dream. write. explore.*

writ• ing [rahy-ting] The adventure of capturing our imagination, creativity and dreams into a net of words.

[thebluebird]

[fictionwritingtips]

thebluebird:

A professional script reader read 300 screenplays for five different studios, all the while tracking the many recurring problems. The infographic he made with the collected data offers a glimpse at where screenwriting goes wrong.

[xekstrin]

pay attention to this

this is important even if you don’t write scripts

[mumblingsage]

This is exceedingly important to all storytellers

[crimsoneyedfairy-deactivated201]

Writing Advice: by Chuck Palahniuk In six seconds, you’ll hate me. But in six months, you’ll be a better writer. From this point forward—at least for the next half year—you may not use “thought” verbs. These include: Thinks, Knows, Understands, Realizes, Believes, Wants, Remembers, Imagines, Desires, and a hundred others you love to use. The list should also include: Loves and Hates. And it should include: Is and Has, but we’ll get to those later. Until some time around Christmas, you can’t write: Kenny wondered if Monica didn’t like him going out at night…” Instead, you’ll have to Un-pack that to something like: “The mornings after Kenny had stayed out, beyond the last bus, until he’d had to bum a ride or pay for a cab and got home to find Monica faking sleep, faking because she never slept that quiet, those mornings, she’d only put her own cup of coffee in the microwave. Never his.” Instead of characters knowing anything, you must now present the details that allow the reader to know them. Instead of a character wanting something, you must now describe the thing so that the reader wants it. Instead of saying: “Adam knew Gwen liked him.” You’ll have to say: “Between classes, Gwen had always leaned on his locker when he’d go to open it. She’s roll her eyes and shove off with one foot, leaving a black-heel mark on the painted metal, but she also left the smell of her perfume. The combination lock would still be warm from her butt. And the next break, Gwen would be leaned there, again.” In short, no more short-cuts. Only specific sensory detail: action, smell, taste, sound, and feeling. Typically, writers use these “thought” verbs at the beginning of a paragraph (In this form, you can call them “Thesis Statements” and I’ll rail against those, later). In a way, they state the intention of the paragraph. And what follows, illustrates them. For example: “Brenda knew she’d never make the deadline. was backed up from the bridge, past the first eight or nine exits. Her cell phone battery was dead. At home, the dogs would need to go out, or there would be a mess to clean up. Plus, she’d promised to water the plants for her neighbor…” Do you see how the opening “thesis statement” steals the thunder of what follows? Don’t do it. If nothing else, cut the opening sentence and place it after all the others. Better yet, transplant it and change it to: Brenda would never make the deadline. Thinking is abstract. Knowing and believing are intangible. Your story will always be stronger if you just show the physical actions and details of your characters and allow your reader to do the thinking and knowing. And loving and hating. Don’t tell your reader: “Lisa hated Tom.” Instead, make your case like a lawyer in court, detail by detail. Present each piece of evidence. For example: “During roll call, in the breath after the teacher said Tom’s name, in that moment before he could answer, right then, Lisa would whisper-shout ‘Butt Wipe,’ just as Tom was saying, ‘Here’.” One of the most-common mistakes that beginning writers make is leaving their characters alone. Writing, you may be alone. Reading, your audience may be alone. But your character should spend very, very little time alone. Because a solitary character starts thinking or worrying or wondering. For example: Waiting for the bus, Mark started to worry about how long the trip would take…” A better break-down might be: “The schedule said the bus would come by at noon, but Mark’s watch said it was already 11:57. You could see all the way down the road, as far as the Mall, and not see a bus. No doubt, the driver was parked at the turn-around, the far end of the line, taking a nap. The driver was kicked back, asleep, and Mark was going to be late. Or worse, the driver was drinking, and he’d pull up drunk and charge Mark seventy-five cents for death in a fiery traffic accident…” A character alone must lapse into fantasy or memory, but even then you can’t use “thought” verbs or any of their abstract relatives. Oh, and you can just forget about using the verbs forget and remember. No more transitions such as: “Wanda remembered how Nelson used to brush her hair.” Instead: “Back in their sophomore year, Nelson used to brush her hair with smooth, long strokes of his hand.” Again, Un-pack. Don’t take short-cuts. Better yet, get your character with another character, fast. Get them together and get the action started. Let their actions and words show their thoughts. You—stay out of their heads. And while you’re avoiding “thought” verbs, be very wary about using the bland verbs “is” and “have.” For example: “Ann’s eyes are blue.” “Ann has blue eyes.” Versus: “Ann coughed and waved one hand past her face, clearing the cigarette smoke from her eyes, blue eyes, before she smiled…” Instead of bland “is” and “has” statements, try burying your details of what a character has or is, in actions or gestures. At its most basic, this is showing your story instead of telling it. And forever after, once you’ve learned to Un-pack your characters, you’ll hate the lazy writer who settles for: “Jim sat beside the telephone, wondering why Amanda didn’t call.” Please. For now, hate me all you want, but don’t use thought verbs. After Christmas, go crazy, but I’d bet money you won’t. (…) For this month’s homework, pick through your writing and circle every “thought” verb. Then, find some way to eliminate it. Kill it by Un-packing it. Then, pick through some published fiction and do the same thing. Be ruthless. “Marty imagined fish, jumping in the moonlight…” “Nancy recalled the way the wine tasted…” “Larry knew he was a dead man…” Find them. After that, find a way to re-write them. Make them stronger.

(via 1000wordseveryday)

[nevver]

The New Inspiration Pad

[visuallyy]

At 19, I read a sentence that re-terraformed my head: “The level of matter in the universe has been constant since the Big Bang.” In all the aeons we have lost nothing, we have gained nothing - not a speck, not a grain, not a breath. The universe is simply a sealed, twisting kaleidoscope that has reordered itself a trillion trillion trillion times over. Each baby, then, is a unique collision - a cocktail, a remix - of all that has come before: made from molecules of Napoleon and stardust and comets and whale tooth; colloidal mercury and Cleopatra’s breath: and with the same darkness that is between the stars between, and inside, our own atoms. When you know this, you suddenly see the crowded top deck of the bus, in the rain, as a miracle: this collection of people is by way of a starburst constellation. Families are bright, irregular-shaped nebulae. Finding a person you love is like galaxies colliding. We are all peculiar, unrepeatable, perambulating micro-universes - we have never been before and we will never be again. Oh God, the sheer exuberant, unlikely fact of our existences. The honour of being alive. They will never be able to make you again. Don’t you dare waste a second of it thinking something better will happen when it ends. Don’t you dare.

Caitlin Moran (via thedivinesociety)

[cigarettes-and-effy]

when i write i either take 5 seconds to come up with 3 pages or i take 6 hours to just get the first sentence feeling right there is no in between

[achipoffthewritersblock]

Be Nobody’s Bae

Be nobody’s bae,

Let your spirit roam

Free away from the chains

They try to throw on you.

You ain’t anyone’s shawty,

Cougar, or puppy dog.

They tell you to play fetch

For their affections,

Well they told you wrong.

Go ahead and stomp all over

Their excuses

As numerous as their playthings.

You ain’t no toy, you ain’t no baby

Nor a honey, sweetie, shorty,

Girl?

Hell no, you’re a lady.

They tell you go to the kitchen,

You go and cook up a storm.

And tell them they can’t have any

they can starve with their bros.

Don’t be nobody’s bae,

You’re a bona fide woman

May you march proudly

Loudly and always

Profoundly.

~A. Chan

[vintageanchorbooks]

Authors’ sleep patterns & productivity: http://shortlist.com/entertainment/books/authors-sleep-patterns-and-productivity

[maggie-stiefvater-deactivated20]

Maggie Stiefvater: 1981-?(probably in a Camaro)

7 a.m.

[bethrevis]

Beth Revis: 1981-?(hopefully in a rocket ship)

Noon+

[scribereautmori]

You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.

Madeleine L’Engle (via scribereautmori)

[bookgeekconfessions]

Believe in yourself and in your own voice, because there will be times in this business when you will be the only one who does. Take heart from the knowledge that an author with a strong voice will often have trouble at the start of his or her career because strong, distinctive voices sometimes make editors nervous. But in the end, only the strong survive.

Jayne Ann Krentz (via bookgeekconfessions)

[observando]

[achipoffthewritersblock]

Write What You Know

And at the end of the day, your words are your own. I guess that's why people tell you to write from your heart. Write what you know. Because you know things that no one else knows. It's that simple. It doesn't have to be dripping with descriptions and flourishes if that's not your style. The most important thing is to just write. And like a pen, once you get the ink started, the rest should flow out easily.

[observando]

Classic’ - a book which people praise and don’t read.

Mark Twain (via observando)

[mariannapaige]

[achipoffthewritersblock]

That Which We Chase

The sunlight of summer,

faint, just perfect

not muggy, not hazy.

Though the whole scene seems like a daze,

I can never fully see it as it should be,

I always see it as a dream,

Just within my fingers tips,

and then gone with a blink.

These are those fleeting moments.

Yet the more they flee,

the more I chase after them.

It is my life's adventure.

There is a wandering spirit instilled in me,

in all of us,

and we will never rest because we will never catch

these fleeting moments.

[writingquotes-deactivated201509]

A writer always writes.

Don Roff (via writingquotes)

[writetothestars]

Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.

Jane Yolen (via writetothestars)

[achipoffthewritersblock]

Summer.

It feels like summer. You know the smell of it? The way it tingles your nose when you walk through your house? And the way the sun dances on your floors?

It's a season for exploring and writing and painting the world.