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Quote of the day
Habit 1: Be Proactive
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Habit 3: Put First Things First
Habit 4: Think Win/Win
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
Habit 6: Synergize
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw.~STEPHEN R. COVEY, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
WRITING
- How to improve your writing: 5 Secrets from Hollywood, Barking up the wrong tree | Tweet
Want to know how to improve your writing? Or have you ever thought about crafting the next great novel or screenplay? Want to know how to write like a pro?
→The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century
- Tension and pacing through conflict and emotional narrative, Write Live Thrive | Tweet
Pacing is the rate at which a story is told, and it can vary from slow to fast depending on several factors—for example: the characters, the setting, or the scene’s action (or lack of it). While pacing is always present and tension isn’t, both require good storytelling if they’re to work in a writer’s favor.
→Elements of Fiction Writing – Conflict and Suspense
- How to know if you (& your writing) are on the right path, Finally Writing | Tweet
I used to only write in my sleep. Images, colors, stories, and words danced behind closed lids. When I woke up, (but only slightly), I imagined myself sitting at my desk, in front of my open Mac, typing away. The sentences came forth swimmingly. Naturally. I could see the pages filling up so clearly. And I confidently knew exactly what filled them.
→Writing as a Sacred Path: A Practical Guide to Writing with Passion and Purpose
- Flog a pro: would you turn this bestselling author’s first page?, Writer Unboxed | Tweet
This novel was number three on the New York Times trade paperback fiction bestseller list for July 12, 2015. How strong is the opening page—would this have hooked an agent if it came in from an unpublished writer? Do you think it’s compelling?
→The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile
SCREENWRITING
- One key to character development: Get curious, Go Into The Story | Tweet
By identifying key characters and their relationships, we zero in on them as subplots, each with their own specific Beginning-Middle-Ending arc and impact on the story’s central plot.
→Getting Into Character: Seven Secrets A Novelist Can Learn From Actors
- Using Social Media: Slings and Arrows, Script Mag | Tweet
But there’s another side to this coin, and it’s best summed up with a single question: what happens when you – yes, you – end up on the receiving end of one of those insulting social media comments?
SELF-PUBLISHING
- Get started on Twitter in 7 simple steps, The Book Designer | Tweet
For those of you who have been happily tweeting, I’m going to suggest you do a quick review and jump to the second step. It’s smart to review your profile and make sure that your key words are still relevant.
→Twitter for Authors (Busy Writer’s Guides Book 6)
- 10 ways to use audio to sell more books, Author Marketing Experts | Tweet
Looking to expand your book marketing efforts? Here are 10 ways to make the most of audio to sell more books!
→Narration: A Beginner’s Guide to Creating Audiobooks for Audible & iTunes
SUCCESS
If Holden Caulfield was right about one thing, it’s that children are the most pure and true humans on the planet. As we grow older, we lose the features that made us so innocent and virtuous, but it’s incredibly important that we don’t let these characteristics stray too far from ourselves.
→The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
EXERCISE
Having this kind of habit will make you a more successful exerciser.
→How to get yourself to exercise everyday!: 7 easy to learn tricks that work.
ECONOMICS
- How do songwriters make money?, Priceonomics | Tweet
It depends on who they are. If the songwriters are pop writers like Max Martin or Ryan Tedder, they carefully craft a hit single, find a boy band or celebrity diva to sing it, and rake in the millions. The music publishing company takes a cut, and the performer responsible for the recording, and the record label. But if the hit is a hit, album sales, and streaming, and radio plays, and use of the song in movies and television and ads are usually significant enough that the songwriter makes bank.
TECHNOLOGY
- How does WiFi work?, Scientific American | Tweet
Have you ever stopped to consider exactly how email or streaming video gets into your smartphone or tablet so quickly, seamlessly, and in real time? That’s WiFi in action.
AMAZON
Prime day, Sure, Amazon might pick up some extra revenue to help it through the summer selling doldrums (before back-to-school and holiday sales rev up), but Amazon’s real motivation behind the discount day is to entice more people to join its Amazon Prime membership program.