Merce Cardus

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LINKFEST ~ Best Reads on Writing, Screenwriting & Self-Publishing: You Need To Live Before You Start Writing

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Henry David Thoreau on Living

WRITING

 

What determines a heavy accent is who is listening! If the person listening speaks the same as you, then you won’t notice an accent. If the person listening has never heard anyone speak like you, then YOU have a heavy accent.

Characters, like real people, are unique, and will respond to wounding events differently. The vast array of possible emotional wounds combined with each character’s personality gives you many options in terms of how your character will turn out.

The two most important chapters of a novel for most readers are the first chapter and the last chapter. The first chapter hooks the reader; the last chapter hooks the reader for your next book. 

What’s this, you say? Avoiding “said” is one of the most common writing mistakes? How can that be? Surely writers overuse this ubiquitous little word more often than not, don’t they?

As I mentioned in a post last week, I’m a huge fan of Fast Draft. Candy Havens teaches this technique, and it works. Write your novel in two weeks a month, whatever, but write fast and furious. No looking back. Always forward. You can fix stuff later.

  • How to learn fiction-writing techniques with less pain & frustration, Jody Hedlund | Tweet

The truth is yes, sometimes we can try too hard to follow the rules and in the process get discouraged or end up with sterile writing. Sometimes we’re at risk of losing our individuality and creativity when we try to make ourselves fit into a prescribed structure.

I’ve always made lists to help me write. I keep lists of historical details for stories set in different eras, figures of speech I happen to like, and names for future characters.

Vince Gilligan knew he had a concept he could run with when he conceived of a story arc that would take a typical family-man character and turn him into Scarface. While we might not have such dramatic arcs in our own story worlds, there are lessons here we can all apply to our work

If you’ve read anything about how to write, you’ve probably stumbled across the old chestnut “write what you know.” Being someone of fine taste and refinement, seeing as you’re here at Chuck’s place, you’ve probably also figured out for yourself that this advice is thin at best and downright untrue at its worst.

The blank page and blinking cursor is one of the most intimidating things for me as a writer. What’s in a first line? Is it supposed to be meaningful? Insightful? A play on words?

Genre Conventions are story elements such as archetypes, formulas, or structures common to specific genres. These factors not only define each genre or subgenre, then define reader expectations. If a reader picks up a romance novel, she will have different expectations for the story than she would have for a horror novel. 

Here’s the deal: if you don’t like your character, your reader won’t, either. Fortunately, I have three quick tips that will fix that unlikable character.

Starting a draft of a new novel is always daunting, whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned writer. There are some first draft ‘traps’ that await us all — they’re easy to fall into, and difficult to recover from.  If you’re able to recognise them, you’ll be able to avoid them or write your way out of them quicker.

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 SCREENWRITING

 

Out in the screenwriting blogosphere and Twitter-sphere, you’ll find a lot of great people, but you’ll also find a non-zero number of complete idiots. After nearly seven years at this, I’ve gotten good enough at recognizing the signs of the worst of those people and I tend to just not even engage them. One thing I’ve found to be rather consistent among my least-favorite members of that population is their tendency to respond to any counter-point with “No one knows anything.”

Selling a screenplay is not for the faint of heart. It takes a brilliant and well-crafted screenplay, as well as perseverance, moxie, and sometimes just good old-fashioned luck to get your work read and considered for production. While the odds of getting a script made are indeed staggering, knowing how the film industry works will give you an edge over the competition. 

  • SPECS & THE CITY: Character Introductions and ‘Silence of the Lambs’, Script Mag | Tweet

Screenwriters have it beat into them early by all of the gurus out there to never write anything that can’t be shown on the screen. This is good advice overall but, as with everything else, the real key is getting to the point in your craft where you know when (and how) to ignore it. Your character introductions are one of those places. 

This Friday, James Bond returns to movie theaters in Spectre, starring Daniel Craig as Ian Fleming’s secret agent 007, license to kill. In this installment, Bond will do battle with the forces of SPECTRE, a criminal organization hellbent on world domination.

Write an entire first draft of a script in November — FADE IN to FADE OUT in 30 days. Feature length movie screenplay. Original TV pilot. Rewrite a current project. Break a story in prep. Generate a month’s worth of story concepts. Whatever you feel will ratchet your creative ambitions into overdrive, do THAT!

A BAFTA screenwriting lecture by Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility, Nanny McPhee).

Literally every single piece of advice in this video is directly relevant to what we do. Watch and learn from the likes of Aaron Sorkin, Drew Goddard, Seth Rogen, Matt Charman, Danny Boyle, Sarah Silverman, Brie Larson, Jeff Daniels, and Steven Spielberg.

I’ve consistently found that most of the notes I have on any script I read — and certainly all of the most important ones — are notes I would have had on the basic idea behind the story, if it had been pitched to me before it was written.

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SELF-PUBLISHING

 

Kindle scams are rife because they work. Forget affiliate marketing, phishing and blog comment spam as a way to make a few bucks, because Kindle scams are the easiest way to make money on the Internet.

Amazon Kindle Unlimited announced today by email to authors that they will charge $3.00 for Amazon Kindle Unlimited membership for Indian customers.

To most authors, Amazon is really confusing. There seems to never be a clear path to success and once there is some clarity, the path changes yet again. As an author AND marketer I feel your pain! However, understanding how Amazon works is empowering, and I’ve made it my mission to help you decipher the site. In a two part series I’ll discuss the differences between keywords, categories, and themes on Amazon. And how you can implement them to your book’s advantage!

Because they involve readers, give them useful and detailed information, and make buying an ebook simple, that’s why. Forget all the talk about monopolies and aggressive marketing. Amazon sell more ebooks than any other retailer because they involve their readers in the process and enjoyment of reading, and on almost any device via the Kindle app.

EFT royalty payments have at long last been made available to more authors publishing on Createspace.

Pinterest is a great tool for creating visual inspiration for your stories. I like to create a board for the story I’m working on, to help me capture the essence or feeling of a place, character, etc. And it helps to have visuals for when I need to describe things (since I’m a bare-bones writer and rarely ever add description ’til later).

If you’ve got a book scheduled for release, whether it’s traditionally published or indie-published, the onus is on you to promote it. Here are some helpful strategies for making a big splash by using social media to build buzz before your book comes out.

There’s something bittersweet in that tantalizing wait to be satisfied by a narrative’s conclusion—to feel that one is part of the story, able to gossip and theorize possibilities with other fans throughout the experience. 

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