Steven Soderbergh’s Twitter Novella
Steven Soderbergh’s Twitter Novella
The 50-year-old Steven Soderbergh wrote 1989’s Sex, Lies, and Videotape and 2002’s remake of Solaris. His latest project is a novella on Twitter.
Yes, it is safe to safe to say Steven Soderbergh needs novella writing tips.
When I took a creative writing course at University, my instructor had an angle that I still follow.
“For the first assignment, describe a room. One page.” I did just that and found my classmates giving me encouragement. “For the second assignment,” continued the instructor on another day, “I want you to describe a situation.”
That being said, I wrote about my sister who rebelled against the folks, running away to England at a moment’s notice. This short story went on to be called Sister Act.
I went on to write a manuscript called King without an Empire. It came out in January 2005.
Somewhere, around that time, I went to a bar to celebrate. I walked into the bar with a friend, ordered a drink, pulled out the money, and my friend told the bartender: “His money is no good.”
“Why?” asked the bartender. “Is it fake?!”
“No,” responded my friend, “Paul just got published! Drinks are on me!”
The bartender then took us to the back of the bar, where there was another author.
This author who was an accountant by trade listened to us, and then told me: “Your publisher, Publish America, is a scam. If you want a legitimate publisher, go to www.ralan.com .
I searched out the site and when I had Mystery of Everyman’s Way complete, I went through the whole site. I found eTreasures Publishing. The then publisher, Vicky Kennedy, mentored me on how to write a proper paperback.
She told me after every ten pages, end each chapter on a mystery, like a knock, or a phone call. Why? So readers will find the book interesting.
I did just that, got Mystery of Everyman’s Way published. Somewhere, I got Mack Dunstan’s Inferno published. Now if only Movie Director Steven Soderbergh could read this. It would help his Twitter Novella to not only develop a structure, but have an element of suspense.
A Twitter Novella, what will they think of next?
Seriously though, I don’t think that could work. Twitter seems such a superficial medium, good for messages, but that’s about it (IMHO)
Hey, why not? Nobody reads more than 140 characters today so perhaps it’s the new thing. 🙂