Readers,

I don’t usually do two updates in one day but...

WE FUNDED!

So let me make something clear: I use the term ’we’ when talking about this campaign because while I write the book, it’s your support and encouragement that makes it happen. These aren’t empty words meant to artificially include you and make you feel like part of the process. The whole point of Inkshares is that this is a community effort. A symbiotic endeavour between reader and writer to help create works of fiction and bring them to the public.

There are a lot of people who have gone above and beyond for this to happen and I’d like to highlight at least three that can benefit immediately from your support:

John Robin, the author of Blood Dawn, spearheaded community efforts to rally people together after I called for help from fellow authors. John is a hard working writer and a helluva guy. Check out Blood Dawn and support it.

Andre Brun, my CEGEP buddy and author of Lies & Deception campaigned for me harder than I could campaign for myself. He leveraged his own book and his salesmanship skills to gather a ton of pre-orders and get A God in the Shed in front of many new pairs of eyes. Lies & Deception is a terrifyingly ambitious book that deserves your attention. Check it out.

Paul Inman, my cohost on WriteBrain and author of Ageless also lent a hand and was a big part of the community, leveraging the release of his own book to help get visibility for A God in the Shed. Check out Ageless, I read it and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Finally, let me plug my buddy Brian Guthrie who was a great help and is currently participating in the Geek & Sundry Hard SciFi contest on Inkshares. Check out his book After Man and support it with all your heart (and pre-orders).

More soon as thing develop and, as promised:

JF

The last three tips are going to roll in your inboxes, I hope you have taken something of value from my advice and your own pens are hard at work!

SCREENWRITING TIP #5: THEME

I can hear you now – “Where is the theme in ‘Transformers One through Twelve?’  ‘Mall Cop?’”  But just because a film is lacking in something doesn’t mean you aim your own efforts to that level.  All sorts of films make a lot of money with incoherent plots, atrocious dialogue, characters thinner than Saran Wrap.  But this is not an excuse to turn out an equally bad screenplay.

And often they probably started out as decent scripts.  You must always be prepared for the meddling and watering down of what you wrote by a whole bunch of people, some well intentioned, some clueless.  That’s the problem with the collaborative process that is filmmaking, there is a lot of input from a lot of people, from the producer to the wardrobe person.  If they are all geniuses you are in good shape.  If they are not…

Having a good solid theme in your script is one of the buttresses you have any control over.  A good theme, a deep strong simple metaphor or universal truth can stand all sorts of assaults.  It also serves as a touchstone you can use in the writing of your screenplay, the editing and the re-writing.  Whenever you are in trouble you can ask the question – what is this story about?

As you write, every character, scene, bit of dialogue, or story point can be tested against your theme.  Courage?  Guilt?  A mother’s love?  The possibilities are endless.  Just choose one.

Plus having a good idea of what the whole thing is about will help you defend your choices against the forces who are going to question your work.  Or to inform the director, producer, actor who is smart enough to ask you.  This way you can relay certain information that you conceived and they are either misunderstanding or not finding clear.  Then it is your job to fix it, because if they miss the point then so will the final viewing audience.

If you have an overall theme to your story then every character should be an aspect of that theme.  “Courage Under Fire”, funny thing, is about courage.  Every character reacts to their fear in combat in a different manner – drugs, over compensating macho bullshit, drinking, defining themselves by their courage or lack of it.  “Mr. Holland’s Opus” is about aspirations, etc. The theme gives your story a unity and strength.

Hopefully a good theme can withstand the bad dialogue rewrites by the directors girlfriend, on camera improvisations by the actors, dropped or added scenes or subplots, whatever is thrown at your screenplay in the long torturous road to the theater or TV screen.

PEOPLE ARE GETTING THEIR BOOKS!!

Take a pick of the book and tag me on Twitter (@PaulInmanSC) Instagram (PaulInmanSC) or Facebook with the hashtag #AgelessByPaulInman and hashtag #scifi

DON’T FORGET TO REVIEW! It keeps the book alive and gives it more visibility!

AMAZON REVIEWS ARE OPEN! Please leave a starred and written review of the book as you finish! I am shooting for 50-60 reviews on or before publication date of May 3rd.WE GOT THIS! The more reviews the better the viability for the book!

Goodreads is also open for reviews! Just copy and paste the review from Amazon; I won’t tell. Pinky swear.

REMINDER:

I do a podcast with JF Dubeau called WriteBrain. It’s about Inkshares and crowdfunded writing and publishing. Check out this article on Examiner.com we did talking about the podcast! Also go and nominate us (url:www.jfdubeau.com/writebrain/)  for the Podcast Awards(People’s Choice and Arts categories, and nominate up to 20 other of your favorites podcasts)! Nominations close April 30, so hurry!

Oh, if you ordered A God In The Shed, thanks! There are only 5 more copies needed. Click the link and go buy it!