I’ve been taking trapeze classes at Esh Aerial Arts in Cambridge, MA for a while, now. There are a lot of reasons why I, at 47, took up the trapeze. I won’t go into them all, but I will say that two of the main reasons are that I wanted something new with which to strengthen parts of my body that have been weakened by injuries over the years (I’ve been lifting weights all my life, and hefting barbells just wasn’t fixing what had been smashed up, ripped, torn and broken) and I wanted to confront a fear of heights that I can trace back to when I fell out of a tree as a kid, crunching into every branch at contortionist angles on the way down and smacking onto concrete with a sound like that of an Atlantic sturgeon being euthanized with a cricket bat.

Me in the middle of a Straddle Up move onto the lyra. I think my feet are in the wrong position. Oh, well....

The recent incident I’m writing about now isn’t really about me. It really says a lot more about my amazing trapeze instructor Rachel Stewart and the talent of my friend RiN Waigand, a brilliant photographer who was in town visiting last week.

I'm doing the Arabesque on the trapeze here, in which you have to pull away one of the ropes around your head as you brace against it. By the way, Esh isn't this dark. RiN used a nifty exposure to cast a lot of cool shadow.

RiN came with me to Rachel’s trapeze class, and it really is a confluence of good fortune that she was in town, that she came to this particular class, and that she he had her camera with her.

Balancing on the trapeze in a standing position.

Up to this point, I’ve been doing trapeze as something physical. Something to fix and strengthen my body in addition to weightlifting, riding my mountain bike, and all the other jock stuff I do. As I gained more confidence on the trapeze and the lyra (a big metal hoop hung from the ceiling on which aerialists perform), I beat down my fear of heights. I love the circus skills I’ve been gaining. Love the discipline and the focus. Rachel’s a great teacher, and so are the other people at Esh who have coached me, given me pointers and encouragement. I love the art form of trapeze. But I never considered the art form to be mine.

But last week…

…RiN managed to capture a turning point.

Rachel had just taught me a  move called the Iron Cross, which is done on the lyra by wrapping your arms around the canvas-covered chains supporting the lyra from the ceiling and extending your lower body out at an angle, with your feet off the lyra, so that you are holding yourself off the ground using only your arm strength and core strength. Your body from the shoulders down feels free from gravity, and you can move along all these amazing axes in space and for the first time, in that very moment, I felt… “Holy shit! I can actually express myself with trapeze!” This was the very moment that I realized maybe, just maybe, trapeze can some day be an art form I can use.

Here are the pics that RiN snapped of that moment.

I think I've just gone airborne off the lyra.

There was this sudden sense that I could have a new relationship with gravity, and with how I could locate my body in space.

I've turned a few degrees here.

Rachel says that the Iron Cross is the move that is the most like flying. And yes, as a lifelong comic book geek, there was this weird, goofy exhilaration I felt for a second or two that I was doing something kinda superhero-ish.

Me learning how to move along new axes while doing the Iron Cross. I'm trying to control my breathing, hence the look on my face.

I’ve done the Iron Cross a few more times on the lyra since this moment. And it’s been pretty great each time since. But this was… y’know… the moment. Just felt a need to share it. Thanks for sharing it with me. And thanks go out to Rachel for being such a great teacher and to RiN for letting me post these pics.

Some of the best writing being done today, in terms of theme, character, dialogue and plot, is being done by playwrights, screenwriters and teleplay writers. In this class, a nationally syndicated film critic and multi-award-winning novelist will show students how to use the tools of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights and Oscar-winning screenwriters for their prose fiction stories and novels. Topics covered will include: ways to re-write real-life incidents into tight and compelling drama; how to streamline exposition so it doesn’t stop your narrative dead; how to crystallize character-defining moments into a scene and how to use the context of specific settings to amp drama. Classes will consist of analysis of plays, teleplays and scripts and some prose source materials, group watching of films and TV episodes, and in-class workshopping of students’ short fiction and novel excerpts with special emphasis on how the tools of screen and stage writers can be applied to these works. All genres and kinds of fiction writers are welcome.

So, how will that breakdown? Here’s a tentative syllabus of the topics I’ll be covering and the materials we’ll be looking at.

1. Tapping Real Life

So, there’s this thing that happened… and you really want to write about it in a dramatic way. How do you take a “slice of life” that everybody can relate to, and still make it interesting and compelling? How do you avoid the dreaded, “Yeah, so?”

Materials:  Emmy winners Judd Apatow and Michael White’s teleplays for the high school comedy/drama Freaks and Geeks  and parts of renowned theater director Peter Brook’s essay “The Open Door.”

2. Awesome Exposition and Action

So, there’s all this stuff… background information… that the reader needs to know about in order for the plot to move forward. But to give that information to the reader, you can wind up stopping the plot dead in its tracks. Which can be close-the-book boring. We’ll look at ways to give the audience/readers the information they need while still making your narrative interesting and full of dramatic punch.

Materials:  Oscar-winner Paul Haggis’s screenplay for the James Bond movie Casino Royale,  with some comparison to Ian Fleming’s original novel. David Koepp’s screenplay for Jurassic Park with some comparison to Michael Crichton’s original novel.

3. Point of View and Emotional Development

OK… point of view is vitally important to telling a story. So’s character development. How does your main character’s emotional arc affect how you use POV?

Materials:  BAFTA winners Joel and Ethan Coen’s screenplay for True Grit, with some comparison to Charles Portis‘ original novel .

4. The Scope of Time and Space and Hitting Emotional Beats

Let’s say you got a story that takes place over a long period of time, over a lot of geographic space. How do you keep a solid emotional core to something that takes place, well… all over the place, and for a long period of time? How do you pace out the emotional beats to keep that story going strong?

Materials:  James Vanderbilt’s WGA-nominated screenplay for the David Fincher movie Zodiac.

5. Creating Tension, Apprehension and Dissension

Ever find yourself amazed at how some playwrights can just have a few people in a room, and the emotional results are like a UFC Cage Match? We’ll breakdown how they do that.

Materials:  Nobel-winner Harold Pinter’s play, The Homecoming and Pulitzer Prize-winner Jason Miller’s play, That Championship Season.

6. Adding Dramatic Layers of Meaning to Your Dialogue

Wait! Did that person really just say that? Wait! Did that really mean what I think it meant? We’ll look at ways to load your scenes with different meanings and different emotional notes.

Materials:  John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer-winning stage play (and screenplay for) Doubt.

7. Using Place and Time to Define Drama

Drama and conflict and personal growth can’t exist in a vacuum. We’ll look at the specific ways the time and place of your story can and maybe should define its emotional impact and arc.

Materials:  Emmy-winners Matthew Weiner & Robin Veith’s teleplay for the Mad Men episode, “THE WHEEL” and either Greg Mottola’s Independent Spirit Award-nominated script for Adventureland or Alfred Sole and Rosemary Ritvo’s screenplay for Alice, Sweet Alice.

8. Putting Crystallizing Emotional Moments in a Scene

Sometimes, a dramatic moment can occur in a story that rips open a character so you can look deep inside to see what makes them tick. We’ll dissect a few of those scenes, to see how they can work in prose.

Materials:  Jenny Lumet’s screenplay for Rachel Getting Married  and Tony-winner Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

9. Adding Details to Make a Story Pop

The effect of little things can be huge in a story. We’ll look at ways to choose the right things to get the most dramatic bang.

Materials:  Brian Helgeland’s Oscar-nominated screenplay for Mystic River, with some comparison to Dennis Lehane’s original novel.

10. Mining Simple Conflict into Complex Drama

Sometimes, a really simple situation can be a really deep and profound exploration of the human condition. We’ll look at ways to use simple situations and conflicts to load stories with heavy emotional punch.

Materials:   J.P. Miller’s teleplay Rabbit Trap and Paddy Chayefsky’s teleplay Marty .

To enroll, click here: http://tinyurl.com/3ctj92f  E-mail me at profmike AT mindspring DOT com if you have any specific questions or want any further information. Please note that scholarships are available for greatly reduced tuition. For more information on scholarships, please refer to the Grub Street page here.

Only a few days left to enroll in my new class in Pop Fiction writing at Boston’s Grub Street, The Smart Page-Turner Reloaded!  You can read my break-down of the class here. The official Grub Street description and registration page is here.

Here are some shout-outs for my Smart Page-Turner classes, by some former students.

“Mike Marano effortlessly distills semesters worth of literary theory into practical, usable tips that get you writing now.  Also, he sometimes holds class at the bar down the street.”  Kevin C.

“

“Whether you are a new or experienced writer, Mike Marano will teach you how to get into your own head–tease those ideas out–and get them onto a page so that they are powerful, poignant, and most importantly irresistible to readers.”–Mike M.

Cost is $430 for Grub Members, $455.00 for Non-Members. Registration deadline is SOON!. Class will meet for 10 Mondays from 6:30-9:30pm at Grub Street headquarters. Begins September 19th.

After some brainstorming on the part of Grub Street and myself, the core of what I’d previous mentioned would be my Master Class in Pop Fiction has been re-tooled into a new Level II, Intermediate class called… The Smart Page-Turner RELOADED! Students no longer have to apply to the class, as they would for a master-level class.

The Official Grub Listing is here:

http://tinyurl.com/3ctj92f

Cost is $430 for Grub Members, $455.00 for Non-Members. Registration deadline is September 15, 2011. Class will meet for 10 Mondays from 6:30-9:30pm at Grub Street headquarters. Begins September 19th.

Below is a tentative list of topics and readings; there’s a lot more material here than will be assigned, but these are the things I’m thinking about. I’ll be making final decisions soon. Some works will make the final cut. Some won’t. But here’s the lay of the land as it exists right now. For the most part, we’ll be reading the first few opening chapters (or scenes, in the case of plays or screenplays) of longer, full-length works.

We’ll be reading Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca in its entirety, so if you want to sign up, track down a copy or get it out of the library.

1. Writing with Purpose

Ever find yourself reading something written by an author who just doesn’t feel involved or invested in his or her work? We’ll look at writers who really know how to sink their teeth into their material, and find ways to emulate their focus and intent.

A short story by Robert E. Howard (don’t know which one, yet!); Rex Miller, Slob; Daphne du Maurier Rebecca

2.Suspense and Tension

What the hell is suspense? What the hell is tension? We’re told they’re important to maintain. But what are they made of? What are their components? We’ll take a look.

Daphne du Maurier Rebecca (con’t); Tracy Letts’ play BUG; one of Lee Child’s Reacher novels; Mark Boal’s screenplay for The Hurt Locker

3. What’s NOT Said

What we’re going to look at here is how some writers are really good at communicating dumptrucks full of emotional information by what is not said, through their ability to decide what their characters are holding back or are saying ambiguously.

Daphne du Maurier Rebecca (con’t); David Mamet, Oleanna; John Patrick Shanley’s play and screenplay Doubt; Judith Guest, Ordinary People and Alvin Sargent & Nancy Dowd’s screenplay for the film, Ordinary People.

4. Satire and Hyperbole

When you take something emotionally real and blow it up, you’re using the same tool that humorists use, even when you’re not writing about something particularly funny. We’ll look at the ways that satire and hyperbole can be used to be funny and tragic.

Rod Serling and Michael Wilson, Planet of the Apes; Evelyn Waugh, The Loved One; a short story by P. G. Wodehouse; John Le Carre, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Russell Braddon, The Year of the Angry Rabbit.

5. Pacing

What?! There’s a freakin’ asteroid heading to downtown Los Angeles, and this author decides to hobble the flow by throwing in a love scene? NO! We’ll look at ways to keep the action and the narrative moving.

David Morrell, First Blood or The Totem; Ian Fleming, Casino Royale, or From Russia, with Love or Live and Let Die.

6. Using Stanislavsky

Actors have a whole bunch of great tools to get into character’s heads. So… why can’t authors use those tools, too?

Kazuo Ishiguro, Remains of the Day or Never Let Me Go; Thomas Harris, Silence of the Lambs.

7. The Unreal City

To really use an urban setting, even to use it in a work of realism, you have to tap a really unique sense of the unreal. Poets like Baudelaire and TS Eliot figured this out. And so have a few really great prose authors.

Peter Straub, “A Short Guide to the City”; Hubert Selby, Last Exit to Brooklyn or The Demon; Thomas Harris, Silence of the Lambs (con’t).

8. The Wilderness

When you have characters in the wilderness, the real struggle isn’t always with the external wilderness, but the inner one. We’ll look at ways to tap that struggle.

Robert B. Parker, Wilderness; Michael Chricton, Jurassic Park; Thomas Harris, Silence of the Lambs (con’t).

9. Come to Your Senses!

We live in a media environment that’s defined by sound and images coming out of screens and speakers. A lot of writers have let their other sense atrophy, so that it feels like they’re just writing screenplays in prose form. We’ll look at ways to use the other senses we have to punch up our storytelling.

Patrick Süskind, Perfume; Elizabeth Kata, A Patch of Blue.

10. Negative Space

“Negative space” is a technique filmmakers use to define something important by surrounding it with emptiness, by letting the void around the important thing in a shot give it defining shape. We’ll look at ways to use this concept in writing, to make things that are not there in the prose more important, and meaningful, than the things that are there.

Bonnie Jo Campbell, a story from her collection American Salvage; Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man.

To sign up,  contact Grub Street here: http://tinyurl.com/3ctj92f

http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-58767-218-7

And the exhilaration of the book selling out in nine days:

 http://shocklinesforum.yuku.com/topic/17480#.Tjq9iRxIRtg

I just found out that my collection Stories from the Plague Years has been named one of Booklist’s Top Ten Horror Publications of the Year!

http://www.booklistonline.com/ProductInfo.aspx?pid=4944006

It’s always kinda nice to be on a list that includes Stephen King, if you’re in my line of work!

Below is a tentative list of topics and readings for my upcoming Master Class in Popular Fiction at Boston’s Grub Street, which will meet for 10 Mondays at Grub Street HQ in downtown Boston from 6:30 to 9:30 starting on September 19.

There’s a lot more here than will be assigned, but these are the things I’m thinking about. I’ll be making final decisions over the next few weeks. Some works will make the final cut. Some won’t. But here’s the lay of land as it exists right now. For the most part, we’ll be reading the first few opening chapters (or scenes, in the case of plays and screenplays) of longer, full-length works.

Having said that though, we’ll be reading two novels in their entirety. One will definitely be Daphne du Maurier‘s  classic Rebecca. Then we’ll either read Thomas Harris’ Silence of the Lambs (if not in its entirety, then a good chunk of it; if you’re squeamish, you can skip the scary parts!) or Michael Crichton‘s Jurassic Park (if not in its entirety, then a good chunk of it) or one of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels (if not in its entirety, then a good chunk of it).

1. Writing with Purpose

Ever find yourself reading something written by an author who just doesn’t feel involved or invested in his or her work? We’ll look at writers who really know how to sink their teeth into their material, and find ways to emulate their focus and intent.

A short story by Robert E. Howard (don’t know which one, yet!); Rex Miller, Slob; Daphne du Maurier Rebecca

2.Suspense and Tension

What the hell is suspense? What the hell is tension? We’re told they’re important to maintain. But what are they made of? What are their components? We’ll take a look.

Daphne du Maurier Rebecca (con’t); Tracy Letts‘ play BUG; one of Lee Child‘s Reacher novels; Mark Boal‘s screenplay for The Hurt Locker.

3. What’s NOT Said

Since this is an advanced class, we’ll assume you have some of the basics of dialogue down. What we’re going to look at here is how some writers are really good at communicating dumptrucks full of emotional information by what is not said, through their ability to decide what their characters are holding back or are saying ambiguously.

Daphne du Maurier Rebecca (con’t); David Mamet‘s play, Oleanna; John Patrick Shanley’s play and screenplay Doubt; Judith Guest, Ordinary People and Alvin Sargent & Nancy Dowd‘s screenplay for the film, Ordinary People.

4. Satire and Hyperbole

When you take something emotionally real and blow it up, you’re using the same tool that humorists use, even when you’re not writing about something particularly funny. We’ll look at the ways that satire and hyperbole can be used to be funny and tragic.

Evelyn Waugh, The Loved One; a short story by P. G. Wodehouse; John Le Carre, maybe Absolute Friends  or Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Russell Braddon, The Year of the Angry Rabbit.

5. Pacing

What?! There’s a freakin’ asteroid heading to downtown Los Angeles, and this author decides to hobble the flow by throwing in a love scene? NO! We’ll look at ways to keep the action and the narrative moving.

David Morrell, First Blood or The Totem; Ian Fleming, Casino Royale, or From Russia, with Love or Live and Let Die.

6. Using Stanislavsky

Actors have a whole bunch of great tools to get into character’s heads. So… why can’t authors use those tools, too?

Kazuo Ishiguro, Remains of the Day or Never Let Me Go; Thomas Harris, Silence of the Lambs.

7. The Unreal City

To really use an urban setting, even to use it in a work of realism, you have to tap a really unique sense of the unreal. Poets like Baudelaire and TS Eliot figured this out. And so have a few really great prose authors.

Peter Straub, “A Short Guide to the City”; Hubert Selby, Last Exit to Brooklyn or The Demon; Thomas Harris, Silence of the Lambs (con’t).

8. The Wilderness

When you have characters in the wilderness, the real struggle isn’t always with the external wilderness, but the inner one. We’ll look at ways to tap that struggle.

Robert B. Parker, Wilderness; Michael Chricton, Jurassic Park; Thomas Harris, Silence of the Lambs (con’t).

9. Come to Your Senses!

We live in a media environment that’s defined by sound and images coming out of screens and speakers. A lot of writers have let their other sense atrophy, so that it feels like they’re just writing screenplays in prose form. We’ll look at ways to use the other senses we have to punch up our storytelling.

Patrick Süskind, Perfume; Elizabeth Kata, A Patch of Blue.

10. Negative Space

“Negative space” is a technique filmmakers use to define something important by surrounding it with emptiness, by letting the void around the important thing in a shot give it defining shape. We’ll look at ways to use this concept in writing, to make things that are not there in the prose more important, and meaningful, than the things that are there.

Bonnie Jo Campbell, a story from her collection American Salvage; Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man.

To get more information about enrollment, you can check out the Grub Street page dedicated to the class here.  If you want to know about some of my teaching strategies, click here. To find out a bit more about me, click here. If you have any specific questions about the class, e-mail me directly at profmike  AT  mindspring DOT  com

Master Class in Popular Fiction

10 Mondays from 6:30-9:30pm at Grub Street headquarters in Downtown Boston, near the Park Street Subway Stop. Begins September 19th.

Description:

This class will give serious writers of short and novel-length popular fiction a versatile, practical tool-kit for adding literary dimensions to their work–be it SF, Romance, Mystery, Thriller, Satire, etc. Intended for students who are preparing or ready to submit their work professionally, the emphasis of this class, taught by an experienced editor, award-winning author and critic, will be on peer workshopping, creating viable strategies for submitting your work to the right venues, lectures and in-class exercises. Issues such as pacing and structuring of scenes will be covered. Works of smart, novel-length popular fiction will be closely examined in whole or in part in order to demonstrate ways in which specific tools taught in class can be applied. Some works of pop fiction will be examined as demonstrations of what not to do. There will also be lessons on re-purposing the story-telling techniques of playwrights, screen and television writers to prose fiction. Participation in this class is by submission only. To apply, please submit a 10-15 page novel excerpt or sample of short fiction to rowan@grubstreet.org by 12:00pm on Wednesday, August 31st.

http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/regional/drifter-bandit-arrested-santa-ana-marano-sheriff-bank-niguel-capistrano-125248469.html

http://news.yahoo.com/video/losangelescbs2-15750780/alleged-drifter-bandit-is-behind-bars-in-orange-county-25898124.html