Questionnaires for Writing Character Profiles - Creative Writing Help Enter your e-mail to get the e-book for FREE. We'll also keep you informed about interesting website news. "I have searched the web and used different worksheets, but none have come close to your worksheets and descriptions of (what to do and what not to do). Both courses I have taken have with Creative Writing Now have been amazing. Each time I have learned something new. "As usual - I already love the course on Irresistible Fiction, rewriting a lot and improving greatly even after the first lesson. “Essentials of Fiction proved that I could indeed write and I wrote every day, much to my boyfriend's dismay (waa sniff).” - Jill Gardner "I am loving the course and the peer interaction on the blog is fantastic!!!" "I'm enjoying the weekly email course, Essentials of Poetry Writing. "Thank you for all the material in this course. "I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the lessons and feel they were very helpful in introducing new ideas and perspectives to my writing.
Plotto: The Master Book of All Plots by Michelle Legro The art of mechanized storytelling, or what a cardboard robot has to do with melodrama and Law & Order. You are an author about write a story. How shall it begin? In 1894, French critic Georges Polti recognized thirty-six possible plots, which included conflicts such as Supplication, Pursuit, Self-sacrifice, Adultery, Revolt, the Enigma, Abduction, and Disaster. Original copies of Plotto: The Master Book of All Plots are very rare, with an asking price of more than $250. Plotto, reissued last month by Tin House, was a manual that aimed to mechanize the entire narrative trade. While still a young director in England, Alfred Hitchcock requested the book from America, and the creator of the courtroom drama Perry Mason claimed he had learned a great deal from it. Wycliffe Hill, inventor of the Plot Robot, from Popular Mechanics, 1931. Plotto was far more complex, and despite its careful categorization, still exceedingly hard to understand. 1a. 9b. 61. 1282. Donating = Loving
Special Search Engines That Are Not Google or Yahoo There exists dozens of specialised search engines that are extremely efficient and innovative though not very popular. Let’s discover some of these hidden or unexplored gems on the internet that are not Google or Yahoo – they will help you quickly find the information you are looking for. Google, now a household name associated with ‘web search’, remains the top search engine on the internet followed by a distant second, Yahoo. The word ‘google’ is so popular that it even enjoys a place in the Merriam Webster dictionary meaning “to use the Google search engine to retrieve information on the internet.” Sporting an extremely clean homepage, Google executes your search queries at lightning speed and the search results are relevant most of the times. However, there’s life beyond Google and Yahoo! Let’s discover some of these hidden or unexplored gems on the internet that are not Google: Coming to people search, Pipl and Spock rule the web.
About WordNet - WordNet - About WordNet Keeping it Real: A Rough Guide to Using Real People As Fictional Characters Pop quiz: what do Ebeneezer Scrooge, Alice in Wonderland and Tintin all have in common? OK, the title makes the answer obvious (and if it didn’t, you’re too tired to be reading this): all of these ‘fictional’ characters were based on real people. It’s not an unusual thing for a writer to do. But let’s not get reductive. The big no-no: writing about your family When author Hanif Kureishi produced his novel Intimacy in 1998, its story line about a man who leaves his partner for another woman seemed unexceptional. You can see her point. I'm just the messenger. To which you might ask how Kureishi might have felt if his partner had chosen to make a record of her own. But at least Kureishi attempted to disguise his subject matter. I see dead people: channeling historical figures But if using your nearest and dearest is off limits, what about taking people who are no longer alive and basing fiction on them? Many writers of historical fiction have gone down this road.
Thinkmap visualization software facilitates communication, learning, and discovery. Guide for Writers: Latin Phrases It’s a matter of taste and style, but not long ago American writers attempted to demonstrate their credentials to the world by including Latin and French phrases within works. A dash of Latin was expected of the moderately educated throughout the Western world. annus mirabilis - wonderful year arbiter elegantiae - judge of the elegant; one who knows the good things in life bona fides - good faith; credentials carpe diem - sieze the day; enjoy the present casus belli - cause justifying a war caveat emptor - buyer beware cui bono? caeteris paribus - all things being equal de facto - of fact; it is de gustibus non est disputandum - no disputing tastes; there is no accounting for taste Dei gratia - by the grace of God Deo gratias - thanks to God Deo volente - God willing dis aliter visum - it seemed otherwise to the gods Dominus vobiscum - Lord be with you dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - sweet and seemly it is to die for one’s country ecce homo - behold man ex cathedra - with authority
opportunities for writers 6/12 a--z presses This is the second week of the Opportunities for Writers’ focus on literary journals and presses seeking your writing. Each week will feature three presses with open calls for submissions. Enjoy! bare hands poetry About: Bare Hands is a monthly international journal of “contemporary poetry and photography.” Submission Process: Poets should submit a maximum of five poems to barehandspoetry@gmail.com. Reading Period: Bare Hands is a monthly journal; they have not provided themes or submission deadlines, so poets may assume they have a rolling submission and reading period. big lucks About: In their mission statement, Big Lucks states that they feel “as if the most exciting and noteworthy writing lurks in the unlit depths of the ocean, amid the lifeforms and creatures humanity was never meant to see. Website: For more on their submission process and to learn more about the journal, please visit Big Lucks online at www.biglucks.com. broken glass Happy Writing!
Creative writing website for authors and readers. 75 words, changing daily. Submit your paragraph today. Put It in a Box and Wait: The Millions Interviews Cheryl Strayed Three books by Cheryl Strayed have been published in 2012. Wild, the bestselling memoir of a solo journey on the Pacific Crest Trail that inspired Oprah to restart her book club. Tiny Beautiful Things, a collection of pseudonymously-written Dear Sugar literary advice columns from The Rumpus. And most recently Torch, a new edition of a lyrical novel first published in 2006 about a family’s struggles with the loss of the wife and mother who was its emotional center. It is ordinary and human to fall down and to make mistakes, and it is courageous to get back up. People want to talk to Cheryl Strayed for many reasons these days; mine were mostly personal: she’s a writer in her 40s who lost her mom to cancer and struggled for years to come to terms with that loss. Cheryl Strayed: I really liked that piece a lot. You know, as Sugar would say, like if I were writing a Sugar column, I would look up the word authority and ask, Where does that come from? RG: Did that work? CS: Oh, all the time.
No Excuses! Advice for Achieving Creative Domination with Author Raven Bower If you’re just tuning in, today is day #3 in the 30 Day “One Question” Series. If you want to learn more about the series, be sure to check out the first interview. I used to be a Platinum Level Member of the “Failed-New-Year’s-Resolutions” Country Club. (It’s even rumored that I once won accolades for the quickest backslide, failing at my resolutions less than 30 minutes after I made them… but that’s just a rumor…) This was prior to joining the online accountability group that changed my life. Raven Bower and her hound of doom For the last three years, this small group of women have brow beat me into actually accomplishing the goals I set each week. Raven is a shining example of what you can accomplish through sheer determination. (Oh, and how could I forget to mention, she’s also a damn good wife and mother!) If I showed you Raven’s average weekly To-Do list, you’d swear I’d compiled the lists of four or five people at least. It’s hard. Even then, I slip. “I beg your pardon. Like this:
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. 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 so easy to hide in your little bubble, typing your little words with your little fingers on your little laptop from the comfort of your tiny chair in your miniature little house. It’s no secret that great writers are great readers, and that if you can’t read, your writing will often suffer. Available in print withThe Best of McSweeney’s Internet Tendency
Piracy is yesterday's worry for today's 'artisan authors' The community of SF writers has reason to dislike digital copying, or "piracy" as it's commonly labelled in the tabloid press. Genre writers exist, by and large, in the publishing mid-list, where mediocre sales might seem most easily eroded by the spectre of illegitimate downloads. SF, fantasy and horror are also the literature of choice for the culture of geeks most likely to share their favourite authors' works on torrent sites. Not surprising, then, that many professional genre writers and editors respond to the growing reality of copying with the absolutist position that piracy is theft, and should be punished as such under the law. But SF writers are far from united in that position. Of course the easy response is that Doctorow, Stross and Gaiman are all successful writers who can afford to hold such opinions. It's at the confluence of file-sharing and self-publishing that a new kind of "artisan author" is emerging. Creative control is the lure for the artisan author.