Lifewriting Classes
Steven Barnes' Free Writing Class! What follows is, in slightly modified form, the complete text of the 9-week writing class I've taught for years at UCLA. To my knowledge it is the only completely free program of its depth and scope available on the WWW. I would suggest that you download it all, and take the lessons one week at a time, writing your butts off. Why am I giving this away? If you like it, tell your friends where to find it. And if you want more when you're done with this class, take a look at my Lifewriting for Writers program! Steven Barnes Week One Week Two Week Three Week Four Week Five Week Six Week Seven Week Eight Week Nine
20 Tips For Writing a Captivating Short Story (Part 1)
by Mindy Halleck Today, as I edit, trim, cut, and otherwise obliterate a short story I wrote that ended up to be 8,000 words, but needs to be 5,000 words, I am reminded of this quote: “Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.” Wise man. I thought I’d share some editing tips this morning, not so much for you as for me. I will share these tips in three concurring post over the next two weeks. Anyway . . . drum roll . . . . Writing short stories is a great way to investigate diverse genres, characters, settings, and voices. Here are some editing tips that hopefully will keep you from banging your head on the editing desk. Watch your word count. Check out part 2 for the rest of the tips! Mindy Halleck is an award winning author who lives in the Pacific Northwest. Like this: Like Loading...
50 Ways to Show Gratitude for the People in Your Life
“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” –William Arthur Ward The holiday season generally brings us closer to people. Sometimes that closeness reminds us how much we love each other. Sometimes it reminds us that we drive each other crazy, as family often does. At the heart of it, Thanksgiving in particular calls us to see people with the deepest appreciation for the gifts they’ve given us. Others push us, stretch us, test us, and make us wonder if there’s anything to be grateful for at all. There’s no denying certain relationships are more challenging than others, but through each we have an opportunity to grow and help others do the same. From the people who love you, to the people who challenge you, to the people who support you at work, here’s how to show your gratitude: Show Gratitude to People Who Love You 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Show Gratitude to People Who Challenge You 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25.
The Future of Advertising
Twenty creative directors, planners, media strategists, and account executives from agencies across the country are down on all fours on the floor of a 100-year-old tenement on Manhattan's Lower East Side. They are each staring down at a blank poster-size sheet of paper, contemplating their most abject fears about their careers, their livelihoods, and their future. They have reason to worry. They are, after all, in the business of advertising. This slight three-story brick building on the edge of Chinatown has been taken over by Hyper Island, a school based in Sweden renowned for producing the most coveted digital talent in the ad industry. Last summer, the Swedes at Hyper Island recognized that where there's panic, there's opportunity, and opened this New York branch. Most of the men and women here -- average age: 38 -- have worked at agencies for more than a decade. Step one of their therapy, of course, is admitting there is a problem. That was then. Nothing has come easy. St.
100 Exquisite Adjectives
By Mark Nichol Adjectives — descriptive words that modify nouns — often come under fire for their cluttering quality, but often it’s quality, not quantity, that is the issue. Plenty of tired adjectives are available to spoil a good sentence, but when you find just the right word for the job, enrichment ensues. Practice precision when you select words. Here’s a list of adjectives: Subscribe to Receive our Articles and Exercises via Email You will improve your English in only 5 minutes per day, guaranteed! 21 Responses to “100 Exquisite Adjectives” Rebecca Fantastic list!
Truths About Fiction
The following essay was previewed in the class that Stephen Graham Jones taught for LitReactor, Your Life Story Is Five Pages Long. 1. The reader should never have to work to figure out the basics of your story. Who’s whose wife or husband, what the time period is if that matters, why these people have broken into this house, and on and on, just the basic, ground-level facts about your story. 2. Meaning you don’t have to lay every last detail of every last thing out. The best writers are the ones who can cover the most distance with the fewest words. 3. It can be as simple as if the story opens with what feels like a dramatic frame—two people sitting by a fireplace, talking over brandy—then we already expect the story to circle back to that fireplace. 4. You open with a hook, of course—the title—then you hook with the first line, then, usually at the end of the first paragraph, you set that hook. 5. They’re not reading so you can render for them their already quotidian lives. 6. 7. 8. 9.
5 great ways to end a speech
The moment of truth has arrived. You had them at the open. The audience was clearly focused, nodding as you delivered your message. Eyes locked as you wove through a carefully crafted medley of stories, anecdotes and analogies, all supporting your message. The time has come to conclude, at which point you exclaim: “In conclusion, I appreciate your time. And then nothing happens. Everyone quietly claps, or just nods, and leaves the auditorium or conference room. What can you do to prevent such a muted response? 1. ”In order to guarantee that we save ______ tomorrow, we need to _____ today. 2. “So, coach entered the locker room after a pretty tough game in which a number of us had standout performances, and the result was … a big loss. 3. “What choice will you make when you leave here today? 4. “We can have____, or we can have ______. 5. Matt Eventoff of Princeton Public Speaking tweets at @Matt_Eventoff.
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