Time to Write

Piracy on ISSUU

ISSUU is a site where you can access a huge number of books and magazines. The problem is that many of them have been uploaded without the authorization of the author or publisher. 

What do the people posting your book get out of it? They can add links to their own sites, charge a reading fee, or place ads. Or they may just want to share. 

For instance, thanks to a reader of this blog, I learned that someone named Andrew Yi from Taiwan uploaded my book, Your Writing Coach, without permission from me or the publisher. I've now lodged a complaint but the first edition of the book has been up a long time and gotten 112 "likes" which suggests at least that number of people have accessed it on ISSUU.

I wonder whether ISSUU is at all concerned with who downloads what. Yes, you can upload your own book, but does ISSUU really think that McGraw Hill gave permission to Kamal Al-Dallam to upload "Business Writing and Communication"?

There are hundreds, probably thousands, of examples like this.

If you or someone you know has a book out, check ISSUU to make sure it's not being pirated there.

 

 

 

Unleash your Creativity by Writing from Within

Drawing from Within: Unleashing Your Creative Potential is a book by Nick Meglin that has a lot of great thoughts about drawing that apply equally to writing: 

"We make the mistake of looking outside ourselves for validation of what is, in fact, an inner experience. We look to others for approval, for them to tell us how good our work is before we can feel good about having done it!"

Of course, we want to sell what we write so eventually others will have to think our work is good, but worrying about that too soon can cripple your creative process.

Meglin adds, "The wonderful paradox is that the work that is sincere, personal, and created for one's own satisfaction is what is most often celebrated by both critics and the public alike."

"People learn to draw through the experience of drawing."

"The goal is not to make a pretty drawing, a neat drawing, a good drawing, etc., but just to draw." A good thing to keep in mind when doing your first draft.

AND IF YOU'RE TOO CRITICAL OF YOURSELF:

"We must focus our energies on identifying that part of ourselves that 'finds fault' with or 'disapproves' of our own work--that voice which tends to be self-deprecating, insecure, and negative. And we must learn how to cognitively reframe these negative voices and turn those destructive energies around."

 

If you're having trouble creating a character, try the Fellini method

How do you get to know your characters well enough to feel confident writing what they do and say?

The great director Federico Fellini had a particular method. He said, "Some people get a quick handle on things by means of words, by sensations. I design. I sketch the traits of the face, the details of the costume, a person's attitudes, anatomy. That is my way of getting close to a film I'm making, of understanding what it is..."

You don't have to be an artist to use this method. Nobody else needs to see your crude sketches, the important thing is that they help you understand the character.

If you don't draw at all, you can look for images online that inspire you. 

For instance, let's say your protagonist is a young man.

I searched for: Google images young man. What came up at the top of the results page was '1000+ amazing young man photos' (these are free stock images). If you scrolled through these images I'm sure there'd be one that clicked, that made you think, "That's my protagonist!" 

You can do the same with clothing, settings, and the other elements of your story.

Give it a try and let me know how it works for you, either in the comments or via email at [email protected].

Good luck!

Will your screenplay or novel be a hit?

It's easy to expend a lot of energy worrying about whether what you're working on will be a success.

I've done it and I'm sure I'll do it again, but it's wasted energy. It can even lead to writer's block.

In his book, Drawing From Within, artist Nick Meglin writes:

"I once asked a writer friend what he was working on and he said wryly, 'I'm writing a hit play.' He knows what all playwrights know: You can't write a hit.

You can only write a play and have it performed. The public will then determine if it's a hit. 

Neil Simon wrote more commercial hits than any other living playwright, but even he would be the first to tell you he never knew which of his plays would be a 'hit.' It's totally out of his control. What he does control is the time and energy he devotes, and the personal statement he makes in his writing. When he writes 'The End,' the curtain goes down on both his play and his control of its success."

That's worth repeating: The only thing we control is the time and energy we devote to our writing and the personal statement we make with it. If we find ourselves fretting over whether the world will judge our writing to be any good, that's a cue to focus on those three elements instead. 

My Favorite Brainstorming Method

My favorite brainstorming method is combining the thing I want to get ideas for and random words. 

THE FORCED ASSOCIATION METHOD

Here's how to do it: First generate a list of whatever words pop into your mind as you go through the alphabet (you get to skip X and Z). For example:

ARCH

BLOWHARD

CRISIS

DEPLOY

EAGLE

FRANCE

GOLEM

HYSTERIA

INSULATION

JOCULAR

KINETIC

LABOR

MICRO

NEEDLE

OVERWHELM

PUS

QUERY

ROYAL

STANDARD

TREMBLE

UV LAMP

VICTIM

WASTEGROUND

YOUNG

I like having at least 2 or 3 lists like this at the start of a brainstorming session. Then it's time to start combining.

Let's say I'm trying to come up with ideas for short instructional videos about different aspects of scriptwriting.

"Arch" makes me think of the arch dialogue in screwball comedies.

It also brings to mind movies in which a mysterious setting, like a cathedral with many arches, is important.

How to write screwball comedy dialogue, How to use setting to create the tone of your script: two viable topics.

It works for pretty much anything. Let's say you want to come up with a way to promote your self-published book.

"Blowhard" is what people might call you if you blow your own trumpet too much, so maybe you'd create a character who could do it for you, and feature that comedic character on your blog or in a video.

"Crisis" might make you think about the biggest crisis in your book (if it's a novel), and that might make a good hook for your promotions: "What would YOU do if you (describe the biggest crisis)?"

GO WHEREVER THE COMBINATION LEADS YOU

Sometimes the prompt word leads you to think of something which in turn leads you to think of something else, and the idea you come up with ends up not having much of a relationship to the original prompt--that's fine.

For instance, staying with the book promotion challenge, the word "deploy" makes me think of the military, which makes me think of battles, which makes me wonder whether another author and I could generate interest in our books by having a friendly feud on social media.

DON'T GET STUCK

If a word doesn't generate any thoughts, move on to the next one.

QUANTITY OVER QUALITY

The key is to generate as many ideas as possible as quickly as possible, without judging. Some of them will be bad! Maybe most of them. That's OK. One gem may be all you need. Hold off judging the ideas until you have a lot of them.

YOUR TURN

Give it a try. Let me know how you get on, either in the comments or via email to [email protected].

What's the best place to write?

The best place to write is wherever you feel most inspired and productive, but there's a good case for trying writing or brainstorming in your nearest nice park. According to Science Daily:

"Taking at least 20 minutes out of your day to stroll or sit in a place that makes you feel in contact with nature will significantly lower your stress hormone levels.

That's the finding of a study that has established for the first time the most effective dose of an urban nature experience.

Healthcare practitioners can use this discovery to prescribe 'nature-pills' in the knowledge that they have a real measurable effect." [The study was published in Frontiers of Psychology] 

Especially now that we're on the verge of friendlier weather in many places, why not take your favorite notebook or even your laptop to a park bench, spend the first ten minutes just breathing deeply and enjoying the scenery and then have thinking or writing session. When people are blocked I always suggest a change of location, and that could be another benefit of writing in the park.

If you try it, let me know how it works for you, in the comments here or via email to [email protected]. And if you can't get out to a park today, stare at the picture below for a minute...

 

Screenplays: add to characters with subtle symbols

There are lots of ways to make a screenplay character three-dimensional, and one is using symbols. Of course if the symbols are too on the nose they can detract, but here's an example of a subtle one:

Actor Paul Scheer told Fast Company magazine: "My character [in Black Monday] wears a wig in the show, and that was a conscious [choice] because when we first start talking about how he’s wrestling with his sexuality, I wanted that wig to represent the idea that he’s already hiding. On the base level, it’s like he’s not even comfortable being bald in this world."

I don't know how many people watching Black Monday would pick up on that, but a lot of times we register such clues subconsciously. 

Here are some other ways of revealing character:

What kind of clothes do they wear? Are they still wearing the style they wore twenty years ago, or are they desperate to keep up with the latest fashions? Do they care more about the label than the clothes per se? Do they try too hard to be quirky--or to avoid being noticed?

What kind of decorations and furniture do they have at their residence? What kind of painting or photos are in the background? The total absence of any decoration also tells a story. 

What kind of accessories do they choose, such as watches, rings, bracelets, etc.? For example, what does it tell you when a guy wears a Rolex? (It ain't about telling the time.)

I find it helpful to think about such things because they make the character more real to me. The more real the character is to you, the writer, the easier it is to know what they'd say and do in any situation.