I don’t remember the exact time I first watched The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly but I do remember only realising it was over 90 minutes long, which was the time I’d allocated to watch a film before bed. So I had to watch it in two parts. I was loving it but my eyes told me sleep was needed.
When I did watch the rest of it, and then it all at once, I knew I’d found my favourite film. Acting, score, story, direction and all the things in between, in my opinion it is a masterpiece of cinema.
The characters The Good, The Bad and The Ugly all have cool moments and also not so cool moments but throughout you know who they are and what they’re about. None of them steer from Good to Bad to Ugly or any of the variations. Although I like stories where characters grow and change, with this, they are already fully made. You don’t necessarily need to know how they became that way, you accept them for who they are and follow their story.
I am a fan in my own writing of character progression but I am also a fan of supporting characters just being who they are and accompanying the protagonist on their journey. I think when I consider my protagonists I have The Good (Blondie) in mind for his calmness, intelligence, and ruthlessness. I don’t want a cheap knockoff of Blondie in my stories but I think he’s always there in some way, shape, or form.
As for my antagonist(s), The Bad (Angel Eyes) and The Ugly (Tuco) are always floating around in my mind. They both know who they are and don’t apologise for it.
This is one of my starting points when creating a villain for my piece. I consider the villains position and motivation and come to why they are classed as the villain. As I’ve formed their identity I can consider how they go about their day. Usually, this involves a steely determination to get their job/plan/goal complete. Much like Angel Eyes in a sense. He knew how to survive and this gave him determination.
As for Tuco, he got things done in anyway he could. Even sacrificing his own friends and pushing away his family. None of this mattered if it meant him getting what he wanted. I use this within my villains at the start and usually they stay the same. Sometimes they grow but not drastically.
Having analysed my process against my favourite film, I’m pleasantly surprised how much of an influence it has on my writing.
Which leads me to a question and I’d like know your thoughts, Is there a film, favorite or otherwise, that influences your writing?
If you write a journal, for whatever reason, how has it helped you and/oryour writing?
Since the turn of the year, I’ve been writing at least one page in my journal. I’d heard of the theory that writing down whatever is in your head in the morning can help you focus and prepare for the day ahead. I also heard it can help bring about some ideas and be a kind of therapy.
In practice, I’ve found these two theory’s to be true.
I started by writing whatever it was that was in my head. Sometimes it made sense and sometimes it did not. This then morphed over the course of a few days into making sense. I then used it to get out any frustrations or insecurities I had in my working and personal life.
Once I’ve written some grievance down I then tend to keep writing until working out why I’m annoyed and come to a resolution about the whole thing. Although this can take a few days of writing to do, it has been very helpful indeed.
It has and continues to help me overcome any negativity and anger I have about the particular situation I’m in. This has also allowed me to tackle similar circumstances from a different and more productive angle. I’m much calmer for it as well.
As a writer this has assisted my growth and development. I’ve been writing for years and this is a dimension I didn’t know I needed.
And it makes me realise how bad my handwriting has become. It was never exquisite to say the least but it has gotten worse. I do work on a computer in my day job but hopefully journalling will help sort this out. And build the strength back up in my hand.
If you write a journal, for whatever reason, how has it helped you and your writing as a whole?
Thanks for reading and (maybe) contributing. Have a good day!
A simple character profile is flat. But his lies, secrets and scars create an emotional journey that turns your story into a book readers can’t put down.
This is a post I found interesting in relation to the morals, values, or other belief systems of characters that can make a story more of a gripping read.
This also discusses how to detail these areas within a story and how this can help drive the story along.
on Just Publishing Advice: Writing and publishing today is a long way removed from typewriters and carbon paper. The days of sending typed or printed manuscripts are well and truly over. Every word you write now is digital, electronic, and published via the Internet. You exchange drafts by email or share them on Google Drive. […]
This article covers a variety of writing apps to help with all aspects of the writing journey.
I’ve always found taking notes through the app Evernote to be a very useful tool to have on my phone when inspiration strikes. This article showed me there’s a lot more to choose from and opened my eyes to options in future.
Above is another useful post from Novelty Revisions (www.megdowell.com). It details a number of ways you can help yourself and your writing as well as things to consider along the way.
Click the blue link above for the full post.
I hope you find this useful and are having a good day.
The post above is from a wonderful blog I’ve been following for a while now and gained a lot of inspiration from, http://www.megdowell.com ‘Novelty Revisions’. Click the blue link above for the full post.
In a number of ways, 12 in fact, this post shows how taking a long term approach can pay dividends for your writing.
I’ve found taking my time has helped massively when it comes to my writing. It may seem obvious but I can write and improve and write some more at my own pace. Also, it stops me from worrying about other authors who have accomplished more in the same time I’ve been writing. Its my writing journey, nobody else’s.
by efrussel I took a Twitter break recently, and it’s gotten me thinking about Twitter. So, a Twitter post. I’m not one of those people who thinks Twitter is absolutely integral to your success as an indie writer. I think there are loads of ways to be successful as an indie writer, and […]
The post above is from http://www.ryanlanz.com ‘A Writer’s Life’. A blog I’ve enjoyed for a while and it has loads of writing tips, information, and advice.
The post itself (https://ryanlanz.com/2019/11/12/twitter-for-nonvultures/) is about navigating Twitter for Writers. I’m still trying to get my head around myself but it can be a useful tool and the opportunities to engage with other writers are plentiful.
I’ve been working on my WIP a lot recently, a story about a man plagued by strange dreams and how he overcomes them, and have been neglecting my blog.
So, I decided to re-blog a selection of posts I have found really useful. This is the first and hopefully you will find this as helpful as I did.
Across the four years I’ve completed NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) I’ve always started with the same questions running around my head:
Will I be able to write 50,000 words?
How do I break up 50,000 words over a month? (It’s 1,667 words per day. I always forget)
What plans do I have for November?
Nights out? (Well, the day after the night out when the hangover makes me forget all words and typing ability) Nights in?
Any guests coming?
What am I going to write?
Do I have an idea I can use or do I have to come up with something new before November? (This particular question usually comes a few days before the start of November. Every. Single. Time)
As I pondered these question’s I realised it mostly comes down to the time I have to complete the task. 30 days. And what hours within those days do I actually have available? When I looked at my previous years, I would write when I got home and on weekends. But I would do none during the day when I was at work. So many hours of not writing. This year, I decided to use that time. But how could I use it? Writing on a notepad? Maybe. Wait…
I’ve had the app for years but only really used it for taking down ideas. As the app syncs to the website I knew I could write on it and then transfer this to my manuscript when I got home. I could use my commute to and from work to write towards my daily word count.
Sounds so simple that it annoys me I never came to this conclusion before. With this in mind, I was able to write almost the whole of the daily word count before I got home from work. I could then write more at home at my leisure making the 50,000-word target more manageable. Previous years have found me having to block out full Saturdays or Sundays or both to catch up when I fell behind the target. I hated this aspect of the process. My back would kill me and I wouldn’t be able to do other things I wanted to do at the weekend. Wow…that sounds whiny.
Anyway, Evernote allowed me to catch up on my word count when I fell behind. It also helped me to keep the pressure off when I was behind as I could catch up during the day and not have to spend all evening and night writing.
In conclusion, Evernote was very useful for NaNoWriMo. If you’ve already come to this conclusion, fair enough. If not, I hope it helps in future. Making use of all the writing hours of November will be my motto going forward for NaNoWriMo. Amongst other things.
Hope you are having a nice week so far and have a nice time with what’s left of it.
johnrsermon 
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