Dream Weaver Novels by Su Williams: CAN YOU USE CAMERA TECHNIQUES IN WRITING A NOVEL?

We interrupt this blog post...momentarily...for this GREAT announcement! The cover art for Dream Weaver is a semi finalist in the AuthorsdB.com cover contest! Thanks to all who voted! New info on the semi final vote will be posted here in the near future. We now return you to the previously scheduled post....

I'm not exactly sure how I found CS Lakin, but I'm glad I did. I don't subscribe to a lot of blogs, but Lakin's 'Live. Write. Thrive.' is one I love. So, I wanted to share her blog with my visitors.

Susanne, tell us a little about yourself.

I’m a novelist, a copyeditor, a writing coach, a mom, a backpacker, and a whole bunch of other things.

I teach workshops on the writing craft at writers’ conferences and retreats. If your writers’ group would like to have me teach, drop me a line. I live in California, near San Francisco, just so you know how far away I am from you and your writer friends. I also enjoy guest blogging, so contact me if you’d like me to write a post on writing, editing, or Labrador retrievers (just threw that in there; I’m not an expert but I love them). I am, however, quite the expert on pygmy goats. I ran a commercial pygmy goat farm for ten years and delivered a lot of kids! So, if you need some goat advice, I’m your gal.

A novelist, copyeditor, and writing coach? What kind of services to you provide?

I love to help writers with their novels. I specialize in thorough annotated critiques (I do about 200 partial and full manuscripts a year!), so if you have a manuscript that needs some work or you’re not sure if it does, check out my site specifically dedicated to my critique services. You’ll find a lot of informative articles on why you might need a critique and how to choose the right editor for your needs. Not many copyeditors are writers, and few know how to critique all the major elements that hold a novel together.

Wow, that sounds great! What kinds of resources can working authors expect to find on your blog?

CS and Coaltrane

Here are a couple of articles I wrote for other authors.
first page checklist for Novels
Fiction Critique Checklist
And some posts I've written as a guest blogger.
How to Tap into Your Passion Every Time You Write ~ on Write to Done
The Secret to “Show, Don’t Tell” ~ on Wordplay, K. M. Weiland’s blog
5 Key Questions to Ask as You Write Your Novel ~ on Write to Done

You have a unique technique (say that fast 3 times) that you share with authors, in which, you combine writing and film. Tell us about some of those posts.

Cinematic POV—Anything but Subjective

In last week’s post I introduced the POV shot used in movie scripts. In a screenplay, when a POV shot is specified, the writer is instructing this segment of film to be shot as if looking through the eyes of a particular character (or object, as we saw in the excerpt from The Fugitive). Sound familiar? It’s exactly what novelists do all the time. But there’s a difference.

Remember, the camera has no thoughts or feelings; it only observes and records. It’s a way of shifting what the camera is seeing, but it’s not subjective. It’s wholly objective. And this, for most novelists, is a bit foreign. For, POV and subjectivity seem to go hand in hand, right? Not in screenplays.

Using the camera shot POV is a great technique novelists can imitate. For some writers, the idea of showing a scene completely devoid of emotion, reaction, internalizing, and opining may seem counterintuitive—or downright counterproductive. Isn’t the whole point to tell a story up close and personal?

Follow Along for a Powerful Camera Shot

Depending on the point of view and style of writing, moving shots can either seem like they are occurring inside the character’s head in the way they view and interact with their world or can appear as if we are watching the character in motion. Follow simply means what it implies: the camera follows the character in action. In a novel written in omniscient POV, the camera will often “follow” the characters and action as the story is told. In a novel using first-person point of view, writers can give a sense of “following” the character by moving along with them as they go about their business.

Pan to Take It All In

This week we’re going to talk about PANs. No, not the things in your kitchen. A PAN is used by the screenwriter to tell the camera to move from one place to another. PAN stands for panoramic and implies the camera pivoting while mounted or on a tripod. A PAN operates in real time, showing how long it takes or how far a character has to move across a space, and it can show the spatial relationships that exist in the story.

PAN left, PAN right. Why? To get the reader to shift focus and draw her attention to some detail. It emphasizes the character noticing something. Or looking for something. Or following something.

I love this! It has given me a great perspective on my writing. I'm so glad I found you! But you're not just an editor and blogger. You're also a writer. These are just a couple of your books.