[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] A good book makes you stop and stare at nothing every few pages -Linsenmeyer. [/perfectpullquote]
WRITING
Three tricks for character names | WRITE ON SISTERS
Three tricks for character names | Finding unusual names that fit a character perfectly is never easy, but these thre
e tricks have helped me uncover some fantastic names. Names that work with my story and not against it, and I think they can help other writers.
Related content:
The character naming sourcebook
- Great grammar tips: 7 reliable resources for writers | NOW NOVEL
Great grammar tips: 7 reliable resources for writers Great grammar gives your writing power. The author Joan Didion once said ‘Grammar is a piano I play by ear… All I know 
about grammar is its infinite power. To shift the structure of a sentence alters the meaning of that sentence, as definitely and inflexibly as the position of a camera alters the meaning of the object photographed.’
Related content:
The English Language: A user’s guide
- The only 5 ingredients you need for story subtext | HELPING WRITERS BECOME AUTHORS
The only 5 ingredients you need for story subtext | If 
there’s a magic ingredient in writing, it’s story subtext.
Related content:
- A storytller’s swiss army knife? The setting | WRITERS HELPING WRITERS
A storytller’s swiss army knife? The setting | Writing the Urban and Rural Setting Thesaurus books taught 
Becca and me something big: that the Setting really is the Swiss Army Knife of Storytelling. Whaaaat, you say? It’s the truth.
Related content:
- Where should your thriller hero go next: 6 Tips on Setting | WRITER’S DIGEST
Choosing the setting for a novel is a major decision. In an international thriller, location can even bec
ome one of main characters. Part of the escapism for readers is to be whisked into a romantic foreign city or thrown into an alien culture along with the protagonist. For the Judd Ryker thriller series, I can send the State Department crisis specialist literally anywhere in the world. Here’s how I decide where to send my hero next.
Related content:
- 7 Writing tips from Roald Dahl | WRITES WRITE
D
ahl shared these seven tips on what he thought a writer needed to make a living out of writing.
Related content:
- The power of myth in fiction | WRITER UNBOXED
I di
dn’t appreciate the power of myth in our fiction until I got my hands on Lisa Cron’s book Story Genius.
Related content:
Story Genius: How to use brain science to go beyond outlining and write a riveting novel
+ Books on Writing:
- How to write dazzling dialogue
- Writing success: Your book from start to finish to publication
- Outlining your novel
- Writing deep point of view
- The art of memoir
- Reading like a Writer
- Rock your revisions
- The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide To Character Expression
SCREENWRITING
- Why did I watch a show every week I didn’t really like? | KEN LEVINE
BRAINDEAD has concluded its summer run. I ended up watching the whole thing. But the suspense for me was not wondering what was going to happen, it was whether or not I figured out why I just couldn’t get into this show.
- Selling your screenplay: Crash producer Tom Nunan – How his company finds screenplays | SCRIPT MAG
Tom Nunan (producer of Crash, The Illusionist) talks about his background in the business and how his company found screenplays.
- 4 Ways to tackle the third act of your screenplay | LA SCREENWRITER
A great deal of ink has been spilled about endings – in life, in all things we begin, and certainly in writing. Most of us are interested in finishing well. But how does one accomplish such a thing in storytelling? An entire volume could be written about the connection between a good ending and a good beginning, but that’s for another time.
- Great scene: When Harry met Sally | GO INTO THE STORY
The movie: When Harry Met Sally, the terrific 1989 romantic comedy written by the late great Nora Ephron.
- Screenplay review – Sovereign | SCRIPTSHADOW
Genre: Sci-fi
Premise: In the near future, a widowed husband flies to an AI-controlled space station to avenge the murder of his wife.
+Books on Screenwriting:
- Super Structure: The key to unleashing the power of story
- Screenplay: The foundations of screenwriting
- Essentials of screenwriting
- Screenwriting: The sequence approach
- 33 Ways to sell your screenplay
- The eight characters of comedy
SELF-PUBLISHING
- Not sure how to approach social media? Care about your readers | JANE FRIEDMAN
Among all the rules you’ll find online—the 80/20 rule (only 20 percent of your posts should be about your books or blog posts), the admonitions against using social media as a bullhorn, the warnings about over-automating—there’s also an unspoken tenet.
- How to self-edit your book and avoid common story mistakes with Darry Dewulf | THE CREATIVE PENN
In publishing news, I discuss Bowker’s report on ISBNs, a “Dry Spell” for New Novels on the Bestseller List from The Hot Sheet report, Publisher’s Weekly report on a self-published poetry book selling half a million copies, and Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s post on contract clauses for indie authors.
- Does Facebook sell books & do writers need a Facebook fan page? | KRISTEN LAMB’S BLOG
Social media is powerful for connecting us (our books) with the very people we wrote them for to begin with. But, we are wise to appreciate that creating a brand and cultivating genuine and passionate fans is not going to happen overnight. The deeper the roots, the stronger the brand and the platform.
- Does book promotion and marketing work? | JUST PUBLISHING ADVICE
Yes, because the alternative is no book promotion, which naturally, doesn’t work.
- Self-publishing news you can use – September 2016 | THE BOOK DESIGNER
Barnes & Noble has announced that five new concept stores will open between Sept 2016 and March 2017. There will be locations opening in Legacy West, TX, Eastchester, NY, at the Edina Galleria in Edina, MN, at the Palladio in Folsom, CA, and at One Loudoun in Ashburn, VA.
+Books on Self-publishing: