The Writing Process

You’re Not Alone

/ J. Paul Cooper / Leave a comment

A few years ago a playwright wrote in a local newspaper column that he was about to lose that source of income, because the column was being cancelled. He was concerned that he wouldn’t be able to continue writing full-time. At the time I thought, so what? Only a small portion of writers can earn enough money through writing to pay the bills, so they do what they have to do. But that doesn’t make it any easier. My experience, which I’m sure many writers can relate to, is the only time I’m “in the flow,” is when I’m writing.

This weekend professional golfers are competing in the Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Course. Watching these athletes, you can see their intense focus and admire their excellent eye-hand coordination. They are ambitious and determined, and could excel in many other careers, but at some point they had to decide whether it was worth the risk to give up other options and focus on a career in golf.

Writers go through a similar process. Many years ago I came to the conclusion that I’d earn more money working “normal jobs,” than writing. Making a living as a writer can be a struggle, putting together a patchwork of incomes from royalties, writer-in-residence stints, government grants that you continually have to reapply for, teaching seminars, freelance writing jobs and ghost writing…. From the data I’ve seen, I earn more money as a Forklift Operator, than many writers earn.

Perhaps the most difficult part of being a writer, who doesn’t write for a living, is you may find other types of work a struggle. If writing is your gift, it might feel like you spend your life trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. If so, you’re not alone.

The next time you pass a golf course and see all those part-time golfers swinging clubs, consider that, if only for a short time, they are in the flow. Then take out your laptop and spend some time writing, let your passions flow on the screen. Maybe you can only write part-time, but in that time you can create stories that no one else can.

Copyright © 2025 by J. Paul Cooper.

Review: BBC Maestro, Harlan Coben/Writing Thrillers

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Recently, I paid $69 CDN for the BBC Maestro Course: Harlan Coben – Writing Thrillers. Since it involved a Black Friday discount of 40%, I didn’t pay the regular price, but even if I had paid the full price, it would have been worth it.

As soon as I saw Harlen Coben’s name on a course, I was interested. The first novel by Harlan that I read was The Stranger, which was adapted for a drama series by Netflix and they were both excellent. As far as credentials go, visit his website, http://www.harlancoben.com and look up his name on the Internet Movie Database http://www.imdb.com, because there’s no room to list all his accomplishments in a single blog.

Although you could listen to all course lessons in one sitting, they are divided into ten to twenty minute segments on each topic, which makes it convenient for anyone with a busy schedule.

The course material is beneficial for both beginning writers and experienced scribes who want to want to think deeply about their craft. Even though most of the videos consist of Harlan sitting in a chair, talking, I didn’t find the material boring; I was inspired to start writing again, something I’ve been procrastinating about for far too long.

Jack Canfield has said about his book, The Success Principles, “the principles always work, if you apply the principles.” The same can be said about the material in Harlan Coben’s BBC Maestro course, if you take his advice seriously and apply it to your writing, your writing will improve. Although the course description is Writing Thrillers, the material covers all the key aspects of writing a novel, and would also be useful for writing science fiction, or any genre that involves drama.

As for myself: Over the last three weeks, two of my short stories have been accepted for publication by literary journals, and one of my screenplays made the quarterfinals of the Final Draft/Big Break screenwriting competition.

Copyright © 2024 by J. Paul Cooper

Back To Basics

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Have you been having a difficult time starting a new project? Perhaps the problem is you feel you can’t start unless you already have a complete story concept. The solution begins with one scene.

Since you’re a writer, you always have at least one scene that sticks in your mind and one character that stands out in that scene. That’s all you need. Begin by describing the scene: Where is the scene located? Is inside or outside? If it’s inside, is it the bridge of a vessel at sea or a room in a casino? What details would someone immediately notice if they were standing next to your character?

Is the time of day an important factor in describing the scene? Will darkness make the scene more menacing? If the scene takes place on a space ship, time may be a disorienting factor, because there is no sunrise of sunset to give your character a sense of the passing of time. You might note that lighting inside the ship varies, depending on time to day to compensate.

What type of dialogue is taking place in the scene? Is your character talking to someone, or is it an internal dialogue that no one but the reader hears? If the character is talking to someone, are their voices raised, or are they whispering?

Is your main character experiencing any emotions? Does your character feel threatened? Is he/she relaxed? Is your character bitter or angry? Jealous? Envious? Since stories tend to be driven by emotions, establishing how your character is feeling in a scene is essential. Spock has always been one of the most intriguing characters in the Star Trek franchise because of his struggle to suppress and control his human emotions.

Action is the final piece of the puzzle. What is your character doing? A scene doesn’t require a lot of movement to be dramatic. A character sitting in a chair and struggling to breathe, can be just as engrossing as two characters fighting on a moving train, because in both cases we understand it’s a life or death struggle.

If you’re waiting until you’re in the “flow” to start, you’ll waste a lot of precious time. For a writer, starting to write a scene is like a musician picking up her electric guitar and plugging it into the amplifier. Nothing happens until she starts playing. For all us wordsmiths, nothing happens until we start writing.

Copyright © 2024 by J. Paul Cooper

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Don’t Panic!

/ J. Paul Cooper / 2 Comments

Have you ever had a period of time when you stop writing? That’s what I’ve been struggling with lately, but fortunately, through years of experience, I’ve learned there’s no reason to panic.

A PAUSE ISN’T PERMANENT. There are many reasons writing can become difficult; a change in your work schedule, events in your life that require your full attention, stress that makes it difficult to concentrate. The dilemma faced by writers, is your vivid imagination allows you to write fiction, but it also allows you to imagine terrible outcomes, even if they are unlikely to happen. It’s easy to imagine that you’ll never write again, but, as the old saying goes, “This too will pass.”

YOU HAVEN’T LOST YOUR TALENT. Eventually, you will start writing again, and when you do, the words will begin to flow. Immediately, you’ll remember how much you love creating characters and the worlds they live in. Writing isn’t just what you do, it’s who you are. Don’t be surprised that even if you take an occasional break, you’ll probably be writing for the rest of your life.

YOU MAY STILL BE WRITING, YOU JUST AREN’T AWARE OF IT. Sometimes it’s difficult to write, because your mind is creating a puzzle in your sub-conscious and there are missing pieces. You sense the frustration and label it as Writer’s Block, but it’s just because your mind has been working overtime to solve a problem. One day you’ll you have a brilliant story idea, it’ll feel like you’ve been struck by lightning, when you’ve actually been working on it for months.

YOU MAY BE OLDER, BUT YOU ALSO HAVE MORE EXPERIENCE. If due to life’s ebb and flows you haven’t been able to dedicate time to writing for a long period of time, you don’t need to be discouraged. A Writer isn’t like a professional athlete who’s considered at the end his or her career at 40 years old. The opposite is true; the older you get, the more knowledge and personal experience you have to draw on for stories.

WRITING PROVIDES MANY OPTIONS. Can’t finish that short story? Try writing an essay. Frustrated with that Science Fiction novel? Write a murder mystery. You can’t complete that historical novel, but you’re convinced it’s a great idea, then tell the story as a screenplay. The combination of genres and formats is endless, and if you’ll just try one, they all lead to the same goal, to start writing again.

Copyright © 2023 by J. Paul Cooper

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A Toxic Word

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August 25th, 2023 was a day marked on the calendars of many writers, because it was the day the quarter-finalists were announced for the Final Draft/Big Break Screenwriting Contest. I was one of the many who were disappointed that their entry didn’t make the cut. It’s on days like that, when you’re discouraged, that you have to make an effort to avoid negative self-talk. One of the worst words you can use, is the highly toxic term, wannabee.

The term wannabee is dangerous for writers because it can be so discouraging, making us feel that only writers who have written bestsellers or have won awards are real writers and the rest of us are, well, just wannabees. And yet, we are writers, because we continue to craft stories, with no guarantee that our work will be published or if self-published that it will be popular.

If you have a private pilot’s license and you enjoy flying your single engine aircraft, you’re not a loser because you aren’t in the cockpit of an F-35 jet fighter. You just love to fly, and take to the skies every chance you get. Writers love to sit down at a keyboard, accepting the challenge of taking the images in their minds, and creating original stories that others can read and enjoy.

Any challenge worth pursuing involves risk. The fact you’re willing to accept risk by entering contests, submitting work for publication, or posting it in public, knowing it may be criticized, proves you aren’t a wannabee. How serious a writer you are, can’t really be measured by how much you write, because everyone’s schedules are different. Being discouraged doesn’t make you weak, because disappointment can be very difficult to overcome.

Consider how many chain stores you see in shopping malls. You could walk through a dozen shopping malls and barely seen any difference, other than the order in which the stores are arranged. And the food courts? You can probably guess the brands before you see them. If you’re actively writing, you aren’t a wannabee, you’re an artist accepting the responsibility of creating something unique every time you write a story.

The reason that you can write something original, is because you’re an original. Only one person out of over seven billion has your imagination, and that’s you! Take some time today to write, and show us what you can do.

Copyright © 2023 by J. Paul Cooper

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I Think I Have a Great Story Idea

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I’ve lost count of the times I thought I had exceptional story ideas, but they didn’t produce the literary success I had anticipated. Does that mean I was wrong? How do you know whether a story idea is indeed, “great.”  

It seems obvious that J.K. Rowling had a fantastic story concept with the Harry Potter series, since each novel was an international bestseller, and they were all adapted as blockbuster movies. The first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, however, was rejected by twelve publishers. If J.K. Rowling had given up after eleven rejections, would it have meant the story concept was flawed? No, but a manuscript with significant potential might have been lost forever.

What about originality? Can a story idea that has themes like those found in other books or movies, still be considered original? The television series Babylon 5 and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine were set on space stations, and for five years (1993-1998) both were on air at the same time. The movies White House Down, and Olympus Has Fallen were both about a terrorist attack on the White House and released in the same year, 2013. Can you imagine telling animation companies that they must stop producing movies with talking or singing animals, because it has already been done? A story idea must have some distinct elements, but writing a story that is absolutely unlike anything else that has been previously written, might be an impossibility.  

The reason so many stories can have similar themes yet retain aspects that set them apart from other stories, is because they flow from the minds of unique individuals. Two writers will not image the same characters or create identical worlds. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien and the A Song of Fire and Ice series by George R R Martin both include dragons, and battle scenes, but you’d never get them confused.

Perhaps exceptional story concepts are distinguished by how many ways they are adapted. The novel, War Horse by Michael Morpurgo was adapted as a feature film The War Horse (2011) by Lee Hall and Richard Curtis. It is also a play, adapted from the novel by playwright Nick Stafford.

Although it’s not something you can anticipate while writing, the possibility exists that you won’t know you have a great story idea while working on a project. Writer Stieg Larson died in 2004, before his crime trilogy, beginning with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, became international bestsellers and were later adapted as feature films.

Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee publishing companies will accept your manuscript, even if it’s based on a great concept. Scarcity is a reality that affects all aspects of life, including literature and editors are forced to reject manuscripts with great potential, because budget constraints limit how many books they can publish.

The most important question, however, is whether you’re going to write. Your story idea might result in a bestselling novel, an Oscar winning screenplay, or a Tony (Antoinette Perry Award) winning play. It might be an eBook forgotten in an endless sea of thumbnails, or another screenplay that’s never produced. Is it worth it? Absolutely! What I’ve observed in other writers, and experienced myself, is there’s sense of accomplishment when you finish a writing project, and joy in the process as you let the creative juices flow.

I’m starting a new project. I don’t know whether publishers or producers will think my concept has potential or if they’ll just ignore it. Nevertheless, I will be writing, because I think I have a great story idea.   

Copyright © 2023 by J. Paul Cooper            

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Do Your Characters Have Quirks?

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It’s been many years since I’ve seen this character on television, yet I can still hear his voice when I’m walking through the dessert section of the grocery store, “COOKIES!” Why? There were no expensive CGI effects on Sesame Street. You remember the Cookie Monster, because no other character is quite like him, he’s one of a kind. You can see a reflection of yourself in the Cookie Monster, because he’s obsessed with cookies, and everyone is obsessed with something.

When Arnold Schwarzenegger says, “I’ll be back,” in The Terminator (1984) you’re anticipating his next move. It’s an action movie, so you know that someone’s going to get killed, or something is going to be blown up. If you’ve watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban (2004), you remember Professor Snape saying, “Turn to page 394,” despite the fact he didn’t say it during an exciting scene. Allan Rickman developed a cadence for his character’s speech that was so unique, you can’t forget what he says.

Watching a B movie, the first thing you’ll notice, is there’s nothing about the characters that you can relate to, they’re just cardboard cutouts; constructed from layers of cliches. They don’t feel “real.” One science fiction movie I started to watch, began with a soldier who has gone rogue, he’s ignoring his commander’s orders to stand down. How many times have you seen that happen in a movie? A maniac has kidnapped a woman, and he’s acting exactly as you’d expect a maniac to behave, wild eyes, screaming, making threats, etc. What’s unusual, or memorable about these characters? Nothing.

As you’re writing, think about whether the movie that’s showing on the movie screen in your head is a B movie. Do your characters have any traits that will make them memorable? Consider Saving Private Ryan (1998); all the characters are wearing uniforms, so they aren’t distinguished by their clothing. but each one has a distinct personality that makes them feel like real individuals. And that’s what draws you in, it allows you to wonder what it would be like, to be in their situation. Likewise, if Captain Jean Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994) feels like a real person, then you can imagine what it might be like commanding a starship.

There are endless options when developing characters; age, gender, height, clothing, speech (cadence, accent, slang), occupation, food preferences, where they were born, where they’ve lived, there hopes and dreams, who they’ve loved, how they voted…. Throw in time travel and things get really interesting; he was born in 21st Century, but has been sent back to live in the 17th Century. If you’re writing science fiction, you’ll have to stretch your imagination to make an alien character stand out from other aliens!

The reason you can create unique characters, is because you are a unique human being with a unique imagination. You hear people say, there was only one Steve Jobs, or there was only one Jimmy Hendrix, and that’s true, but there is also, only one you. Keep writing!

Copyright © 2022 by J. Paul Cooper

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Who Knows You’re A Writer?

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Since you talk about it, your friends, family, and co-workers know that you’re a writer. If someone asked any of them, they’d say it’s your hobby. For many writers, however, it’s more than a hobby, it’s a passion, it’s who they are. So, how do you make the point that you’re serious about the craft of writing, and reach people that can help you develop a career?

Submit Your Work: This may seem like an obvious step to take, but it can be frightening, especially for beginning writers. You may have written a literary masterpiece, but no one will know will recognize your talent, unless they can read it. It’s possible to spend years on a novel, constantly making changes, and never submit it to a publisher, or self-publish it. It’s true that if you never make your writing public, no one can criticize it, but it also means no one can appreciate it.

Join A Writing Organization: Many writing organizations have member pages, where you can include a photo, a brief bio, items that you’ve had published (or self-published), and information about the types of writing you’re interested in. Recently, after someone saw my profile on a writing organization’s website, I was invited to be a guest author on a television show about writing. It will be aired later this fall on a community television station; so only few people will see it, but it does demonstrate how having a profile can be effective.

Look For Unusual Opportunities: Two of the most unique writing opportunities I’ve come across have involved coffee and beer. The first involved short stories being published on cardboard coffee cup sleeves, the ones they put on cups to protect your hands from the heat. The second one involved a brewing company, they were looking for short plays (54 words) to print on their beer cans. In both cases, the author’s name was included, so potentially thousands of people would see the names of the winning writers.

Start Blogging: If you’ve been reading blogs by writers, now’s the time to join us, and share your passion for, and knowledge of writing with everyone. You’ll never know what your potential is, or who will read your blogs, until you get started.

Note: I was profiled in the “A Day in the Life” section of the Calgary Guardian (www.calgaryguardian.com) on October 26th. I also finished writing a feature-length screenplay and entered it in a competition.

Copyright © 2022 by J. Paul Cooper

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A Player at the Literary Casino

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If you’re a writer, you’re a gambler, even if you’ve never played blackjack or roulette. You make bets at the literary casino with the most valuable, irreplaceable resource – time.

Perhaps the greatest challenge is deciding how much time you’re prepared to wager on a single bet. You start writing a short story, but soon realise that fully developing the concept will require a much larger project. You were prepared to gamble a few hours on a short story, but are you willing to go all in with several months or a year on a novel?                                                 

When you’re a player at the literary casino, you must be flexible, ready to change the game. You have a great story idea which you plan to write as a novel, but then you find out a local theatre company is looking for new plays. Why not roll the dice, and write one based on your story idea? If your play is chosen, your name will appear in the program; an excellent opportunity to raise your public profile. A good review mentioning your name in a newspaper or magazine would be even better     

Playing at the literary casino requires strategy. Once you’ve finished writing a book, do you send the manuscript to a traditional publisher, or do you self-publish? It could take months or years to find a traditional publisher willing to print your book, but it’s more likely to be placed in physical bookstores and libraries, than self-published books.

If you want to keep costs down and publish your book immediately, you can self-publish an eBook. The downside is that, if it’s only available as an eBook, it won’t be as visible as physical books on shelves and display tables.

Due to the popularity of self-published eBooks, a new industry has developed: pre-made eBook covers. Although it’s convenient, you have to be careful, because some of the eBook cover designers offer the same cover for multiple sales. In other words, you could end up buying a cover that has already been used for another writer’s eBook.

Especially for writers without an agent, trying to sell feature length screenplays is probably the most challenging game at the literary casino. It’s a high-risk gamble with time, because many film and television companies won’t read a screenplay unless it’s submitted by an agent, and some agents won’t take you on as a client, until you’ve already sold a screenplay, or at least had one optioned.

Fortunately, there are still some film companies willing to accept unsolicited screenplays from writers without agents. Before they read your screenplay, however, you’ll have to sign a release agreement, acknowledging that they may have already received screenplays with concepts similar to the one you’re submitting. It will be difficult (if not impossible) to take legal action if they produce a film with a concept similar to the one you’ve submitted. Despite the potential risk, I’ve submitted screenplays to numerous film and television companies, after signing release agreements. If you want to play this game, you better have steady nerves.   

Imagine that you’ve just had a screenplay accepted by a film company. If they’re willing to pay you up front, that’s great, but you might be asked to make a wager on the film itself. An independent film company with limited resources might offer you a deferred payment option, promising you a portion of the film’s profit. Although it’s possible the film won’t make any money, and therefore you won’t get paid, don’t walk away from the table yet; there’s still the onscreen credit to consider. The cold, hard reality is that until you have an onscreen credit, the film and television industry doesn’t know you exist. Even if the deferred payment option doesn’t put any cash in your bank account, you should make sure you get an onscreen credit for your efforts.   

Consulting with a lawyer is always a wise decision before signing contracts. As with agents, lawyers know what has to be included in contracts,mmn to protect your interests.  

What’s exciting about the literary casino is that once you learn the basics, there’s no limit to the games you can play. The writing skills you acquire in high school and university are the building blocks you need to write blogs, articles, essays, short stories, plays, novels, non-fiction books, and screenplays. Once you decide to play, the only question is how much time you’re willing to wager. The stakes get higher, the more hours you spend working on a project, but so do the potential rewards.

A warning to anyone interested in betting their time at the literary casino; writing is addictive. There are novelists and screenwriters who’ve earned millions through their craft and could retire at any time, but continue to create new material. They can’t stop, because they love the game.   

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It’s In The Bag

/ J. Paul Cooper / 1 Comment

It’s a very simple, but effective premise; your character finds something he wasn’t expecting to find, and is faced with a moral dilemma. The 2007 movie, No Country For Old Men, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, and A Simple Plan (1998) adapted from the novel by Scott B. Smith are both based on this simple concept. In both cases the main character finds a bag full of cash. These are excellent examples of beginning with the question “What if?” and then thinking about the worst possible outcomes. You’re basically giving yourself the freedom to be paranoid.

Starting with this one idea, finding something unexpected in a bag, has immense potential. What if the coach of a professional soccer team is organising the team’s equipment before a game and finds a severed head in one of the equipment bags? Who put it there? How did that bag get mixed with the team’s equipment? Was it there to send a message to someone on the soccer team, who owes serious money to a very aggressive loan shark and/or the mafia?

Is your novel or short story a Western? A bag full of cash could fall off a wagon, or stagecoach. Are you writing a science fiction screenplay? An extra crate could be found in the hold of a deep space cargo vessel, containing an unusual device. What happens when a member of the crew tries to activate it, and is successful? Does she find herself in another galaxy or dimension?

To ratchet up the tension, you can have your character do the right thing and still end up in a life threatening situation. He finds a large cache of cocaine and calls the police. Unfortunately for your character, a crooked cop takes the cocaine, but doesn’t drive it to the station or record that he’s taken custody of the illegal drugs. A short time later, members of a drug cartel, who owned the warehouse where the drugs were found, arrive in the city. Now, the corrupt police officer needs to kill your character, before the cartel members talk to him.

As you can see, the possibilities are endless. The next time you’re not sure where to go with a story, try asking these questions: What could my character find, that would complicate her life? What could my character find, that might get him killed? What could one of my characters find, that would send the story in an unexpected direction?

Keep writing, there’s still time to tell great stories in 2022!

Copyright © 2022 by J. Paul Cooper