For the past year, I've suffered from a form of writer's block that is completely new to me. Actually, any form of writer's block is new to me because I've never had writer's block before. I've always had more ideas than I'll ever have time to write about, and I've always been able to sit down in front of my computer and write without hesitation. Then, a year ago, something changed.
At the time, I didn't know what changed. I only knew I'd suddenly lost my writing groove. The ideas came at me fast and furious, as always, but when I sat down to write, the words just wouldn't come.
I put my hands on the keyboard and froze. My mind drew a blank. I couldn't string two sentences together to save my life.
This went on for days, then days became weeks and weeks became months. I went through bouts of depression. I felt frustrated, angry, stifled, and confused. Writing was my outlet, and now that outlet was gone. It had slipped …read the rest of this article »
Words have the power to create images in the reader's mind. Those images are yours — the writer's — to control, to manipulate and direct based entirely on the words you choose to employ. That power is within your grasp. All you have to do is reach out and take hold of it.
How, you ask? Make use of that fantastic tool we call a thesaurus. You've all seen them before — you know, in the bookstore, shelved side-by-side with the dictionaries and a myriad of "How To Get Published In 90 Days Or Less" handbooks — but do you own one? If you don't already own a thesaurus, stop reading right now, head to the bookstore or Amazon.com and buy yourself one. A writer without a thesaurus is like an artist without paint, a sculptor without stone. The tools to create are there but the substance is missing.
Many a writer will claim, "I have all the words I need right here in my mind," but why limit yourself? Every one of us is raised differently, our environment playing a major role in the extent of our vocabulary and many times limiting that vocabulary to the specific slice of culture we're exposed to as we grow and mature.
In a language filled with variations and nuances, there may be twenty different words used to convey a similar meaning, and some words are naturally more powerful than others. While writers and readers may …read the rest of this article »
Posted on August 4, 2008 in:
Writing
Finding a publisher for your novel or non-fiction book can be a daunting process, often marked by one rejection letter after another. It can take months or even years to secure a contract with a publisher. With the advent of print-on-demand publishing, a new crop of companies has emerged to provide instant self-publishing services to writers who do not wish to go through the process of finding a traditional publisher.
Through print-on-demand publishing, a writer can pay the POD publisher a fee to publish his or her book. The POD publisher accepts a manuscript from the writer in a file format such as Microsoft Word or WordPerfect and then uses that file to create a digital copy of the book. Whenever someone orders the book (whether it is the writer, a bookstore, or a retail customer placing the order), the POD company prints exactly enough copies to fill that order.
POD companies do not stock copies of the writer's book in a warehouse to fulfill orders. Instead, the digital printing technology allows them to print copies only as needed. Unlike traditional publishing, in which print runs of smaller quantities are cost prohibitive, a POD publisher can print only one copy at a time without incurring any additional expenses.
The print-on-demand publishing method has its advantages and disadvantages, but in my view as a novelist, the disadvantages outweigh …read the rest of this article »
Resisting the urge to include extensive detail when writing a screenplay as you would when writing a novel is a difficult challenge for a screenwriter to overcome. Most writers who choose the screenwriting field do so because they think in film — they imagine their stories unfolding shot by shot, scene by scene, image by image.
The job of the screenwriter is to convey those vivid images and scenes to the reader. This is often confused with the director's job of determining how certain scenes should be filmed. Deciding where to place the cameras, which actors to focus on, and when to pan or when to include a close-up are all factors that will be up to the director, not the writer.
So the question remains. How can you, as the writer, direct the reader's mind to imagine your film as you envisioned it, shot by shot and image by image?
The answer — through the use of white space.
One immediately noticeable difference between script format and …read the rest of this article »
