| Title: |
Interview with novelist Kent Meyers |
| By: |
Catherine Tudor |
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Kent Meyers agreed to be interviewed via e-mail by Catherine Tudor. |
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| Title: |
Interview with Literary Agent Noah Lukeman |
| By: |
Catherine Tudor |
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When literary agent, Noah Lukeman first contacted me, I had no inkling of his many accomplishments. I agreed to preview the galley of The First Five Pages, and when it arrived in the mail I sat by the fire for a quick read. I stayed awake past midnight studying the well-crafted book on technique. Within 24 hours I had completed The First Five Pages, and was starting over, this time applying exercises from each chapter to my own belabored novel--with beneficial results.
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| Title: |
Interview with Novelist Dean Barrett |
| By: |
Catherine Tudor |
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The first priority is always to tell an entertaining, dramatic story. In whatever field, be it fiction or musical theater, anyone who attempts to stay too close to the facts is probably not going to tell a very good story. |
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| Title: |
Showcase for great new writing |
| By: |
Toi Kai Watson |
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Ever hear about people who are labeled weird because they’re always having premonitions or sensing things? Some of them even go so far as to see and hear things other people can’t, but it’s not their fault. They are gifted people with a unique talent and so-called weird stuff just seems to happen to them. |
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| Title: |
Structure! Structure! Structure! |
| By: |
Brian Fleming |
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You've got a great idea for a movie, with characters that spring to life in your mind and a concept that'll slay them in Hollywood. And maybe you can even make the sale on your pitch alone. But then what? Well, write the script, of course. But how do you translate your great idea into 120 riveting pages of standard industry format that someone will want to spend at least a minimum of low six figures on? In other words, what makes a screenplay work? |
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| Title: |
The problem with fiction |
| By: |
Brian Fleming |
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My senior year in college I made my first attempt at a writing career; I wrote a novel. I finished it, revised it upwards to twenty times, solicited publishers and agents - the whole nine yards. I thought it was a masterpiece. Brilliant. A work of high art; experimental; innovative. I imagined the reviews, the accolades, the awards. National Book Award. Pulitzer. The whole nine yards. Seven years later I wouldn't use that thing as toilet paper. Go figure. |
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| Title: |
Re-writing |
| By: |
Brian Fleming |
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Why, you want to know, do producers, agents, directors, actors, etc. insist on changing the screenplay you have spent so much time laboring over? After all, they knew what they had when they bought it, right? If they didn’t like it, why did they spend money on it? Well, yes and no. There are a lot of reasons people want to change your script, some more noble than others. |
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| Title: |
Fiction Technique |
| By: |
Brian Fleming |
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There are two aspects to any story: the idea and the execution. As discussed in another article, the first can’t really be taught. As for the second, all it takes is practice... |
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| Title: |
The Transcendental Idea |
| By: |
Brian Fleming |
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There are aspects of the craft of fiction that, if they can't be taught, can at least be learned. These include such things as pacing, section breaks, transitions, tone, the starting and stopping of scenes, arrangement of sentences, paragraphs, chapters. Structure, structure, structure. |
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| Title: |
Motivation |
| By: |
Brian Fleming |
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Over the years, people have often said to me, "Wow, you’re a writer. That must take a lot of discipline; I could never get myself to sit down and write." And for years, I didn’t have an answer. I might say something like, "Um, I don’t know, I just sort of do it, I guess," and quickly order myself another beer and change the subject. Truth be told, I had no idea myself why I wrote, what inspired me, drove m, etc. |
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| Title: |
Mastering the Web: A Salute to the pioneers of e-publishing |
| By: |
Catherine Tudor |
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Ever heard of the days when female authors sometimes disguised their sex in order to see their work in print? It's a different world now. Here at the start of a new Millennium, women are not only discovering new ways to be seen and heard on the Web, they're starting their own electronic publishing companies. |
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| Title: |
Research Tools |
| By: |
Catherine Tudor |
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If you are a writer embarking on a research project, the Web provides many useful tools in the form of free services, freeware and shareware, encyclopedias, maps, translators that can decipher entire Web pages into various languages as well as sites that offer mailing lists and classes taught by specialists in the research field. |
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| Title: |
Dead on Deansgate |
| By: |
Nicola Warwick |
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"Dead on Deansgate" is a now famous literary event in the writing calendar, most particularly the crime writing calendar. Known succinctly as "DoD", this year's festival was the fifth to take place and the first one I'd attended. I'm not a crime aficionado any more than I'm specifically a biography or fiction fan. I have a wide range of genres represented in my ever-growing book at bedtime pile by the side of my bed. |
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| Title: |
Exploring Shackleton |
| By: |
Nicola Warwick |
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I blame Ralph Fiennes.
Or maybe I should credit him. For it was he who set me on a path towards that sometimes bleak and unfriendly landscape that is Antarctica.
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| Title: |
Ten Playful Way Tips to Revision |
| By: |
Roberta Allen |
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These Playful Way tips can be used to help you revise any kind of creative prose--stories, short shorts, essays, novels, memoirs, journals, plays, screenplays, performance pieces, sketches, monologues--you name it! What is revision? Revision is a juggling act in which you use both intuition and logic to correct or improve your writing. It is a decision-making process in which you add or cut words. Most of the time you do both. |
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| Title: |
How to use the energy method in your writing |
| By: |
Roberta Allen |
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For fifteen years, I have used timed exercises to teach writers how to tap in to their energy to make their writing come alive. For me, the key to writing is energy, which I define as the impulse to write, the power deep inside that drives you. I work with a timer, because the timer creates pressure and brings energy to the surface. The timer is an important part of my method. |
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| Title: |
To write is human |
| By: |
Alison Burke |
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A need to write is a hunger to communicate, to connect. The act of writing embodies all the highs and lows of life and the intermediate emotions. To write and complete an inspired piece is exhilaration. A blocked mind and numb fingers cause frustration. The everyday push to put pen to paper and fingers to keyboard develops into a life's work. Banality leads to a need for newness in a world where everything has been 'done' before. These sentiments all forge the bond between self and writing. |
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| Title: |
The year I broke into writing |
| By: |
Alison Burke |
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After being home with my son full-time for eight months, the novelty of keeping the house sparkling clean had fully worn off. I suddenly craved additional challenges and stimulation and tried to think of ways to work from home. Freelance writing seemed an obvious and interesting choice to me. |
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| Title: |
Writing while parenting from home |
| By: |
Alison Burke |
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Working as a freelance writer from home with a small child is not easy. I refuse to sugarcoat it. I have been managing both writing and parenting for almost a year now. As a mother and former elementary school teacher, I am accustomed to dealing with distractions and juggling the needs of children with my own. Nonetheless, the process of trying to achieve balance can sometimes be quite frustrating. |
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