Merce Cardus

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LinkFest ~ Best Reads on Writing, Screenwriting & Self-Publishing: Write Garbage, Edit Brilliantly

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Best Reads on Writing & Selfpublishing 10

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] It’s perfectly okay to write garbage–as long as you edit brilliantly. -C.J. Cherryh. [/perfectpullquote]

WRITING

 

  • Writing suspenseful fiction: Reveal answers slowly | JANE FRIEDMAN

The narrative question, that key longing or conflict that forms the overarching driver of your story, shouldn’t be answered all at once, or too early. Writing that engenders reader questions creates suspense.

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Mastering suspense, structure and plot

With their alluring mix of innocence, alertness, selfishness, and idealism, child characters can create all kinds of interesting opportunities for irony, symbolism, character identification, and humor. But figuring out how to write child characters is territory fraught with potential pitfalls.

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Creating characters

At the time that I launched myself toward the half-insane goal of earning a living by writing novels, I happened to be interested in how the element of suspense operated in fiction, so I sent myself on a mission to learn how to write a thriller.

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Plotting and writing suspense

  • Avoid this plotting pitfall when writing drafts at speed | NAIL YOUR NOVEL

For the audience, it’s terribly frustrating. If a serious problem arises, we want to see it cause lasting trouble. And we want it to have serious, unpredictable consequences. We don’t want it to be solved, and for everything to continue as before.


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Happy writer

Love makes people do interesting things. That is why the love interest is such an interesting character. People kill for love. People steal for love. There are, of course, many definitions of love.

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Love writing

So instead of just complaining about the hours I wasted getting dragged through this awful book, I figured I could harvest it for some lessons about what mistakes we can avoid.

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The 38 most common fiction writing mistakes

Today is garbage day in my neighborhood. Naturally, when I went for a walk with my dog Annie this morning, I looked at my neighbors’ garbage. What did people throw away? What did their trash mean? What what can we discover about a person from what they throw away, and how they throw it away?

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1001 Questions to Help Flesh Out Your Character


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 SCREENWRITING

 

There is reading a screenplay. And there is reading a screenplay.

Screenwriting is hard work. To break in, you’ve got to be super-talented, keep your butt in the seat for longer than the competition, and be seriously lucky. Only when all three elements converge do you stand more than a tiny chance of battling past the gatekeepers and entering Hollywood’s magical dominion of eternal sunshine.

Nobody Knows Anything (except William Goldman) is an upcoming documentary feature about two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter, bestselling novelist, non-fiction author and playwright William Goldman.

  • Interview: Q&A with writer/director Steve Pink | SCRIPT MAG

Steve Pink‘s movies have generated a ton of laughs during his career. His proprietary perspective shows us angles on life no one else can. An accomplished actor, screenwriter and director, his singular viewpoint lends a compelling tone to any project he’s involved in. He’s directed hit comedy films such as About Last Night and Hot Tub Time Machine 1 and 2. He’s the co-writer of Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity. 

There are two types of screenwriters trying to break into the business. There are the ones who grew up on big fun movies who want to bring those same good vibes to the masses, and there are the ones who want to say something important with their work, who want to make “serious” films.

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SELF-PUBLISHING

 

 Here’s the big problem—for everyone, not just writers: All video starts off wanting to be crap, even more so than a NaNoWriMo first draft. It’s no small thing to shoot, edit, and produce video that people want to watch, even if it’s just a minute’s worth.

Authors relying on ebook and book sales to put food on the table should diversify to increase their income.

  • Why you can’t pay me to market your books for you | CREATIVINDIE

People sometimes ask me if I will market their books for them in exchange for a profit share. This seems like a good deal to them; I’ll earn more than I would otherwise once their book takes off, and they don’t need to pay me upfront. Win-win. But the truth is, almost nobody will ever take you up on this offer.

We’ve also learned about some new things that we, as readers, can do to support our favorite authors. And because we’re all about helping authors, we wanted to share those with you. 

A monthly social media calendar allows you to know what you’re going to post EVERY DAY!

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