HOW TO'S WRITING

WHY DISTURBED, OBSESSED, AND HAUNTED PEOPLE ARE IMMORTAL

By James Dennewitz

The chapter summary from his forthcoming book on writing

Summary

I have realized the main difference between the 95% of disposable art, the 4%lasting and classic art, and the 1% of art that transcends it's own boundaries. The difference is making people feel what you feel and relate to the day to day hassles of life itself you speak of in your art. The less these hassles are of generational troubles (Cell phones, 8 tracks, etc.), and the more they focus on endearing themes (friendship, love, loss, etc.), the longer the art will endure.

The first is the obvious music, books, movies and so called modern art we are force fed daily. About half of this stuff is so bad it's criminal it was ever published or released for sale. Still, mass culture prefers soda to fruit juice. Then about 20% of this stuff is pretty good but is never publicized properly, so it dies on release day. The rest surfaces as popular culture.

The 4% lasting and classic art is actually produced by less than 1% of the artists. List the 100 best albums of any decade (except the 90's) and you will probably come up with about the same 25 artists. The same is true in movies and books. Look how much wonderful work has come from The Beatles, Stephen King, Steven Spielberg, Norman Rockwell, and Tom Hanks. Each of them has at least 5 classic works. This makes us relate in a very deep way to the characters, and sometimes we almost forget the plot and focus just on the characters, when we realize the characters are the plot. These are classics in our time, and will be so big that some will be remembered more for being so successful in their day than because their work is still relevant to the masses or is urgent to modern man.

What is groundbreaking and very conversational today may be lame in 20 years, like the movie "Easy Rider," which packed a punch with some of the Vietnam area youths and practically started riots, but show it today and teens are only repulsed by the classic Steppenwolf, their minds numbed with artless rap. Is it still a good movie? Yes.

Is it still urgent? No. When I saw that movie in '96, I thought that looks fun for a while, but then what? The real lives of Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda were included such drug excess and their lives turned out pretty undesirable for many years. I saw some young guys who needed to get a life and some direction besides "That way, man." Smoking a bag every night does not make you some activist, or make some statement to society other than you cannot cope so you are quitting. People who change the world work in the world, within the current structure. If the baby boomers of the 60's had spent just half as much time lobbying congress as they did getting stoned and starting riots, the Vietnam War never would've lasted into the 70's. It's easy to criticize society or the govt. when your parents are paying your way.

Then all these idealists became the biggest sell-outs in American history when they traded in their equality to all attitudes for Reaganism in the yuppies 80's, and have shoved endless amounts of pollution and waste down our throats since then. Yeah, they were born to be wild all right.

The most enduring theme is still when the rednecks shoot Dennis for no reason. Back then they saw this as intolerance of hippies or bikers, or those cowards who criticized our boys for fighting a war they had to fight. Today I see it as the eternally American attitude that never fully dies. That is an attitude of hatred for those who are different from us. This attitude started in Salem Mass. and spread west years later when the white man murdered the natives of this continent for their land.

That 1% of enduring writing is when the characters have problems, worries, weaknesses, or goals we can all relate to no matter how much time passes, and the story itself features a timeless theme, and the story is very entertaining or interesting, and achieves great success at some point in time, and there are memorable traits about the characters and their relationships to each other, and sometimes even the setting is so vivid we never forget it, as in "Dracula." Also the story elicits in us a lasting emotion of some kind as we review the over-all piece of work. It must also appeal to people who would not normally enjoy that particular genre or style. I never was much of a Western fan, but John Wayne is one of my all time favorite actors. I never tire of his Westerns. The same thing is what made Star Wars such a hit, it appealed to non sci-fi fans too.

Some things come to my mind like "Romeo and Juliet," "Wizard Of Oz," "The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow," "Casablanca," "Moonlight Sonata." All are works still with us. Let's "Oz" as a perfect example.

1 Dorothy wants to get home-goal

2 Dorothy can't find her way home problem

3 The lion is a coward-weakness

4 Tin man and scarecrow need things-problem

5 The witch wants to destroy them all-Big problem, interesting plot

6 Setting is awesome, everywhere they go.

7 We can all relate to being tormented by someone, for longing for homely comforts, to be more accepted in the world, and to like ourselves better.

8 Who among us has not ran away from one problem to find an even bigger one.

9 The friendships they forge are truly wonderful and fun to watch.

10 The movie version has enjoyed great success and mass marketing of it's characters for generations.

11It was the first film to use color, a neat fact today, and groundbreaking in its time.

12Broad appeal, even adults can enjoy this tale unless they watched it a hundred times as a child as I did. I remember the showing of the "Wizard Of Oz" was a major event when I was young. Families would cancel almost anything so their kids could watch it. Remember, we did not have V.C.R.s back then, so watched that night or waited another year. Hard to imagine now.

13It has elements of horror and comedy, and drama and action and fantasy.

14It left you feeling happy exhilarated, almost healed. I think over all it left me with the theme "The best part of life is having loving people around you and you help each other out." We are special because of others. In other words, if you were alone on the planet, you wouldn't know you were special outside of the fact that you were the only one of your kind. Others make us shine.

THE PERFECTLY SCREWED UP CHARACTER

It's not a huge feat to make readers like good people who are doing their best to save the world, even at the expense of their own happiness. What I want to do as much as possible is create realistic people with as many tolerable imperfections as permitted. The best way to accomplish this is by giving them several good traits, maybe even above average ones, especially if they're traits we admire.

Bad Example: A rich guy who cheats on his wife.

Why? Many people resent, distrust, or have ill feelings toward the rich, and at the very least they can't relate to them, so the adultery will appear even worse.

Good Example: A great painter who captures children gloriously and donates much of his money and free time to helping cure childhood diseases. This has robbed him of any meaningful relationships, and he screws another guy’s lonely wife. Now we may still dislike his behavior, but it's hard to completely condemn him. Given enough background and detail we may begin to root for this misbegotten romance. Either way, we care about this guy more than the rich fucker.

If the wife that's cheated on is somehow bad, this also makes the adulterous man look better. Even better is a tale with no "bad" people, just people that don't mix in the best way. Also, a person doing wrong becomes more sympathetic if they feel guilt for their wrong.

If the cheating man feels guilty, stays with wife for fear of ruining her and the children's lives, and because he feels weak fro breaking his vowels, we may cut him some slack when he slips the mysterious the ole bologna pony.

Also, if the mysterious has lied to him and taken advantage of him and falsely portrayed his wife, we may still like him. The ultimate tool here understands why he does what he does and that he is remorseful for it.

This is an extreme example. Many times, maybe he's just impatient, or he stole something and felt bad, but never confessed for fear of shaming his beloved parents. These are all complications within the character and the story, and they make things interesting, and realistic. By not having holy characters, readers also see their lives and mistakes not as inescapable damnations, but that they can still be good people even though they have not always been perfect people. The big push here is on intentions more so than results. People can relate to them more, and it's more interesting to see how they will get out of a situation given their human imperfections.

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