Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling « Aerogramme Writers' Studio These rules were originally tweeted by Emma Coats, Pixar’s Story Artist. Number 9 on the list – When you’re stuck, make a list of what wouldn’t happen next – is a great one and can apply to writers in all genres. You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.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 very different.Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it.
Get Your Writing Fighting Fit Chapter 3 Logicians may reason about abstractions. But the great mass of men must have images.--Thomas Babington Macaulay In writing, empty calories come in the form of filler words, abstractions, redundancies, and oxymorons. Eliminate meaningless phrases. In speech, little conversational superfluities lighten the linguistic load for our listeners by filling time with material a listener can discount quickly, leaving the mind free to focus on meaty matters.In written text, these fillers require too much attention and cost money to put on the page.Every editor has a hit list of these useless phrases. Get rid of these empty calories and all their cousins. Make abstractions concrete. Concrete nouns name things we access through our senses. Abstract nouns are those that make no clear image in the mind. The farther you move from the concrete in your writing, the more uncertain your communication. Sometimes you must use abstract terms. Original sentence: People with a disability will have access issues.
36 Tips for Writing Just About Anything Basic tips for writing just about anything. There’s a lot more to writing than just typing words. Writing well takes years of study, practice, and experience. For example, when we’re writing fiction, we have one set of concerns (character, plot, and theme, to name a few) and when we’re writing poetry, we have en entirely different set of issues to deal with. Basically, writers have to keep a lot of balls in the air. Tips for Writing With that in mind, here are 36 tips for writing just about anything. Start with a plan. And that’s not all… This list might seem overwhelming, but it just covers the basics. But these tips for writing are a good start. Do you have any tips for writing to add to this list? About Melissa DonovanMelissa Donovan is a website designer and copywriter.
Designing conference posters » Colin Purrington A large-format poster is a big piece of paper or wall-mounted monitor featuring a short title, an introduction to your burning question, an overview of your novel experimental approach, your amazing results in graphical form, some insightful discussion of aforementioned results, a listing of previously published articles that are important to your research, and some brief acknowledgement of the tremendous assistance and financial support conned from others — if all text is kept to a minimum (less than a 1000 words), a person could fully read your poster in 5-10 minutes. Section content • DOs and DON’Ts • Adding pieces of flair • Presenting • Motivational advice • Software • Templates • Printing • Useful literature • Organizing a poster session What to put in each section Below, I’ve provided rough tips on how many words each of these sections might have, but those guesses are assuming you have a horizontal poster that is approximately 3×4′. DOs and DON’Ts Adding pieces of flair 1. 2. 3.
12, William Faulkner William Faulkner, ca. 1954. Photograph by Carl Van Vechten William Faulkner was born in 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi, where his father was then working as a conductor on the railroad built by the novelist’s great-grandfather, Colonel William Falkner (without the “u”), author of The White Rose of Memphis. Soon the family moved to Oxford, thirty-five miles away, where young Faulkner, although he was a voracious reader, failed to earn enough credits to be graduated from the local high school. Encouraged by Sherwood Anderson, he wrote Soldier’s Pay (1926). A steady succession of novels followed, most of them related to what has come to be called the Yoknapatawpha saga: Light in August (1932), Pylon (1935), Absalom, Absalom! Recently, though shy and retiring, Faulkner has traveled widely, lecturing for the United States Information Service. Mr. The reason I don’t like interviews is that I seem to react violently to personal questions. How about yourself as a writer? No. Bourbon, you mean?
I Write for Apples: Scrivener - Keywords Scrivener - Keywords There are all kinds of ways you can use keywords in Scrivener. And the beauty of it is that they’re so simple to use. For my latest project, I used keywords for three things. *The information panel is expanded on the right so you can see the keyword section. If you’d like to use keywords as you go, make sure you’ve clicked the appropriate choice in the binder (to the left) to tell the program if you want the keyword associated with the chapter or just the scene. Click the + button at the top of the keyword panel, type your keyword, and hit return. If you’d like to add more keywords or add the same keyword in other places, follow the same procedure. Or, once you have at least one keyword set up, you can click the gear button (next to the + and –) and chose Show Project Keywords. To add a keyword at the same level, choose the first button on the lower left of the keyword box, which will say Add Keyword as Sibling. Searching Good luck!
Where to Find Ideas for Writing a Story Ideas for writing a story It always seem like there are too many writing ideas or not enough. When you don’t have time to write, ideas come hurtling out of nowhere. Sometimes, they come so fast, you can’t even write them all down. Then, when you sit down, stretch your fingers, and lean over your keyboard to start typing, nothing happens. Chances are, you’re not really out of ideas; you’re just not in the mood to write. Luckily, ideas for writing a story are all around you. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. What kind of stories do you write? About Melissa DonovanMelissa Donovan is a website designer and copywriter. Academic Phrasebank 25 Things You Should Know About Word Choice - StumbleUpon 1. A Series Of Word Choices Here’s why this matters: because both writing and storytelling comprise, at the most basic level, a series of word choices. Words are the building blocks of what we do. They are the atoms of our elements. 2. Words are like LEGO bricks: the more we add, the more we define the reality of our playset. 3. You know that game — “Oh, you’re cold, colder, colder — oh! 4. Think of it like a different game, perhaps: you’re trying to say as much as possible with as few words as you can muster. 5. Finding the perfect word is as likely as finding a downy-soft unicorn with a pearlescent horn riding a skateboard made from the bones of your many enemies. 6. For every right word, you have an infinity of wrong ones. 7. You might use a word that either oversteps or fails to meet the idea you hope to present. 8. Remember how I said earlier that words are like LEGO, blah blah blah help define reality yadda yadda poop noise? 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. Am. 15. No, really. 16. 17. 18.
The Ultimate Student Resource List It’s back to school time, yet again. In the spirit of the season, I decided to gather together the best tools, websites, and advice I know of to help make you a more effective and relaxed student this semester. Since I know you’re broke, it’s all free! 10 Free Applications Every Student Needs Unless you have money coming out of your ears, you probably won’t want to shell out the cash you’ll need to get Office, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, EndNote, and so on — even with your student discount. OpenOffice.org: A top-quality, full-featured office productivity suite — word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software, graphics editor, database, the works! 11 Online Tools Students Should Check Out Or 20, depending on how you count. Email: GmailRegister for a solid, plain-jane email address from Gmail, something like FirstnameLastname@gmail.com. 15 Websites for Students (Aside from Lifehack) 30 Pieces of Advice for Students from Lifehack.org 7 Online Research Resources
How to Improve Your Writing Are you ready to improve your writing? It’s not possible to improve your writing overnight, unless you hire an expert to do it for you. People study the craft for years, decades even, and still they strive to make each piece of writing better than the last. Sure, there might be some quick tricks and shortcuts you can pick up and apply immediately, but these only improve your writing in small increments. If you want to become a good writer (let alone a great writer), be prepared to make a long-term commitment to the craft. It might take time and energy to improve your writing, but it’s actually not that hard, especially if you love what you do. Be professional. Do you try to improve your writing on a regular basis? About Melissa DonovanMelissa Donovan is a website designer and copywriter.
Rachel Aaron | Rachel Bach - Science Fiction, Fantasy, Writing Life 20 Common Grammar Mistakes That (Almost) Everyone Gets Wrong | LitReactor - StumbleUpon I’ve edited a monthly magazine for more than six years, and it’s a job that’s come with more frustration than reward. If there’s one thing I am grateful for — and it sure isn’t the pay — it’s that my work has allowed endless time to hone my craft to Louis Skolnick levels of grammar geekery. As someone who slings red ink for a living, let me tell you: grammar is an ultra-micro component in the larger picture; it lies somewhere in the final steps of the editing trail; and as such it’s an overrated quasi-irrelevancy in the creative process, perpetuated into importance primarily by bitter nerds who accumulate tweed jackets and crippling inferiority complexes. But experience has also taught me that readers, for better or worse, will approach your work with a jaundiced eye and an itch to judge. While your grammar shouldn’t be a reflection of your creative powers or writing abilities, let’s face it — it usually is. Who and Whom This one opens a big can of worms. Which and That Lay and Lie Moot Nor
newyorker The following is adapted from a speech the author gave at the Whiting Writers’ Awards on March 5th. When I had just finished my schooling and was looking for a job, a friend put me in touch with an absurdly well-connected British biographer who, she assured me, would help me find the professional position of my dreams. I wrote and asked him whether we might meet, explaining that I would appreciate his advice on securing literary work and enclosing some of my early efforts. He duly invited me for tea. The advice I had in mind sounded like this: “You must call so-and-so at this number and say I suggested it and he will publish you and give you loads of money.” While I, unlike that biographer, am an artesian font of utilitarian suggestions, I can now see that being asked to comment on young brilliance is an explicit invitation to pomposity. I want to take a moment to talk about the middle of things. Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart.