Six Tips on Writing from John Steinbeck
By Maria Popova If this is indeed the year of reading more and writing better, we’ve been right on course with David Ogilvy’s 10 no-nonsense tips, Henry Miller’s 11 commandments, and various invaluable advice from other great writers. Now comes Pulitzer Prize winner and Nobel laureate John Steinbeck (February 27, 1902–December 20, 1968) with six tips on writing, originally set down in a 1962 letter to the actor and writer Robert Wallsten included in Steinbeck: A Life in Letters (public library) — the same magnificent volume that gave us Steinbeck’s advice on falling in love. Steinbeck counsels: Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps.
Why smart authors are cutting Amazon out
The recent anti-trust suit against the big five book publishers reminds me of the scene in the movie Titanic where the lifeboats are pulling away from the gasping survivors in the water. We all know what’s going to happen and it’s painful to watch. What surprises me is how little discussion there is about what happens to the authors in all of this. For sure, advances are going down. Way down.
DIY PR: How to pitch your story idea and get news coverage!
Getting your story on the local news Can we agree on one thing? Getting your story in the TV news is good for your business. Whether you’re a for-profit business, a non-profit organization, a club, a group, an individual…whether you’re involved in marketing, video production, sports, entertainment…getting in the news helps your cause. In today’s online-obsessed world, you may think you have to “go viral” or get lots of site traffic to be IN THE NEWS. Maybe you’re saying to yourself, “Traditional media is dead!”
Why I Write: George Orwell's Four Motives for Creation
by Maria Popova “All writers are vain, selfish, and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a mystery.” Literary legend Eric Arthur Blair, better known as George Orwell, remains best remembered for authoring the cult-classics Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, but he was also a formidable, masterful essayist. Among his finest short-form feats is the 1946 essay Why I Write (public library) — a fine addition to other timeless insights on writing, including Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 rules for a great story, David Ogilvy’s 10 no-bullshit tips, Henry Miller’s 11 commandments, Jack Kerouac’s 30 beliefs and techniques, John Steinbeck’s 6 pointers, and various invaluable insight from other great writers. I give all this background information because I do not think one can assess a writer’s motives without knowing something of his early development. Looking back through the last page or two, I see that I have made it appear as though my motives in writing were wholly public-spirited.
Recipe for a bestselling book
Remember the time you picked up a copy of that big bestseller and tore through the book in a couple of days, marveling at the bad writing, ridiculous plot twists and paper-thin characters? “Is drivel all it takes to sell a gazillion copies and retire to a sleekly spacious modern house in the woods?” you probably asked yourself. “I could crank out better crap than this!
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How to Write a Press Release
Take it from those of us who know: An easy way to ruin your relationship with the news media is to send a bad press release. Newsroom fax machines and reporters' inboxes are flooded on a daily basis with press releases from companies, government agencies, non-profit groups, and even average citizens trying to get their neighborhood plight noticed. If you send in a press release that's riddled with grammatical errors, buried in a convoluted e-mail, or completely irrelevant to the reporter's coverage area, you might as well be tossing your press release down a sewer drain. If you deluge a news organization with unprofessional or uninteresting releases, your chances of ever getting favorable news coverage are zero-to-slim. But when done correctly, a good press release will grab a reporter's attention and force their curiosity to want to learn more about your announcement.
The Nature of Fun: David Foster Wallace on Why Writers Write
by Maria Popova “Fiction becomes a weird way to countenance yourself and to tell the truth instead of being a way to escape yourself or present yourself in a way you figure you will be maximally likable.” On the heels of the highly anticipated new David Foster Wallace biography comes Both Flesh and Not: Essays (public library) — a collection spanning twenty years of Wallace’s nonfiction writing on subjects as wide-ranging as math, Borges, democracy, the U.S. Open, and the entire spectrum of human experience in between.
Word count
§Details and variations in how the count is defined[edit] §Software[edit] As explained earlier, different word counting programs may give varying results, depending on the text segmentation rule details.
26 Free Cross-Platform Productivity Apps to Help You Get Things Done
You can essentially become a productivity machine without spending a penny (except for an internet connection that is). Here are 26 free productivity apps to help you get things done. Remember the MilkRemember the Milk has been around for quite some time and with the revamp of there iPhone and Android app after the iPad app design, RTM offers the user a simple yet powerful toolset for managing to-dos online.ToodledoI have been a Toodledo user on and off for about three years and it’s still one of the best to-do apps online.
5½ Timeless Commencement Speeches to Teach You to Define Your Own Success
by Maria Popova The great and terrible truth of clichés, why success is a dangerous bedfellow, and how disappointment paves the way for originality. It’s that time of year again, the time when cultural icons and luminaries of various stripes flock to podiums around the world to impart their wisdom on a fresh crop of graduating seniors hungry to take on the world.
