20 Ways to Become a Better Writer Two years ago, if you were to tell me I’d one day be writing for my favorite magazines and finishing my first screenplay… well, I wouldn’t believe you. That’s because even though I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was six, you couldn’t tell by looking at my former lifestyle. At the time, it was filled with so many things not related to writing I barely had the focus to write a shopping list. A shopping list. All I know is this: if you want to become a better writer, the longer it takes you to get started, the stronger your resistance will be to get started at all. Below are 20 lessons I’ve learned along the way that will help you become a better writer. 1. The good news is, there’s never been a better time to be a writer. When you spread yourself over several areas, you’re not going to be able to offer enough creative energy to make an impact in any of them. 2. The best way to become a better writer is to learn from the best. 3. 4. 5. This was one of the first items on my agenda. 6. 7.
Keene Wilson - Page - Painting "Fundamentals" for the Advanced Artist By Keene Wilson Foundation The two most important things in painting are value and design. If the foundation is strong, painting will stand up. Ambivalence in your approach to painting will lead to an ambivalent response in the viewer. Visualize the finished painting, know the color harmony, how the painting is to vibrate. All paintings must have: a sense of space, design (masses must hold together abstractly), and artistic blend of strength and subtlety. Have a general direction in mind, but don’t try to have all the answers Chose to see in a particular way and with a consistent structural unity Follow your feeling while painting, do most thinking beforehand Beginners paint objects, experienced painters paint passages Learn to subdue the natural tendency to see detail and value changes. Relationships Focus on getting the relationships right A color is what it appears to be only because of its relationship to the surrounding colors. Composition “Muddy Alligators” by John Singer Sargent Design Editing
How To Write A Book When You’re Too Busy Making Money Do you ever dream of writing a book? Maybe yours is half-done and you can’t seem to finish it. Or perhaps you’ve already written your first book, and it’s time to pen the next. When you’re busy running a business, it can feel near impossible to find the time to get your book done. Even worse is the guilt and pressure you feel knowing that a finished book means an instant boost to your credibility and the ability to serve a lot more people in your market. In this video I’ll show you three simple tricks to help get your book done once and for all – especially if you’re too busy making money. Inside tip: strategies one and three are what I used to finish my book while running a successful coaching practice and teaching five dance fitness classes a week. If nothing else, you’ll get the distinct pleasure of more of my singing (HA!). Click here for today’s tweetable. Give me as many specifics, stories and resources as you can. Diggin' this content?
PSG Art tutorial Foreword I believe there is logic behind why a picture works or not. I also believe that humans are meat machines, and that one day computers will be able to emulate humans and what we do. Since logic can be formulated into rules, guidelines and theories, these can be shared. I will attempt to do so here. Note that I have just empirically deduced the theories I present here, and that I'm a highly fallible meat machine. Many rules also play against each other and may cancel each other out, or become invalidated because of a stylistic approach . The far most useful critique I can give developing artist is: Practice. Updates 2012 May02: Clarified stuff in the Terminology section. Table of contents Licence This tutorial is, in its current form, free to translate and 'mirror' in that form. Because I may be updating it and new versions are generally better, I'd rather not have it mirrored too much. I guess this licence comes pretty close: Terminology (Upd. 2012) Seeing (Upd. 2012) Light stuff Exposure
Is Nikki Kelly Wattpad’s Next Big Thing? Nikki Kelly is a 20-something who lives in London, works as a personal assistant in children’s television, and writes fantasy fiction in her spare time. She may also follow such Wattpad alumni as Brittany Geragotelis, Beth Reekles and Abigail Gibbs, as the next author to get a book deal after serializing her work on Wattpad, an online writing community that attracts 16 million visitors every month. Kelly is bubbly, enthusiastic and lively to talk with, especially when discussing Lailah, the unpublished teen paranormal novel she began serializing on Wattpad in December 2012. Since then the book has attracted well over a million reads on Wattpad, nearly 3000 comments and 12,000 votes from legions of what appear to be teen fans praising the book and often asking her when they’ll be able to buy a published version of the story. Since Lailah was first posted on Wattpad, the manuscript for the book has been read by at least 6 agents who are considering representing her.
How To Draw YouTube Channels - The Complete Directory by Byron It can be hard to keep up with YouTube and it’s ever changing array of How To Draw YouTube channels. Many people have asked me what YouTube channels should they be following for the best How To Draw advice. I’ve wondered the same thing since the day I started my mission to learn how to draw. While I have a large number of channels that I follow I’m sure that I don’t have all of them which is why I wanted to create a directory which would feature all of the channels known to mankind. The only way I can do this though is with your help to keep it updated and make sure we’re tracking any new channels that pop up along the way. My quest for help goes out to all the owners of How To Draw YouTube Channels too and that if you want to be listed on this page then just contact me and we’ll be able to add you as soon as possible. So there you have it. 91 channels and I’ve undoubtedly missed many more awesome channels that you or your friends might know about. 2 people like this
Eight Rules for Writing Fiction Writing fiction is not as hard as it seems, as long as you follow these eight simple rules: Show, don’t tell. Remember show-and-tell in elementary school, when you’d bring in an object from home and talk about it? I want you to remember that experience and the lessons about storytelling it imparted. Then invent a time machine, and travel back to elementary school, and get a job as a second-grade teacher, and make sure you get yourself as a student in your class, and in the time machine bring along an iPhone, and give it to your second-grade self. Create three-dimensional characters. Choose a point of view. Give your characters motivations. Write what you know. No tears for the writer, no tears for the reader. Revize, revize, revize. Trust yourself. Illustration by David Goldin.
Your Guide To Scrivener Learn to use the ultimate writing software: Scrivener. Allowing you to combine the various elements that make up your writing project, from outlines to research to note, Scrivener helped author Nicole Dionisio write two novels in a single year. This guide to Scrivener outlines how to use Scrivener to make your writing better, and is useful for writers of all stripes – which includes you. Table of Contents §–Introduction §1–Planning Your Manuscript §2–Writing Your Manuscript §3–Editing Your Manuscript §4–Publishing Your Manuscript §–Conclusion Introduction In the past year I wrote two novels, and it wasn’t by chance. I graduated college.A friend recommended Scrivener to me. This extra time and effective technology allowed my writing more room to breathe, and to become more organizational and effective. A word processor is a computer application designated for the production of a text-based product. Scrivener fills this hole; it is what the typewriter was to the 19th century: revolutionary. 1. Age:
Zen for Writers: Finding a Calm, Peaceful State For Your PC That Would Inspire Productivity Writing is one of the toughest jobs in the world. It’s lonely and you have to focus and think at the same time. Our brain, however, is constantly looking for new stimuli. It loves nothing more than entertaining random thoughts and shifting attention to attractive signals. That’s how you get distracted and side-tracked and this is what makes writing so hard. Most professional writers have a routine and a matching workspace to get into the flow of writing. 1. Distraction is your worst enemy. Not sure what notifications I’m talking about? 2. Are you dying to check your email? My personal favorite right is Blockr, a Chrome add-on that blocks internet access until you meet your self proclaimed writing goals. Offline distractions typically are clutter in your surrounding, including your physical and your virtual desktop. 3. While you are writing, there is no need to format the text. My personal favorite is OmmWriter, which is available for Mac and Windows. 4. 5. Conclusion
5 Writing Tips from Tana French I’m still very much in the apprentice stage of writing. I read somewhere that you need to write a million words before you know what you’re doing – so I’m headed that way, but I’m nowhere near there. But, for what they’re worth, here are some of the things I’ve learned along the way. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Tana French's new novel, Broken Harbor, publishes July 24 from Viking. Bookshelf Porn 325 Free eBooks: Download Great Classics for Free Download 800 free eBooks to your Kindle, iPad/iPhone, computer, smart phone or ereader. Collection includes great works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, including works by Asimov, Jane Austen, Philip K. Dick, F. Learn how to load ebook (.mobi) files to your Kindle with this video Religious Texts Assorted Texts This list of Free eBooks has received mentions in the The Daily Beast, Computer World, Gizmodo and Lifehacker.