Quote of the day
Whether or not it’s convenient or efficient, creativity is healthy and necessary. Some kind of creativity has been hard-wired into all of us. It’s aching to come out of you.
~ED CYZEWSKI, author of Creating Space: The Case for Everyday Creativity
WRITING & SCREENWRITING
- 4 Tips to write a better character point, The Write Practice | Tweet
A portrait is a description of a person or a group of people. From Cheryl Strayed, however, I learned portraits also reveal the relationship between a person and the writer (in memoir) or another character (fiction).
- Choosing a P.O.V.: What is best for your story?, Kristen Lamb’s Blog | Tweet
P.O.V. is a word that throws many new authors into panic. What is THAT? Prisoners of Vietnam? Pets of Vegans? Pals of Viagra? P.O.V. stands for Point of View. Traditionally, I’ve not included this lesson in my teachings on structure, but I am amending that since P.O.V. will affect structure.
→Rivet Your Readers with Deep Point of View
- How to write a bestseller (finally the truth of it), Positive Writer | Tweet
I used to believe that I had to think up a grand idea for a book, and that when I did it would be so compelling that everyone would want to read it and recommended it to their friends. Eventually, I learned it doesn’t work that way. Well, not exactly.
→Writing The Bestseller: Romantic And Commercial Fiction
- Script analysis: The Imitation Game, Go into the story | Tweet
Reading scripts. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting. The focus of this weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read.
→Script Analysis for Actors, Directors, and Designers
SELF-PUBLISHING
- 10 items for a successful book event, Elizabeth Spann Craig | Tweet
Book events are a great way to sell books. You’re in a target-rich environment, surrounded by buyers who are eager to find their next favorite book. Aside from sales, book events are a fantastic way to raise awareness of your work, engage with readers/fans, garner signups for your author newsletter or email list, and talk shop with other authors.
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CREATIVITY
- Boost your creativity with simple shifts in space, Creative Something | Tweet
Space has a tremendous influence on our level of creativity, despite our often lack of awareness of its impact. There is no perfect way to form a space that provides you instantaneous creativity, of course.
→Creating Space: The Case for Everyday Creativity
FOOD
- Why the worst time to drink coffee is actually in the morning, The Washington Post | Tweet
Coffee has ingrained itself in the mechanisms of so many people’s early morning routines. There is something romantic about brewing a carafe, or holding a freshly bought cup close, first thing. There is also something practical about it: Sipping piping hot caffeine as soon as possible prepares us for the day—or, at the very least, for the coming few hours.
→Coffee Gives Me Superpowers: An Illustrated Book about the Most Awesome Beverage on Earth
LANGUAGE
I’m talking to a young woman I’ve just met at an academic event. We stand around for a few minutes chatting, until eventually she glances at her phone and says, ‘I should go, my wife’s waiting’.
→Outlaw Marriages: The Hidden Histories of Fifteen Extraordinary Same-Sex Couples
BOOKS
- Finnegans Wake becomes a hit book in China, The Guardian | Tweet
Following billboard ads, James Joyce’s nigh-incomprehensible book leaps over language barrier to reach surprising readership.
ENTERTAINMENT
How Netflix is using a mountain of data to get you to watch more stuff. Back in March, a developer named Renan Cakirerk wrote a small piece of code that made a big impact on Netflix. Cheekily named “god mode,” it addressed one of the most annoying aspects of trying to use Netflix in your browser: scrolling through the company’s ever-growing list of movies. Once enabled, it would simply give you one, big list. Instead of sitting there, holding your mouse in anticipation, you could simply find the title you wanted and get on with watching.
