Dec 11

I was working on my Writing Short book yesterday, tinkering with the ideas chapter, and this is more or less what I…

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I was working on my Writing Short book yesterday, tinkering with the ideas chapter, and this is more or less what I said there (and what Neil Gaiman says when people ask him).

Ideas are easy. Execution is hard.

Originally shared by John Yeoman

This Simple 3-Step Plan Gives You Plot Ideas Galore

Would you like to be able to find stories everywhere? So you’re never short of plot ideas? Just take a moment and I’ll show you. A moment? Yes. That’s how long you’ll need to gain more story ideas than you can ever handle, free and without effort. How? Enjoy three proven strategies, ready to go, at my new blog post at Writers’ Village:

http://www.writers-village.org/writing-award-blog/this-simple-3-step-plan-gives-you-plot-ideas-galore

Do you have an interesting way to get plot ideas? Tell us in a comment at the blog. Every comment there gets a fast helpful reply. Look on this post as a ‘micro workshop’ in story telling. Don’t lurk in the back row. Raise your hand!

#amwriting #CreativeWriting #WritingTips #Writing

Dec 08

Representation is hard.

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Representation is hard.

Originally shared by Mary Fan

10 bizarre ways reading/writing while underrepresented messes with your head

A funny thing happens when you’re from an underrepresented group. Several funny things, actually. Things that dig their way into your skull whether you like it or not. Of course, I can only speak for myself (as an Asian American… specifically, a Chinese A…

Dec 06

Via Sarah Rios, a great example from around the time of my birth of how creators were starting to think about the…

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Via Sarah Rios, a great example from around the time of my birth of how creators were starting to think about the importance of diversity and representation in media.

Originally shared by Will Shetterly

http://flashbak.com/why-charles-m-schulz-gave-peanuts-a-black-character-1968-47081/?utm_content=buffer2f219&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Dec 04

So you won NaNoWriMo, and now you have 50,000 or so words that might, with hard work, become a novel some day.

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So you won NaNoWriMo, and now you have 50,000 or so words that might, with hard work, become a novel some day.

The smart way to do revision is to go in understanding how sentence structure and punctuation work, and with a handy list of a hundred or so easily confused words at your elbow.

Where can you get that? Right here.

Click the link, and if you like what you find, there’s a book with much more.

http://csidemedia.com/wellpresentedms

Dec 03

The latest Author Earnings report looks at Amazon UK, the second-biggest market for ebooks in English.

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The latest Author Earnings report looks at Amazon UK, the second-biggest market for ebooks in English. 

Most of the findings are not surprising. There’s a clear difference in book pricing from large publishers, which has the effect you would expect.

The surprising finding, though, is that indies are significantly outperforming traditional publishing in selling books across both markets (US and UK) rather than just their local market.

http://authorearnings.com/report/november-2015-the-uk-report-author-earnings-on-amazon-co-uk/
Dec 02

This is a common error.

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This is a common error.

Also, follow Karen Conlin if you don’t already.

Originally shared by Karen Conlin

Anymore or any more?

“Anymore” means “any longer, to any further extent.” I can’t walk anymore.

“Any more” means, well — any more of something. I can’t eat any more. Of what? Turkey, perhaps, or cheesecake, or polenta, or doughnuts . . . or maybe just “food.” It’s not necessary to specify precisely what you can’t eat more of, but it’s also not wrong if it makes sense to do so.

I can’t eat any more pizza. I don’t like it anymore. (That’s alarming, I’m sure.)

#twt   #RealEditorsProofBetter  

Dec 01

Today, standoutbooks encourages writers to play a little and figure out what they can do without, inspired by these…

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Today, standoutbooks encourages writers to play a little and figure out what they can do without, inspired by these experimental works. 

I know I had a lot of fun, and learned a lot, from writing Gu, a novella told in second person and cast in the form of a documentary about a fictional technology.

https://www.standoutbooks.com/writing-inspiration-experimental-books/

Dec 01

Disturbing and full of contradictions, a non-statist, secular, feminist region in Kurdish Syria struggles with…

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Disturbing and full of contradictions, a non-statist, secular, feminist region in Kurdish Syria struggles with ideology and the nearby war – and maybe gives us a hint of what some future governments might look like. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/29/magazine/a-dream-of-utopia-in-hell.html