Writing Is Not Lonely, But Avoiding It Is | AndiLit.com
You’ll never know what you’re made of until you sit long enough with the writing to move through the pulls for companionship (whether virtual or “real”). — Laraine Herring I am agitated at the core of myself these days. Obviously, something is happening in my spirit – some cleansing, some burning off of the chaff, some rearranging of the fragments of myself – and I am tired, teary, and baffled with life most minutes of most days. If I was smart, I’d be buried in words because of this. But I am not smart. “Writing is lonely.” When I write, I feel like I’ve walked into a forest where even the trees speak companionship to me. So the struggle I have is not with loneliness but with fear, the fear that just one time I will come to the page and find it empty. I must cocoon myself with my words and with my self. – “Alone Among Many – Lake Kidelju” Be Sociable, Share! AndiLit in your Inbox Author: Andi
TEN SIMPLE KEYS TO PLOT STRUCTURE
Structure is something that every agent and executive in Hollywood talks about, and that all of us teachers/authors/consultants/gurus/whatever go on and on about, to the point that it can seem complicated, intricate, mysterious and hard to master. So I want present plot structure in a way that simplifies it – that will at least give you a starting point for properly structuring your screenplay without overwhelming you with rules and details and jargon. Here are what I consider ten key elements of structure – ten ways of looking at structure that will immediately improve the emotional impact – and commercial potential – of your script. THE SINGLE RULE OF STRUCTURE I once got to work with long time television writer Doug Heyes, who used to say that there is only one rule for achieving proper plot structure: What’s happening now must be inherently more interesting than what just happened.
Edgar the storyteller
Creating a Web App from Scratch - Part 1 of 8: Basic Idea and Design
Today we begin Part 1 of an 8-Part series on building a web application from absolute scratch to a complete product. I am going to kick things off by introducing the idea, and then I will be handling the design, UI, and general front-end stuff. We are going to be going back and forth from here over to my friend Jason Lengstorf's site Copter Labs. Jason will be handling the back-end stuff like application planning and database stuff. At the end of the week, we'll unleash the actual working application for you. Here is the plan: It's Easy, Right? What we're going to create is a "list app". First of all, it needs to work and it needs to work well. Through this whole 8-part series, we are going to create an app that hopefully does all these things pretty well. The Big Idea This "list app" is going to be called Colored Lists. Sketch It Out No need to get fancy right away. Looks like a list to me. Early UI Planning Click-to-editDrag and dropTwo-click deleteAutomatic saving (after any action)
25 Things Every Writer Should Know
An alternate title for this post might be, “Things I Think About Writing,” which is to say, these are random snidbits (snippets + tidbits) of beliefs I hold about what it takes to be a writer. I hesitate to say that any of this is exactly Zen (oh how often we as a culture misuse the term “Zen” — like, “Whoa, that tapestry is so cool, it’s really Zen“), but it certainly favors a sharper, shorter style than the blathering wordsplosions I tend to rely on in my day-to-day writing posts. Anyway. Peruse these. Feel free to disagree with any of these; these are not immutable laws. Buckle up. 1. The Internet is 55% porn, and 45% writers. 2. A lot of writers try to skip over the basics and leap fully-formed out of their own head-wombs. 3. Some writers do what they do and are who they are because they were born with some magical storytelling gland that they can flex like their pubococcygeus, ejaculating brilliant storytelling and powerful linguistic voodoo with but a twitch of their taint. 4. 5.
Unique Plots
Plotting Short Fiction
Last month at MRA, I listened to Jacqueline Woodson speak about her writing process. It wasn’t the first time I heard her speak and I hope it won’t be my last. She is one of the writers I consider as my personal mentor. Not to be over-dramatic, but listening to her last month changed my writing life. She said, “Plot happens.” One thing I’ve learned about writing fiction is the importance of allowing the characters’ to have free will. Kim Jones invited me into her fourth grade class to lead a fiction unit. Still, as a teacher of young fiction writers, it’s necessary to teach what works for me and what might work for other writers. Yesterday I introduced the story mountain to the fourth grade fiction writers. Then I gave them this planning sheet (click the link for a PDF). About half of the writers in the room used the planning sheet and found it helpful. A few notes: Enemy Pie by D. Like this: Like Loading...
Warbeats > Home
D. W. Mills Jr.
Neuroses run rampant in me. I think I am, unfortunately more neurotic than most (although I've read that many other writers feel this way). You will undoubtedly see this rear its ugly face in my writing. I am not a college graduate, although I am working on it. I am an addict I am a felon. Somehow I find it possible that none of these things really defines who I am. In some ways I am also a victim, but mostly I am not. I am a dreamer. I am a lifelong learner – at least in the sense that I am always having to re-learn how to do things that comes natural to other people. I am a writer – at least in the sense that I occasionally write because it is the only thing that seems completely right when I am doing it. Lastly, I am much more than all of this.
How to Build Subplots From Multiple Viewpoints
Multiple viewpoints provide diversion from, and contrast to, the protagonist’s perspective. They can deepen conflict, enlarge a story’s scope and add to a novel the rich texture of real life. Subplots carry those effects even further. Subplots and multiple points of view are often linked by their very natures. Of course, subplots and multiple points of view make novels longer and more work, but rewards for that effort are there for writer and reader alike—that is, if they are successful. —By Donald Maass, author of The Breakout Novelist Choosing a subplot begins with choosing characters with which to work. If none are to be found, it might be worthwhile to grow some of your secondary characters, depending on the nature of your novel. Subplots will not have the desired magnification effect unless there are connections between them. A second requirement of subplots is that they each affect the outcome of the main plotline. A third quality of successful subplots is that they range.
