77 Things I Learned From Writing 1,000 Blog Essays – Auxiliary Memory By James Wallace Harris, Wednesday, January 20, 2016 This is my 1,000th blog post and I’ve learned a lot from blogging. My first post was “Access time in a fifty-five year old brain” published 12/26/2006. Here’s the first paragraph: The main reason I’ve created this blog is to help me remember. Well, I’m still struggling to organize my thoughts, but I’m quite confident Auxiliary Memory has been an huge help as an external memory device. To celebrate these nine hundred and ninety-nine essays, I thought I’d note some of what I’ve learned. Blogging is like piano practice for writing. Like this: Like Loading... South Park Writers' #1 Writing Rule : writing
Yo as a Pronoun Mignon Fogarty is the creator of Grammar Girl and the founder and managing director of Quick and Dirty Tips. A magazine writer, technical writer, and entrepreneur, she has served as a senior editor and producer at a number of health and science web sites. She has a B.A. in English from the University of Washington in Seattle and an M.S. in biology from Stanford University. Mignon believes that learning is fun, and the vast rules of grammar are wonderful fodder for lifelong study. Grammar Girl provides short, friendly tips to improve your writing. To book a lecture event with Mignon Fogarty for your company or organization, contact Macmillan Speakers. Follow Mignon on Google+, Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Awards Media The Oprah Winfrey Show, Grammar Girl Fixes Common Mistakes, March 2007 "Mignon has come up with clever ideas to help even the most grammatically challenged person remember the rules." New York Times, Book Not Ready for Print? Los Angeles Times
Coffee with Creatives Podcast – The Blog of Michael DiBiasio Coffee with Creatives is a bi-monthly podcast wherein I interview fellow creatives about their life and their work. The goal is to engage in a personal, direct way, about practices, resources, and workflows that have helped them produce quality work (and to keep producing it). New episodes go live every other Thursday. Sometimes — when I’m super caffeinated — there are bonus episodes. I launched Coffee with Creatives to help build community and share information about how to combat the challenges of today’s artistic environment. To help offset the costs of running the podcast, and to keep it growing, I am accepting monthly contributions, via Patreon, from anyone enjoying the interviews. If you’d like to make a one-time contribution instead, please feel free to donate: Here’s the full list of interviews: Lynn “Madre” DiBiasioMadam Patroness Kari NicolleRuth StuartVadim “The Dream” AvshalumovGretchen De OrnelasThe Incomparable Rebecca De OrnelasMike MeloWILL IT BE YOU?!
Sit Down, Shut Up, and Write Your Fucking Book: Uplifting Tips for the Aspiring Author. Ease into it Waking up can be an extremely complex issue. In fact, there is no guarantee it can always be done. Take a moment to marvel that you have accomplished a great feat. Be properly attired What are you wearing? Keep hydrated Fill up a gas can with water or Honey Jack Daniels. Keep your blood flowing Other things that should be on your mind at this early stage in the writing day are deep-vein thrombosis and lethal blood clots. IMPORTANT NOTE: IF THE WORD “WRITING” IS TOO INTIMIDATING, CONSIDER USING A EUPHEMISM LIKE “PENPIDDLING” OR “WORDYWHOOPWHOOP.” Draw strength from past defeats Take a minute to remember that time your writing teacher told you to consider an alternate career in underwater basket weaving. Take deep, deep breaths Fill your lungs with Febreeze’d air and look around your writing room/prison cell. Copy the routines of your heroes Think carefully about your literary idol and ask yourself how they approached their writing day. Don’t sweat the small stuff Goodness!
Steve Martin Shows You How to Write a Sketch Show in His Rare TV Special The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials, and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.) This might be heresy to some of you, but I just can’t get into the early seasons of SNL. I’m willing to attach this lofty claim to an NBC special entitled Steve Martin: Comedy is Not Pretty. The Absurd Sketch Advertisement There’s not an awful lot of information about Comedy is Not Pretty available on the Internet, but when it is discussed there’s one sketch that seems to get mentioned more than any other, and it is ostensibly a music video for the Marty Robbins song “El Paso.”
If Americans Knew - what every American needs to know about Israel/Palestine Podcast - Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach Audio Player I want you to reach your writing goals, and I believe you’ll make significant progress (and have fun!) by being more curious, creative, and productive. These podcast episodes, intentionally kept short, offer practical tips and motivation for writers at all stages. I keep episodes short and focused so writers only need a few minutes to collect ideas, inspiration, resources, and recommendations to apply to their work. Tune in for solutions addressing anything from self-editing and goal-setting solutions to administrative and scheduling challenges. Ways to Listen: Subscribe to the Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach podcast with iTunes, where I’d love to have you rate the show and leave a review—reviews help listeners find relevant content.Subscribe with Stitcher (reviews also welcome there!). Ep 89: The Rush to Publish – How to Pace Your Career Don’t try to speed up the process too much. Ep 88: How to Develop Your Own Self-Study Writing Course Ep 81: A Gift of Writing #68: Write, Now
Brent Weeks | Writing Advice My eyes usually glaze over whenever I see somebody saying something as artsy as “go into yourself”. But this is Rilke. And it’s worth getting past that. You are looking outward, and that above all you should not do now. In an effort to make it so you don’t have to scroll ludicrously far to read the new update every month, we’ve broken the Writing Advice Page into four pages. LATEST POST: Should there be happy endings? 1. a. b. c. d. I. e. f. g. I. II. III. IV. h. i. 2. a. I. II. b. I. c. d. e. 3. a. b. c. d. e. I. II. III. f. g. h. i. j. 4. a. b. c. a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h. i. j. k.
Writing Comedy Sketches That Sell by Brian LuffThe Internet Writing Journal, July 1999 Introduction The first thing to do before you sit down and try and write a sketch, is to watch and read as many other comedy sketches as you can. Go to the library, borrow books, videos, tapes, records, lock yourself away and watch sketches until they come out of your ears. Study the masters of the art. Monty Python, Mel Brooks, The Fast Show, Saturday Night Live, French & Saunders, etc etc. Research While you're watching, make notes. Getting Started Never sit down in front of a blank sheet of paper. Write the titles at the top of three separate pages, and then, working on all three sketches at the same time, write down everything you can think of connected to each of the three subjects. 1) Choose a setting. Brainstorming Bounce comedy ideas off the people around you. Where do the Ideas Come From? If you're stuck, the best place to go looking for ideas for sketches is in big reference books like, for example, Halliwell's Film Guide. Layout
Create Your Writing Year with a Vision Board or Map Happy New Year! Each year I spend time either on New Year’s Eve or on January first visualizing my year. In this way I “create” it. I use a variety of tools, such as writing goals, writing a vision and making vision boards or vision maps. Just yesterday I mentioned on Twitter that I was making a vision board, and someone said they’d always wanted to make one but never had. Basically, a vision board is a visual representation of what you want to create during the year or during any period of time. When completed, a vision map looks like a collage of all the pictures you’ve pasted onto a piece of sturdy paper or poster board that represent what you want to create–a published book, an income from your writing, a career as a speaker and writer, a balance between personal life and professional life, a trimmer body, time for your family, more friends. Here’s a vision board I created a few years ago on a full poster board. This year I am focused on balance.
Screenwriting Podcasts Ashley Scott Meyers talks with screenwriter, director, and producer Erin R. Dooley about her new documentary film, 'A Way to Forgiveness.' We also talk about the early days of her career and how she was able to produce numerous short films. Ashley Scott Meyers talks with screenwriter Jack Sekowski about his early career, how he got his first few agents, how he sold his first spec script to Universal Studios, and how he got his recent writing assignment writing a Hallmark Channel movie. Ashley Scott Meyers talks with screenwriter and director Alexander Babaev about his new horror / thriller film, 'Bornless Ones.' Ashley Scott Meyers talks with Irish director Michael Lennox about his early days shooting shorts around Ireland and how that eventually lead to his new thriller feature, 'A Patch of Fog' with Stephen Graham and Conleth Hill. Ashley Scott Meyers talks with screenwriters and directors Lisa Robinson and Annie J. Ashley Scott Meyers talks with screenwriters Barry Wernick and James R.
Karl Ove Knausgaard on Failure, Memory, and Writing 20 Pages a Day The fifth book in Karl Ove Knausgaard’s widely and obsessively loved My Struggle will be released next week, April 19th, from Archipelago Press. John Freeman caught up with the inimitable Knausgaard in Japan. John Freeman: Book five of My Struggle was written at speed and originally published five years ago. Karl Ove Knausgaard: Yeah JF: Now you’re eight or nine thousand miles from home, in Japan, recalling a time that was experienced at speed as well. KOK: Yeah. JF: Did you use any stimulants at all? KOK: No. JF: It’s shocking to read it and to realize that at one point you were a lousy writer. KOK: [laughs] Yeah. JF: And your teachers told you that. KOK: Yeah, they did. JF: What was Jon Fosse like as a teacher? KOK: He was very nervous, very shy, but almost aggressive in his comments. JF: Do you think teachers teach more by example than by what they say? KOK: Yeah, absolutely. JF: And do you think writing can be taught? KOK: No. KOK: You asked, what kind of… Yeah. JF: You survived. KOK: Yeah.
A Small Meditation on Art, Commerce and Impermanence I’m going to touch on something that I’ve discussed briefly before but which I think is worth reheating into its own post. Here are the best selling books in the US from 1912, which is (for those of you for whom math is not a strong suit) 100 years ago. 1. The Harvester by Gene Stratton-Porter 2. Questions: How many of these have you read? This isn’t a slight on the authors or their works, mind you. We’re not. If you’re a writer, this might depress you. And that’s fine. Forget even sliced bread; you can’t imagine the values or interests or views on the world that people might have a century from now. If you must aim for relevance, try for being relevant now; it’s a context you understand. Will your work survive?