Workshop: 101 Spin Class

        Welcome to spin class!  No, not the hyper energetic super sweaty exercise bike speed group. But a look at the art of Rumpelstiltskin, spinning tales like hay to gold. It's the art that takes a pooper of a story and making it shine; its taking an old scruffy coat and repairing it and making it relevant again. Its using an over played song and making it sound new and unheard. This is the art form that I call spinning.

            I once gave a book recommendation to a fellow writer who told me that he didn't read. Much confused, I asked him how he can be a writer and not read. He explained to me that he wanted to make sure everything that went into his books was genuinely his own and not plagiarized in any way. This made me pause for thought, I'm really glad he said it! Because of him and his comment I avoid not reading; in fact once I get an idea I go look for books that may have the same idea in it to see how it was done and see what I can do to improve on it.

           The trick of making something your own is as old as time, and if you really looked into it you would find the retelling of some of the most classic stories. Cinderella is one of those, did you know that an ancient form of the Cinderella story was found in Egypt, and that another telling is found in the Arabian Nights...a couple of times. What about every Disney animated retelling, changing them just so to make them "original"

       But... there is a saying that Hollywood is out of ideas, and that "every story has been told". My answer is so what; tell it again but your way. Many of my story plots were born because of story's that were inspiring. My Dry bones short story is a direct result of the vampire story exploitation. I have a young adult tale that I developed after my wife told me to write one like Fable Haven; and she even told me about a dream she had and ask me to write it like Twilight (its not about vamps) I even took on the challenge of reworking Superman in my Last Son of Krypton storyline. 

          But Mister Miller, you give a compelling argument for why we all should be spinning, but...how do you do it?
 

...um...

           Lets use the Terminator story as an example or I am robot, or Battle Star Galactica, which are all basically the same story spun three different ways. So how do we as writers spin this into a new fresh tale? Its easy, we take the story to its basic parts. Its a tale where something man made becomes aware of its self and turns on its makers. We want to look at each element as its own problem. Element number one is the creators, you can make them human, male, female, children, aliens, or animals, you choose. What did they create? Why did they create it? What is the relationship between the two? Then you delve into the morality of the creation. Is it good? Is it bad? Does it have actual awareness or is it a pseudo awareness? And then the paradigm of interest changes within one or the other or both and are at odds. If you thought out of the box and changed the elements in new ways you have a story that feels different then your inspirations. Like the Matrix or the new Rise of the planet of the apes. (Which are both the same tale as above, also, notice the next time you watch the Lego movie do you see any Matrix influence spun in?)

           It's as simple as that!  Feel free to mix and match your story's, like a Terminator style time travel thriller all within a digital world while the robotic avatars battle it out while a young warrior struggles to redefine himself, desperately wanting to be a real boy. With spinning, every possibility is at your fingertips! GO SPIN!