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Quote of the day
We try to fix the outside so much, but our control of the outer world is limited, temporary, and often, illusory.
Happiness is a state of inner fulfillment, not the gratification of inexhaustible desires for outward things.
~MATTHIEU RICARD, author of Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill
WRITING
The more you read about doing this work, the more commonality you’ll see among the folks who write about the principles that make it work.
7 Fatal Flaws That Told Me My Novel Wasn’t Ready to Pitch, Writer’s Digest | Tweet
About three years ago I submitted myself—willingly—to the rigorous process of the GrubStreet Novel Incubator Program. Like an MFA program condensed into a single year, the Novel Incubator has its ten students critique each other’s full-length manuscripts, and take their own manuscripts apart, then re-write and reassemble them into much better drafts.
Give ‘Em What They Want: The Right Way to Pitch Your Novel to Editors and Agents
Writing dialogue presents a unique set of challenges. A single italicized word can change the whole tone and meaning of an exchange, for example. Compare a person telling a questioner ‘that’s all I can remember’ with ‘that’s all I can remember.’
How to Write Dazzling Dialogue: The Fastest Way to Improve Any Manuscript
9 Ways to Improve Your Dialogue, Kristen Lamb’s Blog | Tweet
Great dialogue is one of the most vital components of fiction. Dialogue is responsible for not only conveying the plot, but it also helps us understand the characters and get to know them, love them, hate them, whatever.
Dialogue: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting Effective Dialogue (Write Great Fiction Series)
SCREENWRITING
- SCRIPT ANGEL: Getting Screenwriting Help, Script Mag | Tweet
Turning your screenwriting into a career is tough but it IS possible. Every year new writers break in, get signed by managers and agents, sell scripts and get staffed. I’ve seen my own screenwriting clients make exactly that leap so I know it can be done.
Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting
Finding a Manager, Flying Wrestler | Tweet
The first concrete step in any screenwriter’s career these days tends to be signing with a manager. It used to be signing with an agent, but most agents today aren’t looking at unrepresented writers. One generally has to get a manager first, to land an agent.
SELF-PUBLISHING
11 Common Publishing Terms All Writers Should Know, Writer’s Digest | Tweet
If you’re a writer looking to write, sell or publish a book, there are many basic terms that you need to know. Heck, if you don’t know certain industry terms, you may even have trouble interpreting advice-driven articles on writing designed to help you.
Ditch the Publisher: 40 Indie Authors on Their Unique Self-Publishing Journeys
- Social Media for writers is a misunderstood opportunity, Terrible Minds | Tweet
You can sell books using social media. You also can’t really sell books using social media. The cat is both dead and alive. Let me unpack this a little bit.
GENDER
If, like me, you’re an amateur taster of beer and wine, inevitably you’ve asked yourself why you don’t taste that hint of raspberry or note of pine bark that someone else says is there.
SOCIAL SCIENCES
- What Do Conspiracy Theories Do to Us?, Science of Us | Tweet
Conspiracy theories are all around us. Sometimes they’re relatively harmless — concerns about Roswell aliens aren’t having a major effect on public policy — and sometimes they’re not.
Conspiracy Theories: The Greatest Conspiracy Theories Of All Time
HAPPINESS
- A psychologist reveals ‘the single biggest predictor of human happiness’, Business Insider | Tweet
When psychologist Arthur Aron was a graduate student in the 1960s, he was looking around for something to study for his dissertation. But he didn’t want just any topic. He wanted to find one “that people thought couldn’t be studied scientifically and then prove that it could be,” he said.
Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill
PSYCHOLOGY
7 Ways to Spark Your Sense of Wonder, Psychology Today | Tweet
Wonder and awe are essential to a passionate life. Here’s how to activate them.
Awe: Why It Matters for Everything We Think, Say, and Do
TIME MANAGEMENT
Time management goes only so far; the emotional reasons for delay must also be addressed
Procrastination: Why You Do It, What to Do About It Now