Read These Seven Books, and You’ll be a Better Writer Donald Miller I used to play golf but I wasn’t very good. I rented a DVD, though, that taught me a better way to swing, and after watching it a few times and spending an hour or so practicing, I knocked ten strokes off my game. • The War of Art by Steven Pressfield: This book is aimed at writers, but it’s also applicable to anybody who does creative work. Pressfield leaves out all the mushy romantic talk about the writing life, talk I don’t find helpful. • On Writing Well by William Zinsser: Zinsser may be the best practical writing coach out there. • Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott: Before becoming a literary superstar, Anne Lamott taught writing, and Bird by Bird is the best of her advice, broken up into chapters. Save the Cat by Blake Snyder: Snyder’s book is specifically for screenwriters, and yet I recommend the book for writers of any kind, and teachers and preachers as well. Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell: On Writing, by Stephen King: Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury:
untitled Happy Holidays! Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year 2014 to all our fellow writers and filmmakers! Want to see THIRD CONTACT? A therapist investigates the mysterious deaths of two patients in this exploration of grief, mortality and madness. Filmmaker Simon Horrock launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring his indie feature film Third Contact into cinemas. Kickstarter campaign Third Contact website Chris Lockhart on Blog Talk Radio Catch Chris Lockhart on The Inside Pitch show (produced by Kevin Hill) on blogtalkradio. In the meantime, check out the previous shows at Interview with Simon Horrocks Filmmaker Simon Horrocks discuss his indie film noir THIRD CONTACT. “Third Contact, Simon Horrocks’ directorial debut, was shot on a miniscule budget showing yet again that films don’t need major studio funding in order to be excellent. Check out full interview: Congratulations to Young Il Kim
English 50 Exercises for Story Writers English 50 – Intro to Creative Writing: Exercises for Story Writers Basic Theory: What is a short story? As soon as someone delivers a definition, some good writer will write a story that proves the theory wrong. About the only thing we can say for sure is that short stories are short and that they are written in what we call prose. Some attributes, however, seem to show up more often than not. Short stories have a narrator; that is, someone tells the story; have at least one character in them; have some action occur (or perhaps fails to occur); take place somewhere; that is, there is a setting for the action; and someone either learns something or fails to learn something (theme).With these five characteristics in mind, we can create an almost endless supply of exercises to help sharpen our techniques of story telling. Narrative Voice Twenty or so years ago, voice was the "rite of passage" into a successful writing career. If you've written a story in third person, try it in first.
Atelier d'écriture créative Inspired To Journal Comment mettre en page votre livre Comment garantir la qualité de mise en page de votre livre ? Vous avez choisi avec soin vos polices, les espacements, les marges… pour faciliter la lecture de votre ouvrage avec un souci constant d’ergonomie et d’harmonie. Pourtant, une simple erreur technique dans la qualité d’une image, dans la cohérence des titres courants, dans la définition des fonds perdus, la finesse d’un trait… peut ruiner tous vos efforts de mise en page. Ces erreurs ne sont pas forcément détectables par les solutions automatisées de contrôle des fichiers, il est donc fondamental que vous vous assuriez que vous avez respecté toutes les règles techniques lors de la mise en page de votre livre. Vous ne connaissez pas dans le détail toutes ces règles de mise en page ? Vous y trouverez notamment la liste des contrôles auxquels vous devez impérativement procéder dans la rubrique : les vérifications de fichiers qui vous incombent. Guide détaillé de mise en page d’un livre Sommaire Vos fichiers d’impression Polices Images
Writer’s Digest - Writing Prompts Write a scene that includes a character speaking a different language, speaking in a thick accent, or otherwise speaking in a way that is unintelligibe to the other characters. (Note: You don't necessarily need to know the language the character is speaking—be creative with it!) Describe a character's reaction to something without explaining what it is. See if your fellow prompt responders can guess what it is. Write a story or a scene about one character playing a prank on another. Writing Prompt: Write a story that involves confusion over homonyms (words that have the same spelling but different meanings) or homophones (words that sound the same but are spelled differently). For World Storytelling Day, share the best story you've ever heard or told by word of mouth, or have a fictional character recount their favorite story. You're making your way down a cobbled street when a stocky, red-bearded man beckons you into an alley. Consider your handwriting, or a character's handwriting.
L’Outil typographique - Sommaire 40 of the Best Websites for Young Writers Jun 09, 2011 Looking for writing help, peer review, grammar tips or just a little bit of advice from the World Wide Web? Don't miss these 40 helpful websites for young writers. Writing Communities and Courses Young Writer's Society - Dedicated to scribes between the ages of 13 and 25, the Young Writer's Society is the world's largest website for young writers. Grammar and Reference Websites The Purdue Online Writing Lab - Purdue University's Online Writing Lab is a wonderful place to learn all of the various rules of grammar and usage. Creativity Boosters The Story Starter - Creativity abounds at Story Starter!
Quelques abréviations geek Je sais qu’il n’y a pas seulement des geeks qui me lisent, et cet article s’adresse à eux pour une fois : je recense ici quelques abréviations issues de l’Internet, des réseaux sociaux ou du monde geek (parfois utilisées à l’oral, en anglais souvent). La liste n’est pas du tout exhaustive, mais c’est un début de guide de survie, si vous voulez. Si vous avez d’autres mots étranges rencontrés sur le net, utilisez les liens à la fin de cet article, vous trouverez. Eight Secrets Which Writers Won’t Tell You Image from Flickr by Lazurite This is not particularly relevant to the post, but I’m getting an awful lot of comments telling me, often a little snarkily, “it’s ‘THAT’ not ‘WHICH’”. The “don’t use which for restrictive clauses” rule comes (as far as I can tell) from Strunk and White. Plenty of authors, including Austen, have used “which” exactly as I use it in the title. There was never a period in the history of English when “which” at the beginning of a restrictive relative clause was an error. I thought about putting “that” in the title – but I like the sound of “which” between “secrets” and “writers”. And with that out of the way, enjoy the post! A few years ago, I’d look at published writers and think that they were somehow different from me. They were real writers. But as I’ve taken more and more steps into the writing world, I’ve realised that my perception just doesn’t match up to the reality. I’m going to go through eight secrets. Secret #1: Writing is Hard It doesn’t end there.
D. W. Mills Jr. Neuroses run rampant in me. I think I am, unfortunately more neurotic than most (although I've read that many other writers feel this way). You will undoubtedly see this rear its ugly face in my writing. I am not a college graduate, although I am working on it. I am an addict I am a felon. Somehow I find it possible that none of these things really defines who I am. In some ways I am also a victim, but mostly I am not. I am a dreamer. I am a lifelong learner – at least in the sense that I am always having to re-learn how to do things that comes natural to other people. I am a writer – at least in the sense that I occasionally write because it is the only thing that seems completely right when I am doing it. Lastly, I am much more than all of this.
25 Things You Should Know About Plot Previous iterations of the “25 Things” series: 25 Things Every Writer Should Know 25 Things You Should Know About Storytelling 25 Things You Should Know About Character And now… 1. A plot is the sequence of narrative events as witnessed by the audience. 2. Some folks will ask, incorrectly, “What’s the plot?” 3. A plot functions like a skeleton: it is both structural and supportive. 4. The biggest plot crime of them all is a plot that doesn’t make a lick of goddamn sense. 5. The simplest motherfucker of a plot is this: things get worse until they get better. 6. Fiction is driven by characters in conflict, or, put differently, the flame of fiction grows brighter through friction. 7. Of course, the essence of the essential conflict — the one below all that Wo/Man versus stuff — is a character’s wants versus a character’s fears. 8. A plot grows within the story you’re telling. 9. 10. Plot offers the promise of Chekov and his gun, of Hitchcock and his bomb under the table. 11. 12. 13. 13. 14.