Funeral Talk

At a funeral recently and overheard an older woman talking before the funeral began.

"Say something nice about me at my funeral?" the woman said, "my kids don't have anything nice to say about now when I'm alive!"

As preparations continued, she explained to her friend about her philosophy on life. "When we're born, we're given a death sentence. Simple as that. There's no avoiding it. Death is waiting for us at one point or another."

People started to move, so the funeral was about to start. "But I tell you," she continued, "no matter how a person behaved in life, no matter what they did, I've never been to a funeral where they couldn't find something nice to say about them. Not just nice. Glowing! They can go on and on about what a golden person they were. So I don't know what to make of that, if it matters or not what you did in life."

Perhaps I am particularly partial to comments at funerals because I am currently listening to Neil Gaiman read The Graveyard Book.

A Different Kind of How to Write a Book Book

I have started reading and more accurately using another book about writing, designed to help writers to write. However, this is not a book, as I have discovered about theme, plot and characters. Rather it is a book about developing the habits to get something accomplished. Kind of an Steven Covey type of exploration of The Habits of  Highly Effective People.

The book is called Write-A-Thon, and it was written by Rochelle Melander. I was inspired to get the book by the tagline on the cover: Write your book in 26 days (and live to tell about it). This sounded amazing, a real guide with an endpoint in sight for achieving something.

Book: The Writer's Journey

Crack the hero's journey

Book Lists - On Writing

Here are some writing books that have been recommended

Save the Cat

They say this is the last site you need to visit for screenwriting http://www.blakesnyder.com/media/

Save the Cat helps to develop motivation and flesh out characters in narrative writing. It's called Save the Cat because when you want the audience to identify with your main character you need to provide something  cute and cuddly that he saves so the audience connects. On the contrary, your villain is more fully fleshed out when he kills the cat.

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.