A Christmas Carol Sings to the Storyteller in You

A Christmas Carol Sings to the Storyteller in You. Why? Because you must decode its secret. As a writer you need to know why it has remained a narrative star for so long with such an immense audience. What exactly did Charles Dickens create that keeps vast numbers of people worldwide coming back year after year to be absorbed yet again by his tale?

A Christmas Carol Sings to You because of its Main Character. What Charles Dickens created that holds us in his thrall is Ebenezer Scrooge. He commands us to revisit the dark environs of his “money-changing hole” with astonishingly universal regularity. We simply cannot seem to get enough of his story and the twisting trail it leads us along.

A Christmas Carol Sings to You because It is a Ghost Story. Readers love things that go bump in the night. And, for Scrooge, they literally do. My favorite film version is from 1951 and stars Alistair Sim. The gloomy atmosphere of black and white. The booming apocalyptic sound effects, Ebenezer’s dark scowl. The haunting mood draws me back year after “rolling year.”

A Christmas Carol Sings to Us because We are Scrooge. We are not Scrooge because we are misers hoarding our worldly goods while declaring “Humbug this” and “Humbug that.” We are Scrooge because of the wounds life causes many of us to carry at the essential center of our hearts. Ebenezer carries such wounds and that urges a great swath of readers to identify with him on some level. Which is why A Christmas Carol Sings to the Storyteller in You.

A Christmas Carol Sings to Me Personally. As a human being, I have suffered my own heart wounds. The kind that bore a hole the way hot coals might do when dropped in a sensitive spot at a young age. This hollow place begs to be filled and the only way to fill it is with love. But love must be received and absorbed. For me that fortunately happened. Scrooge has not been blessed in this manner. Which makes me care about him and my caring hooks me into his story.

A Christmas Carol Sings to Those of You who have been Similarly Singed. I am not asking anyone to admit this, because to do so makes you painfully vulnerable. Nor do you need to point out how you are not in the least wounded. If that is true, I rejoice for you and hope you will remain so always. I suspect, however, that, more often than not, you have carried your own wounds and can empathize with Ebenezer’s plight. Thus, you too are hooked into his story.

A Christmas Carol Sings to You because of its Very Dramatic Climax. Scrooge is confronted with the truth of his life in intense and powerful scenes one after another. The vividness of these scenes shakes him to the core of his being. They shake us too. He is additionally confronted with the inevitable outcome of such a life which scares him nearly to death. It scares us too. What will happen next? By now any reader with a beating heart is totally hooked into Dickens’ world.

A Christmas Carol Sings to You because of its Very Happy Ending. The morning dawns. The ghosts are gone. Ebenezer truly sees the light of day at last.  He is a new man. Reborn. Redeemed. He acts accordingly. From his heart and to the benefit of everyone – especially himself. This is popular storytelling at its best.

Finally – A Christmas Carol Sings because Dickens Offers an Answer. He points us toward possible healing. Action will be required as is true of all Redemption Stories. A Christmas Carol is a Redemption Story. Scrooge must redeem himself. The spirits help but he takes the crucial action. He learns to love and performs loving deeds. This is Scrooge’s answer and everyone else’s. Millions of readers and watchers are drawn to that message. Whatever your beliefs about Christmas it might be wise to listen when A Christmas Carol Sings to the Storyteller in You.

Alice Orr Says – You Possess Storytelling Magic. Keep on Writing Whatever May Occur. https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

Ask Alice Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Ask your question in the Comments section at the end of this post.

 Alice Orr – Teacher. Storyteller. Former Literary Agent. Blogs for Writers. Author of 14 novels, 2 novellas and a memoir so far. Wrote No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community she loves.

Alice’s Holiday NovelA Vacancy at the InnRiverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 3 – is available HERE. Celebrate the Season!

Praise for A Vacancy at the Inn. “Grabbed me right away and swept me up in the lives of Bethany and Luke.” “Undercurrents of suspense move the story along at an irresistible pace.” “The Miller family is rife with personality quirks, an authentic touch that demonstrates Alice Orr’s skill as a writer.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.”

All of Alice’s Books are HERE.

http://facebook.com/aliceorrwriter/
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/

http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/

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It’s a Wonderful Writer’s Life

It’s a Wonderful Writer’s Life. The holiday season is filled with fullness. Days full of activities. To-Do lists full of responsibilities. Hearts full of feeling. Heads full of memories. And – for the storyteller in you – a house full of fabulous secondary characters. Whether they are in your actual residence or not, they are there. Eager to enrich your pages.

 Think of Yourself as the Hostess at a Party of Fiction Inspiration. These are your honored guests, ready to be honored further by your imagination. You are the creative force and they are the raw material for your creations. Each one is wrapped up bright and sparkly. Each one is a gift waiting to be opened by you and invited into the world of your story.

Think of Frank Kapra and It’s a Wonderful Life. He and his co-writers adapted an obscure short story into a classic. In Philip Van Doren Stern’s The Greatest Gift, the main character witnesses his world as it would be if he had never existed. Kapra and company changed his name from George Pratt to George Bailey, and the saga of a 75-year-old holiday hit began.

 Think of How They Populated George’s World. Henry Potter, the villain we love to hate.  Mary Bailey, the steadfast mate. Uncle Billy, the family screwup. Clarence, the angel second class. Who fails to smile when he appears on screen? Plus – Bert, Ernie, Violet, brother Harry, friend Sam. And Bedford falls – a town full of unforgettable secondary characters.

Each of Them is a Character Type. Each type is defined by a dominating character trait. Greed. Loyalty. Forgetfulness. Optimism. Each behaves according to the dictates of this personality definition. They do not step beyond its bounds. Their job is to maintain that predictability. Significantly, because of them, It’s a Wonderful Writer’s Life.

Recollect a Holiday Gathering from Your Personal Past or Present. A family fixture. An office party. A community event. Imagine yourself there and look around you. In your mind’s eye, tag each person with their dominant character trait. Feel free to take creative license with the portrayal. This is your Bedford Falls. Populate it with whomever you prefer.

Remember these are Secondaries – Not Your Hero. But each of them is connected to your hero and affects her life in some way that benefits your story. Find the villain first. There he is in a corner making somebody uncomfortable. Find your hero’s mate or best friend next. Smiling and taking care of things and people because that is what he or she does.

Continue this Exercise by Identifying One Character Type After Another. These folks fill the streets of your Bedford Falls. They surround your hero and move her story forward – or backward – as your storyline requires. They expand your fictional world and give it real life dimensions. They are the people of your plot and their roles are anything but secondary.

Without these Characters Your Story is a Hollow Shell. Your hero’s world is hollow also. These characters give your reader a sense of your hero’s community. They give your reader individuals to identify with, to root for or rally against. These characters make your work resonate on the page. They cause you to rejoice that It’s a Wonderful Writer’s Life.

Alice Orr Says – You Possess Storytelling Magic. Keep on Writing Whatever May Occur. https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

Ask Alice Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Ask your question in the Comments section at the end of this post.

 Alice Orr – Teacher. Storyteller. Former Literary Agent. Blogs for Writers. Author of 14 novels, 2 novellas and a memoir so far. Wrote No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community she loves.

Alice’s Holiday NovelA Vacancy at the InnRiverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 3 – is available HERE. Celebrate the Season!

How to Put Your Writer Psyche on Your Side - www.aliceorrbooks.com

Praise for A Vacancy at the Inn. “Grabbed me right away and swept me up in the lives of Bethany and Luke.” “Undercurrents of suspense move the story along at an irresistible pace.” “The Miller family is rife with personality quirks, an authentic touch that demonstrates Alice Orr’s skill as a writer.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.”

 All of Alice’s Books are HERE.

http://facebook.com/aliceorrwriter/
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/

http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/

http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

 

Giving Thankfuls for Our Writer Lives

Giving Thankfuls for Our Writer Lives. In our yellow house on Vashon Island the dining table was battered from years of grandkid use. The chairs had been rocked so many times Grandpa Jonathan had to bolt the legs to the frames. This was the precious place where we held hands at mealtime and practiced gratitude for our lives together. We called it Giving Thankfuls.

Our Storytelling Lives are Equally Blessed. The guests at our tables exist only in our heads but they rollick and roar and rock the chairs all the same. They give us hissy fits. But would you want to live without them for a day? We Give Thankfuls for our imaginary friends.

We Sit in Battered Bolted Chairs and Stare at the Wall. Real life plays out in front of us but we are otherwise engaged. Images peek from under the tableware. What ifs clatter louder than the cutlery. We savor the symphony of inspiration and Give Thankfuls for the scenes we see.

An Array of Plot Possibilities Fills our Formerly Empty Plates. We pick and choose. Mix and match. Consider and rethink. We alter the menu at will. Always in service of the purposes of the plot. Always hungry for what works best. We Give Thankfuls for the feast of creativity.

The Banquet Continues for Days Months Years. Our appetites are sometimes satisfied but often they are not. We may leap up from the table in exasperation. Nonetheless we eventually return and struggle again to get the ingredients exactly right. We Give Thankfuls for resilience.

At Last we Add these Luscious Words – The End. We pound the well-used table or collapse upon it. Though probably exhausted we are also filled with joy and chair-rocking energy. We laugh. We sob. However we express it we are Giving Thankfuls for Our Writer Lives.

Being Storytellers has Put Us in the Amazing Company of Other Storytellers. We honor that company for its generosity, its wit, its endless ingenuity. We find role models and helpmates there. Friends too, professional and personal. We Give Thankfuls for our writers’ community.

Being Storytellers has Put Us in the Amazing Company of Readers. The upfront readers who help us grow our work. The priceless readers who review that work after it has come of age. The readers we pray will become our fans. Who could possibly not Give Thankfuls for readers?

Each Morning Begins a New Day to Rejoice in Storytelling. What gave us this glorious gift? In my case it was Grandma. She told her stories aloud. I write mine down. Her spirit abides in me and mine in her. I shall Give Thankfuls forever for her believing in me from my start.

Today My Own Grandkids are No Longer Kids. We are all back on the east coast now. Grandparents and parents. In-laws and outlaws. Jonathan and I are still a twosome fifty years and counting. We have never stopped holding hands and Giving Thankfuls and hope we never will.

Meanwhile my Storytelling Life Continues. So does yours. We are filled with memories. We are calm or stormy at turns. We have not gone gentle into any night – good are otherwise. We are the characters we have written and become. We are Giving Thankfuls for Our Writer Lives.

Alice Orr says – You Possess Storytelling Magic. Keep on Writing Whatever May Occur. https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

Ask Alice Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Ask your question in the Comments section at the end of this post.

Alice Orr – Teacher. Storyteller. Former Literary Agent. Blogs for Writers. Author of 16 novels, 3 novellas and a memoir so far. Wrote No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community she loves.

Alice’s holiday novel, for which she Gives Thankfuls, is A Vacancy at the Inn Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 3 – available HERE. Celebrate the Season!

How to Put Your Writer Psyche on Your Side - www.aliceorrbooks.com

Praise for A Vacancy at the Inn. “Grabbed me right away and swept me up in the lives of Bethany and Luke.” “Undercurrents of suspense move the story along at an irresistible pace.” “The Miller family is rife with personality quirks, an authentic touch that demonstrates Alice Orr’s skill as a writer.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.”

All of Alice’s Books are HERE.

http://facebook.com/aliceorrwriter/
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/