Lifewriting and Final Draft

Well, we let ourselves get derailed a bit due to lotsa travel, and then a little lady named Katrina.  Sigh.  I want this blog to be about the triumverate of body, mind, and spirit, specifically related to relationships, writing, and movement arts.  And will try to focus there a bit better. 
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At Maui, I lectured on the interaction of Character, Plot, and Poetics.  The three of these interact to create that invisible factor "Theme" or "Meaning".  A character is only revealed through action.  Or rather, primarily revealed through action.  There is another, interesting level--the gap between a character's words or thoughts, and their actions.  In other words, if I consider myself a "Good Husband" and then cheat on my wife, it says a lot about my capacity for self-deception, and the definitions I use to describe the world. 
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Plot is generally the way the universe reacts to the actions of characters as they struggle to find meaning, or to survive.  This reaction reveals the author's sense of the ethical structure of reality--are good deeds rewarded?  Is struggle meaningful?  Does love conquer?  Is truth stronger than lies?  Love stronger than hate?  These elements are reinforced and interwoven through strong character and plot, and the appropriate matching of character to plot.  No one wants to watch James Bond deal with a convenience store robbery.  And no one could keep a straight face watching Urkle in "Die Hard."  The characters and situations have to match, or you have comedy--or tragedy.
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Poetics involves the use of language and imagery.  I like to write my novels as scripts first, to control the level of visual imagery (as well as take advantage of terrific software like Final Draft, which has an index card outlining function that simply ROCKS).  After I've written a silent script (no dialogue--all meaning conveyed through visual and action) then I add the dialogue. When this is done, and it works, I convert it to a novel, adding description. 
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How do you develop poetic linguistics and imagery?  I would suggest that the easiest way is through reading poetry--a poem every day.  Me, personally, I read one scene of Shakespeare aloud every morning.  It acts to feed my head with the best quality wordplay to be found in the English language. 
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speaking of Shakespeare, while in Maui I met a couple of folks who believe, really believe, that Shakespeare didn't write Shakespeare.  Personally, while I found them charming and intelligent, I found their arguments incredibly unconvincing. About an hour in, I realized that they were seriously, seriously invested in the idea that no commoner could have written such profound and erudite work.  In essence, if I won the argument, I would literally be hurting them.  Sigh.  I backed off.
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If there is anything about the entire Shakespearian authorship argument that riles me, it is the idea that "only an insider" could have written his plays.  Historians love ripping Shakespeare apart.  His history, geography, and understanding of politics are considered pretty laughable, mostly based on other plays, and a single set of reference works.  There really seems only one occupation or social class that he really had "insider" knowledge of--the theater.  His work is loaded with references to the life of the actor, as it was actually lived at the time.  And his depictions of lower-class life seem to be far more believable than those of Royalty.  So if you're one of those folks who believe Edward DeVere wrote all this stuff, we can have fun and turn the question around: where did a nobleman gain such intimate knowledge of commoners?  And if the information channel ran so smoothly between the upper and lower classes, aren't you acknowledging a conduit that could run both ways?  Ah, well...it's a fun game, and entirely tangential to our discussion...