Who are your favorite authors?
I don’t have any favorite authors. I have a number of favorite books: Angela’s Ashes, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Magellan, Congo, Marley and Me, 2001 A Space Odyssey. All of these books have inspired me to reach for the same level of excellence.
What is the best writing advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice I ever got came from a Writer’s Digest book. I don’t remember the title of the book, but it was about the seven stages of a scene. Here they are: goal, conflict, disaster, reaction, reflection, decision, and action.
Every story is a compilation of scenes. One scene leads to the next and so on until you have a completed story. You start by establishing a goal. All good stories must have conflict. The conflict leads to a disaster. There is an immediate reaction to that disaster followed by a point of reflection. Finally a decision is made on what to do next. The action sets up the sequence for the next scene to begin.
Any time I get stuck, I think about where I am in these seven stages. Here is a short example from my book. There is a scene where two very large men get into a rescue basket and their combined weight causes the cable to unravel and jam the hoist system. That’s the disaster. Here is the scene from the book:
Seconds later the crew chief was heard over the ICS. “We’ve got a problem. The hoist is jammed! It won’t go up any further!” The cable had started to unravel and was now binding the hoist system.Shields, who had had a similar cable failure before, knew that he couldn’t fly back to St. Croix with the two men dangling from the bottom of the helicopter. The cable could snap and send the two men hurtling through the air. They were going to have to shear the cable. He first tried to lower the basket to the water to allow the men to jump out, but the men were confused and wouldn’t leave the basket. He told the crewman in back to prepare to cut the cable.
Article comments
1 - Emilio Corsetti III
Mayra,
Thanks for the post. I've enjoyed answering questions from all of the blog hosts, but I especially enjoyed this interview. Your questions covered topics that haven't been covered in previous interviews.
I do have one correction. My blog is Everything Non Fiction. The link is correct in the post but the text is incorrect.
Thanks again,
Emilio
2 - Mayra Calvani
Hi Emilio,
The error is fixed. Thanks for the interview and good luck with your book!
Best,
Mayra
3 - Becky Madsen
Hi! Buddy,
Just bought your book. I can't wait to jump in bed with it Ha! Ha! It was my birthday present from Tim. I am so prowed of you.
Take care, God bless you,
Becky