10 Unfilmable Books That Would Make Great Films The sheer amount of Hollywood films which started life as books or short stories is absolutely staggering. Even the onset of CGI, HD and Jason Statham has done nothing to alter the extent of cross-medium borrowing, basing and plain old adapting. Indeed, Some of Hollywood’s most memorable offerings ;-Gone with the Wind, Jaws, The Godfather, The English Patient, The Shining, Schindler’s List- are actually great improvement upon the original novels. But is there a certain type of book which lends itself to adaptation? What of those books so firmly rooted in their medium that any adaptation would feel reckless, heretical even? In short, the challenges of adaptation are just as numerous as those any original, new screenplay provide. For film adaptation’s detractors, a central issue is often raised; how can a film evoke the atmosphere or the sheer reading experience of the book? And given the recent ambitions of Hollywood, is any novel safe to be considered unfilmable anymore?
LPT: When writing, studying, or reading, listen to music with no vocals : LifeProTips Famous Advice on Writing: The Collected Wisdom of Great Writers By Maria Popova By popular demand, I’ve put together a periodically updated reading list of all the famous advice on writing presented here over the years, featuring words of wisdom from such masters of the craft as Kurt Vonnegut, Susan Sontag, Henry Miller, Stephen King, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Susan Orlean, Ernest Hemingway, Zadie Smith, and more. Please enjoy. Jennifer Egan on Writing, the Trap of Approval, and the Most Important Discipline for Aspiring Writers “You can only write regularly if you’re willing to write badly… Accept bad writing as a way of priming the pump, a warm-up exercise that allows you to write well.”
In the Beginning: How to Draw in Your Reader Today’s post is written by regular contributor Susan Bearman. A story either leaps off the page or it doesn’t. Beatriz Badikian-Gartler once told our writing group that “Titles are a kind of promise you make to the reader.” In the beginning, we establish our voice, invite the reader into our world, and tempt them to come along for the ride. And, attention spans being what they are today, we don’t have much time to get them hooked. We can all think of famous first lines in literature, lines that continue to resonate long after the novel has been put back on the shelf. It lets the reader know that a story is at hand.It eases the way for suspending disbelief.It sets the story in a different place and time.It awakens curiosity and raises questions. These are the kinds of things you want your own beginnings to accomplish. Change of Pace It used to be that the writer had loads of time to get a story started, but in today’s fast-paced world, some celebrated opening pages might not hold up.
Crime Writer Elmore Leonard (1925-2013) Provides 13 Writing Tips for Aspiring Writers Note: Elmore Leonard, the crime writer who gave us Get Shorty, Freaky Deaky, and Glitz, died at his home in Bloomfield Village, Michigan. He was 87. If you never had a chance to read Leonard, you can start with “Ice Man,” a 2012 story that appeared in The Atlantic. It’s free online. “If it sounds like writing,” says Elmore Leonard, “I rewrite it.” Leonard’s writing sounds the way people talk. In 2006 Leonard appeared on BBC Two’s The Culture Show to talk about the craft of writing and give some advice to aspiring authors. “You have to listen to your characters.” “I always refer to style as sound,” says Leonard. You can read more from Leonard on his rules in the 2001 Times article.
Richard Ford, Jonathan Franzen, and Anne Enright Give Ten Candid Pieces of Writing Advice Each The way people read on the internet has encouraged the provision of “tips,” especially presented as short sentences collected in lists. While we here at Open Culture seldom ride that current, we make exceptions for lists of tips by authors best known for their long-form textual achievements. Richard Ford (The Sportswriter books), Jonathan Franzen (The Corrections and Freedom), and Anne Enright (The Portable Virgin, The Gathering) here offer ten suggestions each to guide your own writing habits. Though presumably learned in the process of writing novels, many of these lessons apply just as well to other forms. I, for example, write mostly essays, but still find great value in Franzen’s instruction to treat the reader as a friend, Enright’s point that description conveys opinion, and Ford’s injunction not to write reviews (or at least, as I read it, not reviews as so narrowly defined). Related Content: Seven Tips From Ernest Hemingway on How to Write Fiction Seven Tips From F.
27 modifiers that have been drained of meaning It’s an epic fail. Literally. By Laura Hale Brockway | Posted: July 31, 2013 My 6-year-old loves to use the word epic. “Did you see me jump off the diving board? The misuse of epic has long been a pet peeve. As an adjective, epic means heroic or grand in scale or characteristic of an epic. [RELATED: Register for our PR Writers Summit by Aug. 1 to get the early bird discount.] In addition to epic, here are some other adjectives (and a few adverbs) that have lost their meaning through overuse or misuse. actually amazing awesome complex effective efficient epic exciting exclusive ground-breaking historic iconic incredible innovative insane interesting literally natural nice outstanding proactive progressive unique really revolutionary ridiculous very PR Daily readers—any other meaningless descriptors you would like to share? Laura Hale Brockway is an Austin-based writer and editor. (Image via) Popularity: This record has been viewed 3820 times.
25 editing tips for your writer's toolbox Editing is just as important as writing—maybe even more important. If you can edit your work effectively, your rough draft might look like chicken scratches, but that won’t matter. As long as you have a fairly solid piece of writing that makes an interesting point, you’re in good shape if you have good editing skills. But if you don’t know how to edit, writing can be more frustrating than necessary, at best. At worst, nobody will read those chicken scratches. Check out this list of tips you can start using right away. 1. Editing also focuses on changes at the chapter, section, and sentence level. 2. Proofing does not include changes beyond spelling errors or typos, minor punctuation errors that don’t require text changes, spacing, format, numbering, or stylistic matters such as italics and underlining. 3. You should allow time in between writing and editing. Thorough editing should be done before proofreading (even though they do overlap a little). 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.
17 verbs that cut fat from your writing Why use three words when one strong verb will do the trick? By Laura Hale Brockway | Posted: July 3, 2013 Verbs are the powerhouse of your sentences; choose them wisely. Another issue that I see frequently in the work that I edit is weak verbs coupled with nouns that are strong verbs in disguise. The managing editor made a recommendation to use a new style guide. In the first sentence, made is a weak verb used with the noun recommendation. [RELATED:Learn the "Four C's" that are crucial to your internal writing at our one-day workshop in Chicago.] Here are 17 examples of this coupling, along with the much stronger verb (examples from Analytical Writing for Science and Technology): Readers, any other examples to share? Laura Hale Brockway is an Austin-based writer and editor. This article first appeared on Ragan.com in June 2012. (Image via) Popularity: This record has been viewed 14103 times.
The 5 best writing books no one ever told you about Whenever I read lists of recommended writing books, I’m usually disappointed to find a roundup of the usual suspects: Stephen King, Ann Lamott, William Zinsser, and William Strunk. Not that there’s anything wrong with any of these writers or their books. They’re all fine. Inspiring, even. Useful. But I read them all years ago. So here’s my list. 1. A grammar book that’s hip—how’s that for a contradiction? The book also has the best explanation of who vs. whom I’ve ever seen in print. 2. This title is not so much a book as it is a daring grudge match against the writing “Bible” and its authors William Strunk Jr. and the incomparable E.B. Written with great wit and divided into eight sections—Flexibility, Freshness, Texture, Word, Force, Form, Clarity, and Contemporaneity – “Spunk & Bite” questions the famous duo’s most cherished rules of writing. 3. Weinberg believes that good material lies all around us and that our job as writers is to collect it for future use. 4. 5.
10 fun and inspiring quotations about writing For those who could use a little extra inspiration this week, here are 10 fun and inspiring quotations about writing: 1. “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” —Douglas Adams 2. 3. 4. 5. [RELATED: Ragan's new distance-learning site houses the most comprehensive video training library for corporate communicators.] 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Care to share your favorite quotation about writing? Laura Hale Brockway is an Austin-based writer and editor. (Image via, via, via, & via) Popularity: This record has been viewed 5354 times.