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Merce Cardus

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THURSDAY LINKS ~ Reads on Writing, Self-publishing, and Better Living: Focus, Focus, Focus.

in Reads on Writing & Self-Publishing on 09/07/15

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Photo Credit: Scarleth Marie via Compfight cc

Successful people know that hours, like capital, can be consciously allocated with the goal of creating riches—in the form of a changed world, a life’s work—over time. Indeed, successful people understand that work hours must be more carefully stewarded than capital because time is absolutely limited. You can earn more money, but the mightiest among us is granted no more than 168 hours per week, and it is physically impossible to work for all of them.

~LAURA VANDERKAM, author of 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think

WRITING

  • What Jurassic Park can teach you about compounding conflict in your story?, HWBA | Tweet

Think your story is falling a little flat? The problem might be that your conflict is too one-sided. The most interesting stories are always those that result from the complex interweaving of various threads of compounding conflict.

→Elements of Fiction Writing – Conflict and Suspense

  • Funny grammar rules, My Bookish Life | Tweet

Here is a collection of funny grammar rules guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

→The Only Grammar Book You’ll Ever Need: A One-Stop Source for Every Writing Assignment

  • 3 Ways to test the tension and pacing in your scenes, Live Write Thrive | Tweet

Let’s take a look at the ways pacing and tension play out at the scene level. Your first draft may contain lots of unnecessary scenes. But when you revise, test your draft against these three points when deciding if a scene should stay or be cut (or reworked).

→Make a Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time

  • How to avoid ‘episodic’ writing, Pat Verducci | Tweet

Unless you’re writing ‘episodic’ television, this is not a word you want applied to your writing. But it’s actually a very common issue among screenwriters and writers of fiction/memoir. How can you avoid having your story play like a series of disconnected scenes, but instead link them so they create rising conflict that leads to a climax? In other words, how can you make your story build?

→Writing : Novel Writing Mastery, Proven And Simple Techniques To Outline-, Structure- And Write A Successful Novel ! – novel writing, writing fiction, writing skills


SCREENWRITING

  • Script Angel: Creating a story for your character, Script Mag | Tweet

Story is something that happens to someone. Even if the someone isn’t human (a toy, a lamp, a fish) we imbue it with human qualities. Whether it’s news stories or fictional ones, we are moved by bad things happening when they are personalised, when they are happening to individual people. 

→Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting

  • Daily dialogue: No Country For Old Men, Go Into The Story | Tweet

SELF-PUBLISHING

  • Cool and not so new social media networks for Indie authors, The Book Designer | Tweet

Do authors need to pay attention to the coolest new social media networks on the block? Or should you wait to see whether they take off or fade away without so much as an hasta luego as so many applications do? Well, that depends.

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

  • How publishers make decisions about what to publish: The book P&L, Jane Friedman | Tweet

In a widely shared excerpt from his memoir, My Mistake, publishing industry veteran Daniel Menaker described his first experience trying to acquire a book at Random House. His boss told him, “Well, do a P-and-L for it and we’ll see.”

→Self-Publishing Books 101: A Step-by-Step Guide to Publishing Your Book in Multiple Formats (Author 101 Series) (Volume 1)


FREEDOM

  • 5 Steps for managing your emotional triggers, Psychology Today | Tweet

Your Guide to Gaining Emotional Freedom

→Outsmart Your Brain! How to Make Success Feel Easy


PSYCHOLOGY

  • Why we sleep?, The New Yorker | Tweet

It’s strange, when you think about it, that we spend close to a third of our lives asleep. Why do we do it?

→Sleep: Why Do We Need It?


SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

  • Why is it so hard to take your own advice?, NY Mag | Tweet

It’s one thing to give advice to someone else, dispensing thoughtful words of wisdom over Gchat. But try applying those same suggestions to your own life and it often falls apart.

→Irrationally Yours: On Missing Socks, Pickup Lines, and Other Existential Puzzles


SCIENCE

  • Can you get a smell stuck in your head?, PopSci | Tweet

Short answer: Sort of. Call it a noseworm.

→The Secret of Scent: Adventures in Perfume and the Science of Smell


TIME MANAGEMENT

  • The secret to time management? Focus. Focus. Focus, 99u | Tweet

Working more didn’t require shortchanging her family or herself. It just required focusing on what she did best.

→168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think

 

 

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