The Difference Between Amateurs and Professionals
Why is it that some people seem to be hugely successful and do so much, while the vast majority of us struggle to tread water? The answer is complicated and likely multifaceted. One aspect is mindset—specifically, the difference between amateurs and professionals.
Curiosity Quills
This is an unofficial mirror of the famous Limyaael/Lightning on the Wave/Arin i Asolde literary rants. You will find here a wealth of advice, warnings, and witty commentary on just about every aspect of constructing a story – from character design, to worldbuilding, to avoiding cliches. The original rants are scattered throughout her LiveJournal, InsaneJournal, and JournalFen. In addition to the rants, Limyaael produced a series of brilliant Harry Potter fan-fictions (under the pen name “Lightning on the Wave“), and even some original fiction.
Stories in your pocket: how to write flash fiction
It's National Flash Fiction Day on Wednesday – the first one ever – and it's an exciting day for me and many others who specialise in this particular truncated form of prose. A few years ago, I published a book of flash fiction called Sawn-off Tales. But until only a little while before that, I hadn't heard of flash fiction or micro-fiction or sudden fiction or short-short stories. Then, on poet Ian McMillan's recommendation, I parcelled up a manuscript made up entirely of this stuff and sent it to Salt Publishing, a poetry specialist. Fifty-eight stories, each exactly 150 words long. The odds were entirely against me.
How to Create an Instant Bestselling Novel
How to Create an Instant Bestselling Novel by Cliff Pickover Please consider the following helpful tips. These will make it easier to get your stories or novels published. These tips will help you write good fiction in general.
Pixar’s 22 rules for a good story (how do they fit your organization?) « Millard Fillmore's Bathtub
From The Pixar Touch, a set of rules for writing a good story to translate to the screen. Good rules to keep in mind for composition of stories in English, no? Good rules of writing to keep in mind for any essay writing. Pixar story artist Emma Coats has tweeted a series of “story basics” over the past month and a half — guidelines that she learned from her more senior colleagues on how to create appealing stories:#1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.#2: You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be v. different.#3: Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.#4: Once upon a time there was ___.
Self-Improvement Archives
Do you know anyone that’s really, really competent? Like really, ridiculously competent? They seem to have a work ethic that’s twice as powerful as yours, they get things done as asked, going “above and beyond” the call of duty almost always, and always within a reasonable time. They come up with creative solutions, or absent that, simply know how to get to a solution to keep the process moving. They keep going when others stop. They’re Competent, with a capital “C”.
List of legendary creatures (B)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Buraq from a 17th-century Mughal miniature
Spice Up Your Writing With Dialogue
by Judy Cullins Does your chapter sound like a report? Does it go on and on with past tense sentences that tell, rather than show? To spice up your self help, non-fiction or fiction book and even promotional writing, you need to use much more dialogue. Why?
The Psychology of Storytelling: 10 Proven Ways to Create Better Stories (and Why Stories Sell)
Stories are a very integral part of being persuasive. You’d think that as a guy that loves data, I’d be averse to storytelling as a whole. As a marketer though, I can’t be. Those in sales and marketing have known for a long time that stories trump data when it comes to persuasion because stories are easier to understand and relate to.
