MONDAY LINKS ~ Reads on Writing, Self-publishing, and Better Living: Living Color

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Quote of the day

Subtles variations in skin color–the reddish, yellowish, bluish and other hues that are often remarked on in artistic representations of human skin–are due to different proportions of the different forms of eumelanin and pheomelanin in the skin, and most people have both types of melanin in their skin in varying ratios.

~NINA G. JABLONSKI, author of Living Color: The Biological and Social Meaning of Skin Color

WRITING

• How to develop a reading habit?, My bookish life | Tweet

How to develop a reading habit is one of those questions that gets different answers depending on the person you ask. Sometimes, those answers seem really complicated. Mine is quite simple.

→Reading in the Wild: The Book Whisperer’s Keys to Cultivating Lifelong Reading Habits

• 6 Tips on writing for children, Writers Digest | Tweet

Here are six lessons I’ve learned about writing for children that could save you a few headaches.

→The Business of Writing for Children: An Award-Winning Author’s Tips on Writing Children’s Books and Publishing Them, or How to Write, Publish, and Promote a Book for Kids

• Time as a literary device: Unpacking the parallel Timeline, Kristen Lamb’s Blog | Tweet

One reason we might be tempted to use a flashback is to explain or to expound to artificially prop up weak characterization or a weak plot (the training wheel flashback). This is what good editors will cut. Then there is the other way to use time and that is time as a literary device. This is when our going back in time is used intelligently to serve the forward momentum of the story.

→Setting: How to Create and Sustain a Sharp Sense of Time and Place in Your Fiction (Elements of Fiction Writing)

• Somewhere over the rainbow… setting in fiction by Robena Grant, Romance University | Tweet

We develop intriguing characters and give them amazing lines of dialogue, and work hard to perfect our plot, but what about setting?

→Writing Active Setting Book 1: Characterization and Sensory Detail

SCREENWRITING

• Flaws and character act, Flying Wrestler | Tweet

The best movies tend to have a growth arc for the main character.  In the end, they have often somehow become better versions of themselves, as well as having solved some big problem in their world.  This means they have to start the movie as the “not best version of themselves”.  And this is where many scripts I read run into a problem.

→Crafting the Character Arc

• 30 Things about screenwriting: Watch movies. Read scripts, Write pages, Go Into The Story | Tweet

You can learn pretty much everything you need to know about screenwriting by doing these three things: Watch movies. Read scripts. Write pages. I coined this triptych nearly four years ago and it seems to have caught on. Here’s why.

→Essentials of Screenwriting: The Art, Craft, and Business of Film and Television Writing

SELF-PUBLISHING

• How self-published authors can distribute to libraries, Jane Friedman | Tweet

The problem self-published authors have run into at libraries has been a lot like the problem they run into at bookshops: no way to break through the barrier of mainstream competition, no way to stand out.

→The Fine Print of Self-Publishing, Fifth Edition: A Primer on Contracts, Printing Costs, Royalties, Distribution, E-Books, and Marketing

• 12 Things every author should know about social media, Social Media just for Writers | Tweet

You see, if you treat social media as though it were broadcast media, your readers – the people who buy your books and adore your writing – will also unfriend, unfollow, block and mute you. What would happen to your book sales then?

→Social Media Just for Writers: The Best Online Marketing Tips for Selling Your Books

CREATIVITY

• The most valuable ideas are the ones that get shared, Creative Something | Tweet

You don’t have to share all the work you do. You can write without an audience. You can build without a customer. You can imagine, ruminate, and tinker, and do it all without ever intending to share your thoughts or ideas with another person.

→Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered

BIOLOGY

• About your skin, Nautilus | Tweet

What you should know about your body’s biggest organ.

→Skin: A Natural History
→Living Color: The Biological and Social Meaning of Skin Color

EDUCATION

• 100 per cent is overrated, The Atlantic | Tweet

People labeled “smart” at a young age don’t deal well with being wrong. Life grows stagnant.

→Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

RELATIONSHIPS

• For couples, time can upend the laws of attraction, NYT | Tweet

After decades of studying the concept of ‘mate value,’ social scientists finally have the data necessary to explain the romantic choices in Knocked Up and Pride and Prejudice.

SOCIAL MEDIA

• When to post things to Facebook if you want the most likes, The Washington Post | Tweet

Facebook’s elusive algorithm, the one that makes some posts super visible and others seemingly invisible, is something most Facebook users might never understand. But behind most far-reaching posts is at least one subtle but important factor everyone can grasp: good timing.

→The Science of Marketing: When to Tweet, What to Post, How to Blog, and Other Proven Strategies