Ask the Author: Robert Ellis
Answered Questions (6)
Robert Ellis
Hi, Laura! Sorry it’s taken me so long to respond, but I really had to think this one over! And please understand that my answer only covers films, not television or cable series, and that what I’m saying is again, only my take on the situation.
At one level, I think I’m like most people in that I follow directors and actors, and that’s why I’m watching a movie. I can remember how popular the debate was in film school with Truffaut, Goddard, and others, claiming that the director is the author of the film. But does that mean a film director has the unique voice of someone who writes novels?
My answer is … not very often!
A director with a unique voice is an exception. Especially after Spielberg and Lucas turned movies into a spectacle that could be enjoyed by a larger, worldwide audience that didn’t necessarily speak English.
Sure. There are exceptions. I never needed to see the credits in films made by Hitchcock, Kubrick, Bertolucci, or Kurosawa to know by their style and “voice” that they directed the film. You may be able to list a handful of others, but still, it would be a small list. Most directors have no personal style at all and shoot coverage.
One of my favorite stories is the making of The Maltese Falcon. The film was directed by John Houston. Instead of laboring over the project, he handed his assistant a copy of the novel by Dashiell Hammett, told her to transcribe the text to screenplay format, then went fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. If you ever get a chance to see the screenplay, you’ll realize that she did just that. The screenplay is the novel word or word, the chapter breaks replaced with scenes.
Which brings us back to your question, and my new answer. Does a film director have a unique voice like an author?
And my reaction, for the most part, no, but that’s okay. The reason I go to a movie might be based on who directed the film and who’s acting in it, but what keeps me in the seat is the screenplay. The story. The man or woman who wrote the film. A film could be poorly photographed, the actors could be mediocre, the director’s touch nonexistent, but the film could still be good, even great, if the story’s great. And just the reverse is true as well. If the story stinks, a great director, great cast, and great cinematography could never save the day or keep us in our seats. It would always be seen as a bad movie!
Hope this helps a little and much thanks for asking such a fascinating question. By the way, if you want more on this kind of thing, I really suggest reading The Anatomy of Story by John Truby. It’s a great book by a friend of mine whose knowledge about the history and meaning of stories is unmatched. I personally believe that it should be a mandatory read for any creative writing course.
All best,
Robert
At one level, I think I’m like most people in that I follow directors and actors, and that’s why I’m watching a movie. I can remember how popular the debate was in film school with Truffaut, Goddard, and others, claiming that the director is the author of the film. But does that mean a film director has the unique voice of someone who writes novels?
My answer is … not very often!
A director with a unique voice is an exception. Especially after Spielberg and Lucas turned movies into a spectacle that could be enjoyed by a larger, worldwide audience that didn’t necessarily speak English.
Sure. There are exceptions. I never needed to see the credits in films made by Hitchcock, Kubrick, Bertolucci, or Kurosawa to know by their style and “voice” that they directed the film. You may be able to list a handful of others, but still, it would be a small list. Most directors have no personal style at all and shoot coverage.
One of my favorite stories is the making of The Maltese Falcon. The film was directed by John Houston. Instead of laboring over the project, he handed his assistant a copy of the novel by Dashiell Hammett, told her to transcribe the text to screenplay format, then went fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. If you ever get a chance to see the screenplay, you’ll realize that she did just that. The screenplay is the novel word or word, the chapter breaks replaced with scenes.
Which brings us back to your question, and my new answer. Does a film director have a unique voice like an author?
And my reaction, for the most part, no, but that’s okay. The reason I go to a movie might be based on who directed the film and who’s acting in it, but what keeps me in the seat is the screenplay. The story. The man or woman who wrote the film. A film could be poorly photographed, the actors could be mediocre, the director’s touch nonexistent, but the film could still be good, even great, if the story’s great. And just the reverse is true as well. If the story stinks, a great director, great cast, and great cinematography could never save the day or keep us in our seats. It would always be seen as a bad movie!
Hope this helps a little and much thanks for asking such a fascinating question. By the way, if you want more on this kind of thing, I really suggest reading The Anatomy of Story by John Truby. It’s a great book by a friend of mine whose knowledge about the history and meaning of stories is unmatched. I personally believe that it should be a mandatory read for any creative writing course.
All best,
Robert
Robert Ellis
Hi Laura!
I added this to my blog when another reader, Tracy M., asked a similar question. Please don't take it as anything more than my opinion based on my own experiences writing more than one novel!
I think that what gets in the way between books 1 and 2 is sort of the shock that your voice as a writer follows you from one book to the next. Here you are working on a new story with a new cast of characters and your voice as a writer hasn't changed one bit. The truth is that a writer's voice is the one aspect about writing that can't be taught, learned, modified or changed. It's something very unique that we're all born with. It's also the great identifier to your readers that you in fact wrote the novel they're reading. Even more, it's the big tell if a writer isn't doing their own work anymore, but putting their name on the cover! If the voiced changed, that means the writer did too!
Hope this adds a bit of something to the conversation! And thanks for the kind words about Matt Jones and City of Stones. Hope you'll hang around for what comes next!
All best,
Robert
I added this to my blog when another reader, Tracy M., asked a similar question. Please don't take it as anything more than my opinion based on my own experiences writing more than one novel!
I think that what gets in the way between books 1 and 2 is sort of the shock that your voice as a writer follows you from one book to the next. Here you are working on a new story with a new cast of characters and your voice as a writer hasn't changed one bit. The truth is that a writer's voice is the one aspect about writing that can't be taught, learned, modified or changed. It's something very unique that we're all born with. It's also the great identifier to your readers that you in fact wrote the novel they're reading. Even more, it's the big tell if a writer isn't doing their own work anymore, but putting their name on the cover! If the voiced changed, that means the writer did too!
Hope this adds a bit of something to the conversation! And thanks for the kind words about Matt Jones and City of Stones. Hope you'll hang around for what comes next!
All best,
Robert
Robert Ellis
Every writer, no matter how well organized he or she might be, experiences writer’s block at one time or another. I think it’s safe to say that the experience is painful for all of us. Sometimes it can be so difficult to deal with that a writer loses confidence and becomes overwhelmed with self-doubt.
For me there are two very distinct forms of writer’s block.
The first is the most common. A writer becomes stuck because he or she has lost their way in a chapter or scene and have no idea what comes next. If there’s one thing I’m certain off, one thing that all good writers share, it’s that they never start writing the first page of a story until they know exactly how that story is going to end. This seems to be true for people who write in all forms: novels, screenplays, or theatrical plays. To take it a step further, I don’t know any really good writers who don’t do the same thing when beginning a chapter or scene. If a writer doesn’t begin working on a chapter with an end in mind, then what’s the point of that chapter? Let’s face it, there’s no such thing as “filler” in writing fiction. So is that chapter really necessary or not? Is it moving the story forward? Tell me how!
By way of example, I believe this premise is true regardless of the task. Can you imagine constructing a building without a set of plans? What about a musician composing a longer work? Or an attorney presenting a case to a jury? Or even better, a sculptor? Can you imagine any of these people “going with the flow” or “feeling their way through it?” Eventually, if the sculptor doesn’t have anything in mind when he or she gets started, they’re probably going to run out of stone!
One of the best examples of avoiding writer’s block by knowing where you’re going is a film, one of the best romantic comedies ever made, Sleepless in Seattle. It makes no difference whether this genre interests you or not, just as it makes no difference if your only focus is in writing novels. We’re talking about the process of story now. The screenplay Sleepless in Seattle was written by Jeff Arch, Nora Ephron, and David S. Ward. If you watch the film, and you’ll need to watch it twice to see my point, you’ll realize that the end of the story was crystal clear in all three writers’ minds before they ever wrote the first word. Now watch Hitchcock’s Rear Window twice. What you’ll see and learn will blow your mind!
The advantage of knowing where you’re going in a story, beyond the avoidance of writer’s block, is that it gives the writer the ability to seed the story’s climax all the way through the work. What we’re talking about is knowing where you’re headed and setting up that ending from page one. If the writer did it well, the story is really going to pop, and will be so much tighter, so much more powerful than it would have been otherwise.
Sorry for the length of this post, but I would love to talk about that second form of writer’s block because this is the one I experience more often, and in the end, in a strange way, almost seems magical.
With this second form of writer’s block, I as the writer, know exactly where the story is going. I’ve worked out an outline and chapter list that I’m really jazzed about. Those first hundred pages are tough, but they’re always tough for everybody. So I’m past all that and feeling pretty good about things until one dark day the light goes off and everything shuts down! I’m lost. I’m filled with doubt. I’m working on a chapter, but can’t seem to get it right, and hour after hour I’m rewriting the same page! I check my notes, and everything about the way forward seems good. Still, it feels like I’m stuck in the mud. What gives?
This is where the magic comes in. And I’m not sure if this happens to other writers, but I’m working on my ninth novel and it’s happened to me every time.
I’m stuck, not because of the way forward. Instead, I’m dead in the water because of something I overlooked behind me! The problem isn’t in the chapter I’m trying to write. It’s in the chapter I finished two days ago! There’s a problem with it! And even though I didn’t see it, somehow I could sense it, feel it. Somehow I KNEW!
I go back and reread the last few chapters. After thinking it over, I make the fix, and move on. The writer’s block has come and gone!
For a while anyway!
Cheers to all! Hope this helps!
Robert Ellis
For me there are two very distinct forms of writer’s block.
The first is the most common. A writer becomes stuck because he or she has lost their way in a chapter or scene and have no idea what comes next. If there’s one thing I’m certain off, one thing that all good writers share, it’s that they never start writing the first page of a story until they know exactly how that story is going to end. This seems to be true for people who write in all forms: novels, screenplays, or theatrical plays. To take it a step further, I don’t know any really good writers who don’t do the same thing when beginning a chapter or scene. If a writer doesn’t begin working on a chapter with an end in mind, then what’s the point of that chapter? Let’s face it, there’s no such thing as “filler” in writing fiction. So is that chapter really necessary or not? Is it moving the story forward? Tell me how!
By way of example, I believe this premise is true regardless of the task. Can you imagine constructing a building without a set of plans? What about a musician composing a longer work? Or an attorney presenting a case to a jury? Or even better, a sculptor? Can you imagine any of these people “going with the flow” or “feeling their way through it?” Eventually, if the sculptor doesn’t have anything in mind when he or she gets started, they’re probably going to run out of stone!
One of the best examples of avoiding writer’s block by knowing where you’re going is a film, one of the best romantic comedies ever made, Sleepless in Seattle. It makes no difference whether this genre interests you or not, just as it makes no difference if your only focus is in writing novels. We’re talking about the process of story now. The screenplay Sleepless in Seattle was written by Jeff Arch, Nora Ephron, and David S. Ward. If you watch the film, and you’ll need to watch it twice to see my point, you’ll realize that the end of the story was crystal clear in all three writers’ minds before they ever wrote the first word. Now watch Hitchcock’s Rear Window twice. What you’ll see and learn will blow your mind!
The advantage of knowing where you’re going in a story, beyond the avoidance of writer’s block, is that it gives the writer the ability to seed the story’s climax all the way through the work. What we’re talking about is knowing where you’re headed and setting up that ending from page one. If the writer did it well, the story is really going to pop, and will be so much tighter, so much more powerful than it would have been otherwise.
Sorry for the length of this post, but I would love to talk about that second form of writer’s block because this is the one I experience more often, and in the end, in a strange way, almost seems magical.
With this second form of writer’s block, I as the writer, know exactly where the story is going. I’ve worked out an outline and chapter list that I’m really jazzed about. Those first hundred pages are tough, but they’re always tough for everybody. So I’m past all that and feeling pretty good about things until one dark day the light goes off and everything shuts down! I’m lost. I’m filled with doubt. I’m working on a chapter, but can’t seem to get it right, and hour after hour I’m rewriting the same page! I check my notes, and everything about the way forward seems good. Still, it feels like I’m stuck in the mud. What gives?
This is where the magic comes in. And I’m not sure if this happens to other writers, but I’m working on my ninth novel and it’s happened to me every time.
I’m stuck, not because of the way forward. Instead, I’m dead in the water because of something I overlooked behind me! The problem isn’t in the chapter I’m trying to write. It’s in the chapter I finished two days ago! There’s a problem with it! And even though I didn’t see it, somehow I could sense it, feel it. Somehow I KNEW!
I go back and reread the last few chapters. After thinking it over, I make the fix, and move on. The writer’s block has come and gone!
For a while anyway!
Cheers to all! Hope this helps!
Robert Ellis
Robert Ellis
We spoke earlier about reading a novel more than once to see how the story works. But the truth is, the workings of a good novel are sometimes difficult to see. In a film, if the story isn't working, there's nothing an actor or director or cinematographer can do to make the movie a good movie. In a film, all we see is story. In a novel, the story could be off the mark and we might still call it a good read. Think of the complexity of the reading experience. First and foremost is the author's voice. It might be the thing we like most about the finished work. Maybe it is the story after all that grabs us, or the characters, or even the dialogue that draw us in. It could also be said that the reader brings so much to the process. I've always thought that it takes two people to make a good novel. The writer who thinks up the work and fleshes it out in words, and the reader who brings their imagination to the book, sees past the words and fills in all the blank spaces with detail. So my advice for aspiring writers (at least in the beginning) would be to study the books they love most, but also the films they love just as much. (Just one thing to keep in mind, the best writers these days are working on cable series, not theatrical motion pictures. Stories of length like that are not going to help you write a novel, so make sure your film picks stand out. Also, it could be said that Dashiell Hammett and Thomas Harris are two of the greatest novelists who ever lived. The reason I mention it is this. When their novels were made into films, their stories were so tight that they went straight from book to screen. If you pick up the screenplay for THE MALTESE FALCON, what you'll find is the novel -- word for word -- translated into screenplay form by the assistant to the director, John Huston. When I saw it, I had to catch my breath!)
Robert Ellis
Who murdered the girl buried in the woods? And why didn’t her parents report her missing?
They say every good story begins with a question. And as THE GIRL BURIED IN THE WOODS opens, this is exactly what's on Detective Matt Jones's mind!
They say every good story begins with a question. And as THE GIRL BURIED IN THE WOODS opens, this is exactly what's on Detective Matt Jones's mind!
Robert Ellis
I've been writing and working with my editor and cover designer for my new thriller, THE GIRL BURIED IN THE WOODS (Detective Matt Jones, Book 3). It's my favorite story so far ... but I always say that after a new book's wrapping up! Still, we've been at it all summer long, so finding reading time has been really difficult. My novel comes out October 3, and I'll have free reading time after that! At least for a while until I get started on Book 4! I'm not sure about other writers, but I do more rereading than reading. I like to read novels I love three or four or even more times just to see how they work, but also, to enjoy them like spending time with old friends. I also never allow myself to read a book in a single day. I like to sleep on it, and waked up in the morning looking forward to getting back into it with my fictional friends!
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