#richardcastle.net

[takeiteasykate]

Question, asked by Fiona: Who is your favourite author?

Answer, given by Richard Castle: ME.

[thesearethedays3]

Richard Castle - "The Key to Good Writing" related to "Always"

On a case I worked recently we found a key, but we didn’t know what it was to. This got me thinking about the unknown and its power in story. You have a key, whose lock could be anywhere in the world, and then on top of that, what is closed up behind that lock could be anything at all. It’s a mystery on top of a mystery and it’s the kind of thing that gets the imagination racing.

This is exactly what you want to do in a good story. You want to get your audience’s imagination racing - you want to get them thinking for themselves. That’s what a lot of people don’t understand about story. Most people think it is passive – the author tells the audience something while they listen. In fact, being an audience member is much more active than that.

You show an audience a key, and they aren’t going to wait for you to tell them what it is to, they are going to start guessing. Is it to a safety deposit box? A treasure chest? A chastity belt? (Although I suppose those last two are the same thing – wink wink) As a writer, it’s your challenge to keep fueling that fire and to eventually come out on top. You want your reader’s mind to be cycling rapidly through different ways the story could turn out and then in the end you want to deliver something even more special than they imagined.

That’s one of the hardest things about writing. People are smart and staying ahead of them is a challenge, but it’s even harder to have it all lead to something worthwhile. So, in lieu of delivering a satisfying ending, I’ve seen writers focus all of their energy on the build up which can get them into a bind. You have a key that leads to a box, and inside of the box there is a map, which leads to a deserted town, where there is an old man who tells you a riddle, and the riddle leads to a cave and inside the cave there is... a teddy bear!

Wait, a teddy bear? Seriously? That’s it?

I call this the Ponzi scheme of storytelling. In a Ponzi scheme the manager will pay off old investors with money from new investors. But eventually they’ll run out of new investors and when people come to collect, they see there’s not real money there. Here you pay off old mysteries, with new mysteries, but eventually your audience is going to collect, and you’re not going to have anything to give them. ** cough ** cough ** LOST ** cough **

So use the key – it can be a very valuable tool – but use it wisely. You have to know what the key opens, and what’s inside has to be rewarding to the audience, so that they feel like the trip was worth it. You want to entertain your audience along the way, and you want to keep them invested and get them thinking for themselves, but you also want to have something for them in the end, or you will be letting them down.

Richard Castle

I knew it was for us fans!!! :D

[transform-television-blog]

Doing transmedia television right: "Castle" and Richard Castle's official home page

Maybe it's the strength of Nathan Fillion's performance of "Richard Castle," or maybe it's the scope and skill from the writers of "Castle," but the writer at the centre of prime-time procedural "Castle" has such a distinct character voice, with such a richly detailed backstory, that it almost seems effortless to create a believable website for this character.

RichardCastle.net is the official homepage for Richard Castle, a long-time author who has found inspirado shadowing a foxy NYPD cop. His site contains a blog which sees the writer reflecting on each week's case, from lessons he's learned, to sharing easter eggs such as wedding programs and other photos. The rest of the site includes a self-written bio, a Q&A, and a complete listing of his books, including the "out of print" editions that may not have covers (yet), but live on in proper "Castle" chronology. 

I love that the site also links out to Richard Castle's Hyperion books author page (which to their credit, doesn't break the conceit) as well as his Twitter and Facebook profile. But the best part of the whole thing is that they keep Castle's voice consistent and active through every page, so you really feel like this is his site, and that he would say/write all of these things. 

And now, after reading Frank Rose's "Art of Illusion," I also appreciate one aspect of "Castle" that has made the show such a true transmedia hit; The world of "Castle" is richly detailed with a very specific mythology and well thought out, which makes world-extension natural and satisfying from a fan perspective. On the surface, "Castle" is another buddy-cop police procedural with a will-they-or-won't-they storyline at the heart of it. The NYPD cops themselves don't have too rich of a world of their own (besides New York city itself), they function just as players in solving weekly mysteries, but Castle... Castle is the perfect vessel for multi-platform storytelling. 

It comes down to details... and with TV, we can get those details episodically, morsel by morsel, because it's not constrained by running time like films. And as those details come out, mythology is built... and it's up to the creators of these shows to have at least some idea of what these details mean, or else it just adds up to one big shaggy dog story, ala "Lost" or "Prison Break."

But Castle, as a man with many passions, experiences, friends in low places, high places, memories, talents, and a career, becomes a larger-than-life foil that can't be contained through the episodic broadcast alone! And because he has all these things, he can name drop something without having to explain it in a big way, and that allows fans to imagine what that thing he named could be. A good example are the old book titles... he doesn't go into what each old book was about, but fans can imagine. Then, a site like RichardCastle.net takes it that much further by creating a chronology and synopsis for all these Castle titles, allowing fans to go beyond "What's it about," to "What could happen"? In my opinion, this is when TV sites work best, and I love "Castle" and all the platforms they branch out to in order to bring one of the best characters on TV today to life. 

[recycledstars]

You guys. The link is to a story 'written' by fourth grader Castle. I can't. It's too adorable and too meta. This show kills me. Honestly.

[thesearethedays3]

"I'm not working with a dinosaur" said Hammer, but then Dagger said "Yes you are. It is fifty years in the future and things are different now" and Hammer said "Okay."

Hammer and Nail, Episode I by Ricky Rodgers - April 5, 1979

[thesearethedays3]

Then, his boss, Captain Dagger came up. He was fity years older, but Hammer recognized him because he looked the same except fifty years older.

Hammer and Nail, Episode I by Ricky Rodgers - April 5, 1979

[thesearethedays3]

Suddently, from out of nowhere, someone came up from behind him and cut his head off. Luckily, the building had a bunch of freezing tanks and his head landed in one and since the brain can survive for seven seconds after it has been cut off he was alive when it landed in there and he survived.

Hammer and Nail, Episode I by Ricky Rodgers - April 5, 1979

[thesearethedays3]

Much of what I’m about to tell you is not true. It is, however, exactly as I remember it. I was born during a howling thunderstorm on the first of April, shortly after midnight. According to the doctor, as I took my first breath the heavens shuddered with a thunderclap unlike any he had ever heard before… or since. Needless to say, after a birth like that, people expected great things. But I wasn’t quite ready for the pressure, so I spent the next few years sucking my thumb and spitting up on people. Given my birthdate, my mother called me her April Fools’ baby, and every birthday she’d sit me down and solemnly tell me that I was adopted. The minute she had me going, she’d yell, “April Fools!” and we’d both laugh and laugh, and then she’d gently remind me that she had no idea who my father was. You’d expect this to bother me, but I kind of liked not knowing who he was. In my imagination he was something cool, like an astronaut, or a jungle explorer, or at the very least an insurance actuary assessing the risks of being an astronaut or jungle explorer. I suppose that making up stories about my father’s identity was how I found my way to telling stories. I’d gotten a taste for it, and I liked it! My first novel (still unpublished), was written at the age of six and three-quarters, and was the aptly titled Booger Man, the Man Made of Boogers. It was released to my immediate circle of literary peers to very harsh critical reaction. Undaunted by the negative press, I set about writing something a little less “gross” (to quote Suzy Fitzsimmons). The result was: Why is the Sky Red and Other Questions Martian Kids Ask their Parents? Sales of “Why” were most likely hurt by my inability to determine where to put the question mark in the title. With a mediocre reaction to “Why” I set a new course, dipping my toe into the waters of non-fiction literature, starting with a slim tome entitled: Where Did My Finger Go? (It’s up my nose!) , which enumerated all the places I had, to that point, stuck my finger. “Finger” was quickly followed by a junior self-help volume titled: How to Trick Grown-ups into Giving You Things (Like Extra Helpings of Dessert) , which proved to be extraordinarily popular among my classmates. But, ultimately, I left the world of non-fiction. I just felt too constrained by having to service the facts. I wanted to stretch my imagination, so I returned to my storytelling roots, penning the imaginative thriller: The Moon is Watching You Sleep! I Think It’s Planning on Doing Something Horrible to You! When my school chums dragged themselves into class from a fearful and sleepless night, I knew I had arrived. I was, at long last, a manipulator of human emotion. I felt drunk with power. (Though at that age I had never been drunk, so I guess it’s more appropriate to say I felt “sugar-rushed” with power.) During this period of time, my mother was trodding the boards on the Great White Way, so the New York City Public Library became my unofficial and unpaid babysitter. While my mother would work, I would curl up in the stacks and read the classics: Edgar Allen Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Carolyn Keene. (What can I say? Nancy Drew was hot.) My education had begun. And then, just like that, I hit puberty and suddenly lost all interest in reading. The next seven years was a mélange of utterly pedestrian experiences that would be completely unremarkable, if I hadn’t later suffused them with plot lines from Archie comics. Consequently, I have some wonderful stories about the malt shop and riding around in an old jalopy.

Rick Castle about his early years, RichardCastle.net