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Writing is not a game played by rules. -Henry Miller. [/perfectpullquote]
WRITING
- 6 Key scenes to write a terrifying villain | THE WRITE PRACTICE
6 Key scenes to write a terrifying villain | Without the White Witch, Aslan is just a recluse lion. Without Moriarty, Sherlock is just a know-it-all in a w
eird hat. Without the Joker, Batman is just a rich dude with anger issues and too much time on his hands.
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- How to write accents and dialects: 6 tips | NOW NOVEL
How to write accents and dialects: 6 tipsLearn how to write accents and dialects in your stories because it will help you write about crosscurrents between people and places. Regional dialects help to convey a sense of loc
al character speech in stories.
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- How novelists can work plot twists into their stories | LIVE WRITE THRIVE
How novelists can work plot twists into their stories | One novel may have lots of small twists that are basically complications and obstacles the protagonist enc
ounters. But often you’ll have one or two huge twists that wrench the story, and those are terrific when done well.
Related content:
- The 6 stage plot structure for successful storytelling | WRITERS WRITE
The 6 stage plot structure for successful storytelling | Mic
hael Hauge has created a formula around the five turning points and six stages you need to write a good story. Eduardo L. Lozano created this infographic – The Six Stage
Plot Structure – illustrating Hauge’s formula for writing successful screenplays.
Related content:
Rock your plot
- 5 Ways to develop your writer’s voice | JANE FRIEDMAN
D
eveloping your writer’s voice requires you to know yourself and reveal that self in your writing: this is who I am and this is what I care most about.
Related content:
Voice: The secret power of great writing
+ Related books:
- 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
- Breaking & Entering: This is an article about writing dialogue | SCRIPT MAG
No matter what the genre, bad dialogue flattens the story by undermining the tone. Visceral moments built around dull dialogue, whether they are shocking scares, heart-racing action sequences, thigh-slapping comic moments, or tear-inducing dramas, are akin to a slammed oven door on a rising soufflé. Deflated and disappointing.
- The backing up technique for creative problem-solving | SCRIPT MAG
How do you describe a productive day of work on a creative project? “I made a lot of progress. I got somewhere today. I moved things forward.”
- Werner Herzog calls three-act structure ‘brainless’. Is it? | GO INTO THE STORY
Werner Herzog is teaching an online filmmaking class and in this promotional video gives his take on three-act structure.
- Story stakes and the power of why | SAVE THE CAT
What are story stakes? Most definitions fall somewhere along the lines of “the negative consequence that will happen if a character fails to achieve his or her goal.”
- Casual Pilot Script | LA SCREENWRITER
Casual Pilot Script | Related books:
- 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
- Book cover redesign as marketing tool | JANE FRIEDMAN
Authors may spend a fortune on book editing, but leave very little for the cover design—thus forgetting that the cover is the reader’s first impression of the book.
How to self publish- Keep it simple | JUST PUBLISHING ADVICE
Scams, algorithms, clickbait, paid reviews, buying followers and all manner of complicated means rarely result in self-publishing success.
5 Common mistakes that even longtime bloggers make | JANE FRIEDMAN
Given the time and energy that’s involved in meaningful blogging, it’s an important question. Here are five things that I often discover when I evaluate authors’ blogging efforts.
Let’s talk about book reviewers, for a change | JUST PUBLISHING ADVICE
All authors get book reviews and should quietly learn to accept the good with the bad
What’s your post-launch book-marketing plan? (You have one, right?) | THE WRITE LIFE
So let’s take a look at how my novel is doing. Then, we’ll look at what efforts I have put into getting those sales.
Related books:
- Self Publishing: My rules to staying alive and making money
- How I sold 80,000 books
- Write. Publish. Repeat: The no-luck-required guide to self-publishing success
- Createspace & Kindle Self Publishing Masterclass
- The Self-Publishing Road Map