25 Ways To Fight Your Story’s Mushy Middle For me, the middle is the hardest part of writing. It’s easy to get the stallions moving in the beginning — a stun gun up their asses gets them stampeding right quick. I don’t have much of a problem with endings, either; you get to a certain point and the horses are worked up into a mighty lather and run wildly and ineluctably toward the cliff’s edge. But the middle, man, the motherfucking middle. It’s like being lost in a fog, wandering the wasteland tracts. Seems like it’s time for another “list of 25″ to the rescue, then. Hiyaa! 1. Fuck the three-act structure right in its crusty corn-cave. 2. Hey, when you fake an orgasm, you gotta commit. 3. The shape of a story — especially the shape of a story’s middle — is a lot of soft rises and doughy plateaus and zoftig falls. 4. When I was a kid, Christmas Eve was the most interminable time because, y’know, Christmas morning is everything. 5. Sometimes, a story needs a bit of new blood in the form of a new character — someone interesting.
List of English-language idioms This is a list of notable idioms in the English language. An idiom is a common word or phrase with a culturally understood meaning that differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest. For example, an English speaker would understand the phrase "kick the bucket" to mean "to die" – and also to actually kick a bucket. Furthermore, they would understand when each meaning is being used in context. Visit Wiktionary's Category for over eight thousand idioms. See also[edit] References[edit] Jump up ^ "A bitter pill". Notes[edit] Jump up ^ Originally a hunting term.Jump up ^ Originally a British slang term for a quadruple amputee during World War I.Jump up ^ Originating with the English writer Francis Quarles who wrote:"Wee spend our mid-day sweat, or mid-night oyle;Wee tyre the night in thought; the day in toyle."
How to use a semicolon 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. The one thing I love, you take everything apart and give examples." - Katlen Skye "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. "Thanks very much for this course. "I'm learning so much. "Thank you so much!!
7 Habits of Serious Writers Image credit: aless&ro With thanks to Michael Pollock for the article suggestion and title. I’ve been writing, on and off, since my early teens – but it’s only in the last three years that I’ve really taken my writing seriously. It’s made a dramatic difference. I write far, far more. I write better. In the past few years, I’ve been lucky enough to work alongside all sorts of great writers, during my MA in Creative Writing, and in my freelancing. Habit #1: Writing To be a serious writer, you have to write. Yes, that’s obvious. Maybe you’re one of them. Unfortunately, you won’t get any better at writing unless you actually write. I know it’s tough. You can do it. Writing “regularly” is key here. Get Serious Write. Habit #2: Focus Maybe you’ve planned to write for two hours on a Saturday morning. Writing is hard work – and you’ll come up with all sorts of distractions to keep you from it. Serious writers, though, know how to help themselves focus. Habit #3: Reading Habit #4: Learning
One Sentence - True stories, told in one sentence. Everything you ever needed to know about screenwriting (but were afraid to ask) The architecture of all stories is pretty much the same Take just one story: a dangerous monster threatens a community and one person takes it upon himself or herself to kill the beast and restore happiness to the kingdom. It's the story of Jaws. But it's also the story of Beowulf. And it's more familiar than that: it's The Thing, it's Jurassic Park, it's The Blob – all films with tangible monsters. If you recast the monsters in human form, it's also every Bond film, every episode of Spooks, House or CSI. Without empathy your work won't work A whole generation remembers how they flinched when they saw the fisherman's decapitated head fall out of the boat in Jaws. Studying screenwriting is older than screenwriting itself The rules that govern screenwriting are the fundamentals of narrative and there's a whole history of structural analysis preceeding the advent of film. Reality television is drama Perfect structure doesn't give you perfect drama Cause and effect is at the root of everything
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. 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! 500 Ways Hungry for another double-barrel buckshot of questionable writing wisdom unloaded into your brain-guts? Ohhh, I have just the thing for you, my little ink-fingered word-cobblers. Available now: 500 WAYS TO BE A BETTER WRITER. Okay, let’s get our procurement options on the table: Or, buy direct (PDF) from here: (A note about buying direct: if you buy direct, I send you the file — er, directly! What The Hell Is This? This is the sequel to 250 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT WRITING, and, as many sequels go, this one is bigger and badder — twice the size, in fact, of its predecessor. It features 20 “Lists of 25″ from the blog-bound pages of this very site. What lists, you say? Now, four of those are brand new and are not found here at terribleminds — Endings; Mood; Sleep-Deprived And Also Drunken Thoughts; and the writing exercises. All told, it’s around 50,000 words of total content. None of it is replicated from 250 THINGS. Why Buy? Got a big bad case of the writer’s block? Or — or! If you procure?