So you want to friend an agent on Facebook, or follow your dream agent on Twitter? There are some rules, baby.
Check in out here, on the Literary Agents blog.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
I'm now on Twitter. Please forgive me.
At the urging of my evil friend Elisa, I joined Twitter today, and you can follow me @ Ninaberry if for some god-forsaken reason you're on Twitter too.
My excuse? I'm trying to see it as a writing exercise.
Okay, so... yeah. It's a narcissitic writing exercise. For those of you not up on the latest web insanity, Twitter is a site where people just post updates on themselves all day. Unless they block you, you can follow the updates of folks like John Cleese and Neil Gaiman (two of my faves!) and even send them messages. Along the way, you can post your own updates and get your own followers. There's a central feed where every single one of the kajillions of updates is listed as they are added.
Even just this one day of experience has shown me how valuable writing talent is when it comes to Twitter. Would you rather read witticisms from Stephen Colbert or learn that your Aunt just bought some Cortaid? Exactly. That's why Colbert has thousands of followers and your Aunt just has your obligated ass following her.
So I'm going to TRY not to bore all four (!) of my followers with dull updates. This is a challenge since my life is not all that exciting. So I must find ways to make my plodding life and dull observations sparkle and shine. This is a writer's lot, to find the universal, the funny, the beautiful, the truthful in the things and people around them.
It's not easy! But that's my excuse for joining Twitter. Later on no doubt I'll descend into narcissitic madness. Stay tuned!
My excuse? I'm trying to see it as a writing exercise.
Okay, so... yeah. It's a narcissitic writing exercise. For those of you not up on the latest web insanity, Twitter is a site where people just post updates on themselves all day. Unless they block you, you can follow the updates of folks like John Cleese and Neil Gaiman (two of my faves!) and even send them messages. Along the way, you can post your own updates and get your own followers. There's a central feed where every single one of the kajillions of updates is listed as they are added.
Even just this one day of experience has shown me how valuable writing talent is when it comes to Twitter. Would you rather read witticisms from Stephen Colbert or learn that your Aunt just bought some Cortaid? Exactly. That's why Colbert has thousands of followers and your Aunt just has your obligated ass following her.
So I'm going to TRY not to bore all four (!) of my followers with dull updates. This is a challenge since my life is not all that exciting. So I must find ways to make my plodding life and dull observations sparkle and shine. This is a writer's lot, to find the universal, the funny, the beautiful, the truthful in the things and people around them.
It's not easy! But that's my excuse for joining Twitter. Later on no doubt I'll descend into narcissitic madness. Stay tuned!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Oscar Nominated Screeplay Podcast
Deceptive title for this post, ey? My friends Brian Pope and Mike Musa star this week in Pilar Allessandra's latest ON THE PAGE's podcast #76 - "Oscar Talk." You can check it out here or on ITunes - just search for On The Page.
Brian and Mike are funny and smart, and sometimes they're even right! The podcast is a lighthearted and informative. As a writer, I often try to figure out what makes a movie great, and how much the screenplay has to do with it. Of course, if the screenplay is awful, the movie won't be much good. But can a movie be great when the script is just okay? Can a truly great script lift an otherwise adequate movie to greatness? Which of the nominated films has the best screenplay and why?
I live and work in Hollywood, so the Oscars are a big deal around here. They arouse much passionate discussion. Personally, I enjoy the hullabaloo and the excuse to talk about movies, but rarely do I agree with the choices the Academy members make.
You have to remember that the Oscars are first and foremost a marketing tool for Hollywood. On Oscar is not like the hand of God reaching down to pick the best movie. It's a bunch of industry folks with their own weird takes on the people and movies involved.
Fortunately, Pilar, Brian, and Mike know movies, but they also know the truth about the Oscars. If you care about writing or movies, they are definitely worth a listen.
Brian and Mike are funny and smart, and sometimes they're even right! The podcast is a lighthearted and informative. As a writer, I often try to figure out what makes a movie great, and how much the screenplay has to do with it. Of course, if the screenplay is awful, the movie won't be much good. But can a movie be great when the script is just okay? Can a truly great script lift an otherwise adequate movie to greatness? Which of the nominated films has the best screenplay and why?
I live and work in Hollywood, so the Oscars are a big deal around here. They arouse much passionate discussion. Personally, I enjoy the hullabaloo and the excuse to talk about movies, but rarely do I agree with the choices the Academy members make.
You have to remember that the Oscars are first and foremost a marketing tool for Hollywood. On Oscar is not like the hand of God reaching down to pick the best movie. It's a bunch of industry folks with their own weird takes on the people and movies involved.
Fortunately, Pilar, Brian, and Mike know movies, but they also know the truth about the Oscars. If you care about writing or movies, they are definitely worth a listen.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Exposition Central
Conveying vast quantities of exposition is fricking hard in a novel! I have a ton of info to convey on the world, the organizations in it, the people within them, their titles, names, hierarchies, conflicts - oy! I managed to hint at a lot of this in the early, action oriented scenes, but there's only so much of this stuff you can show.
And we all know showing is infinitely better than telling.
So what am I doing now?
Telling.
One character is telling stuff to another. It's logical that he would do this. But I just know that I'll need to change some of it later. This is where I have to force myself to just power onward, rather than stopping to make it perfect now. I can lose a lot of momentum worrying about things like this, and right now I need to just crank out pages, imperfect though they may be.
But exposition's a bitch, baby. Hopefully later I'll make it MY bitch.
And we all know showing is infinitely better than telling.
So what am I doing now?
Telling.
One character is telling stuff to another. It's logical that he would do this. But I just know that I'll need to change some of it later. This is where I have to force myself to just power onward, rather than stopping to make it perfect now. I can lose a lot of momentum worrying about things like this, and right now I need to just crank out pages, imperfect though they may be.
But exposition's a bitch, baby. Hopefully later I'll make it MY bitch.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
busy busy busy
Write write, read read, edit, comment, read, write write.
Blog.
Write write write. Read, edit, comment. Write write write...
Blog.
Write write write. Read, edit, comment. Write write write...
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
A Writer's Credo
Agent Michael Stearns has an effing brilliant quote from Raymond Carver on his blog As the World Stearns, which clearly gives a writer's credo. Check it out here, and be reminded of what it is to be a writer.
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