more than once: "I don’t have a book out this fall, so I
won’t be going.") I’m not sure this is change for the better.

I do have books out this fall,  but I’m still not going. I just couldn’t see schlepping to Chicago on Labor Day weekend. And it was inconvenient for me. My wife and daughter just got back from three weeks away Friday. And today was my daughter’s first day back-to-school.

If it wasn’t for the bad timing, I’d be there.

I go to Bouchercon as a mystery fan first and a mystery author second. I love buying books. I love meeting the authors I admire. I love meeting people who’ve read my books and have enjoyed them. I love discovering new authors and new books to read. I love getting all those free books in my book bag. But most of all, I love the comraderie of fellow writers, talking shop and learning from shared experiences.

From a business stand-point, Bouchercon is a great opportunity to network and meet up with your agent and editors. You can also learn stuff from the panels but, to be honest, I only attend a small fraction of them because I’ve heard most of the authors, and their stories, a thousand times before.

But the one thing I don’t go to Bouchercon to do is sell books. 

Many authors who are ordinarily calm, easy-going people become obnoxious hucksters at Boucheron, relentlessly pushing their books to any warm body that goes by and littering the place with fliers and bookmarks and t-shirts and whistles and other promotional crap.  I think it’s actually counter-productive, that you will sell more books by not trying to sell books and just being yourself.

It’s not Bouchercon that I’ll miss this year, it’s the authors and readers I won’t get a chance to see. And the books I won’t buy.

Maybe next year.

Intercutting

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I got this email today:

I’m having trouble presenting a multiple location event in my screenplay. Let’s say, for example, there are 5 peace rallies in 5 US cities all going on at the same time. At each event there is some action and dialogue. We stay only briefly at each location. How the heck is that written? Every way I try to present it seems awkward. Thanks for your time.

Here’s how I replied. I think one reason it’s awkward is that the situation isn’t very conducive to good story telling. It’s hard to create conflict, or reveal much character, or tell a story, while cutting back and forth between five very similar events. My first bit of advice would be to restructure your story so you DON’T have to cut between five nearly identical events. But, barring that, you need to make it as simple as you can.

EXT. LOS ANGELES PEACE RALLY – DAY

Griffith Park is crowded with THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE (don’t you just love CGI? How did people make movies before?) It’s pouring rain. Biff and Joan make love in the mud while everyone around them sings Koombaya. Joan has great breasts. INTERCUT WITH:

EXT. CHICAGO PEACE RALLY – NIGHT

Convention Center. There are TENS OF THOUSANDS of peace-loving people here. But we don’t care about them. We FIND Jake creeping under the stage, carrying the BOMB that’s hidden inside the
INFLATABLE WOMAN. She has great breasts, too. INTERCUT WITH:

INT. SEATTLE PEACE RALLY – DAY

Hundreds of people mill around the base of the SPACE NEEDLE, holding hands and chanting. We PAN UP to the observation tower of the Space Needle, where HOYT, 12, is about to pour a cup of STARBUCK COFFEE on the people below, some of whom have great breasts and some of whom don’t. INTERCUT WITH:

and when you’re done visiting your five locations (I am exhausted just thinking about it), you end the sequence with a simple END INTERCUT.