TEN SIMPLE KEYS TO PLOT STRUCTURE Structure is something that every agent and executive in Hollywood talks about, and that all of us teachers/authors/consultants/gurus/whatever go on and on about, to the point that it can seem complicated, intricate, mysterious and hard to master. So I want present plot structure in a way that simplifies it – that will at least give you a starting point for properly structuring your screenplay without overwhelming you with rules and details and jargon. Here are what I consider ten key elements of structure – ten ways of looking at structure that will immediately improve the emotional impact – and commercial potential – of your script. THE SINGLE RULE OF STRUCTURE I once got to work with long time television writer Doug Heyes, who used to say that there is only one rule for achieving proper plot structure: What’s happening now must be inherently more interesting than what just happened.
Come scrivere un dialogo Il Reichstag era in fiamme. Luci gialle e rosse danzavano dietro le file di finestre in stile classico. Lingue di fumo e fuoco uscivano dalla cupola centrale.«Oh, no!» esclamò Walter in un tono che a Lloyd parve affranto. «Oh, Dio del cielo, no!» (Ken Follett, "L'inverno del Mondo", Mondadori 2012) «Senti, a proposito di sabato, pensavo di andare in un posto molto carino a via Po.» (Valentina F., "TVUKDB", Fanucci Editore, 2007) Spesso il male di scrivere ho incontrato. Il dialogo è una parte fondamentale della narrazione: serve a umiliare i protagonisti di una storia rimpinzandogli la bocca di espressioni che li faranno sembrare degli idioti. Data la nostra volontà di realizzare un best seller, il nostro dovere è quello di scrivere un dialogo di merda. «Praskov'ja Pàvlovna vuole andare alla polizia, a lagnarsi di te» gli disse.Lui storse la faccia in una smorfia. (F. Quel bruscamente, quel seriamente! E vogliamo parlare di quel " rispose seriamente"?
The Ultimate Guide to Writing Better Than You Normally Do. Writing is a muscle. Smaller than a hamstring and slightly bigger than a bicep, and it needs to be exercised to get stronger. Think of your words as reps, your paragraphs as sets, your pages as daily workouts. Think of your laptop as a machine like the one at the gym where you open and close your inner thighs in front of everyone, exposing both your insecurities and your genitals. Because that is what writing is all about. Procrastination is an alluring siren taunting you to google the country where Balki from Perfect Strangers was from, and to arrange sticky notes on your dog in the shape of hilarious dog shorts. The blank white page. Mark Twain once said, “Show, don’t tell.” Finding a really good muse these days isn’t easy, so plan on going through quite a few before landing on a winner. There are two things more difficult than writing. It’s no secret that great writers are great readers, and that if you can’t read, your writing will often suffer.
6 Ways to Hook Your Readers Although I consider myself an avid reader, I must admit I have a short attention span when it comes to getting into books. If you fail to grab my attention in the first few lines, I start spacing out. Most readers are like me. Most people don’t want to spend the first 50 pages trying to get into a book. Here are a few things I find annoying in the first lines of a story: Dialogue. The last thing you want to do as a writer is annoy or bore people. (N.B. 1. Put a question in your readers’ minds. “Those old cows knew trouble was coming before we did.” 2. By starting at an important moment in the story, your reader is more likely to want to continue so he or she can discover what will happen next. “It was dark where she was crouched but the little girl did as she’d been told.” 3. Description is good when it encourages people to paint a picture in their minds. “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” 4. 5. “They had flown from England to Minneapolis to look at a toilet.” 6.
Comment écrire tous les jours vous pousse à écrire ... tous les jours ! - Jusqu'au dernier mot "Écrivez tous les jours." C’est un conseil habituel parmi les écrivains. Pourtant, certains d’entre eux peuvent se demander si le jeu en vaut vraiment la chandelle. Trouver quotidiennement du temps pour écrire peut se révéler difficile, à cause du syndrome de la page blanche ou encore d’un agenda trop rempli, entre autres exemples. Néanmoins, quelques lignes écrites chaque jour font davantage que seulement inculquer la discipline de pouvoir écrire à volonté plutôt qu’uniquement lorsque l’inspiration survient. Cela stimule votre créativité Après avoir écrit tous les jours pendant une semaine ou deux, vous verrez votre créativité commencer à devenir florissante. Cela accroît votre confiance Beaucoup d’écrivains s’acharnent à coucher sur papier un simple mot. Écrire chaque jour, même juste un peu, vous aidera à dominer ces peurs. Cela vous permet d’expérimenter vos capacités d’écrivain Cela aide à surmonter le perfectionnisme Cela combat le syndrome de la page blanche
Victorian Era Names, A Writer's Guide circa 1840's-1890's Being a compilation drawn from old census and vital statistic records. A large part of creating a good set of characters in fiction writing is giving your imaginary populace good names. The right name resonates on the tongue and lingers in the mind, as just the right "fit" for who that heroic - or despicable - person was. Who can forget "Captain Ahab" and his manic pursuit of the Great White Whale, or the plain-spoken, earthy spirit of "Tom Sawyer," or the stern lyricism of "Sherlock Holmes?" The same holds true for writing stories set in the 1800's. Nor was it unusual for parents to look closer to home, borrowing from close friends or people they admired. In a few places on this list, I have enumerated certain first and middle names together, (such as Sarah Ann,) because I find them joined thus so many times on old public records, that it is apparent those name-pairings enjoyed great popularity. Compiled by G.
Ten rules for writing fiction Elmore Leonard: Using adverbs is a mortal sin 1 Never open a book with weather. If it's only to create atmosphere, and not a character's reaction to the weather, you don't want to go on too long. 2 Avoid prologues: they can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword. 3 Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue. 4 Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said" ... he admonished gravely. 5 Keep your exclamation points under control. 6 Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose". 7 Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly. 8 Avoid detailed descriptions of characters, which Steinbeck covered. 9 Don't go into great detail describing places and things, unless you're Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language. 10 Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: if it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Diana Athill Margaret Atwood 3 Take something to write on.
How To Write A Novel Using The Snowflake Method Writing a novel is easy. Writing a good novel is hard. That’s just life. If it were easy, we’d all be writing best-selling, prize-winning fiction. Frankly, there are a thousand different people out there who can tell you how to write a novel. There are a thousand different methods. In this article, I’d like to share with you what works for me. This page is the most popular one on my web site, and gets over a thousand page views per day, so you can guess that a lot of people find it useful. Good fiction doesn’t just happen, it is designed. For a number of years, I was a software architect designing large software projects. I claim that that’s how you design a novel — you start small, then build stuff up until it looks like a story. If you’re like most people, you spend a long time thinking about your novel before you ever start writing. But before you start writing, you need to get organized. Step 1) Take an hour and write a one-sentence summary of your novel. Shorter is better.
Synonyms for 95 Commonly Used Words - A Mini-Thesaurus for Writers Synonyms for 95 Commonly Used Words in the English language Source for Comic Source for Synonyms Writers Write offers the best writing courses in South Africa. 6 Ways to Make Sure Your Reader’s Brain Syncs with Your Protagonist’s Brain photo by Andres Musta via Flickr Because here’s the thing: it’s not fiction. It’s fact. Except, you know, for the Vulcan part. And, okay, the part where you have to put your fingertips on the other guy’s face to do it. But hey, the world was pretty much analog back then, so who could blame Wincelberg for seeing life as hands-on, and thus missing the nuances of how information is actually transferred from one brain to another? To figure that part out we had to wait for something that even ‘Bones’ McCoy didn’t have access to — fMRI technology, which revealed that when we’re really engaged in listening to a story, our brain synchronizes with the speaker’s brain – literally mirroring it. fMRI studies reveal that when we’re really engaged in listening to a story, our brain synchronizes with the speaker’s brain – literally mirroring it. In other words, we really are on the same wavelength, and their experiences become ours. The exact same thing is true when we’re reading a story. Exactly! 1. 2.
Écrire un conte Écrire un conte Sommaire du dossier Inventer l’intrigue : personnages, lieux, épreuves. Comment commencer l’histoire ? Corriger son brouillon : améliorer la forme et la langue. ----------------------------------Écrire un conte Objectifs : écrire, seul ou en équipes, un texte long en réutilisant ses connaissances sur le conte merveilleux ; apprendre à corriger son brouillon. Première étapeVous allez écrire un conte de plusieurs pages, en vous laissant guider par le parcours suivant. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. Deuxième étape : Les éléments obligésVérifiez bien que vous avez trouvé :[…] Troisième étape : Rédigez un résumé de votre conte en faisant bien apparaître les éléments dont vous avez vérifié la présence lors de l’étape précédente. […] Quatrième étape : Présentation orale à toute la classe[…] Cinquième étape : Comment commencer ? Voici des débuts de contes. Sixième étape : Corriger son brouillon Voici un texte à corriger, en plusieurs étapes. 1. 2. 3. 1. 2. 9. 10.
45 ways to avoid using the word 'very' Three Telling Quotes About ‘Very’ Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. ~Mark Twain‘Very’ is the most useless word in the English language and can always come out. If you enjoyed this, you will love: If you want to learn how to write a book, join our Writers Write course. by Amanda Patterson © Amanda Patterson
The power of a great introduction - Carolyn Mohr Writers come in all shapes and sizes, from every country in the world, and are practically every age. Some people write about history, some write science fiction, and some write about things that are happening in this very moment. Regardless of what kind of writer you are (or want to become), you should seek the advice of those that are already doing it (and you'll probably find some that say you shouldn't be a writer). Find some resources that can help you in your journey. An introduction is the first paragraph of a written research paper, the first thing you say in an oral presentation, or the first thing people see, hear, or experience about your project or book. Here is a guideline for writing a literary analysis.
How to Start Writing When You Don’t Feel Like It by Michael As a professional editor and copywriter, my biggest problem with clients is not that I get poorly written material from them. Oh no, not by a long shot. My biggest problem is I don’t get anything from them at all. I don’t mind the grammar or spelling or punctuation mistakes that my clients make. If you care about something, you can probably talk about it, if you can talk at all. When writing is hard for you, how can you get started? If you have to write about your business but can’t get started, pretend your husband wants to know what you do for a living. You may not be impressed with what comes out.