Here’s a long clip from a workshop I did on the art of story. The workshop is about story, what a story is and how to use it in writing and speaking. Introduction to Writing with Donald Miller from Brian Mosley on Vimeo.
31Mar, 2009
With all the talk about Blue Like Jazz the movie, I’ve failed to mention a children’s show I’m producing here in Portland. We’ve recorded nine episodes so far and it’s going well. The show is called Biggles the Bigger Bee. I’m Biggles and each week I put kids from the ages 5 to 7 through various competitions in which they are rewarded based on their ability to find certain products in grocery stores and malls. The coolest thing about the show is it is completely commercial free because in each episode the children are trying to find products that have been pre-determined by our in-house ad agency. But it’s more than just a commercial, of course. I’m trying to somehow marry consumerism with love. The last episode we recorded, for example, was called “Make Mommy Happy” and it focussed on make-up, romance novels and simple carbohydrates. The kids ran around the mall (think “the amazing race” style) and bought products, using a Capitol One Visa, to a central place in the mall where they prepared gift baskets for their mothers complete with Mary Kay eye-liner, the latest novel from Stephanie Meyer and Toblerone chocolates. The team that won got stung by [...]
I collect books about writing. Many of them are terrible, but I’ve found some good ones, and Steven King’s “On Writing” is pretty good. It starts as an auto-biography of his writing life, then moves to practical advice for working with words. Thought you’d like this paragraph. I think it’s true: “Once I start work on a project, I don’t stop and I don’t slow down unless I absolutely have to. If I don’t write every day, the characters begin to stale off in my mind-they begin to seem like characters isteand of real people. The tale’s narrative cutting edge starts to rust and I begin to lose my hold on the story’s plot and pace. Worst of all, the excitement of spinning something new begins to fade. The work starts to feel like work, and for most writers that is the smooch of death. Writing is at its best-always, always, always-when it is a kind of inspired play for the writer. I can write in cold blod if I have to, but I like it best when it’s fresh and almost too hot to handle.” There you go, writers. I guess when you have an idea, sit down and [...]
27Mar, 2009
Last year I gave a long seminar to a group of writers at the Hollywood Theater here in Portland. It’s now available on DVD. It’s a four-hour seminar on the art of story, covering how speakers and writers can use story to enhance their communication. It’s a big package and a lot of material, but will make a great addition to your writing library. And it will make for a great day seminar for your writers group. If you speak before live audiences on a regular basis, the seminar teaches how to capture an audiences attention through story. And if you’re dreaming of writing a novel, the seminar talks about how to plot your story in such a way the novel writes itself. The seminar is called Into the Elements and it’s available from Blue Fish TV. They brought in several cameras and a light and sound crew so the quality is terrific. You can pick up the seminar here. The workshop includes: Session 1: {1 hour 6 minutes} 1. Intro {16 minutes} 2. Why does story matter? {14 minutes} 3. What is a story? {11 minutes} 4. What goes into a good story? {14 minutes} 5. Recap of story {3 [...]
26Mar, 2009
Steve Taylor is moving forward on shooting Blue Like Jazz the movie. He’s set to shoot in Mid May through June. We will be shooting in Portland and Nashville through the end of June. I couldn’t be more excited. I’m skyping today with the actor who will likely play me. Unfortunately I can’t tell you who it is until we sign contracts, but we are both stoked on the choice. Anyway, as a teaser, Gabe Lyons over at Relevate took a look at the screenplay and wrote a little review. Just one more glowing review of the screenplay. I can’t wait: From Gabe: Blue Like Jazz portrays a vivid tension between Christianity and the world. I thought it was fantastic. It was hard to swallow some the direct obligations towards Christianity – they are so true though. The times of hope and resolve allowed me to emotionally connect to the character of Don. I laughed out loud and swallowed hard at times when reading through the script. The story touched on every single issue that outsiders have with Christianity (Judgmental, Hypocritical, Antihomosexual, Sheltered, Too Political, and Proselytizing based on the research of unChristian). It’s an emotional ride that brought me [...]
