Friday, April 4, 2014

The Power Of Thinking

We don't think much anymore. I'm talking about really thinking. Our modern tech world keeps up wired constantly to some sort of high tech device. We can't do anything without them. This has created a thinking deficiency. If the brain doesn't think, the brain will shrink. Once the human brain starts shrinking---- I don't want to think about what will happen to society!

So at least for 15 to 30 minutes a day or a week turn off all your tech stuff, including the TV, go outside, look at the scenery, and think. Think about anything that comes to mind.






Building Your Story Arc: Discovering the Bones of Your Story

(I recently got this in an email from Writers Digest. Check it out.)
SUE JOHNSON
eMedia ProductionCoordinator
Writer's Digest Tutorials
Structure in a story, whether fiction, nonfiction, short or long, has to do with integrity--wholeness. There is a whole and that whole is not visible or predictable to the reader but sensed by the reader. The result is something like giving a reader an experience of "gravity," which they will experience as your expertise and talent--and take the power of that for granted.

Now testing for the structural elements represents the best tool a writer can use to find that integrity of story. Furthermore testing for structure can often get a writer out of story trouble, especially when we hit a "wall" in continuing to develop a story.


Charlotte Cook, MFA, is a former publisher and acquisition editor who now works as a story editor. Her clients are often successfully published and have won awards and honorable mention for their work, including in Writer's Digest contests. She is a published writer as well, writing creative nonfiction and literary short stories. Her suggestions, examples and comments are considered practical and follow a simple guideline: compelling story, engaging characters, evocative world. Her Writer's Digest Tutorial "8 Things First-time Novelists Need to Avoid" was the number one tutorial of 2012.

During this 58-minute video tutorial, you'll discover tools to:
  • Move your story forward
  • Measure the effectiveness of the story arc
  • Trouble-shoot issues of pace and momentum
  • Understand how readers perceive gravity-like structure
Evaluating the effectiveness of the structural integrity of your story is an ongoing process within completing a story. No talk here of outlines before the fact, superimposing requirements that don't relate to the story arc. Instead this practical, reader-oriented approach might even result in the pitch and synopsis material you will need at a later date for agents, editors and publishers. Wouldn't that be a great by-product?

Preview Building Your Story Arc: Discovering the Bones of Your Story >

Writer's Digest Tutorials Members enjoy full access to all tutorials featured in this newsletter, as well as every tutorial on the site.

Haven't taken advantage of the wisdom bestowed through the WD tutorials yet? Why not try it out today and see all that our WD tutorials have to offer! You can try WD Tutorials for only $25/month! You will enjoy instant access to 156+ tutorials, including at least one new tutorial added weekly. Also, there are many new tutorials still in development. Feel free to preview the many tutorials immediately available to you through the WD Tutorials site.

Wishing you a great week!

~ Sue Johnson~

P.S. If you missed the last newsletter (or two), be sure to watch these new and featured tutorials:

Writing the Thriller: The Secrets to Keeping Readers Up All Night

First Impressions: Writing Opening Lines, Paragraphs, and Chapters That Keep an Agent's Interest

Full Cast: How to Enrich and Expand Every Character in Your Novel

Writing a Story Ending that Leaves a Lasting Impression

Create Characters that Propel Your Novel to the Bestseller List

How to Create an Engaging Blog and Build an Audience

Three Secrets of the Greats: Structure Your Story for Ultimate Reader Addiction

For quick and easy access to all WD Tutorials available to you, use this link:

View All WD Tutorials >
Tutorials to Help You Hone Your Writing


Why Am I Getting Rejected?

Start Your Story Right: How to Hook an Agent in Your First Pages

An Agent’s Tips on Story Structures that Sell

How to Plot and Structure Your Novel

Write a Memoir That Sells

Crafting and Selling a Page-Turner

How to Write Dialogue Like a Pro

Build Solid Story Structure & Write Great Fiction

2014 Guide to Literary Agents: An Author's Best Investment!

Good Morning, Readers!

Last month I purchased the 2014 Guide To Literary Agents.

This is my review of the book: Excellent!

As the ads for the guide say, the book really is full of over a thousand literary agents. All you have to do is go through it and pick out the ones for you.

So if you have not bought the book, get it. The most you'll pay is $30.00. I got mine on sale for $22.78. Buying the book is much better than spending time online searching for literary agents on the internet.

Guide to Literary Agents 2014
  
 

Screenwriting Tips: Dialog


Good morning readers!

It has been a while since I updated my web site. I have been busy.

Below is some information from a an email from Script Magazine Online. Read the article. It is good info to help you.

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Jeanne's Screenwriting Tips: You're Dead to Me
imageplaceholder Jeanne Veillette Bowerman
Online Editor
ScriptMag.com

One way to insult your audience is to write dialogue that's flat or on-the-nose. Our resident expert on dialogue is Karl Iglesias, and he has a webinar on Monday, April 7th, to help you master dialogue writing. Check out How to Write Sparkling Dialogue: Advanced Techniques to Make Your Script Shine, now ON SALE until April 4, 2014.

____________________ 

by Jeanne Veillette Bowerman

(Please read Jeanne's article on writing effective dialog for a script. Click below.)

Read more of Jeanne's writing advice...