About…
What’s Going On Here?
I guess I’m doing a blog.
See, it’s starting out as a way for me to report on the playtest group I’m running for the Dresden Files RPG. The thing is, I’m finding it kind of addicting.
I’m pretty much addicted to stories, in whatever format they come across my path. And I think about story. About what makes a good one, and what doesn’t. About why I like things. About what it is that catches or loses my interest. About why I like things that I know aren’t any good. About why I don’t like things that I know are good. It’s not that I only like crap and hate anything of quality; it’s just that what I like does not always mesh with what I think is good.
So, I’m going to talk about that on this blog, too. Not reviews, exactly – more mini-essays and rants about my opinions and the reasons behind them.
Poke around. Have a read. And, if you’re so inclined, leave me a comment.
That’s Fine, But Who Are You?
I’m Rick Neal.
I’m a technical writer at a small software company. I write technical manuals, training guides, bid responses, things like that.
I’m also a writer. I’ve written a number of game supplements for Unknown Armies and Dungeons & Dragons, and am currently trying to sell one novel and finish another. Every now and then, I pump out a piece of short fiction and try to figure out what to do with it.
I’m a big-time gamer. I’ve played a wide range of roleplaying games, board games, card games, and pretty much any other type of game. I’ve also designed a few.
But mainly, I’m a story addict. I think obsessively about story, about the structure of story, about the crafting of story, about the ways story works in different media, about the story behind story and the story within story…
I think you get the idea.
What Are We Going to See Here?
I don’t really know, yet. Still kinda new to this whole blog thing.
What you won’t see is a discussion of my mood, my day, my friends, my family, the people I work with, my love life or lack thereof, or really anything else personal. I find that basic life stuff is only interesting to those who are living it. So, if you’re the voyeuristic type that likes examining the lives of bloggers, you might as well move along.
Nothing to see here.
Entries (RSS)
Rick,
Just came across your blog and it’s very enjoyable reading. (okay, ya just know there’s a “but” coming…) but, I’d like to take respectful exception to your positive response to Robert McKee.
Way back before I had a writing career, I, like every other aspiring writer in LA, was told “ya gotta take McKee.” So, not being one to start trouble I did. What I found was three days of lecture – and theoretical lecture at that. Nothing at all that would be of practical help in actually writing something. Only stuff that a writer would try to “remember” as he wrote, which is a recipe for (don’t say it) writer’s block or just bad, halting writing.
And while it may not be necessary to be able to do something in order to teach it, it sure does help. A glance at Mckee’s IMDB page shows an impressive absence of produced credits – just a mini series from 15 years ago and “Mrs. Columbo.”
The professional writing world he may have once known about is long gone, and if the only references he can make are 15, 25, 50 years old, (even his “recent” references are “The Sixth Sense” which is several years back), then he doesn’t even care enough about his customers to stop reciting from his book to stay current. ie he’s on auto-pilot, selling theories that didn’t help anyone in the first place.
What about all the famous graduates of his course? Well since everybody takes his course as soon as they land in LA, sure he’ll have a ton of ‘em. But it’s like the walls of the Carnegie Deli filled with photos of the celebs who ate there. eating there didn’t make them celebs – ie he had nothing to do with their success, in fact in my view, they succeeded in spite of, not because of.
Where McKee IS a genius is in the marketing of his seminar.
Your fellow writer,
Bill Grundfest
Bill,
Thanks for the kind words about the blog.
I’m not going to get into a defense of Robert McKee; even if I were inclined to do so, he’s a big boy, and he can take care of himself. What I will say is that different things work for different people.
Why am I positive about the experience? Because it jarred me out of my writing rut. Yeah, it was three days of very theoretical lecture, but it gave me a perspective I didn’t have before, and some ideas about new ways of doing things in my writing. I don’t know if these new ways are going to necessarily make my writing better, but it’s always good to have more tools in the toolbox. Even the vocabulary and basic structural ideas were new to me – my study of writing has been in University English courses, where the prevailing idea is that story is the least important part of a written work.
Beyond that, though, it was three days where all I had to think about was writing, but I had very little time to do any. It made me hungry to get back to work on my own stuff, practically frantic to start on a new novel. That sort of excitement about doing the work is something that I have missed, and I’m glad to have it back in my life.
Your point about the Carnegie Deli is well-taken, though. I had no expectation that his course was going to be a panacea, and that I would now become a best-selling novelist just because I’ve taken the course. If I had, the fact that there were nearly 200 people there would have quickly killed that idea for me – just doing the math, that would mean that there were tens of thousands of graduates of his seminar, and not all of them are cranking out bestsellers or multi-million dollar movie scripts.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I can understand your point of view, and your assessment of the seminar. I appreciate the fact that you have expressed your opinion in an open, respectful manner, and I hope that my response follows suit. However, I found some things of value in the seminar, or in the experience of attending the seminar (not exactly the same thing, you see); things that I didn’t have before, and may find useful now.
To put things in some perspective, I worked many years in a bookstore, and got to meet a large number of writers as they came through on signings. I spoke to most of them about their methods for writing, and everyone had a different recipe for what they did. The only commonality was, “Find a way that works for you to get the work done, and then make sure it’s as good as you can make it.”
I’m still working on that, and this is just one more step on that path.
Anyway, thanks for stopping by, and for voicing your opinion. I appreciate it.
All the best,
Rick
For my own use I’ve collected your DFRPG “Magic Theory 101″ posts into e-book format. If you’d like to have the files to post, share, or mock relentlessly in various public fora, send me an e-mail at the address I’ve submitted with this post.