Photo Credit: Bill Ruhsam via Compfight cc
The beginning is half of every action.
~DAVID ALLEN, author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
WRITING
- 3 Main reasons why people read romance, Jody Hedlund | Tweet
This past week I asked my readers over on Facebook to share why they read romances. I categorized their answers into three main categories.
→On Writing Romance: How to Craft a Novel That Sells
- The art of transparency, Writer Unboxed | Tweet
Stories are artificial, with a carefully constructed internal architecture, each piece relyin
g on the others, all of them there for a reason. And readers are aware of that. Sure, they’re willing to suspend disbelief and enter the world of a story as if it were real life. But they’re still aware of the structure behind the story, even if they’re not conscious of it.
- 4 Things Dexter taught me about writing antiheroes, The Write Practice | Tweet
tHow do you create a compelling antihero? Let’s take a look at four qualities of antiheroes
→HEROES AND ANTI-HEROES A REader in Depth
- Emotional Wound Thesaurus: Losing a limb, Writers Helping Writers | Tweet
When you’re writing a character, it’s important to know why she is the way she is. Knowi
ng her backstory is important to achieving this end, and one of the most impactful pieces of a character’s backstory is her emotional wound. This negative experience from the past is so intense that a character will go to great lengths to avoid experiencing that kind of pain and negative emotion again. As a result, certain behaviors, beliefs, and character traits will emerge.
→The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide To Character Expression
SCREENWRITING
- The importance of story concept, Go Into The Story | Tweet
In an interview I conducted with former ICM partner and agent Emile Gladstone, we discussed the importance of story concept.
- BEHIND THE LINES WITH DR: Development Notes–killed by the bell, Script Mag | Tweet
Whether it’s an idea, a finished screenplay or something in between, writers are constantly in the position of filtering the tsunami of ideas from others. Producers, directors and executives view themselves as creative contributors in search of a bettered or more commercial product. Namely, your movie.
→Your Idea Machine (Screenwriting Blue Books Book 1)
SELF-PUBLISHING
- Digital, mobile, global, indie? The future of publishing with Thad McIlroy, The Creative Penn | Tweet
How mobile devices are changing the way people read and purchase books, and the increased reach of authors given the proliferation of mobile devices.
→Ditch the Publisher: 40 Indie Authors on Their Unique Self-Publishing Journeys
- 5 Ways to improve your email newsletter performance, Jane Friedman | Tweet
etOnce you start sending—and as you observe how well your list grows—you’ll learn all kinds of things about what works and doesn’t work. Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way.
→Building an E-mail list: A complete guide to building an e-mail list from scratch
PSYCHOLOGY
- The narcisism test, Psychology Today | Tweet
Do you have too much narcissism– or too little? Take the test and find out.
→Why Is It Always About You? : The Seven Deadly Sins of Narcissism
RELATIONSHIPS
Different than family, problem friends can ruin a relationship
FOOD
Chances are you’ll eat something hydrogenated today. What does that mean? We’ll give you a quick tour of what hydrogenation is, how it’s done, and why many people don’t like it.
→Foods that Harm and Foods that Heal: The Best and Worst Choices to Treat your Ailments Naturally
TIME MANAGEMENT
From the amount of paper on your desk to the amount of time you check your email, this is what’s standing in the way of getting things done.
→Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
MUSIC
‘They just didn’t know what to do’, said the head of the world’s biggest music company, going on to add that there weren’t really any steps he could take to stem the tide of illegal downloads.
→How Music Got Free: The End of an Industry, the Turn of the Century, and the Patient Zero of Piracy