Being nice doesn’t mean becoming a doormat. It doesn’t mean speaking in a soft voice and wearing pastel colors, and it certainly doesn’t mean letting people will walk over all over me. You can have an opinion, and still be nice. You can tell people when they’ve wronged you, and still be nice. You can disagree with someone, and still be nice about it. You can ‘be about business’ and still be nice.
WIN CLAYBAUGH, author of Be Nice (Or Else!)
WRITING & SCREENWRITING
- Writers’ and artists’ deadline problems and what to do about them, Davidjrogersftw | Tweet
Writers and artists are almost always marvelously productive human beings able to generate huge quantities of work,amounts of work which put people in other walks of life to shame.
Let’s talk about the use of possessive pronouns with a gerund (word ending in ing). It sounds more complicated and technical than it is. If you can answer this question about the following sentence, you can master this. Is the verb (action/feeling) directed at the person or their action?
- Break your story–Index Card Style, Pat Verducci | Tweet
Outlining a book or movie can be its own special hell. So many possible plot lines. So many characters. Where to begin? This is why I’m super grateful to Alicia for asking, “What’s your favorite approach to laying out your index cards for outlining? That is, if you even use index cards. I know there are multiple approaches.”
→Take Off Your Pants!: Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing
- Five ways point of view can make you a better writer by Janice Hardy, Romance University | Tweet
Whenever a new writer asks me to share advice, “learn how to use POV” is tops on the list. No other element of writing can do so much, and it helps eliminate the common problems new writers (and let’s face it, some of us old writers, too) stumble over.
- Internal Stakes: the main character in a movie generally has a big problem, Flying Wrestler | Tweet
The main character in a movie generally has a big problem that it takes the whole movie to solve. And this is what a professional reader of a script is generally focused on understanding first. What is that problem? Why will it be so difficult to solve that it takes the whole movie to do it? And why should an audience care that they do it?
→How to Write Great Characters: The Key to Your Hero’s Growth and Transformation
- SCRIPT INDUSTRY EXPERT Q&A: Yvonne Grace of ‘Script Advice’, Script mag | Tweet
Yvonne Grace is an award-winning Television Drama Producer with 20+years experience in Script Development, Script Editing and Drama Production for the BBC, CITV and ITV. She Script Edited EastEnders for the BBC, Produced My Dad’s A Boring Nerd for the CITV (winning Best Children’s Comedy Drama), Produced Holby City for the BBC (which was BAFTA nominated) and Executive Produced Crossroads for ITV.
→Writing for Television: Series, Serials and Soaps (Creative Essentials)
SELF-PUBLISHING
Professional cover design is part of what makes a bestselling title. So it’s no wonder that successful indie authors are serious about the process. Once you’ve chosen a professional cover designer the first thing you’ll need is a good brief. What’s next?
→2015 Guide to Self-Publishing, Revised Edition: The Most Comprehensive Guide to Self-Publishing
- Book Trailer Basics: What to consider before creating yours, Writers Digest | Tweet
Options for your video book trailer’s style and content are as limitless as your imagination. But if you’re looking for tried-and-true approaches, here are three to consider.
→Book Marketing, Book Trailers and Author Etiquette in a Nutshell
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SELF-IMPROVEMENT
Life is busy. It can feel impossible to move toward your dreams. If you have a full-time job and kids, it’s even harder. How do you move forward?
→Morning Routine Success: Success Secrets Guaranteed to Upgrade Your Life Before 8am (Wake Up Early)
SUCCESS
- Why successful people focus on the bottom end of the funnel, Both Sides of the Table | Tweet
Business leaders have many tasks to accomplish and prioritizing stuff can be hard. Yesterday I wrote about the need to “do fewer things, more often” in which I described that frenzied world we live in and why the shiny objects and distractions stop us from living up to our true potential.
→Nine Things Successful People Do Differently
SPORTS
This year marks Valve’s 5th Dota2 championship: The International. After only one month of fundraising it’s raised a whopping $10 million dollars in prize pool. Dota2 is a multiplayer online game where at its core, five virtual magical characters bash five other virtual magical characters until victory. All watched by 20 million global viewers.
→Raising the Stakes: E-Sports and the Professionalization of Computer Gaming
BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS
- It pays to be nice…even when other people are screwing you over, The Atlantic | Tweet
Research labs, like most workplaces, come in two broad varieties: The cut-throat kind, where researchers are always throwing elbows in a quest for prestige, and the collaborative kind, where they work together for the good of the team.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
- 50 Global entrepreneurs recommend 50 books that forever impacted their lives, Entrepreneur | Tweet
From 2011 to 2013, I read 197 books, and I became more cultured, intelligent, informed and dare I say better looking. Books have the power to change lives.
