Robert Ellis: Do you need to be like the hero in your novels?

 

Do you need to be like the hero?

I just received a wonderful email from Sarah, a reader in West Los Angeles, who bought the three new editions of the Lena Gamble novels and read through them in five days. She wanted to know how a male writer could create a female character with such clarity and realism. Her question eventually came down to this: Do you have to be like the people you write about?

I think it's a great question and extremely relevant today. Especially because there are two sides to the question Sarah’s raised. First, the easy answer. If you’re writing fiction, then you’re not writing an autobiography. I didn’t need to be a woman to write Lena Gamble just as Ann Biderman didn’t need to be a man to create a great tough guy like Ray Donovan. None of us need to be a bank robber or safe cracker to feature either one in a crime story. None of us need to be detectives or attorneys or doctors. To take it all the way out, none of us need to commit murder to write about a murderer. But what we all need to do is research, and a lot of practice working on the character’s voice.

Ann Biderman, Creator of Ray Donovan

 

The second answer to Sarah’s question is just as important to me because she’s put her finger on how I think most thrillers work. The reader needs someone in the story to identify with. Someone who isn’t a superhero that the reader can imagine might even be them. Someone who’s inexperienced and probably not prepared to be tossed into a world of characters and situations that are terrifying. It’s only my opinion, but I think we get pleasure out of seeing the story through their eyes and hoping they’ll survive the chaos until the end.

This is one of the main reasons I don’t spend much time describing the heroes in my novels. What does Lena Gamble look like? How about Matt Jones? You might find a paragraph or two in a single novel, but usually it’s a glossy depiction that can easily be missed. Why? Because I want readers to think they’re Lena and Matt.

Sarah, I can’t thank you enough for the question! Great timing, too! I’m so pleased you loved the Lena Gamble novels, and hope I’ve been able to add a bit of something to the discussion!

All best,

Robert

Lena Gamble Novels on Amazon

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Robert Ellis: Does a Film Director have the Unique Voice of an Author?

Second question, Robert, and it’s related to what you just posted. Do you think it’s possible for a film director to have the same unique voice of an author?

 

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.

John Houston

 

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 is, 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!

John Truby's Master Writing Class

 

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

https://www.robertellis.net

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