Last weekend… I did a bunch of chores. But I also did said chores while watching multiple panels and some breakout sessions for the Online Writer’s Conference I talked about last week. If you missed it, good news! You can check out the panels from both days on the same website. Combined, it’s over 13 hours worth of insights and techniques from working novelists, screenwriters, and others. So check it out! Perhaps while you’re taking…
Online creativity is abounding, and it’s not just clever memes and personable actors giving us a positive news boosts. People are making movies. In the past month, the 48 Hour Film project, a competition I’ve frequently done, has had a series of stay-at-home competitions. So now indie filmmaker extraordinaire Roger Corman, who’s still sharp as a tack in his 90s, wants to see your short film. Seriously. He said so. But better do it quick.…
The coronavirus pandemic has halted an ever-increasing number of conventions, conferences, and in-person workshops. Russell Nohelty and Nicolas Nelson are lamenting this state of affairs, so they’ve organized a free online writer’s conference this weekend. You can register for free, as well as learn more about the panels at this website. See you online!
Given the sheer numbers of self-published books, it statistically unlikely that someone will make a living via self-publishing… except that given the sheer number of self-published books there’s a non-trivial number of writers who make a living via self-publishing. So with that caveat in mind, take a look at Sam Haysom’s article on Mashable about three self-published authors who have succeeded.
I’ve been compiling the various resources and freebies that people are posting daily on the Interwebs as ways to combat the coronavirus isolation. One activity I sorely want to try in the coming weeks is delving back into some role playing games (RPGs)… and, in fact, it’s possible that might be an activity to do with my kids. So Paul Darvasi’s article for KQED is a treasure trove of ideas about how one can use…
I’ve posted about science fiction tropes before, but as we’re now deep into the Era of Social Distancing, at least some writing has got to happen, right? So here’s another list ranking tropes via Ross Johnson for Barnes & Noble. I might quibble with the ranking of the top 5 (dystopian governments and time travel would be my 2 and 1 respectively), but everything on the list should give you a knowing nod or a…
Back on March 1st, 2015, I re-entered the web world with a personal website, something I really hadn’t had since the 90s, which in Internet terms is ancient history. Perhaps because March 1st doesn’t correspond with any other anniversaries in my life, I keep on meaning to do an annual retrospective about posts and such on the blog, but keep on forgetting. This year, however, I made sure to set a reminder for myself. As…
I’m always interested in different people’s writing processes, including how they balance non-writing. Okay, I should probably specify productive non-writing. It’s pretty easy to procrastinate and not write. Novelist Vincent Zandri has an interesting approach that I’ve heard from other writers in how they approach the business of writing by being very definite about both the writing part and the business part. I appreciate the level of detail.
Still thinking of the Oscars this week and I came across this piece in Forbes which mentions a small coup in terms of credits. You see, for the longest time, the iconic character of Batman was credited pretty much only to Bob Kane, when in fact, that particular caped crusader was not a solo act. In fact, there’s a Bill Finger award that has been established specifically to recognize comic book writers whose work in…
I’ve been musing on the old –and to my mind, inaccurate– advice to “write what you know” and I’ve been meaning to write a post about it. But in the meantime –and perhaps for the better– how about I just link to a piece by novelist (and occasional Tohubohu screenwriter) Barry Lyga? There’s a whole lot of nuggets in here, but I won’t spoil them for you. Suffice to say I agree with a lot…