Monday, April 29, 2013

Invisible Ink

Heard a great recommendation for the Invisible Ink book. It was written by Brian McDonald of the Invisible Ink blog. His book is available for purchase from Amazon or it can be read (legally) for free online. I am looking forward to reading his stuff.

About Brian McDonald

Acclaimed by successful screenwriters and authors, Invisible Ink is a helpful, accessible guide to the essential elements of the best storytelling.   Brian McDonald, an award winning screenwriter who has taught his craft at several major studios, supplies writers with tools to make their work more effective and provides readers and audiences a deeper understanding of the storyteller’s art.

When people think of a screenplay, they usually think about dialogue – the “visible ink” that is readily accessible to the listener, reader, or viewer. But a successful screenplay needs Invisible Ink as well, the craft below the surface of words. Invisible Ink lays out the essential elements of screenplay structure, using vivid examples from famous moments in popular movies as well as from one of his own popular scripts.  You will learn techniques for building a compelling story around a theme, making your writing engage audiences, creating appealing characters, and much more.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Social Networks for Writers

Recent article at Mashable  - 10 Inspiring Social Networks for Writers

http://mashable.com/2012/01/23/social-networks-writers/

3 Cool Places to Submit Short Stories


Stormwriting


Engage your heartbrain, that is to say your whole, deepest self. By  tapping into your heartbrain, you'll be writing up a storm, hence the technique is called stormwriting. This is a results-driven tool that should be used time and again.

Stormwriting is essentially a heartbrainstorm, a process by which you open your heartbrain and provoke it to not merely dump stuff out, but generate new questions and ideas that lead you to more good stuff: The stuff that becomes building blocks for your book. How do you provoke it?

No matter what you come up with, no matter how much it's not what you're expecting, no matter how off the wall or even dumb, you don't resist it or ignore it. You run with it. You say, "Yes, and-" ... and the room begins to fill with the mutant ions from the forgotten medical waste facility next door!

You accept it and you go with it, and you build on it and you play off of it. The whole piece might stumble and change direction anytime, but you'll be in harmony with it.

This technique is outlined in Elizabeth Sims' book