STORIES FROM THE PLAGUE YEARS.
The acclaimed collection of horror and dark fantasy by Michael Marano, including the Shirley Jackson Award-nominated novella "Displacement". Pre-order your limited edition Trade Paperback from ChiZine Publications! While supplies last! Click here for more information!
Hey, Everyone! Please check out Jaym Gates‘s interview with me at SFSignal about the upcoming reprint from ChiZine Publications of my collection STORIES FROM THE PLAGUE YEARS. Chizine’s Brett Savory weighs in on the reprint, and you can preview some of the gorgeous interior illustrations by Gabrielle Faust, as well as the bitchin’ new cover by Erik Mohr. Please check it out and RT, if you get the chance! Thanks! Click here to read!
The cover of the current issue of SciFi magazine, featuring my interviews with Christopher and Jonah Nolan
Hey, everyone! Please check out, if you get the chance, my interview with Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises director Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonah Nolan (screenwriter on The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises) in the new issue of SciFi Magazine. It’s on stands now! These two guys are really smart, and it was a real pleasure to talk to them about things like: the ways in which Bruce Wayne is like Gatsby; how A Tale of Two Cities applies to Gotham and the different approaches to urban chaos perpetuated by the villains the Joker and Bane. Thanks!
Hey, everyone! My first set visit report about the new Total Recall remake has just gone live at Blastr . Check it out if you get the chance. I talk to stars Colin Farrell and Jessica Biel while they’re covered with fake bruises about memory, existential angst, and the catharsis of hitting and shooting things. The link is below. Leave a nice comment at Blastr, if you feel like it. Thanks!
http://blastr.com/2012/06/total-recall-stars-reveal.php
Hi, Everyone!
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
Hey! Just did some pretty awesome interviews at SuicideGirls. First up, for the new movie Source Code, I talked to Duncan Jones, who had made the really incredible Moon a few years ago. A very nice, personable guy who didn’t mind posing for a pic with me.
Next up, I talked to director Scott Charles Stewart and actor Paul Bettany about their new movie Priest, which opens this Friday.
So please check out these interviews, and please also “Like” them on Facebook and Tweet them, if you do in fact like them! Thanks!
Hey, Everyone!
I was cleaning up files on my desktop, and found this little nugget that I had to cut from my interview with Darren Aronofsky about Black Swan for the Syfy Channel’s Sci Fi Magazine (see the cover above). I cut the stuff to keep the word count down. I did the interview before I had the chance to screen the movie. And having now seen Black Swan (twice), I think it’s pretty pertinent to make a note of the filmmakers whom Aronofsky cites below. Pick up the mag for the rest of the interview… on stands now.
* * *
“The film is about performance. And what it takes to be a performer, and about artistic expression. There’s the rationality of sanity going on here, and [the question of whether or not Natalie Portman’s character Nina, the ballet dancer] is sane or insane.”
Since he’s riffing on the question of sanity or insanity, and since there seemed to be so much of Roman Polanski’s “Apartment Trilogy” of Repulsion, Rosemary’s Baby and The Tenant (about people maybe or maybe not facing supernatural evil in urban settings) in Requiem for a Dream, I asked if Polanski influenced Black Swan at all.
“Polanski definitely influenced the film with his use of the subjective camera [the use of the camera to “see” through a characters POV], subjective sound and subjective filmmaking. I’ve been a fan of his. When I did Pi, he was a big influence. We were definitely inspired by those movies. I think there’s some Cronenberg sprinkled in there. And even the Dardennes [Jean-Pierre and Luc, the two Belgian brothers who made Le silence de Lorna, famous for tight close-ups and hand-held shots] who really influenced The Wrestler, I think that carried over to this film.”
Hey… I’m posting this because I’ve been getting emails about the specifics of my upcoming “Writing the Smart Page-Turner” class at Grub Street in Boston this fall, which will be taught at Grub Street HQ in downtown Boston Thursday nights 7-10 PM starting on September 16. The gist of the class is–how do you make genre fiction… be it fantasy, science fiction, mystery, suspense, Western, erotica, whatever… literary? Yep, I toss around ideas about what makes certain works both popular and literary. But the class is specifically designed to be useful for the actual writing of novels and short stories. The instruction is practical, not theoretical.
“If only every teacher had the passion of Mike. He brings his rich background of book and film knowledge–and experience–and uses them to create classes that are a joy to attend. His comments on your writing are thoughtful, sincere, and designed to make you strengthen your writing muscles–no matter how developed or atrophied they may be.” John D., former student
The class will consist of detailed workshopping, brainstorming, in-class exercises, and the reading of some pretty great fiction. Here’s a breakdown of the class and what we’ll be reading.
Week 1. What Makes Fiction Popular? OK, what makes something a “Smart Page-Turner”? To warm up, we’ll be picking apart a few of those elements, tricks and techniques that give genre works literary heft. There are three factors that are key to this, and we’ll not just talk about each factor, but look at how they work together. Readings will include Ray Bradbury and a few others.
Week 2. Creating Characters–“Archaeology Without Digging” In this class we’re going to be pinching techniques from top Hollywood screenwriters, acting coaches, journalists and… believe it or not… archaeologists. Creating good, memorable, believable characters can be a daunting challenge, and ruthlessly stealing from other disciplines can give you an awesome toolkit for doing this. Readings will include (non-scary) parts of Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, who, it should be noted, was a top crime reporter before he became a crime fiction writer. We’ll take a close look at how he uses his reporter’s eye to create amazing characters.
Week 3. World Building and Setting In genre fiction, “World Building” is often thought of in terms of how it applies to the creation of imaginary worlds, like Dune or Middle-earth. But the same techniques that are used to create imaginary settings can also be used to create believable, visceral settings for mysteries, espionage stories, cop stories, and vice versa. Building on last week’s lesson, we’ll take a look at how character defines setting, and setting defines character. Readings will include Philip K. Dick, part of a Philip Marlowe story by Raymond Chandler, and Tom Perrotta.
Week 4. Exposition “As you know Bob–my twin brother and fellow operative with whom I grew up in Kansas–our briefing report from HQ summarizes that it is our objective to….” Ever roll your eyes at an expositional groaner like that? How do you get across the background information the reader needs to know without making a botch of it? We’ll go over some elegant techniques that get that information to the reader in ways that the reader at times won’t even notice. Readings will include Andre Dubus, John Cheever, and we’ll take a look at how James Cameron pulls this off in his better screenplays from the 1980s.
Week 5. Dialogue Bad dialogue can kill a great story. We’ll take a look at the work of people who can skillfully tell stories using almost only dialogue, like playwrights and the authors of radio dramas. We’ll see how playwriting techniques can be used in prose form, and also look closely at the work of playwrights who also write for the screen. Authors read will include Norman Wexler, Midnight Cowboy author James Leo Herlihy, and Sarah Kane.
Week 6. Point of View We’ll take a look at how POV actually defines plot, how it determines the narrative arc of a story, and can be used to create suspense. We’ll build on previous lessons to find ways to get deep into a character’s head, and to use that perspective to figure out not just what makes that character tick, but how he or she ticks in his or her world.
Week 7. Plot What is plot? How is what is not told to the reader just as important in the creation of a plot as what is told? Is the narrative climax of a work of fiction the same as its emotional climax? In addition to raking over these questions, we’ll go over some great “hands on” techniques for creating new plots and getting your creative pistons firing. Readings will include Annie Proux and maybe top Batman comic book writer Ed Brubaker.
Week 8. Theme Theme isn’t a one-way street. This session will focus on the ways that the reader contributes to an understanding of Theme right along with the author. We’ll talk about the themes in your fiction, how to develop them and make them dynamic. Readings will include Jack Ketchum and either Rosellen Brown or Tom Reamy.
Week 9. Meeting Weird Editorial Requirements Writers have to meet deadlines and deal with certain themes or topics when solicited, and some themes are just weird, or bewildering, or whacked. We’ll dig in and take a look at real themed anthology guidelines and find ways to cook stories suited for those markets. We’ll also find ways to create stories suited for several specialized markets, and take a look at how specific works have been developed for and sold to specialized anthologies. Readings will include William Faulkner and a few others.
Week 10. How to Work with Editors, Cover Letters, Submitting your Work So… what’s an editor do? What do they look for? The course will close with an examination of fiction that I have myself taken through the editorial process with other writers in my capacity as the Fiction Editor of the online magazine Chiaroscuro ( www.chizine.com ). We’ll also go over ways to submit professionally, and ways to strategize to whom you should send your work and how you should pitch it.
For more information on the class, you can click here. **To sign up, click here.**
**There are still scholarships available for radically reduced tuition. Call Grub Street at 617-695-0075for more information about these scholarships.**
You can contact me directly at profmike AT mindspring DOT com
Thanks stopping by! Hope to see you in the fall!
Inside the mind of author Michael Marano 