When
I started to write novels I was encouraged to do so by a close
friend. And not just any friend: Hannah Kodicek was one of the best
story editors in the business. Hannah had had a varied and successful
career as an actress, director, writer and latterly story editor in
the film industry. She was story editor on the
Oscar-winning Counterfeiters and occasionally
advised friends with their novels – including Danny Scheinmann
(Random Acts of Heroic Love)
and of course me.
Hannah was considered
such an expert that she lectured
on story structure and other aspects of story-making to people in the
business on the EU funded ARISTA and MAIA programmes. Many writers
will know of The Writer’s Journey by
Christopher Vogler – a book which is film industry required reading
– which sets out in easily accessible form the mythic form of
stories. Fewer will have read the works of Carl Jung and his
followers, specifically The Hero’s Journey by
Joseph Campbell on which Vogler based his book. Hannah had gone
direct to the source, studying myths and fairytales and Jung,
Campbell, Von Franz and other Jungian writers. Her lectures therefore
had an authority that few others in the business could muster. They
also had a practicality and realism, that were important features of
my friend.
She was moreover a
wonderful educator, which made her work as a story editor all the
more powerful. I never sat in one of her lectures, but I had my own
private tutorials. We had wonderful sessions talking about story
structure and what is more I asked her to read and feedback about my
novels. I could tell that at first she was nervous, worrying that I
might be sensitive about my babies and that it might impact on our
friendship. She needn’t have worried, I loved out sessions. She had
a way of not telling me what to do, but rather, like all great
teachers, asking questions that made me think. She would send me off
spinning unforeseen possibilities. She in turn enjoyed seeing what I
then came up with. I was, she told me, the best of all her clients.
Sadly
Hannah died of cancer last year. I was writing Girl In
The Shadows at the time and
although we discussed it, Hannah never got to read the novel. “Don’t
worry,” she said, “You don’t need me anymore, you’ve learned
everything.” I’m not sure about that, but I have her notes and my
memories of our conversations. Once it became apparent that she was
dying, we talked about whether her notes could be made into the book
she had always wanted to produce or maybe a website, so that future
writers could learn as I did from what she had to say. Again she ran
out of time. So I have decided to share with you some of what I
learned as a tribute to a great story editor in this series of
posts Notes From A Story Editor.
A
few weeks ago I agreed to do a guest post on The Indie Exchange –
advice to other indie writers was the brief – the content was
obvious, Hannah’s advice on the basics of storytelling.
