Good afternoon.  It is Gigi your resident parti poodle.  Today my author will be continuing her Anatomy of a Chapter.  There was an emergency this week.  I was down to my last few treats.  Luckily my novelist timed the treat order so it arrived yesterday.  It was like receiving beluga caviar in the mail.  I wanted her to order my delightful sandwich cookies as well but alas they can only be ordered sixteen and a half pounds at a time.  As I weigh around five pounds you can imagine my novelist was not willing to make the purchase.  Without further ado here is my novelist.

Today I’m going to continue my anatomy of chapter one of Chicane. As the ladies perform their pole dance, Bard, the biggest and brainiest of Cody’s friends leans over and whispers to Cody, “We should drive the girls back to the cabin tonight.” A defensive Cody says, “Why? The rooms these girls have at the Mountain Thunder Lodge are dope.” But Bard argues, “That’s the point. They’re their rooms. If we get them on our turf, they’re our rooms.”

Cody faces a conundrum. On the one hand his plan is to get lucky. But on the other hand, he wants to get lucky in Breckenridge. He doesn’t want strangers in his cabin and no one including Bard, Klaus and Shaun is allowed in Mitch’s room.

Then Shaun, the jerk of the group weasels his way into the conversation. He agrees with Bard and pressures Cody. “They’ll totally put out at your crib!” he says. Here I slip in another clue: Cody’s Audi RS6 Avant. This would be a desired car amongst wealthy Denver skiers. Both Bard and Shaun offer to drive Cody’s car which Cody adamantly refuses. I make a point to repeat “Audi RS6 Avant” a few more times to make sure the reader takes notice. In making his friends the first ones to pressure him I also show whatever it is about that room it is Cody’s problem exclusively and not his buddies.

Shaun describes Cody’s cabin to Bianca. “Cody has a sweet cabin in Nederland,” he tells her. “It’s got like five bedrooms, yo.” An impressed Bianca then relays the information to Miyuki, Nevada and Shayla. And then Klaus takes Bard and Shaun’s side of the argument to head back to Nederland. Cody loses the fight and is pressured to relent. The motley crew heads for Cody’s cabin.

As Cody, Bard and Klaus arrive in Cody’s Audi RS6 Avant, Cody tells Bard, “I’m locking Mitch’s room. I don’t want anyone in there.” Bard knowing why Cody is on edge says, “Let’s just enjoy the girls’ company for a few nights and call it good.” Cody becoming agitated taps his finger on the steering wheel (another clue) and warns, “Keep them out of Mitch’s room.” Before the boys go inside, I introduce one of Cody’s quirks: he never gets out of a car on the driver’s side. He always climbs over and exits out the passenger’s side instead. The reason I do this is partly because race car drivers can be superstitious. It’s also a foreshadowing.

Cody’s cabin is based on the interior of actual cabins in the Boulder, Colorado area and so once the group arrives and heads inside, I take time to describe it. I want to give the ambiance of a warm, expensive, comfortable place which feels safe. In addition, I want to point out the game room where Cody keeps his trophies: “Over to the right side was a game room which contained a pool table, a poker table, a chess and checkers table and a couple of vintage video arcade games.” I did not put “a couple of vintage video arcade games” last in the list for no reason. It is put there to catch the reader’s attention.

After they enter the cabin Cody whispers to Bard that he’s going upstairs to lock Mitch’s room. And again, his private conversation is overheard this time by Shayla, the woman Cody is interested in. She flirtatiously asks if she can come. But even her charms cannot steer Cody off his course. He must lock the room. As Cody goes up the stairs alone, everyone watches him. Shaun tells the women, “He’s got like dead bodies in that room.” Although Shaun is being snarky it reminds the reader once again this is a story about death. This is shortly followed up with Shayla’s line, “Who’s Mitch?” and her question is ignored.

Next week I’ll continue my anatomy of Chicane’s first chapter.

 
STREAM OF THE WEEK: HBO’S MINISERIES CHERNOBYL
Chernobyl is not an easy watch. But everyone sixteen years and older should be required to see it anyway.  A remarkable if not landmark piece of filmmaking, the drama Chernobyl  brilliantly chronicles through five episodes the terrifying April 1986 accident. What should have been a routine night at the infamous nuclear powerplant goes horrifically wrong due to two pivotal human errors.  The psychology involved surrounding the event bears eerie relevance to the psychology surrounding Covid-19.  A lot of viewers out there are watching Outbreak and Contagion, but I think this one captures the mindset of human beings at the time of a monumental crisis far better.  An absolute five star must see.

Good Afternoon.  My name is Gigi and I am a parti poodle.  I am the owner of the novelist who writes this post.  Today you are in for a treat.  My novelist is going to begin doing an anatomy of the first chapter in her book Chicane.  I am patiently waiting for her to finish so we can go outside and romp about in the sunshine.  My novelist is rather unhappy with me because last night I got into a scrap with the Maltese…but because I am a good owner all is forgiven and we are looking forward to a pleasant afternoon.  Also, because the Corona virus has all of us staying at home and watching movies, she is going to do a new feature called Stream of the Week at the end of this post.  

Chicane was not my first novel.  The book series I am getting ready for publication was my novel.  But Chicane was my shortest novel and so I chose to publish it first. When I did publish it, I saw that Amazon put the entire first chapter up for the “look inside” feature. I decided this wasn’t a bad thing necessarily…except for the explicit adult content. Although I like to keep my blog to a G or PG rating, my books, alas are R to NC-17.  That aside, it makes it possible for me to do an anatomy of a chapter for the next few blog entries which everyone can view provided they’re 17 or older.

For me the first couple sentences of a novel are crucial, so I had to think about what I wanted to convey right off. The first lines of Chicane are, “He’d decided to sell the cabin. It was final.” Now why did I choose those words? Why didn’t I say something more like “After putting his cabin up for sale, he and his buddies headed for Breckenridge.” It’s because saying it that way doesn’t tell you anything.  Chicane is a story about the pursuit of redemption.  But it’s also a story about death.

The word “decide” means to kill off all other choices. Cide from Latin means “killer” or “act of killing”.  The protagonist, Cody, has chosen to kill his options.  Using these words provides the reader insight into Cody’s character.  The second line “It was final.” also alludes to death. To emphasize death further I wrote “All the remains, knickknacks, personal mementos, and small valuables were taped up in moving boxes and stacked methodically in Mitch’s room.”  Remains of course refers to a dead body.  The idea of the remains being taped up in moving boxes implies coffins.  Having them methodically packaged and put into one room implies a tomb.

But then I switch gears and write, “But today was about the powder. The pure white virgin snow generously blanketing the ski resort up in the Colorado Rockies.” With pure white virgin snow, I altered the tone from death to innocence and life. The dark stuff is buried in the cabin and youthful innocence is celebrated in Breckenridge. Now we’re in the opulent and youthful world of a premier ski resort. It’s Christmas time and the young rich are at a hook up bar living like Romans, drinking, dancing and on the prowl. Macallan Scotch, which Shaun, one of the protagonist’s friends is drinking, is not cheap.

Then I decide to weave into the dialogue a hint. “Did you check out those custom-made ones Klaus had on today?” Cody asks his buddy Bard in reference to Klaus’s skis. To which Bard respond, “I thought he was going to come out of them and break his fucking leg.” The conversation is a foreshadowing. But I wrote it to seem like a segment of casual conversation between two buddies at a bar about their third buddy.

I provide another foreshadowing  in reference to the Japanese woman the drunk Klaus is dancing with.  Bard points out Miyuki means “snow”. In fact, all four of the women the boys are dancing with refer to winter and the weather. Bianca means “white” and relates to snow. Nevada means “snow covered”. Shayla is a variant of the name Shaila which means “mountain”. This becomes important when another character is introduced later in the story.

When Shayla and Nevada first hit on Cody and Bard and we quickly find out Cody is a good negotiator.  The women want Cody to buy them drinks but he wants something for his money:  a pole dance out on the floor. The reason I picked this bar as the setting for the scene is because it actually has a dancing pole out on the floor…or at least it did when I wrote the story.  I liked the masculine element of the pole and also the best position in a car race is pole position.

Cody’s a winner. He’s a winner on the track and a winner with women. He collects trophies and the women at the bar are in his mind just that. Of course, I picked the song “Little Red Corvette” by Prince for the ladies to dance to because Cody is a racecar driver. I love picking out songs for my books. It sets the tone for what’s going on. Lyrics are especially important in songs even if you cannot print them in a book.  Every novel I write has a reference to songs and that means research. I don’t just pick the song because I like it. I pick it because it works in the story.   I’ll continue on with my anatomy of the first chapter of Chicane next week.

STREAM OF THE WEEK: It Takes a Lunatic  

Since everyone is staying home because of Covid-19 I thought it might be fun to do a weekly movie recommendation for a film you may have passed over that is presently streaming on either on Netflix, Amazon, HBO or Showtime.  This week I’m picking the Netflix documentary It Takes A Lunatic.  If you are into acting it’s an interesting biography about one of the top acting teachers in New York City named Wynn Handman who established The American Place Theatre.  He was instrumental in launching the careers of Richard Gere, Sam Shepard, Frank Langella, Lauren Graham, Eric Bogosian, Connie Britton, John Leguizamo, Chris Cooper, Bill Irwin to name just a few. The film says he’s still teaching today at the age of 97. The documentary is more for theatre buffs (not musicals) but I enjoyed it and thought I’d mention it.

I post every Thursday.  In the meantime you can check out my novel Chicane on Amazon.

 

 

 

Good evening. I am happy to announce my treats arrived this week and I am now stocked up on my favorite goodies. Unfortunately, I must share them with the Maltese…but sacrifices must be made. Tonight, my novelist is going to elaborate a bit more on writing ensemble casts. Next week she is going to focus on analyzing the first chapter of her novel Chicane. Without further ado here’s my novelist.

So far, the lockdown for Covid-19 has been a productive time for me. I’ve gotten more writing done than usual and not found it difficult to stick to a routine. Like twenty to twenty-five percent of the population stuck at home, we’re loving this because we’re introverts. We don’t need people in the same way extroverts do. We don’t need to shake hands. We don’t need mindless chitchat. We don’t need to crush against each other at clubs with badly penned music blaring out of steroid induced electronic funnels. We embrace social distancing. If they say six feet, we say twenty-four.  If we can see you, you’re too close. This world is our oyster right now. If only there wasn’t a microscopic psychopathic Terminator at the root of it all. Why can’t the world be more like this every day without a deadly disease pulling the societal puppet strings?

On a completely different note I thought before I analyze the first chapter of Chicane, I’d talk a bit more about writing an ensemble story.  So again, unless someone is paying you to write a piece, always write the story you love. That’s how you can keep several characters in your head. You love being with them and the world they inhabit. Remember, a novel is like a marriage. If you don’t want to be with a certain story for the long haul, if you don’t want said story haunting you day and night, if you don’t want to wake up in the morning thinking about it and going to bed at night thinking about it even more, you had better find a different tale to get hitched to.

Now, if you do need something to assist you in organizing your nest of characters in your mind, a great way to curb confusion is to do character maps. Character maps are basically a list of attributes which define a character. Keep in mind the more you work with your characters the more you get to know them, and I find I refer to these lists less and less as I go along.   Here is one example.  Here is another.

Another good tool is to write out a one-page backstory.  Where was the character born, what was their inciting incident that happened to them before the curtain went up on the story and what does their closet look like? What kind of clothes do they wear, how do they arrange them, what shoes do they put on every day etc. A good book for some of these exercises is this The Weekend Novelist.

Yet another great way to familiarize yourself with your characters is to use an exercise I learned in a class once.  Provide the character three traits and then add a fourth trait which is wildly different from the other three.  Let’s say I have this guy who’s a computer programmer, he’s never had sex and lives at home with his parents. Okay, that’s three traits. But let’s add to that list that he’s moonlighting as a nude model for a college art class. That’s a little different, now isn’t it? Maybe he’s falling for one of the artists in the class who would never have anything to do with a computer programmer. Maybe his parents are ministers for a church. Maybe someone is secretly taking pictures of him naked and posting them on the internet and he’s getting a lot of hits. You see where I’m going with this.

Another option is to base your characters on someone you know.  This way you already have some of their traits committed to memory. You don’t have to make them exactly like said person but you can borrow things from them such as the way they style their hair, the color of their eyes, the type of clothes they wear, the way their voice sounds, the hobbies they love, the mannerisms they have. One thing I was taught in writing class was if you do base a character on someone you know, give that character a trait the real person would never want to have.

Also, don’t forget the location you choose is a character in the story as well. For instance, in my novel Chicane, the Colorado Rockies are integral to the plot. Without them there’s no tension, no ticking clock and no force with which to catapult the protagonist through his journey. I spent hour upon hour watching video footage online of the area where my story takes place. I had to know what the homes looked like, what the stores were like, what the roads were like to travel on, what the inhabitants were like, what type of trees grew there, etc.  In contrast, the book series I am getting ready for publication is set in Burbank, California which is a completely different type of landscape.  But it too is integral to the plot of my series.

But even after doing all these things the point is still to form a deep bond with your characters and enjoy doing it. Whether they are good or bad or somewhere in between if you couldn’t describe your character to someone without looking at a list on a screen or piece of paper you don’t know them well enough.  Be proficient in your knowledge of your characters so you can fully and enthusiastically describe them to someone you know…or don’t know.

I post every Thursday.   That’s my schedule.  In the meantime you can check out my novel Chicane on Amazon.

 

Good evening. Gigi here. How about that Covid-19? What a nasty thing! I’m sure you as well as my novelist have had to make unexpected and unpleasant alterations in your daily routine. Some of you may even be ill and others may have suffered through unimaginably horrific events. My novelist tells me she has never seen anything like this in her lifetime. Being a parti poodle at this point in history has been fortunate so far as we canines don’t seem to be suffering from this outbreak…except of course I cannot get my favorite treats. My novelist ventured out to the grocery store early this morning and found when she arrived there was a line longer than you’d find at the first showing of a Star Wars film. She took one look at the situation and turned around and came home. She located another place to procure my treats from, but I will have to wait a week for them to arrive. Luckily, she has enough in stock to carry me over until they do. On a more serious note however, I wish everyone health and hope and comfort during this bizarre and worrisome historical event.

Today my novelist is going to talk a little bit about her book series she is getting ready for publication. So, without further ado, here is my novelist.

Presently I’m preparing a book series I wrote to publish on Amazon. It’s one novel, actually…one very long novel. I gave myself a challenge a few years back to see if I could write a 500,000-word story in three years. And I did. It’s a satire and it was a lot of fun to write. In fact, the most fun I’ve ever had on any writing project. I’m editing it some so it may not be exactly 500,000 words but it will be close.

Because it’s difficult to sell a book the length of Atlas Shrugged or Infinite Jest these days I’ve decided to break said novel into several books. When I first took on the project initially, I thought it would be a challenge to pen because the story required an ensemble cast. Everything I’d written before had small casts as in two to four main characters. I thought there’s no way I’m ever writing an ensemble piece. But as it turned out it wasn’t as daunting as I anticipated.

What I learned about from writing a novel with a larger cast is as always to love the story and get to know the characters and how they interact with each other extremely well. I know there are some people out there who use index cards and white boards to keep all their characters straight, but you don’t have to. If you can immerse yourself in the story, it’s possible to get to know imaginary people on a deep level.

For me these characters are like old friends. I know what their voices sound like, what kind of clothes they wear, how their hair is styled, their little quirks and habits. It was a blast living in their world. I even visited some of the places they dwelled in the story and experienced those places through their eyes. I took a lot of pictures so I could see what they saw. For places I couldn’t revisit I rifled through photos online, so I knew what the buildings and locations were like and the layout inside. I found photos of their clothes, shoes, accessories, items they owned and used.

One of the more interesting challenges I encountered was providing them with different accents as they all came from different parts of the United States. I also had to learn some of the colloquialisms from around the country. For instance, if you are in the Northwest or Midwest you might say “pop” but in the Northeast you would say “soda” and in the southern states it would be “Coke”. And when I did these things, I had to be consistent throughout the story making sure each character was authentic in a whimsical way.  But after a while, it becomes second nature and you get used to it.  And it’s fun.

I will keep you posted as to when the first book is coming out and how many there will be in the series entire.  I will also be talking about my book Chicane doing analysis on it in the upcoming blogs.  I post every Thursday.  That is my schedule.   While you’re waiting for my next post you can check out Chicane currently available on Amazon.

 

 

Good evening. Today my novelist will talk about personality types and how they view time differently. I for one am a dog and therefore time confuses me. But since I am an ENTJ I do tend to be very focused on my goals such as making sure that Maltese doesn’t get to sit in my novelist lap and that mailperson bringing a box of tea to the doorstep better not mess with me. Anyway, here is my novelist.

One interesting way to look at personality type in characters is to examine how they perceive time. This is described in Keirsey’s book Please Understand Me Two within each of the descriptions of Artisans, Guardians, Idealists and Rationals.

Artisans live in the now. They impulsive people who are completely disconnected from thinking about the past or the future. This makes them great actors, athletes, musicians, dancers, fraternity members, used car salespeople and con artists. Consider Ben Quick in The Long Hot Summer. Enchanted by Varner’s daughter, Clara (Noel in the television version) a strait-laced school teacher guardian, Ben is constantly trying to get her to go out, live life and tear up the countryside. He is not thinking about what tearing up the countryside would do to his business relationship with her father. He just wants to go out and have fun.

Another excellent though more sinister example of an Artisan would be Clinton’s psychopathic older brother Berry-Berry from All Fall Down. He is charismatic and charming but has no problem traveling aimlessly about the country while using beating up and stealing from women if he gets what he needs right then and there. Not to mention the way he drives his doting mother and alcoholic father insane.

Guardians on the other hand look to the past. They are traditionalists and love holidays, clubs, cults and anything else revolving around rituals. And they do not like any type of change whatsoever because they are pessimistic and concerned things will go wrong as they often do. Their mantra is the future is dark. This explains a lot of Hollywood films involving science fiction. If you’ve got around forty percent of the population dreading the what lies ahead, you’ve got a lot of guardians wanting to watch movies about a bleak and terrible future. How Star Trek got made I’ll never know.  Guardians are also defeatist when looking to the past.  Doom is inevitable.  It’s no one’s fault.  It’s just the way things are. These martyrs therefore embrace the pain and suffering because there’s no choice. Misery is predetermined.

The character #1 from the movie 9 is a great example of someone who is determined to keep everything status quo even if it means leaving one of the rag doll creations out for the Great Machine to suck out its soul. Where #9’s idea is to figure out how to destroy the machine #1’s idea is to hide from it. Doom is inevitable. Things remaining the way they are is how to best stay safe in his mind, even if two of the rag dolls are at risk in the great unknown.

Idealists, however, look to the future with incredible optimism. They embrace the future with open arms. The sun will come out tomorrow. Their outlook on the world is to be noble. They live to support others and are willing to sacrifice themselves making them abstract and philosophical individuals. They can see the good in anyone which is extraordinary and different from the other personality types. And they are indeed likely to become writers, missionaries, teachers and cult leaders. The time is tomorrow for them and they focus on what could be rather than what is. They have vision and tend to be on the front end of new ideas and movements. Many of them are responsible for women’s rights for example because they could see a better future. They also tend to be intelligent and transcendent in their view of things.

A great example of an idealist is Elle Woods from Legally Blonde. Despite all the odds of her getting into Harvard Law School she is accepted with her 4.0 GPA and her bright colorful and creative outlook on life. Along the way she inspires and transcends the lives of several people who would have remained sullen and stuck in their lives had she not come along and presented a better and brighter perspective.

The Rationals are probably the most difficult group to understand as far as their perspective on time. Time is not linear for them as it is for other personality types. It is instead confined and defined as an event. Rationals operate outside of time. Only occurrences occupy time. Time for them is virtual. Time is conditional. Time is created by events rather than being a method in which they occur. Therefore, they make great scientists, science fiction writers and droids from a galaxy far, far away.

Take for instance Clarise Starling from The Silence of the Lambs. Yes, Hannibal’s an extremely dangerous criminal. But her goal is to catch Buffalo Bill and Hannibal has the tools with which to do so. Clarise knows what Hannibal is capable of, but unlike other characters in the story she is not as fearful of him as she is of not achieving her goal. It does not take her long to get close to the glass he is behind on their first meeting. If she must break the physical barrier between them and take something from his hand, she will. The outcome is what matters, not the journey. The event of capturing old Billy is what she is completely and utterly focused one. That and of course becoming an FBI agent which is what capturing that moth obsessed lunatic will get her.

I post every Thursday. That’s my schedule. While you’re waiting for my next post check out my novel Chicane currently available on Amazon.

Good evening. As you probably know I am Gigi and I am a parti poodle. Tonight, my author is going to be discussing personality types and romance. Being an ENTJ my romantic partner would be an INFP. Unfortunately for me Maltese make horrible INFPs. That said, I hope you will enjoy my author sharing this method she likes to use in her writing.

The adage “there are plenty of fish in the sea” may sound reassuring because it’s true for many. But for others it’s a complete lie. Personality types are not evenly balanced. There are a lot more of some temperaments than there are of others. For some people there are a lot of fish and for others there are fewer more specific fish. I like to think of it as some characters shop at Walmart and others shop at Nordstrom.

You might think the dominate difference between people is extroversion vs. introversion. And yes, these elements do come into play but the real determinant which decides whether two people are attracted to each other is sensory vs intuition. The world is 74-80% sensory. Only 20-26% of the world is intuitive. A sensory personality type can cast a big net out into the sea and attract a large group of fish to choose from. An intuitive cannot.

Again, there are four temperaments: Artisans, Guardians, Rationals and Idealists. The Artisans and the Guardians are sensory. The Rationals and Idealists are intuitive. When it comes to romance and sexual attraction, Artisans match up with Guardians and Rationals match up with Idealists. In other words, sensory is attracted to sensory and intuition is attracted to intuition.

Now one might argue if that’s the case would not Guardians seek out Guardians, Artisans seek out Artisans etc. In other words, the idea “birds of a feather flock together”. But according to Jung we seek out not our equal but rather our compliment. We seek out what we lack that completes us, the opposite part of us we have not developed, expressed or sought after. This is well demonstrated in Dr. David Keirsey’s book Please Understand Me II chapter 7.

Take for instance One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Now that doesn’t look like a romance at all. But in truth it is. Nurse Ratched is a Guardian. R.P McMurphy is an Artisan. More specifically Ratched is an ISFJ and McMurphy is an ESTP. Notice how each one is the opposite letters of the other except S for sensory. Ratched represents bureaucracy. McMurphy represents spontaneity. From the moment McMurphy enters the psych ward the sparks fly Each one is the opposite but complimentary of the other. Each one needs what the other has. But in this story neither one can accept what they are missing, especially Nurse Ratched and things spin wildly out of control creating a timeless meditation on the sinister nature of institutions.

One of the most famous romances is between intuitive characters Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. Elizabeth is a whip smart ENFP and Darcy is a brooding but brilliant INTJ. Again, notice all the letters are opposites except for N. What I’ve always found fascinating about the story is after Darcy proposes to Elizabeth and is shot down, he is pragmatic in his attempts to resolve the issue. He creates a system with which to win Elizabeth’s hand by hunting down her wayward sister and the conniving Mr. Wickham and getting them hitched up appropriately, encouraging his friend Bingley to propose to Elizabeth’s sister Jane after breaking the two up originally and denouncing his Aunt’s wishes before boldly proposing to Elizabeth again. Darcy intuitively knows he must solve these puzzles not only to win Elizabeth’s heart but also to change her mind.

One clever thing to do when writing a love story is to put unusual but complementary personalities together. Remember, personality types don’t care about political correctness. Personality tests have shown most women have feeling personality types and most men have thinking personality types. But not all men are thinkers nor all women feelers. Putting an ENTP female with an INFJ male is not going to be all that common. Putting an ISTP female with an ESFJ male is not going to be all that common either. But these people do exist, and these combinations do work, and they work well.

If you’re looking to write a volatile disastrous relationship put people together that have no business whatsoever being together. Guardians are the opposite of Rationals. They hate each other. Idealists are the opposite of Artisans. They hate each other too. If you want a romance to be doomed from the start put an ENTP with an ESFJ. Nothing good will come of it. If you want a war put an ESTJ with an INFJ and let the carnage begin. These love stories are usually doomed from the beginning.

I’ll post every Thursday. That’s the schedule. While you’re waiting for my next post check out my novel Chicane currently available on Amazon.

 

 

Good evening. As you know I am Gigi and I am a parti poodle. Tonight, my novelist begins a series of posts on personality types for characters. I myself am an ENTJ. This is because I think big picture and like to oversee everything. Right now, I am overseeing a new chew stick. My novelist has been using this approach for many years now and enjoys how it helps her compare characters. We hope you’ll enjoy this series as I gnaw on my chew stick and consider my next move towards becoming CEO of a major pet supply company.

While I was studying screenwriting, my day job was doing computer phone support. We had a group of guys who did desk side support as well and one of them talked about going to a party where everyone took the Keirsey Temperament Sorter. Curious, I asked him about the test, and he directed me to a website where I could take it online. My experience with personality types was love at first site. I was so enthralled with them I sent a link to the people in my screenwriting class to see what their results were. One of the writers thought the test was supposed to be for her characters and tested her protagonist instead. That’s when I realized what a great idea she had by happenstance. And from that point forwards I give my characters personality tests.

Now, I know the Big 5 may be a more accurate assessment of human beings. However, as a writer I’m dealing with fictional characters and not real people. Comparing fictional personalities using the Big 5 it’s a lot more difficult than using the Keirsey Temperament Sorter unless you are quite knowledgeable about psychology. I’m not saying you can’t do it, but I think you’ll be pulling your hair out. I find Keirsey’s test to be straight forward, easy to understand and seamless when it comes to comparing temperaments.

My all-time favorite site for describing each of the sixteen personality types is Not Your Typical Personality Types. This site makes it easy to know which character is which and why. It’s also well written and hilarious. When I am asked what an ENFJ is I can simply say they are a cult leader and people understand what I’m talking about. I always have this web site in my toolbox.

Also, in my toolbox are both of Dr. David Keirsey’s books Please Understand Me: Character & Temperament Types and Please Understand Me II: Temperament, Character, Intelligence. I think every writer should have these in their library. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve referred to them not just for writing but for other odd things life throws my way. Doesn’t matter if you get them new or used or downloaded to your device. They go far more into depth than what your going to find out on the internet unless your paying for it so you might as well get the books. The books also have the test in them so you can test and grade your characters as needed.  A couple of good sites to take the test online are 16personalities , Truity  and humanmetrics.

Essentially there are four temperaments and each temperament break down into four groups.  These groups are the Artisans, the Guardians, the Rationals and the Idealists. Each of these groups breaks down into four groups making sixteen personalities in all.   A few quick things you need to know for characters. Worldwide there are far more Artisans and Guardians than Rationals and Idealists. The Artisans take up 38-40% of the world and the Guardians take up about 38-40% of the world. That makes about 76-80% of the world’s population. Rationals take up about 10-12% of the world and Idealists take up about 10-12% of the world making a combined total of about 20-24% of the world population. The Rationals and the Idealists are thus outnumbered. But don’t be fooled. They have ways of making up for this.

What separates the Artisans and Guardians from the Rationals, and Idealist is Sensory vs. Intuition. More people are sensory than intuitive. If you were to hand an Artisan or a Guardian a pencil and ask them what it is, they would tell you it is a pencil. But if you handed a pencil to a Rational or an Idealist, they might tell you it is an unwritten theorem or novel. In other words, the Artisans and Guardians focus on what is. The Rationals and Idealist focus on what could be.

One thing you might not think about is that personality types coagulate. Which is to say birds of a feather flock together. A group of athletes is likely to be mostly made up of artisans. A group of nurses is likely to be made up of Guardians. A group of scientists is likely to be mostly Rationals. A group of writers is likely to be Idealists. There are exceptions to these rules but essentially if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, well guess what? Sometimes you will get a mixture of two opposing groups. Teachers, for instance are mostly made up of Guardians (over 50%) and Idealists (over 30%). These people barely get along but for some reason gravitate towards the same occupation. This makes for excellent conflict if you were to write a story involving schoolteachers.

Next week I will talk about romantic attraction between personality types and which personality types are mortal enemies.  I post every Thursday. That’s the schedule. While you’re waiting for my next post check out my novel Chicane currently available on Amazon.

Good evening.  It’s Gigi the parti poodle here again for another weekly post.  Today my novelist is going to do the blog she previously promised to do last week.  Today we’ll conclude this short series of movie lists and next week we will start on one of my favorite writing topics: personality types.  But for now, I am going to curl up in my soft leather chair while my novelist discusses movies passed over for screenwriting nominations by Oscar. 

It was surprising to me when I was putting this list together the number of great films which got past over for screenwriting nominations for the past two decades.  Let’s be honest.  This film era has not been stellar.  In the 90’s you couldn’t throw a wild cat without hitting a movie worth watching.  These days it takes a lot more hunting around.  The golden age of the independent film era ran from approximately 1989 until 2001.  And it’s been a dreary dry spell ever since.  Occasionally you’ll find a sleeper like the one I watched this last weekend, The Art of Self Defense.  If you haven’t had a chance to see this weird little gem, I strongly suggest you check it out.  Jesse Eisenberg is outstanding in the lead role.  It’s quirky, original and  its own animal.  If you’ve ever had any experience with self-defense training, you’ll have a ball with it.  It’s written and directed by Riley Stearns who may be one to watch.  I look forward to his next project.  

Now for the list. Why any of the films here were passed over is a complete mystery to me and you should make it a point to watch each one of them.  Here’s just a few examples:

I had the pleasure of re-watching Zodiac a week ago and what a pleasure it was.  The film is nearly thirteen years old and it still looks like it was made yesterday.  Its as chilling as ever and beautifully written.  What a job James Vanderbilt did piecing together such an expanse of time with utter deftness.  It never bogs, never confuses us, never looses its tension.  And yet its script was completely ignored by the Oscars. 

If you think this year’s Oscar winner Parasite was good you should look at his earlier film Memories of Murder.  Based on a true story about a Korean serial killer, the film is both funny and disturbing and resonates for days after viewing.  Much like the brilliant Citizen X the film explores the brutal toll hunting down a psychopath takes on its police force and the frustration of 1986 DNA technology.

If your looking for a love story its hard to dispute one more passionate than Head-On (Gegen Die Wand).  A gritty and beautiful film about a woman who wants her freedom and the man she marries to get it.  This won twenty-five international awards but apparently that’s not enough to merit an Oscar nod for its spectacular original script…and will probably be stolen and remade by Hollywood in years to come.

And if you really want something that slaps you in the face and knocks you to the ground check out 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, an absolutely riveting timebomb about a young Romanian woman who frantically attempts to assist her friend in getting an abortion in 1980’s Romania.  It will rip your guts out. 

I post every Thursday.  That’s the schedule.  While you’re waiting for my next post check out my novel Chicane currently available on Amazon.

25 GREAT SCREENPLAYS NOT NOMINATED FOR A SCREENWRITING OSCAR 2000-2019

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
21 Grams
Blue Ruin
Bubba Ho-Tep
Chicken Run
Donnie Darko
Head-On (2005)
Isle of Dogs
It Follows
Leave No Trace
Maria Full of Grace
Memories of Murder
Monster
Mud
Mulholland Drive
Oldboy (original)
Roger Dodger
Take Shelter
The Lives of Others
The Lookout
The Machinist
The Town
The Wrestler
Walk the Line
Zodiac

Good evening.  As most of you know my name is Gigi and I’m a parti poodle.  Love is in the air because tomorrow is Valentine’s Day.  I am here to wish you all the hearts and flowers and of course chocolate (white chocolate only for me because I’m canine) in the world.  My novelist and I were going to post a list of the best movies not to be nominated for an Oscar from the past two decades.  But as it’s the season of love, we decided to postpone that list until next week to bring you the following romance fest.  Without further ado, here’s my novelist.

Earlier this week I put together a list of twenty-five of the best scripts from 2000-2019 that never received an Oscar nomination to feature in this week’s blog post.  Then I realized tomorrow is Valentine’s Day.  So, instead of making those films the headliner I’m going to postpone that list until next week and dedicate this post to a list of twenty-five off-beat love stories. 

Most of the films on my list did well with the critics but some got a bad rap and I want to encourage you to watch them despite their reviews.  One of the most polarizing subjects for critics is sex.  So, when a movie comes along that involves a lollypop and a strip club, reviewers seem to think there can’t be a story there.  That’s just snobbish and wrong.  The film I’m referring to is not a paint by numbers love story.  It provides a provocative look at love in the modern age.  And the two leads are fabulous actors who give great performances.  One of them is in another fantastic controversial love story which I will discuss later.

A second film that made my list also got the short end of the stick by the detractors.  But if you go to Rotten Tomatoes and look at just the top critics for this film, you’ll see three of the four gave it a positive review.  And all the performances in it are top notch.   Not to mention it’s a great deal more satisfying than a lot of eye rolling rom coms you’ll find on a bevy of other lists.  That isn’t to say there aren’t good rom coms.  There just aren’t very many of them. 

That said there were some rom coms which did make my list.  Five to be exact.  And none of them are the usual bill of fare.  One’s about an alcoholic.  One has public defecation.  One’s got a suicide attempt in it.  One suggests using sperm for hair gel.   And one’s about making pornography.  Not your usual warm and fuzzy kind of stuff.  But if you can get past some of those things you might find a genuine romance at the center of them. 

Now, there is another film on my list some critic said contained the rape of an underaged child.  This is complete bunk.  There’s no rape in that film at all.  In fact, it’s one of the least sexually explicit films on the list.  Now if you want to watch another one of this writer/director’s films about “happiness” in suburbia well then that’s a whole other ball of wax.  And it’s a love story too in its own way if you can get past…just about everything else in the film.    

Anyway, I hope you’ll take the time to see all the films on this list if you haven’t already.  They are well worth the effort.  Have a very Happy Valentine’s Day!

I’ll post every Thursday.  That’s the schedule.  While you’re waiting for my next post check out my novel Chicane currently available on Amazon. Here’s the list:

TWENTY-FIVE LOVE STORIES YOU REALLY SHOULD SEE

9 ½ Weeks

A Patch of Blue

Arthur (original)

Blue Velvet

Bridesmaids

Buffalo 66

Chasing Amy

Harold & Maude

Head On

Keith

Leaving Las Vegas

The Long Hot Summer (either version)

Notorious

Secretary

Sex, Lies and Videotape

Sid and Nancy

Sweet Hostage (Welcome to Xanadu)

The Center of the World

The Graduate

The Piano

The Shop Around the Corner

There’s Something About Mary

Untamed Heart

Welcome to the Dollhouse

Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Good morning.  My name is Gigi and I am a parti-poodle.  This has been a daunting week for my novelist and me.  We have been trying to decide on what the best 25 Oscar nominated screenplays are both adapted and original since the beginning of the century.  Next week we are going to do a second list of the best scripts NOT to get nominated for a screenplay Oscar since the beginning of the century. I am going to go pass out on my pillow by the window now as my novelist explains how we narrowed it down. 

I watch a lot of films.  I think a lot of writers watch a lot of films partly because they love story and partly to garner writing knowledge from them.  Some years ago, I took a short writing class where the teacher told us a story needs to be three things: Outstanding, Original and Outrageous.  I will add a fourth O to the list: Over time.  The story needs to stand the test of time.  In other words, it can be watched years later and still be great.  The films on this list in my opinion meet that criteria.    

After saying that you will note my list has two scripts up for nomination this year which means they have not yet been tested by time.  My gut instinct is that they will continue to stand up.  One of them was a slam dunk.  The other I vacillated on.  The problem with the film I vacillated on was the same problem I had with another film which didn’t make my list and would have made other peoples. And that’s often because there’s a flaw in the script. 

The film that didn’t make my list came out several years ago was a big hit with critics.  And I went into the theatre wanting the film to be a big hit with me.  However, from the first scene I sensed something was off.  It was a biopic and the writer had infused an integral character into the film who was fictional.  At the time I watched the movie I knew very little about the real events and had no idea this character was fictional.  I thought it was a real person. Still something about them bugged me…immensely.  Later when I found out the character was fake and never existed, I said, ah, that’s why the script faltered.  The writer did not successfully fuse the imaginary with the concrete.

The film I did put on my list has a different flaw altogether and that is towards the end of the second act the writer gives both the audience and the characters a reveal.  Now the fact he gives a reveal is not the problem.  Psycho for example has a reveal early in its story. The problem is the reveal in this film reveals too much.  The ending, which is quite strong, is weakened by this.  And I think the problem is the character who provides the reveal is too trustable.  There’s no question this character is telling the truth because the character also shows us the truth.  The character would be that much more interesting, and the story would be that much better if we weren’t sure the information provided was honest and if both the audience and characters did not get a clear look at one of the secrets.  However, as the film is clearly Outstanding, Original and Outrageous, more so even than some of the other films I chose, I decided it should be included.

Strangely, this writer also has a film on the list I will post next week which I believe clearly belongs there.  And I would go so far as to say I think that film is their best work despite the accolades this film is presently receiving. 

Now looking at the list you might be thinking I’ve got a film there which mixes fictional characters and real characters.  Why, yes it does.  And it’s not the first time the writer has done this, albeit to a lesser result.  But this infusion doesn’t ruin the story.  Possibly because it is a fictional story infused with real people instead of the other way around.  And unlike the other film which jeopardizes its ending by lifting its suspense right before the third act, this film builds suspense brilliantly till the very end. 

I’ll post every Thursday.  That’s the schedule.  While you’re waiting for my next post check out my novel Chicane currently available on Amazon.  

Here’s the list in alphabetical order:

THE BEST 25 OSCAR NOMINATED SCREENPLAYS 2000-2019

A History of Violence

Almost Famous

Argo

City of God

Children of Men

Dallas Buyers Club

Dirty Pretty Things

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

First Reformed

Frozen River

Hotel Rwanda

Lost in Translation

Memento

Million Dollar Baby

No Country for Old Men

Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood

Parasite

Precious

Room

Sideways

The Pianist

The Royal Tennenbaums

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri

Traffic

WALL-E