Quote of the day
In the same way that horror fiction is seen by some scholars as providing a safe way for us to rehearse and simulate dealing with mortal threats, perhaps we’re attracted to cringe comedy and reality TV as a way to hone our ability to appreciate and understand other people’s social tribulations.
~DR. CHRISTIAN JARRETT, author of Great Myths of the Brain (Great Myths of Psychology)
WRITING
- How to write about your family…without getting disowned, The Write Practice | Tweet
As writers, we often draw from what we know to create our art, and the subject many of us often know the deepest is our family. But how do you write about your family without hurting them, especially if, like most of us, your family is less than perfect?
- What to do when first-chapter fears paralyze us, Jody Hedlund | Tweet
The doubts and insecurities followed me relentlessly through those first chapters. Even though this is the twentieth full length novel that I’ve written. Even though I’ve tackled difficult historical time periods (some even more so). Even though I’ve handled equally important subject matter.
- Whose head? Point of view in fiction, Live Write Thrive | Tweet
The commonly heard phrase “Well, from my point of view” expresses something central to human existence: our whole experience of life is bounded by the fact that we are trapped in our own heads. Life is all about point of view. Fiction, which emulates life, is too.
→The Power Of Point Of View: Make Your Story Come To Life
- When your scene is dragging: 6 ways to add tension, Writer Unboxed | Tweet
But it does occasionally still happen that I’ll be working on a chapter or a scene and realize that it suddenly feels . . . flat. Or just “off” somehow. Nine times out of ten, the problem is that I’ve forgotten the cardinal rule about making sure that tension is an integral part of every single page.
→Scene & Structure (Elements of Fiction Writing)
Scan the Table of Contents in most writing manuals and you’ll see the familiar menu of story mechanics. All good! Setting, characters, plot points and pillars, crisis, climax and resolution—without these ingredients we probably don’t have a fully-cooked story. But one essential is almost always missing—the heart of a story.
→Story Structure Expedition: Journey to the Heart of a Story
SELF-PUBLISHING
- The best way for writers to use Amazon’s Preorder future, Live Write Thrive | Tweet
Now that Amazon is allowing preorders, I see a lot of authors jumping on the preorder bandwagon, and while that’s great, there’s a lot to consider before you do this. First, if you aren’t familiar with the Amazon preorder, let me explain how it works.
- Interview with Jane: Understanding the business of authorship, Jane Friedman | Tweet
My most recent interview is now available with author and editor Ally Bishop, who runs the professional editing business Upgrade Your Story and its related podcast.
→Business for Authors: How to be an Author Entrepreneur
- How to record your own audiobooks for ACX, The Creative Penn | Tweet
Audiobooks are a fantastic growth market for authors, narrators and producers alike, and I’ve been working with fabulous narrators for my fiction since ACX opened up in the UK in 2014.
→Audiobooks for Indies: The One-Stop Guide for Authors Looking to Make More Money Selling Audiobooks
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HAPPINESS
I’m writing for people who, like me, are living and working in relative material comfort in this early part of the 21st century. People who were brought up with the belief that happiness is a thing you can and ought to pursue.
NEUROLOGY
- How watching reality TV might help bring out the best in us, Science of us | Tweet
Although it’s hugely popular, reality TV is often seen as voyeuristic screen-trash — a showcase for the seedier sides of humanity, for people’s vanity, vacuousness, and vulgarity. And while there’s more than a grain of truth to this analysis — just look at this roundup of awkward clips — a newbrain-imaging study in the journal NeuroImage paints reality TV in a slightly different light.
→Great Myths of the Brain (Great Myths of Psychology)
MATHEMATICS
- The mathematically proven winning strategy for 14 of the most popular games, The Washington Post | Tweet
From Risk to tic-tac-toe, popular games involve tons of strategic decisions, probability and math. So one happy consequence of being a data nerd is that you may have an advantage at something even non-data nerds understand: winning.
→The Mathematics of Games And Gambling
