Posts under ‘Tools for writers’

I was reading a number of articles about “Jihadism” for my Middle Eastern politics class last week and came across something interesting in the propaganda used for recruitment and support by terrorist organizations. I found some great examples of how Al-Qaeda uses audience targeting, symbolism and imagery to not only effectively communicate their message but [...]

We talked about timing and pacing a little while ago so I thought it might be interesting to bring up a technique I came across in a book I just finished…
It was a coming of age story trailing a girl from her early teen years to her 30s and though the chick lit ending of [...]

Pun for the Ages
By JOSEPH TARTAKOVSKY
Published: March 28, 2009 
excerpt from article

“Energizer Bunny Arrested! Charged with Battery.” No laugh? Q.E.D.
Puns are the feeblest species of humor because they are ephemeral: whatever comic force they possess never outlasts the split second it takes to resolve the semantic confusion. Most resemble mathematical formulas: clever, perhaps, but [...]

In class the other day, we talked about using repetition and parallelism to make our writing more effective.
My high school English teacher loved these two literary techniques, and showed us just HOW great they can be by having us read Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. MLK mastered these tools and used [...]

Here is an article on feedback and writing groups that I thought was quite interesting. I have to admit – when I read about bad feedback I found myself guilty on many counts. Maybe, someone else might find this text helpful, too.

As always I find myself hesitant to call anything my “favorite” but in the case of David B. Coe and Frank Herbert I’ll make an exception.  Praises and accolades aside David B. Coe and Frank Herbert are without a doubt the fathers of my love for writing.  Coe lured me with his intricate paintings of [...]

“When I think of the hometown of my youth, all
that I seem to remember is dust—the brown, crumbly
dust of late summer—arid, sterile dust that gets into
the eyes and makes them water, gets into the throat
and between the toes of bare brown feet. I don’t know
why I should remember only the dust. Surely there
must have [...]

http://creativescreenwritingmagazine.blogspot.com/2009/02/2009-oscar-screenwriting-nominees-q.html
 
 
I’m a HUGE FAN of Creative Screenwriting podcast. Writers are always talking about their craft, how they got started, their big break, first time they got paid for it, rewrites, audience, shopping their material and loads of out stuff.  

TRUE CHARACTER is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure-the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character’s essential nature.
 
Beneath the surface of characterization, regardless of appearances, who is this person? At the heart of his humanity, what will we find? Is he loving or [...]

I’ve been reading “Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott (remember “Shitty First Drafts” handout?) and stumbled upon a very useful advice for writers – to carry index cards everywhere so you would be able to write down an interesting idea or a peculiar scene should you observe one. It’s nothing new, and I’m sure everyone [...]