Archive for August, 2007
Twisted voices
As you Wish
Are you a fan of the Princess Bride movie? My daughters can quote that move backwards and forwards. J actually went looking for the screenplay online, downloaded it and studied it. Now, she and her friend use quotes from Princess Bride as a shorthand for things.
Well, I love the [...]
19 Madchen und ich
I just got a look at my picturebook, 19 Girls and Me, in German! It joins the English, Chinese and Arabic editions. It should be released officially any day and, with this publication, I am now available in eight languages! Totally amazing.
I saw it at this online bookstore, so if you’re in [...]
Twisted Links
Top 11 Plot Twist of Movies. You do have to know the movies, because the article doesn’t explicitly tell you the twist. They are popular movies, so you’ll probably recognize most.
More on Movie Plot Twists including The Sixth Sense.
If you’re really stuck, try this Plot Twist Generator, [...]
Plot Twists
Plot Twists
Like twist endings, plot twists can be accomplished in several ways. But usually, plot twists are usually the result of setting up expectations and then meeting those expectations in an unexpected way. For example, you might set up a fight scene, but deliver a fight between different characters than expected. Or set it [...]
Book auctions
Book auctions are the glamorous dream of most authors.
Alvina Ling, editor for Little Brown explains this mysterious process of acquiring a mss through a book auction in one of the clearest explanations I’ve seen
Thinking up Twist Endings
Yesterday, I talked about twist endings. But theory doesn’t help me much. How do you come up with such things?
How To Think Up Twist Endings
I went back to my trusty brainstorming book, Thinkertoys : A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques (2nd Edition). It’s written for business purposes, so all the examples have [...]
Twist endings
This is a twisted week! Today and tomorrow, we’ll talk about twist endings; Wednesday and Thursday, about plot twists; and on Friday, about twists of voice.
Twist Endings
On my current novel revision project, one of the criticisms is that the plot is too predictable. What I need is a twist ending, or at least plot events [...]
3 Writing Voice Tips
Patricia Sargeant on the importance of the writer’s voice. (Scroll down to her advice for other writers.)
Author Grace Paley died yesterday at the age of 88. Here’s an excerpt of her comments about the way your cultural roots affect your writing voice.
Cynthia Morris offers a checklist for evaluating your writing voice.
This RSS feed will make [...]
Thinking equals writing
Recently, my friend was complaining about his revision process.
“All I got done today was evaluating one aspect of my WIP and thinking about it. I didn’t get any writing done.”
But thinking about your story is part of writing and a definite part of revision. Many people write a first draft without an outline [...]
I’m avoiding my revision
I’m avoiding a revision project.
I don’t want to start digging into the project–yet, again. Sigh.
Is there any path to excellence without the shovel and loads and loads of heavy dirt?
No? I was afraid of that. Very Big Sigh. OK. I’ll get to work.
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