How "The Help" Helped Me

Tonight I made a rare trip to the theater to see the film adaptation of "The Help." I read the book not too long ago. I didn't love it, but it was very nice. I mostly went because I adore Emma Stone and wish we could be best friends in real life. The film was pretty great, but what resonated most with me was just one of the end credits: "Based on the novel by Kathryn Stockett." This whole movie was made because one day a woman sat at her computer and began to type.

I started writing a novel almost exactly one year ago. It wasn't my first attempt. There are drafts written in pencil on college ruled notebook paper going back as far as second grade. And for my fifth grade yearbook ambition, I wrote that I wanted to be an author. In high school and college I cultivated my love for writing through creative writing classes, screenwriting classes, and other studies of what makes for a great story well-told. Once I got my first real job though, writing sort of took a back burner to bill paying and mindless TV watching.

While I was pretty much unemployed during the first part of 2010, I was finally able to exercise my long lost creativity. I started working on a script with a good friend of mine. We made it two-thirds of the way through a promising coming of age adventure story inspired in part by the Goonies before we hit a wall. Plot-wise we were stuck. And it was time for me to go back to work where I actually got paid. And so the story sat unfinished in the dark recesses of my aging laptop.

Since it was looking like that would never again see the light, I decided to once again try my hand at novel-writing. Screenwriting has so many rules. Relentless formatting, keeping descriptions succinct, letting directors and actors decide how a line should be delivered instead of instructing them, and what pitfalls to avoid lest your script appear juvenile. All that for little pay, less credit, and the joy of seeing your baby be torn apart by people who don't know a good script from their Aunt Mildred. With a novel, you can pretty much do whatever you want. Sure you have to keep to a basic story structure if you want it to be successful. But there is so much more you can do with tone, setting, and characters. You can really develop where you'd have to hold back in a script.

With this somewhat bitter attitude, I began my novel. It was semi-autobiographical even though the concept of a writer writing about themselves as if they are the most fascinating subject in the world irritates me. But you have to write what you know and just hope that others can relate. (That is, if you hate doing any kind of strenuous research, like me.)

I went back just now and read the first 11 pages. I only read 11 because that's as far as I got last September. But as I read those few pages, I was pretty damn proud of myself. Normally I go back and read something I wrote and cringe ever so slightly. But I made my future self laugh out loud! So now I'm inspired to go back and if not finish this book, at least keep heading in the right direction. Any progress is better than none.

Because some day I want to see "Based on the novel by C-------- H--------" on the big screen just like Kathryn Stockett. (Not that she's my new hero or anything. Tina Fey will always be number one. But I figure if she can do it, why can't I?)

Essential Reading: An Exhaustive and Comprehensive List

The following list was probably more fun to compile than it will be to read. But I'm posting it anyway because a lot of hard work (ie googling and polling) went into this here blog. It was the product of an unusually slow afternoon at work, and a desperate attempt to amuse ourselves (meaning me, my two co-workers and my boss), in lieu of our usual slow day (often vicious) Facebook Scrabble tournaments. It originally started out as just a list of all the books I think my future daughter(s) need to have read by puberty. But then it turned out that given the difficulty of some of the books mentioned, and in some cases, mature subject matter, maybe I should give a less stringent timeline.

As we were listing and googling to ensure accuracy of author and merit, it became apparent that there are so many good books out there, that perhaps we should include books that no boy should exit high school without having read. And as that process developed, it also became clear that perhaps having two such lists is somewhat sexist and encourages stereotypical gender roles, maybe we'll just make one big list that children of all genders (we're inclusive of those who aren't sure), should enjoy.

That lead to the argument regarding series of books and whether or not they count as 'seminal classics.' (Tee hee, seminal). So we just included those too. So here is the outcome of that ultimately productive afternoon of listing books that inspired us, moved us, taught us, and bonded us in a celebration of classic litt-tra-chure (one must pronounce it in the most pompous British way possible).

To My Future Daughter:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Emma by Jane Austen
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett
Little Princess by Francis Hodgson Burnett
Are You There God, It's Me Margaret by Judy Blume
Matilda by Roald Dahl
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Eloise by Kay Thompson
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit
Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
The Flip-Flop Girl by Katherine Paterson
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman

To My Future Son:

The Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
1984 by George Orwell
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
The Han Solo Trilogy by Ann C. Crispin
On the Road by Jack Karouac
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
The Ear, The Eye, and the Arm by Nancy Farmer
The Kid Who Ran for President by Dan Gutman
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

Series:

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
Sweet Valley High by Francine Pascal
Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler
Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene
Babysitter's Club by Ann M. Martin
Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
The Shoe Books by Noel Streatfeild
Anything by Judy Blume
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein
Goosebumps by R.L. Stein

Feel free to add any you thought we missed, though we did spend a shocking amount of time ensuring that nothing was forgotten and nothing extraneous was included. I was going to annotate and justify and add pictures, but that just seems like a lot of work. Have at it!

Five Books That Have Inspired Me as a Writer

Since I seem to be obsessed with lists, I've decided to compile a small selection of the books that have influenced me most as a writer. Keep in mind that these are not my favorite books (though some of them are). But each one uniquely affected my personal voice and style.

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I know this is an obvious choice and P&P is every girl with half a brain's favorite book. But I love Jane Austen with all of my heart and soul. I feel that we would have been BFFs back in the days of never using anyone's first names (ie Mr. Darcy, Miss Bennett, etc.) and empire waste gowns that make you look pregnant. Jane's biting social observations and superlative witty banter, not to mention an understanding of unstated sexual tension, are unmatched. Then there is of course Elizabeth Bennett herself, who is quite possibly my favorite character of all time. We all know how awesome she is, especially when it comes to fighting zombies. So suffice to say that I've read this book over and over, seen both the 5-hour BBC mini-series and the 2005 Keira Knightly version countless times, and I never get sick of the lush language and complicated characters. It inspires me to comment on the world around me and create a timeless satire of society's foibles.

2. The Princess Bride by William Goldman. As truly epic as the movie is, the book is ten times better. But what made this book so intriguing to me as a writer was the author's copious usage of completely random parenthetical phrases. (ie "This was before the invention of chocolate, but after the beheading of Mary, Queen of Scots" or whatever. Something like that.) As you have probably noticed by now, I use parentheticals like crazy. It's probably annoying, but it's how I talk and how I think, so naturally it's how I write. So if William Goldman can get away with it, so can I!

3. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. It was so honest, even ugly at times, but Sylvia never backed away from sharing her experiences down the rabbit hole of depression and insanity. Her descriptions are so vivid and you almost understand the thought process of her unstable heroine/alter ego. What impressed me most too was the stream of consciousness style in which the book is written. Not only was it perfect for the content of the story and the voice of the character, but I also write this way because it feels more free to set on paper almost the exact thoughts that occur in your head.

4. How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely. I just read this recently and it figuratively rocked my world. Very rarely do I laugh out loud while reading, and this book had me cackling maniacally to the point where I'm sure my neighbors were frightened. Not only was the dry, sarcastic and at times completely outrageous humor dead on, but the book's slacker antihero learned a valuable lesson without the Full House-type moment of realization music cue. What I took away from it was the concept of voice. You can tell the same story a million different ways if you have a strong enough character with a distinctive voice that people can relate to. Seriously, read this NOW.

5. The Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer. If she can do it and make millions, anyone can. But seriously, I learned from this that if you tap into a primal part of the human psyche (in this case the adolescent girl in all of us that loves a dangerous, brooding bad boy), it almost doesn't matter how bad the writing, characters, and story structure (or lack thereof) are. You'll still make millions. But if you have any writing talent at all, already you've surpassed Ms. Meyer. So feel good about yourself, even if you never sell a single book.

There are hundreds more books that have inspired me and helped shape the writer I (try to be) today. But I don't feel like googling all those images, and it's time for Grandma Hutch to get to bed. Cocktails + Panasian Appetizers + Girl Talk = Sleepy Hutch!

Chick Lit Chain Letter

I have been taking the day off so far, as it is Saturday and I have been working ever so hard on job applications, networking, writing, and script-covering. To celebrate, I have just finished for the second time the novel Bridget Jones' Diary, which is vapid, shallow, and so very entertaining. I'm now starting the sequel, Bridget Jones: the Edge of Reason, which I have owned for at least three years and already read once. However, upon cracking the cover for the second time, I noticed a message scrawled in pen on the first page.

"Kind Reader: This book is registered with www.bookcrossing.com. In order to follow book, see who reads it, visit above site. Book # is 488-394378. Make quick journal entry then pass book along. Book can be tracked to see how many lives it touches. Thank you."

I have never heard of this chain letter phenomenon with books. It seems like a really cool project. I just checked up on the books status and apparently it originally came from Perkasie, Pennsylvania in 2002. It was given to me in 2007 (?) by a friend in Irvine, California who got it from her boss's wife in Newport Beach. I don't plan on giving it up since I tend to read books over and over, but I just thought I'd share this website. I've always preferred used books because they have a mysterious history you usually never get to discover. Maybe I'll send some other books out into the world and see where they end up.