New Fiction Exercises, Brian Kiteley Brian Kiteley Sample Fiction Exercises from The 4 A.M. Breakthrough These are some exercises from The 4 A.M. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. across again against American another Arabic arm asks away balcony building Cairo call chair Charles city come daughter day does door down Egypt Egyptian English European even eyes face feels few first friend Gamal girl go going good hand head himself home hour Ib know language last laughs Ib Lena lights long look man men moment name next night now old own people prisoner read right room Ruqayyah Safeyya say saying see sits small something speak stands still story street table take talk tell thing think three time told turns two walks want wife without woman word years Yehya This is an interesting distillation of a book. Pick a book you like and know well that has one of these concordances on the Amazon site. 6. 1. This is from Gretchen Rubin’s website ( 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. —Marcel Proust
Set up Your Story in the First Paragraphs by Jodie Renner, editor, author, speaker I receive several first chapters (and synopses) every week as submissions for possible editing, and I always read the first page. Some are clear and compelling and make me want to read more. But too often, two main problems emerge: Either the author spends too much time revving his engine with description or backstory before we even care (boring); or we’re plunged right into the story but have no idea where we are or what’s going on (confusing). There are three cardinal rules of successful novelists: 1. 2. 3. I’ve discussed the negative effects of starting off too slowly, with too much description and/or backstory, in other articles (see the links at the end of this article). Your first paragraph and first page are absolutely critical! So try to work in the basics of the 4 W’s below in your first page — preferably within the first two or three paragraphs. Who? What? Where? When? Also, your first page is a kind of promise to your readers. 1. 2. 3.
Read Great Books to Inspire Your Own Writing This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers (this installment written by Jane Higgins, author of the acclaimed YA debut, THE BRIDGE) at any stage of their career can talk about writing advice and instruction as well as how they possibly got their book agent — by sharing seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning. (Look over our growing list of young adult literary agents.) GIVEAWAY: Jane is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. Jane Higgins is the author of the debut YA novel, THE BRIDGE, (Tundra Books, 2012), a post-apocalyptic story about young people caught up in a war. 1. 2. (How to pitch agents at a writers’ conference.) 3. 4. 5. (How to Seek Quality in Your Beta Readers.) 6. 7. Writing books/novels for kids & teens?
Problem With Procrastination? Try Doing Nothing Just about anyone who has ever put off a troublesome task is familiar with one of my Secrets of Adulthood: Working is one of the most dangerous forms of procrastination. When there’s some chore you just don’t want to tackle, every other chore seems alluring. As a friend told me, “My apartment is never cleaner than when I have a writing assignment due.” In Roy Baumeister and John Tierney’s fascinating book, Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, they suggest the “Nothing Alternative” to this problem. That is, if you want to get yourself to do something, make the alternative to that task to do nothing. This rule was inspired by the habits of writer Raymond Chandler. He summed up: “Two very simple rules, a. you don’t have to write. b. you can’t do anything else. When I read this, I realized that I’d been following this rule without giving it a name. Sure, sometimes I jump up and go look for a book in the stacks, but that doesn’t take long. How about you?
NCW--Anton Chekhov on Writing My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying. When you describe the miserable and unfortunate, and want to make the reader feel pity, try to be somewhat colder — that seems to give a kind of background to another's grief, against which it stands out more clearly. Whereas in your story the characters cry and you sigh. I will begin with what in my opinion is your lack of restraint. Another piece of advice: when you read proof cross out as many adjectives and adverbs as you can. Critics are like horse-flies which hinder the horses in their ploughing of the soil. If there is a gun hanging on the wall in the first act, it must fire in the last. ... only he is an emancipated thinker who is not afraid to write foolish things. I think descriptions of nature should be very short and always be à propos. A writer is not a confectioner, a cosmetic dealer, or an entertainer.
Self publishing costs nothing A number of people have asked me “How much does self-publishing cost?”, so this post will clear that up. It may be controversial! Answer 1: It costs nothing Write book: $0 (but lots of time)Edit book: $0 Friend who is an English teacherProof-read book: $0 Friends and colleagues found on TwitterCover design: $0 Royalty free or own photos and text only made into a .jpg on Microsoft PublisherTypeset book: $0 done by self on Microsoft WordPublish book: Published as an Ebook on Smashwords for free and up for sale for US$4.99. Or it costs $10 for the print version:Publish book on Amazon.com by loading onto Lulu.com for free, and choosing the Published by Lulu option (for free). With these options, you have no pile of books sitting in your garage, no distribution to physical bookshops. This basic model is the one I now follow and will be teaching all the tricks of the trade in the author 2.0 program. Answer 2: It costs under $5000 Answer 3: It costs $20,000 – $30,000+
English Idioms Beginning With 'A' - Page 1 Showing 1-50 of 203 results for letter 'A' A barking dog seldom bites A person who readily threatens other people does not often take action. A bit much If something is excessive or annoying, it is a bit much. A bridge too far A bridge too far is an act of overreaching- going too far and getting into trouble or failing. A chain is no stronger than its weakest link This means that processes, organisations, etc, are vulnerable because the weakest person or part can always damage or break them. A day late and a dollar short (USA) If something is a day late and a dollar short, it is too little, too late. A fool and his money are soon parted This idiom means that people who aren't careful with their money spend it quickly. A fool at 40 is a fool forever If someone hasn't matured by the time they reach forty, they never will. A fresh pair of eyes A person who is brought in to examine something carefully is a fresh pair of eyes. A hitch in your giddy-up A lick and a promise A light purse is a heavy curse A List
How to Write a Great Novel: Junot Diaz, Anne Rice, Margaret Atwood and Other Authors Tell Developers: ES5 builds are disabled during development to take advantage of 2x faster build times. Please see the example below or our config docs if you would like to develop on a browser that does not fully support ES2017 and custom elements. Enabling ES5 builds during development: npm run dev --es5 For stencil-component-starter, use: npm start --es5 Enabling full production builds during development: npm run dev --prod npm start --prod Current Browser's Support: Current Browser: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:47.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/47.0