WRITING
Scene Structure: Your Opening Scene, Live Write Thrive | Tweet
One of the main points discussed in previous posts involved picking just the right starting place to begin your book. This means the story starts in present action, in the middle of something happening, with your POV character right in the situation and revealing her (or his) fears, dreams, needs, or goals and the obstacle that is in the way and presenting a problem- 3 Keys to regain your writing habits, The Write Practice | Tweet
You know what has momentum? A train. Those things don’t stop easily, not even when someone applies the brakes. It’s my pleasure to tell you writing is much the same way.
- How to write fabulous dialogue in 5 easy steps, Writers Write | Tweet
In short, don’t plan. Go for it, but remember dialogue has a function.
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How to write dazzling dialogue
- 7 Tips for using hands-on research to enrich your writing, Writer’s Digest | Tweet
When you’re writing about a new world, your readers will have an easier time making the jump from reality to fantasy if you can use telling details to win their trust. And that means that you should travel to new places and seek experiences and local culture that will enrich your writing. The key? Using all your senses.
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- Relating Pronouns, The Write Practice | Tweet
Oh, relative pronouns. You crazy, crazy kids. You can cause so much frustration with your misplaced thats, whos, and whichs. Let’s have a chat and sort you all out, shall we?
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The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
What is a chapter? A numbered or titled section of a book. Many aspiring writers have questions on how to write a chapter. How long should chapters be? What is the best way to start or end them? Why is it necessary to divide a book up this way in the first place?
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How to find the heart of your character, Go Teen Writers | Tweet
On
e of the biggest struggles of starting a new story is feeling like you don’t know these characters yet. Just like how in real life there’s no way to magically understand someone the moment you meet them, developing all the pieces of your character and understanding their nature is a process that requires time and patience.
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The Re-Readability factor: Does your book have it?, Helping Writers Become Authors | Tweet
Writers accept that what’s gonna happen next? is the most important question in fiction. Implicit in that question is the suggestion that writers need to prevent readers from guessing the story’s ending.
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How to write a killer novel ending
- Emotional Wound: Finding out one is adopted, Writers Helping Writers | Tweet
When you’re writing a character, it’s important to know why she is the way she is. Knowing her backstory is important to achieving this end, and one of the most impactful pieces of a character’s backstory is her emotional wound.
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+ 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
Producer Rand Ravich reveals all about his new Fox sci-fi drama, which has an unusual spin on the Frankenstein story.
- Are screenplay contests any good or not?, Go Into The Story | Tweet
There are a few reasons why entering contests may make sense for some writers.
- Power Revision, Script Mag | Tweet
A novelist once confessed to me that he wrote his first drafts whispering “Genius! Genius!” Then, as he watched his printer extrude the last page, he was confident that the entire novel—this time—had spilled out perfectly and would need no revision. A day or two later, he would read the draft and want to shoot himself.
- Where story begins–premise, Script Mag | Tweet
In the beginning, there was darkness. A void. Most writers spend an endless amount of time staring at a blank page, waiting for ideas to come to them. There’s this great line from the movie Real Genius, “You can’t dictate innovation.” Yet that’s how most writers work.
5 Wrong writing beliefs that will hold you back, Script Mag | Tweet
So, here’s 5 of the most common plain WRONG writing beliefs I see holding writers back on a daily basis. Hold on to your hats, here we go.
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- Screenplay: The foundations of screenwriting
- Essentials of screenwriting
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- The eight characters of comedy
SELF-PUBLISHING
- Dictating a book? Tips for editing the first draft, The Book Designer | Tweet
Dictation has become a popular method for laying down a first draft. Barbara Cartland and Voltaire did it, James Patterson and Dan Brown are doing it, and popular self-publishing author Joanna Penn is determined to try it.
How writers can optimize their book’s description on Amazon, Jane Friedman | Tweet
If you’re an author, you may not like thinking about your published books as products, but that’s what they are. And the description section on your book’s product page is the most important selling tool you have.
- How to maintain a good ebook sales rank, Just Publishing | Tweet
Maintaining a solid sales ranking for your ebook on Kindle in particular, is one of the key elements in making ongoing ebook sales.
How to turn your book into a multimedia course, The Creative Penn | Tweet
While online education has been popular for years in the online marketing space, it has suddenly boomed in the author world along with other craft and hobby niches.
Tips for writing Amazon Reviews, Author Marketing Experts | Tweet
Here are some tips you can share with those who want to post something about your book.
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- 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