My Writing Spot for iPad How Do You Know You’re Growing as a Writer? | noveldoctor I’m not sure how to open this post. I thought about playing the simile card and saying something about how becoming a better writer is a lot like becoming a better other thing – a better architect, a better juggler, a better OPI color namer, a better human. That would have been entirely true. And entirely boring. I also considered manufacturing a conversation between a beginning writer and a seasoned writer that could foreshadow the post’s inevitable wisdom. Seasoned Writer: I’m told you want to know how I got to be me. Beginning Writer: Yes. Seasoned Writer: Was that sarcasm? Beginning Writer: Sarcasm? Seasoned Writer: Never mind. Beginning Writer: Yes, master. Seasoned Writer: First of all, stop attributing wisdom to someone just because he’s older. Beginning Writer: That’s it? Seasoned Writer: Yup. Beginning Writer: It’s that simple? Seasoned Writer: Who said anything about it being simple? Beginning Writer: One more thing? Seasoned Writer: Drink a lot.
iA Writer 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.
The man who invented the Hollywood schlock machine The Proposal is formulaic. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 is formulaic. Imagine That is formulaic. But who came up with the formula? If you want the human embodiment of Hollywood predictability, you can't do better than Wycliffe A. It was a notion borne of failure. DeMille's prodding was perfectly timed; Hill wandered into a bookshop and found the new translation of French critic Georges Polti's Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations. What if together they made … a formula? Hill's Ten Million Photoplay Plots: The Master Key to All Dramatic Plots, a byzantine matrix of characters and conflicts designed to create endless plot combinations, was so novel when it debuted in 1919 that the slim guide sold for an eye-popping $5. There's plenty of quaint advice: Throw a punch in the first 200 feet of film; introduce a love interest within 500 feet. Hill wasn't about to lie down and take … well, whatever the hell this was. And so the would-be formula advice genre that Wycliffe A.
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. So what can we do to improve our writing short of hanging ourselves? 1. Don’t just plan to write—write. 2. [The] Resistance knows that the longer we noodle around “getting ready,” the more time and opportunity we’ll have to sabotage ourselves. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
10 Insanely Awesome Inspirational Manifestos There are certain messages that serve to get you “back to one” when you find you’re going off course. Whether you use tools such as a manifesto, a personal mission statement, a vision board or a list similar to Benjamin Franklin’s “13 Virtues”, taking the time to identify with one and then keeping it handy is worthwhile – and perhaps even imperative. But in a lot of cases you don’t have to “reinvent the wheel”; there are some awesome inspirational manifestos that have already put out there for you to look at and use as a means to set you back on course. Some come in the form of an image, some as a video, and some as nothing more than a blog post. One of those styles of presentation may resonate with you more than others, and yet you may want to have a selection to look at for the times where you need more than just a quick jolt of inspiration. 1. This is one of the best known ones on the web. 2. 3. the lululemon manifesto 4. 5. 6. Straight from the manifesto’s creator, Bruce Mau: 8. 10.
How To Drive Yourself Crazy as a Writer Here are four simple ways to drive yourself crazy (or to drive other writers & readers crazy!): 1. Think the very first book you’ve ever written is ready for publication. This is a very hard truth for beginning writers to swallow. It took me five books (not to mention a couple of books that I started but never finished). Fortunately, all the work isn’t for nothing. We’ll only drive ourselves crazy with potential rejections, poor sales, and crushing feedback if we attempt to put our books out there too soon. 2. I save my kids’ writing assignments. But, boy, in second grade they thought those stories were wonderful. Even though there’s no set number of years someone needs to write before being ready for publication, there’s something to be said for giving ourselves plenty of growing room. 3. No one can edit his or her own manuscript perfectly. And the same is true in our writing. Even with twenty plus years of writing experience, I still can’t catch all my own mistakes. 4.
Henry Miller's 11 Commandments of Writing & Daily Creative Routine After David Ogilvy’s wildly popular 10 tips on writing and a selection of advice from modernity’s greatest writers, here comes some from the prolific writer and painter Henry Miller (December 26, 1891–June 7, 1980) COMMANDMENTSWork on one thing at a time until finished.Start no more new books, add no more new material to ‘Black Spring.’Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time! Under a part titled Daily Program, his routine also featured the following wonderful blueprint for productivity, inspiration, and mental health: MORNINGS: If groggy, type notes and allocate, as stimulus.If in fine fettle, write.AFTERNOONS:Work of section in hand, following plan of section scrupulously. Complement Henry Miller on Writing with the beloved author on the meaning of life and the secret to remaining young at heart, then revisit great writers’ collected wisdom on the craft. HT Lists of Note
Bev's Learning & Instructional Design BaseCamp Create A Plot Outline In 8 Easy Steps By Glen C. Strathy How would you like to create a plot outline for your novel in less than an hour that is emotionally compelling and dramatically sound? It's easier than you think. The secret is to incorporate the 8 Basic Plot Elements. Sound intriguing? I'll describe each of the eight elements in turn. On the other hand, if you already have a draft for a novel, that you're looking to revise, then ask yourself, as we go through these elements, whether you have included them in your story. 1. 15K+Save The first element to include in your plot outline is the Story Goal, which we covered in detail in the previous article, The Key to a Solid Plot: Choosing a Story Goal. For instance, let's say we want to write a story about a 38-year-old female executive who has always put off having a family for the sake of her career and now finds herself lonely and regretting her choices. There are many ways we could involve other characters in this goal. ... a mother who wants her to be happier. 2. 3.
Amazon aren't destroying publishing, they're reshaping it The debate about Amazon v the publishing industry is getting so heated and so polarised that quite soon it's going to need its own version of Godwin's law. The passion is almost religious. On the one hand, you have those who say Amazon is a kind of new publishing messiah, casting out the old gatekeepers and ushering in a democratised, consumer-centric book trade. On the other, you have those who see the company as a digital devil destroying all it touches. It's neither. It's just big, strong, and ornery. Amazon makes money differently from a conventional publisher. It's perfectly true that Amazon's approach is, for the moment, mostly cheaper for the consumer than the now-endangered agency model favoured by publishers. Before agency was introduced, Amazon boasted of controlling 90% of the ebook market. And why is competition important? Digitisation was supposed to lead to a great democratisation of access to creative work. So Amazon, Google and Apple are gatekeepers.