background preloader

Wordsmithing

Facebook Twitter

Books that will induce a mindfuck. Here is the list of books that will officially induce mindfucks, sorted alphabetically by author. Those authors in bold have been recommended by one or more people as being generally mindfucking - any books listed under their names are particularly odd. You're welcome to /msg me to make an addition to this list. And finally, although he's way down at the bottom, my personal recommendation is definitely Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, as it turns the ultimate mindfuck: inverting the world-view of our entire culture, and it is non-fiction.

Logline template. Farewell StoryLink. Hello ScriptMag.com! It's been a great ride here at StoryLink.com, but the time has come to move the screenwriting conversation to a new destination. And that spot is ScriptMag.com, the newest member of The Writers Store family. Read more > Start a new topic Just in case anyone missed this, I'm posting it as a new entry. Mar 4, 2007 6:12 AM It`s great!

In Save the Cat, Blake Snyder argues that a good logline should contain "irony". 25 Insights on Becoming a Better Writer. When George Plimpton asked Ernest Hemingway what the best training for an aspiring writer would be in a 1954 interview, Hem replied, “Let’s say that he should go out and hang himself because he finds that writing well is impossibly difficult. Then he should be cut down without mercy and forced by his own self to write as well as he can for the rest of his life.

At least he will have the story of the hanging to commence with.” Today, writing well is more important than ever. Far from being the province of a select few as it was in Hemingway’s day, writing is a daily occupation for all of us — in email, on blogs, and through social media. It is also a primary means for documenting, communicating, and refining our ideas. As essayist, programmer, and investor Paul Graham has written, “Writing doesn’t just communicate ideas; it generates them. So what can we do to improve our writing short of hanging ourselves? 1. Don’t just plan to write—write. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. Worst analogies ever! FAQ. Free List of 400 Book Publishers and Book Editors for First Fiction and First-Time Novelists. Book Marketing Bestsellers Blog Book Promotion Advice Business Book Editors Children's Book Editors Cookbook Editors Health Book Editors New Novel Editors Reference & Humor Book Editors Religious & Inspirational Book Editors Sports Book Editors Free Marketing Reports Top 700 Independent Bookstores - This database features 740 stores with address, book buyer, owner, event coordinator, phone, fax, email, website, and more!

Book Marketing Magic: How to Sell Your Novel, Children's Book, Memoir, or Other Book Like a Pro This is a multi-media course on how to market novels, children's fiction/picture books, memoirs, and other books. For more information, click here. Book Publishers: First Novels Book Editors: Debut Novels Note: This page of editor and publisher listings has moved to the following location.

These book editors listed below work for real book publishers, and they have bought first novels from new authors within the past two years. 25 Things Every Writer Should Know. An alternate title for this post might be, “Things I Think About Writing,” which is to say, these are random snidbits (snippets + tidbits) of beliefs I hold about what it takes to be a writer.

I hesitate to say that any of this is exactly Zen (oh how often we as a culture misuse the term “Zen” — like, “Whoa, that tapestry is so cool, it’s really Zen“), but it certainly favors a sharper, shorter style than the blathering wordsplosions I tend to rely on in my day-to-day writing posts. Anyway. Peruse these. Absorb them into your body. Let your colonic flora digest them and feed them through your bloodstream to the little goblin-man that pilots you. Feel free to disagree with any of these; these are not immutable laws. I don’t believe these things the way the religious believe in their moral or spiritual tenets.

Buckle up. 1. The Internet is 55% porn, and 45% writers. 2. A lot of writers try to skip over the basics and leap fully-formed out of their own head-wombs. 3. 4. 5. Luck matters. 6. Kindle Publishing for Blogs. Extended Traveller Character Motivations. Kindle Direct Publishing: Bookshelf. 31 Brilliant examples of Engrish fails... from mikepattonfan. Eight Secrets Which Writers Won’t Tell You. Image from Flickr by Lazurite This is not particularly relevant to the post, but I’m getting an awful lot of comments telling me, often a little snarkily, “it’s ‘THAT’ not ‘WHICH’”. The “don’t use which for restrictive clauses” rule comes (as far as I can tell) from Strunk and White. Plenty of authors, including Austen, have used “which” exactly as I use it in the title.

It’s very commonly used like this here in England, so I’m guessing my comments are coming from US readers. There was never a period in the history of English when “which” at the beginning of a restrictive relative clause was an error. I thought about putting “that” in the title – but I like the sound of “which” between “secrets” and “writers”. And with that out of the way, enjoy the post! A few years ago, I’d look at published writers and think that they were somehow different from me. They were real writers. I’m going to go through eight secrets. Secret #1: Writing is Hard The truth is, though, that writing is hard. Random thoughts from 25-35 year olds - helen's posterous. 48 Days Worksheets.