Last night I started the final disk of 24 Season Five, the previous four episodes had kept me up to  about 2 A. M.  That’s what character writing will do to you.

I hope my book Siolam, does the same thing for it is a quick read even if it was a slow edit.  http://www.amazon.com/Siolam-Black-Western-Darrell-Banks/dp/1515299236/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1442695944&sr=1-1&keywords=siolam

You see writing a novel is very simple.  You just dedicate 2 to five hours per day to complete your project.  Proficient writers can kick out a novel in three months.  Some screenwriters can kick out a screenplay in two weeks.

But most writers are like Nicolas Cage in Adaptation.  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0268126/

In the movie biz, you have readers, editors, rewrites.

In the novel business, either you pay someone $5/page x 298 pages or you do it yourself.

When you do it, yourself you have to focus on.

1. Character

2. Plot

3. Storyline

4. Continuity

5.  Then grammar. (sic)

6. Then spelling. (sic)

7.  Then layout. (sic)a

Repeat about ten to twenty times and you should be good in a year.

Season 5 24

When you rely upon a device, well sometimes you are stuck with it.

A cell phone, a key card, mental illness.  You can make a device the ultimate aim of your characters and an Emmy winning TV series.  When I wrote a three part semi sci-fi short story series, my goal was to use the device of homelessness to create a super hero.

Wikipedia says this is one of the best 24 seasons.  I thought it was two.  Season 5 is one giant lie.  I suspected the Nixon like character of treachery the moment I saw him.  In 24 hints are given on what will take place.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24_(season_5)

I give hints in my novel on what can happen.

http://www.amazon.com/Siolam-Black-Western-Darrell-Banks/dp/1515299236/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1442695944&sr=1-1&keywords=siolam

I hope you enjoy Siolam

If not binge watch 24 season 5, the writers do know how to rack up the tension.

Code words, not yet, the team is coming, betrayal, friends, and enemies’ allies.  Point counter point.  Yep that always increased tension in the written word, which in turn creates great visual television shows.

Well, it never fails.  Character flaws appear in every art form.

As an author, your job is to ensure that they do not happen in your novel, short story, screenplay or film.

Rarely is their perfection in the written word.

Think about how many perfect films or novels exist.

Star Wars IV is perfect.  But if you look hard enough you can find plot holes.

http://movieplotholes.com/star-wars-a-new-hope-plot-holes.html

Hopefully there are no plots in my new novel.

http://www.amazon.com/Siolam-Black-Western-Darrell-Banks/dp/1515299236/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1442695944&sr=1-1&keywords=siolam

Since I focus on character, I believe the characters change and are fully developed.

Especially Bart and Beth.  I think you will enjoy them.

Other perfect films Jaws, Alien, Chinatown, Inception, Interstellar.

The common link. You either hate the shark, the alien, the corruption,  Mal, time and space or you don’t

That’s looking at it from the side of the protagonist.  To create a great protagonist you need a great antagonist.

See my book.  Character Within the Screenplay.

http://www.amazon.com/Darrell-J-Banks/e/B00I33S10C

We all have unfinished business.  There are novels, plays even, screenplays I have not completed.

Even a multimillionaire author can only write so many books, one can write a book say one every year from age 18 to 78.  Ala the late Jackie Collins.  Like her, I too was deterred from my initial writings.  Was I worthy?

Now I care about my perfection and the reader’s experience.

My fiction and nonfiction books can be found here.

http://www.amazon.com/Darrell-J-Banks/e/B00I33S10C

In the movie Unfinished Business, we have Vince Vaughn and Tom Wilkinson, no this is not Michael Clayton where Clooney and Wilkinson gave Oscar ™ worthy performances. 

This is a movie where Vacation ( Chevy Chase) meets Gay bars with dicks sticking out of men’s bathrooms, paint guns, the G8 summit and American 42.

You have to see the movie to understand American 42.  The concept was bizarre somehow; the protagonist managed to fly three people to Berlin, but failed to book hotel rooms.

I.M.D. B. gave it around a five.  It beat out the new Fantastic 4, but by not very much.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2358925/

I have thought about writing a satiric novel like Catch 22 or M.A.S.H. or this movie, but until then you will have to put up with my new novel.

http://www.amazon.com/Siolam-Black-Western-Darrell-Banks/dp/1515299236/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1442695944&sr=1-1&keywords=siolam

Another day at the library this time I was challenged.  The Jlo pic The Boy Next Door was un-finish- able and the weird Julianne Moore Maps of the Stars was one I wish I had not finished.

First, the characters were bizarre.  Cusack as a guru whose son was a copy of some major pop artists less arrogant though (satire in case they want to sue ala Sean Penn.)

Anyway, his sister was a pyro and maybe the super star kid is too.  This reminds me of something.  While at the library, I decided to place my spy protagonist in Moscow.

Well it’s been done to death but I found this book that was sort of interesting The Billion Dollar Spy by Hoffman.  Still reading Veil by Woodward and Reeves President Kennedy Profile of Power.

I find that along with my collection of C.I.A. pdfs helps set the mood when I write a spy novel.

Hopefully I will get a chance to write to today because on Monday I have to take an editorial test for five hours.

To see a collection of my short stories, nonfiction works and fiction start here.

http://www.amazon.com/Darrell-J-Banks/e/B00I33S10C

Well a few nights ago, I watched Gotham then tried Minority Report.  Umh.  Gotham without  Jada  Pinkett Smith just is not the same.  As for  Minority Report they changed the premise to having the precogs out of the pod. Or so it went.  I fell asleep. Not so much based on the acting ability I love Megan Goode. She performed well taking the Tom Cruise role to another mime level.

So where was I.  Oh, back to my books. 

When you first start a novel there are too many choices.

First do you outline or do your use random thoughts ( free association) to come up with a book idea.

For this novel Siolam I use free association then returned to the outline form.

For a copy of my  latest  novel  check it out,

http://www.amazon.com/Darrell-J-Banks/e/B00I33S10C

So I scratched up my two copies of Burn after Reading, so I had to rent it again.  Before Clooney really blew up as a star and before Whiplash, there is the Coen brothers spy comedy or is it a romantic comedy?

 When I wrote a few of my short stories, I wanted to write a spy novel.  Thus, my current project.  But before then I wrote Bad News Days a short story.

Spy stories involve two things.  A very bad guy, a very bad thing and often a spy.

That‘s one thing that trips up my character Bart in Siolam a Black Bart Western.  Someone always sees something.  Think Tom Cruise in Oblivion.  He along with his companion are on earth to monitor power supplies.  Someone is always watching him.  Which presents issues for him and others.

People are curious thus the spy who can use his abilities and training to obtain useful information from anything and anybody.

I cannot wait to finish this new novel.

But until then you can find my fiction and nonfiction works here.

 http://www.amazon.com/Darrell-J-Banks/e/B00I33S10C

As I prepare this week’s DVD’s I avoided the western.  After all, I just wrote one called Siolam- A Black Bart Western

http://www.amazon.com/Siolam-Black-Western-Darrell-Banks/dp/1515299236/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1442695944&sr=1-1&keywords=siolam

I am looking forward to The Boy Next door, because of an incident I had to delay my big screen viewing.  But Jennifer Lopez is always good for a thrill, remember U-turn with Sean Penn.

As I write my second novel, a spy espionage thing my intent is to make it character driven, like my screenplays.  Thus, it will contain boring details of the cities it encompasses, but wit will focus on the internal feelings.  Sort of like the second movie, I rented Maps to the Stars staring Julianne Moore as a star who is unraveling.

http://www.amazon.com/Bad-News-Short-Story-Series-ebook/dp/B00J150Q68?tag=duckduckgo-d-20

My protagonist Bart in Siolam never unraveled, he was the glue that kept   Beth and his followers together as they ride to capture or kill Big Ben and Kip.

So once again, I fell asleep on the Emmys.  Why?  Most award shows are eligible for an Emmy.

So why are they so boring?  I mean the host tried again and again, to startle the audience, but by the time, two cast members from Blackish showed up well.  It was lights out again.

Your characters must jump all the page.  My book Character Within the Screenplay covers that topic.

http://www.amazon.com/Character-within-Screenplay-Beginnings-Completion/dp/1453718826

When I wrote my latest novel Siolam- A Black Bart Western, I focused on the characters in March of 2014.  But that was all I know.

http://www.amazon.com/Siolam-Black-Western-Darrell-Banks/dp/1515299236/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1442695944&sr=1-1&keywords=siolam

The novel differs from the screenplay in that if you choose to use a lot of conjunctions and adjectives and repetition, repetition, you can develop a novel.

But a novel like the screenplay, must repeat the story over and over again.

http://www.amazon.com/Character-within-Screenplay-Beginnings-Completion/dp/1453718826

When I woke up after the Emmys, or was it before I stopped watching the DVD Inception.

That movie had great characters and story line.  If you watch a movie repeatedly, you will learn that it repeats itself over again and again.  The hints are given in Act 2 and three.  Act 1 establishes the premise.

In my new novel Siolam, the story is circular, so you have to pay attention; the ending is wide open so it will be up to readers to determine if the protagonist rides again.

The other day I saw Black Mass, back in the day when I worked in the legal system in Mass.  Mr. B. was the most noted king pin.  Does Johnny Depp give a great performance?

Well as noted in my book character within the screenplay.

http://www.amazon.com/Character-within-Screenplay-Beginnings-Completion/dp/1453718826

You need to think about a character before you create the protagonist.

Here there was no protagonist development.  The other secondary characters were sucked in.

In my current, book Siolam.

http://www.amazon.com/Siolam-Black-Western-Darrell-Banks/dp/1515299236/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1442695944&sr=1-1&keywords=siolam

The protagonist must learn when to kill and not to kill.

In Black Mass, the protagonist never learns not to kill.

So it’s been almost five years since I published my first book.

http://www.amazon.com/Character-within-Screenplay-Beginnings-Completion/dp/1453718826

What is the difference in writing a novel verses a screenplay?

Novels’ are more intense, screenplays are mostly visual, and your focus is on the protagonist, not the surroundings.  While modern screenplays have some exposition to help the story buyer, reader, producer etc grasp the concept the novel is intense.

My current novel is Siolam

http://www.amazon.com/Siolam-Black-Western-Darrell-Banks/dp/1515299236/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1442695944&sr=1-1&keywords=siolam

Okay, so I spent several more days, editing, checking formating etc. I read digital proofs, a print proof, used correction marks etc to produce my 297 page novel. Siolam.

Do I feel relieved.relieved, not really. Now I  have to promote the book. I have to market the book   without twitter and face-book. That's another story for another day.

It took a little longer delayed by well, (I'll have to wait to tell that story, but let's just say March 2 is a big date in my life.

Since I'm writing another novel about 190 pages so far 6 x9, I'm not sure if I'm ready to go back to nonfiction and screenplays. Only time will tell.

So for now here is Siolam.

http://www.amazon.com/Siolam-A-Black-Bart-Western/dp/1515299236%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q%26tag%3Dduckduckgo-d-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D1515299236