How I Went From Writing 2,000 Words a Day to 10,000 Words a Day When I started writing The Spirit War (Eli novel #4), I had a bit of a problem. I had a brand new baby and my life (like every new mother's life) was constantly on the verge of shambles. I paid for a sitter four times a week so I could get some writing time, and I guarded these hours like a mama bear guards her cubs - with ferocity and hiker-mauling violence. To keep my schedule and make my deadlines, I needed to write 4000 words during each of these carefully arranged sessions. But (of course), things didn't work out like that. Needless to say, I felt like a failure. When I told people at ConCarolinas that I'd gone from writing 2k to 10k per day, I got a huge response. So, once and for all, here's the story of how I went from writing 500 words an hour to over 1500, and (hopefully) how you can too: A quick note: There are many fine, successful writers out there who equate writing quickly with being a hack. Update! Side 1: Knowledge, or Know What You're Writing Before You Write It
Stephen King's Top 20 Rules for Writers Image by the USO, via Flickr Commons In one of my favorite Stephen King interviews, for The Atlantic, he talks at length about the vital importance of a good opening line. “There are all sorts of theories,” he says, “it’s a tricky thing.” “But there’s one thing” he’s sure about: “An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. We’ve talked so much about the reader, but you can’t forget that the opening line is important to the writer, too. This is excellent advice. Revision in the second draft, “one of them, anyway,” may “necessitate some big changes” says King in his 2000 memoir slash writing guide On Writing. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. See a fuller exposition of King’s writing wisdom at Barnes & Noble’s blog. Related Content: Stephen King Creates a List of 96 Books for Aspiring Writers to Read Stephen King Writes A Letter to His 16-Year-Old Self: “Stay Away from Recreational Drugs”
How Spritz Redesigned Reading, Letting You Scan 1,000 Words A Minute When we read, our eyes move across a page or a screen to digest the words. All of that eye movement slows us down, but a new technology called Spritz claims to have figured out a way to turn us into speed-readers. By flashing words onto a single point on a screen, much like watching TV, Spritz says it will double your reading speed. Spritz Inc. is attempting to redesign reading--and renaming it “spritzing”--by streaming one word at a time at speeds varying between 250 and 1,000 words per minute. Words are centered around an “Optimal Recognition Point" in a special display called the "Redicle." This method reportedly eliminates the time-consuming need to move your eyes across a page, which Spritz's research suggests improves focus and comprehension. “Spritzing is not for everyone,” CEO and co-founder Frank Waldman tells Co.Design. The technology was released last Sunday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and the company has since received more than 5,000 developer submissions.
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.” -Henry David Thoreau 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...
Pixar's 22 Rules of Storytelling--Visualized Note: This article is included in our year-end storytelling advice round-up. A while back, now-former Pixar storyboard artist Emma Coats tweeted a series of pearls of narrative wisdom she had gleaned from working at the studio. This list of 22 rules of storytelling was widely embraced as it was applicable to any writer or anyone who was in the business of communicating (which is pretty much everyone, including software developers). Last week, Dino Ignacio, a UX Director at a subsidiary of Electronic Arts, created a series of image macros of the 22 rules, posting them to Imgur. Have a look through more of them in the slides above.
Infographic shows the most common problems in screenplays I'd love to see a breakdown of manuscript rejections done this way. Having watched a few movies in the last ten years, I can tell you from authority that these are not the reasons manuscripts get rejected. It depends on what studio you're pitching, what sort of movie they're in the market for, what sort of other movies they've greenlit, what sort of mood the scriptreader is in that day, whether they're looking for a good role for some actor they just signed a deal with, what movie made the most money last year, and even more importantly, what movie LOST the most money last year (ooooh, you wrote a western? If only you'd turned in that script BEFORE The Lone Ranger crashed and burned.) So basically, it's 95% dumb luck. But writing a good script certainly can't hurt (it's also nice because then if your movie actually gets made, it has less of a chance of being savaged by critics and ultimately forgotten.) That's an example of an odd phenomenon. It sickens me. Not really.
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.
The Neurobiology of Writing The PHD Movie Sequel! - Help us make a sequel to the PHD Movie! Click here! If you haven't seen the first one, you can watch it for FREE all this month at: phdmovie.com. Tell your friends! Doctor (of Philosophy) Shirts - are back in stock! (More Doctor Mugs coming June 5th) UK Lectures! New shirt! Order it here Need a last minute gift? Click Here! THESIS FUEL MUG BACK IN STOCK! Now shipping! 2014 PHD Calendar - is here! The Best of PHD - I'm happy to announce that we'll be publishing a run of the "Best PHD Comics" on Tapastic! The feed will be curated by me (Jorge), and will feature behind-the-scene commentary on why each comic is special to me. Tapastic is a pretty cool platform for webcomics. PHD Lectures - I'll be speaking at Penn State and Washington College this Tuesday and Wednesday (9/17, 9/18)! GOOGLE+ - Hey, PHD Comics is now on Google+!
Stephen Gallagher: Articles - Space Chase Notes toward a pilot show for a proposed series that was eventually to be realised by Rockne S O'Bannon as FARSCAPE. Originally drafted for Jim Henson Productions in May 1993. We slam straight into the heart of things, no setting-up. The whole cold-sleep thing has been a part of screen culture since 2001, and there's nothing to be gained by introducing or explaining it; there is, however, an advantage of mystery in having our character wake up somewhere totally different from where he expected to be. His spacecraft is a kind of delivery bullet about the size of a big car with a bubble on the top under which he lies. The craft stands in what looks like a workshop, and is tilted at an angle. Out in the corridors, he comes face-to-face with the biggest, ugliest monster he's ever seen. He runs after it, calling out. Exploring the bridge, he finds a big window with some of the crew on the other side of it. Right now they're way off-course. But things take a downturn. More deaths. Jaws drop.
Fictional Culture The way I build worlds is by collecting cool stuff from the history, myth and people around me. I blend these details with my own imagination, and create my own cultures. Culture is a vital part to realistic worldbuilding. Normally there are a few particular cultures that interest me at a given time. I read whatever I can find about them, their environment, their traditions and their myths. The interesting details filter into the new world I’m creating (example: at one time, Venetian widows could only remarry on the stroke of midnight). In the long term, there is nothing more inspiring and challenging than visiting foreign cultures yourself (especially if you can get far beyond your comfort zone to do it). But reading (non-fiction, myth/legend/fairytales, as well as the classics like Dune and Lord of the Rings) and watching documentaries/films can get you a long way toward filling up on your inspiration tank. What is the most important ideal to this culture as a whole? Like this:
Publish Books Instantly From Evernote It’s never been easier to be an author. Evernote is an especially popular tool for many writers. It serves as the place to collect, find, and organize source material, archival information, and photographs. For many authors, Evernote is the place where ideas are assembled into words and manufactured into stories. The white canvas of a note is a comfortable place to pour out prose and organize the elements of a publication into place. Now, with an integration by FastPencil, authors have a full-fledged tool to create and distribute a book in Evernote, from start to publish. Here’s all you need to know to turn your Evernote notes into published content with FastPencil: Create. Review. Publish. Distribute. Evernote is a great resource to capture ideas and write, but with this integration from FastPencil, it’s a powerful new tool to format, structure and print your content and share it with the world. What will you write and publish with Evernote?
The Crucial Storytelling Mistake that Many Beginning Writers Make I'm not sure I know what a "situation" means - a scene? Or just a conflict/obstacle with no arc or backstory? I've started short stories with a "scene" before, and if you're good enough to develop themes efficiently, you might be able to create an entire short story with just one. I'd say a big mistake I see is when writers try to write a novel/novella/very big short story and create too many "situations" without threading them together in a meaningful way. It's like seeing one crisis after the next without a sense of flow, escalation or purpose. I took it to mean a situation is static — I can't get these vampires to leave my house! Basically, a situation means "the location/surroundings of a place" or "a set of circumstances in which one finds oneself; aka state of affairs". I think a lot of people, myself included, have stories that start "Wouldn't it be cool if...?". At least that's how I take it. She means concept. What happens when you do the vampire protection spell backwards?