Time to Write

A master cartoonist's approach to his work--useful for writers, too

In the video below, top cartoonist/graphic novelist Daniel Clowes tells the New York Times about his art. It's interesting how much overlap there is with writing a traditional novel or a screenplay. The video is 4 minutes long. 

You can learn from the top writers of all time. Find their advice about writing in my newest book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass,' published by Nicholas Brealey and available now from Amazon or your other favorite book seller. Why not help your local independent book store stay alive--order it from them. 

Just for fun (cartoon about how we communicate these days)

  The source of this cartoon is Jurgen Wolff's writing blog:                                                                            http://www.TimeToWrite.blogs.com

Write crime, or want to? This contest could be for you (if you live in the UK)

Writers' and Artists' Yearbook, in association with Bloomsbury Publishing and The Crime Writers' Association, have launched the Short Sentence crime writing competition. Here's their announcement:

We're challenging you to write a tale of dastardly deeds in 1000 words or less. Entries will be collected throughout the year and each month we will announce one winner and four runners-up.  An overall winner will be announced during National Short Story Week in November.

Prizes include a place at the Writers' & Artists' Yearbook conference 2013, £100 worth of Bloomsbury books, a ticket for Harrogate Crime Festival 2013 and your winning story published as part of the Short Sentence Collection e-book. For more details, visit www.shortsentence.wordpress.com.

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I don't list contests too often because I think most of the time you're better off working on your own projects rather than fulfilling the brief of a competition. In this case, though, the entries are so short and there's no entry fee, so it could be fun to do it as a writing exercise. Do read their complete rules--if you win, they will publish your entry and have the rights to it for a year. They're not making any money from it and therefore contributors won't get paid, either, which is fair enough. It would be a nice little credit, though. 

Also be sure to see the site to find out what the current theme word is--this changes as the year goes on. 

(Want writing advice from some of the best writers of all time, including Mark Twain, Anton Chekhov, Jane Austen, as well as modern masters like Elmore Leonard and Kurt Vonnegut? Get my new book, Your Creative Writing Masterclass, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

Six tips for writing flash fiction

Do you enjoy writing flash fiction, or like the idea of giving it a try? The definition varies--some people say flash ficiton has to be under 1000 words, some say 300 or under. There's even a version that is under ten words. There are no hard and fast rules about content or style or format, either, but the following tips might be helpful:

1: Don't try to tell the same kind of complete story you'd write in a novel. This sounds obvious, but a lot of people still try to cram in too much information. It's OK just to imply what happened in a part of the story you don't have space to tell. For instance, in a novel you might describe how your protagonist lost his job due to cutbacks. In a flash fiction story he might be drowning his sorrows in a bar and we pick up clues about what happened but it's not spelled out. 

2: A good simile for some kinds of stories: flash fiction is like a snapshot. It captures a moment in time. We can deduce all kinds of things from it but we'll never know for sure whether we're right. 

3: Be sparing with adjectives and adverbs (good advice for longer works, too, but especially important for very short pieces). Each descriptive word will stand out so make sure it's one that really says what you want it to.

4: Focus on one element to be the focus: character, setting, incident. You'll probably have all three, but decide which one is in the foreground. 

5: A twist ending: not mandatory, but very effective if done well.

6: Leaving something open (as in, what happens after the story ends) can be a powerful way to make your readers think long after they finish reading.

Have fun!

(Tips galore and friendly guidance? You'll find them in "Your Writing Coach" published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

Why writers should expect frustration (as well as insights)

How does creativity work? And why do we get frustrated and feel like failures if we don't solve our problems with an instant Eureka! moment? This short (about 4 min.) video discusses these issues (and is a promo for a new book, "Imagine: How Creativity Works," by Jonah Lehrer. 

IMAGINE: How Creativity Works from Flash Rosenberg on Vimeo.

 

 

(Want to be more creative? My book, "Creativity Now!" shows you 25 ways to get into a creative mood, 25 ways to generate ideas, 25 ways to turn those ideas into reality, and 25 inspirational case studies. It's pubished by Pearson and you can get it now from Amazon and other book sellers.)

52 Tips to Writing Success - 1: clear your screen!

There’s a new self-help book out that says you can make a big change in your life by making one small change per week. That got me thinking what a list of small changes like that might be for a writer. Rather than hitting you with all of them at once, I’ll stick to the spirit of the thing and suggest one per week. 

1: What's on your computer screen right now? There's a good chance that in addition to the window with this blog in it there are folders, files, icons of your various programs or apps...it's crowded on there and all of those images have a little string to your attention....which they pull while you're writing. Worst of all, of course, are icons that flash when you have a new email, or windows streaming Twitter or Facebook notifications. 

The solution is a simple program that block out all of these and shows you only the words you are writing, on a white, black, or green background. 

For Windows, try DarkRoom (free from they.misled.us/dark-room).

For Mac, try WhiteRoom ($9.99, hogsbaysoftware.com).

Some, like Writer (free; writer.bighugelabs.com) and DarkCopy (free; www.darkcopy.com) are web-based so they work with either system.

Check these out to see which you like best, or extend the search by Googling "full screen writing" because there are lots more. I suggest you choose one that has only the few functions you use all the time, otherwise you'll defeat the purpose. 

Why not join me in a grand experiment and implement each tip each week? All of the tips are for making simple, quick changes but their cumulative effect can be huge. 

(If you want more tips, get my book, "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done," published by Pearson and available now from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

 

Quite Write! The man is a pioneer...

 

   The source of this cartoon is Jurgen Wolff's writing blog:                                                                            http://www.TimeToWrite.blogs.com

 

Want to write comedy? Listen to a master...

If you want to write comedy, you might find it intereting to listen to a master cartoonist. He's Bob Mankoff, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, among others. In the two videos below he tells what's funny and how he gets his ideas--all while smoking possibly the biggest cigar I've ever seen. (The videos are about 2 1/2 minutes each).

 

 

What writers can learn from a top cartoonist about creating characters

Comic strip writers have to create characters who are easily understood but with enough dimension to sustain hundreds of short storylines. So maybe the rest of us could learn something from one of the best.

I think the best comic strip since "Calvin and Hobbes" is "Cul de Sac." In the video below, the writer and artist Richard Thompson talks about how he created the characters for that strip.

PS: Unfortunately, Thompson has Parkinson's. Recently several of his cartoonist friends took over the strip and gave their interpretation of his characters while he underwent treatment.

The 3 elements that made "Hunger Games" such a successful book series

We're about to get caught up in "The Hunger Games" movie mania, but why were the books so successful?

First, it was a great concept: teens threatened by the Establishment (which teen doesn't feel that way?) with the threat pushed to the limit, namely death (did you like melodrama when you were a teen?).

The Games have an element of reality TV, which is very big with teens. In fact, Susan Collins, the author, told Publisher's Weekly the idea came to her when she was channel surfing and noticed contestants competing on a reality show and then coverage of the war in Iraq. They "began to blur in a very unsettling way."

She put both a boy and a girl at the center of the story, which increased the appeal of the book for notoriously reading-shy boys, as did the high level of action and violence.

There was also the marketing. In the Whiskey and Gunpowder newsletter, Jeffrey Tucker wrote, "The marketing guru behind the push -- and don't kid yourself, for everything needs marketing -- is Tim Palen. He began his work three years ago. He used social media to the max. He had video and smartphone app games created. He tweeted constantly. He made puzzles based on finding pieces within Twitter. He worked on amazing posters and pushes of every sort. Not one day went by when he and his staff weren't pushing some button."

The fact that it was banned (on the basis of being too violent) from some school libraries probably only helped.

Tucker warns,"But here's another thing to know about this. There is no point in marketing -- and it certainly doesn't work over the long haul -- if the essential product isn't good. You have to have both: good selling technique and something good to sell. Only then does the magic happen."

That applies to these books as well. Most critics felt the books were well written and they have found the holy grail of YA books: crossover, meaning adults read them as well. 

There we have what is about as close as we probably ever will get to a formula for success for Young Adult or other novels:

1. A concept that resonates with the readers by integrating or referencing some things they know about, introducing them to something new (in this case, the post-Apocalyptic world), and having a theme that appeals emotionally to the target audience.

2. Good writing.

3. Clever, consistent, unrelenting marketing. 

Easy to specify, hard to do. Did anybody promise you it would be easy? (If they did, they were selling something.)

(You'll find friendly guidance to take you from idea through to publication in my book, "Your Writing Coach." If you want to find out what the greatest writers of all time, including Dickens, Chekhov and Austen, said about how to write, get my newest book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass." Both are published by Nichoals Brealey and avialable from Amazon and other book sellers.)

The imagined price of writing failure...and the real price.

In the previous post I mentioned that people who never write the wonderful project they have in mind are afraid of failing. What if their cherished idea doesn’t turn into a wonderful book or screenplay? What if it turns into a real stinker? What would happen? My guess is that most people would come up with a list something like this:

1: I would feel humiliated.

2: My friend and family would think I’m a real loser.

3: That guy at work who doesn’t like me would never let me live it down.

4: I would have wasted months of my time on something that’s not going to pay off.

5: I’d never have the confidence to write anything else.

 6: I couldn’t show my face among people who have had any kind of success with writing.

Let’s examine each one of these:

1: I would feel humiliated. Yes, that’s probably true, at least for a little while. Losing feels crappy. There’s nothing romantic about failure until it’s something you look back on it from a position of success. How long you’d feel humiliated is another matter. If you cling to it, you could make it last for the rest of your life. If you felt it and then let it go and moved onto other things, we’re talking about a matter of weeks, maybe a couple of months.

2: My friends and family would think I’m a real loser. Really? Sure, they’d feel bad for you, especially if you go around acting miserable as a result. But are they judging how worthwhile you are as a person based on whether or not your first book is good? And if they are, do you want them in your life?

3. That guy at work who doesn’t like me would never let me live it down. Sounds like a jerk. He’s going to find something to annoy you with, regardless. And he is not in control of whether or not you “live it down” (meaning move on to to other things). If he keeps on about it, he’s the one who is stuck, not you.

4: I would have wasted months of my time on something that’s not going to pay off. What are you doing with that time instead? Curing cancer? Then go for it. If you’re going to watch TV or or go to ball games or learn to knit, how are those going to pay off any more than writing a bad book?

5: I’d never have the confidence to write anything else ever. You don’t have the confidence to write the first one, why are you worried about whether you’ll have the confidence to write e second one?

6: I couldn’t show my face among people who have had any kind of success with writing. I’m not a writing superstar by any means, but I’ve had enough success to live off my writing for most of my adult life. If I meet two people, one of whom has carried around an idea for a book or a script for five years but has never done anything about it, and one who has spent the time writing it but it didn’t turn out to be any good, my respect is for the one who put his butt on the chair and sweated it out.

There’s also another outcome that wasn’t on the list: you will have learned something, maybe a lot. If you get feedback and are brave enough to figure out why the book doesn’t work, it’s pretty certain that the next one will be better. You’ll also learn something about yourself in the process because no matter what you write, on some level it’ll be about you and the way you see the world.

To me, that makes a good case for putting aside the fear.

If you need another reason, here it is: it doesn’t matter that much one way or the other.

A hundred years from now we’ll be dust, you and I. A lot sooner than that for me, but I'm assuming you may be young. Depending on your religious beliefs, maybe you think you’ll live for eternity, but I’m pretty sure if that’s true it won't be in a world in which you’ll be judged by how well your first novel or your first screenplay turned out.

(Ready to start? You'll find friendly guidance all the way from the idea through to the final draft via my books "Your Writing Coach" and "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," both published by Nicholas Brealey and available from your favorite book seller as traditional books or as those new-fangle ebooks.)

 

 

 

The two things writers who don't write are afraid of.

It's perfectly OK to go through life never writing a book or a screenplay. What makes me sad are the people who dream of it, talk about it, want to do it, but never even get started. In his book Poke the Box, marketing and internet guru Seth Godin writes:

“Part of initiating is being willing to discover that what you end up with is different from what you set out to accomplish. If you’re not willing to discover that surprise, it’s no wonder you’re afraid to start.”

I’ve found that there are two fears that writers have about starting a big project: 

1: That the final product will not match their idea.

 2: That the final product will match their idea.

The first group has an perfect product in mind. Theirs is going to be the best novel ever about family life, or an amazing science fiction script that will be turned into a film that will rival Star Wars. In their heart of hearts, though, they know this is unlikely, so why start and let reality ruin a perfectly good fantasy? 

The second group knows that the idea is only the starting point. Even if it’s a very good idea it’s going to have to be executed well, too. The dialogue, the description, the pacing, and half a dozen other elements will have to come together to make their project work.They lack confidence and they fear that when the project is done they will not have been talented enough to transform it from a good idea to a good book or script.

These two fears, which at first seem opposites, are very similar. They are fears of not being good enough and they can be crippling. 

In the next post, we’ll take a look at what happens if you fail so totally that even your kind Aunt Matilda, who thinks you are a genius, can’t bring herself to say one nice thing about what you wrote…the price of failure may not be quite what you think it is.

 

Writers: still holding back on using social media? Read this.

This is a guest post from Dave Thomas, Business.com:

Some authors are reluctant to use the social media to promote their craft. The reasons can be include the notion that not much is gained from the time expenditure, there is no perfect way to track a return on investment (ROI), and social media is essentially a fad that will come and go.

If those are your concerns, take a minute to consider these benefits:

•  It gives the author the ability to have real-time interaction with your readers. You are able to get instant feedback from readers, both good and bad;
•  It puts you in the conversation. Authors can participate in chat rooms, forums and more, to interact with readers and other authors;
•  It gives you the ability to stand out as a respected writer in your area of expertise; 
• When you use a site such as LinkedIn you can join groups specific to your targeted areas of writing to share and discuss your work and that of others;
• It assists you in promoting upcoming book tours and signings, conferences, etc. Instead of sending out a press release you can simply go to social networking sites and alert readers to where you will be.

Marketing Your Writing

Use social media to determine where your most likely readers are hanging out online so you are using targeted marketing.Try some of these tips:

• Register on a number of social media sites so that all your eggs are not all in one basket;
  
  
• Update on a regular basis so that you stay engaged with the public. If you have a blog, promote it without coming across as a spammer. Exchange promotional links with other authors so that you are helping one another out;
  
  
• With more than 700 million users, Facebook is still the king of social media. If you don’t already have one, start a Facebook fan page for your writing.
• Consider all the different audio and visual opportunities. Use the formats you are most comfortable working with: videos, podcasts, blog posts, article marketing, guest posts on others’ blogs, slideshows, etc.;
  
  
• Market at optimum times. Look for patterns as to when people seem to be chatting with you or other authors in order to best enhance your get-togethers;
  
  
• Use online tools such as Google Analytics with your blog to see which topics, lengths, and styles are most popular with your followers. Do more of those.

If you have been hesitating, this is the time to get started. You’ll discover that you can get results with even a modest investment of time—and you may also enjoy it more than you think!

(Dave Thomas, who covers among other items advice on small business loans, writes extensively for Business.com, an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses.)

 

 

 

Quite Write! We take inspiration where we find it

 

  The source of this cartoon is Jurgen Wolff's writing blog:                                                                            http://www.TimeToWrite.blogs.com

 

How can writers apply Einstein's method to solving a story problem?

 

Einstein was noted for his science not his writing,but I think we can apply one of his key ideas when we are stuck with a story problem when writing a novel or screenplay. 

 

Einstein said, “It is not that I am so smart, it is just that I stay with the problems longer.” He may have been excessively modest, but there is probably more than a grain of truth in the statement as well.

One thing Einstein did when stumped by a problem was to approach it from several different angles. We lesser thinkers tend to use the same approach over and over again, yet are surprised when we come up with the same answer (or no answer) each time.

The next time you find yourself stuck on a story problem, try devoting five minutes to answering each of the following questions:

- How would the writer you most admire approach this problem?

- What advice would you give a writer friend who was trying to solve this problem?

- How will things be different when this problem is solved? In other words, where does the story need to go? What could bring about that outcome?

- Once you have figured out what needs to happen at the stuck point, how can you go back in the story and lay the groundwork for that?

Jot down all your ideas without judging them. Put them aside for a little while and then go through them and see which one--or combination--might supply the breakthrough you need.

(There are lots more tips and techniques used by the top writers of all time, including Twin, Hemingway, Chekhov, Austen and many more, in my newest book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," published by Nicholas Brealey and avialable now from Amazon and other books sellers.)