Tag Archives: Wednesday

August 5, 2015 · 7:05 am

Writing tip Wednesday: “Two new agents to consider”

Amanda O’Connor of Trident Media

Source: http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/new-literary-agent-alert-amanda-oconnor-of-trident-media?et_mid=768246&rid=239626420

Amanda O'Connor

Amanda O’Connor

Amanda O’Connor joined Trident Media Group from Penguin Random House where she worked as an editor. Previously, she had been a bookseller, ghostwriter, assistant, and volunteer, happily taking on many roles within the publishing industry. Her breadth of experience has proven invaluable to her work as an agent, supporting authors through every step from proposal to publication and beyond. She holds a B.F.A. Writing, Literature, & Publishing with a concentration in poetry from Emerson College. Visit her agent profile here: http://www.tridentmediagroup.com/agents/amanda-oconnor

Amanda is continuously building her client list in general-interest and upmarket nonfiction, spirituality and wellness, and literary fiction. She looks for the “wisdom factor” across genres and disciplines, especially authors who have an expertise they are eager to share with the world. Her favored subjects include (but are not limited to) history, religion, popular science, sociology, culinary arts, and creativity. In spirituality, Amanda’s approach is truly ecumenical, seeking leaders of all faith communities from Catholic nuns to Sikh entrepreneurs, from practical self-help to inspirational memoir. Literary fiction is a pursuit of passion. She gravitates towards works that address timeless concerns of the soul through the lens of modern life. Above all else, Amanda loves a well-crafted sentence.

Please submit through Trident’s online form here: http://www.tridentmediagroup.com/contact-us, directing its attention to Amanda O’Connor. Unsolicited queries should include a paragraph about yourself, a concise and thoughtful summary of the proposal, and your contact information. Please do not send a manuscript or proposal until you have been requested to do so.

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Mallory C. Brown of TriadaUS

Source: http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/new-literary-agent-alert-mallory-c-brown-of-triadaus?et_mid=768246&rid=239626420

Mallory C. Brown

Mallory C. Brown

Literary agent Mallory C. Brown is with TriadaUS. Some of Mallory’s favorite books at the moment are: A Series of Unfortunate Events, Gone Girl, Outlander, and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.

She is seeking: young adult, new adult, women’s fiction, and nonfiction. She is especially drawn to pieces with strong character-driven plots and witty humor. She loves contemporary fiction, low fantasy, and romance. Mallory also appreciates a well-placed comma and hopes you do, too.

How to submit: E-query mallory [at] triadaus.com. When querying, please include the first ten ms pages in the body of the e-mail after your query.

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July 29, 2015 · 7:29 am

6 Scientifically-Proven Ways To Boost Creativity

by Carina Wolff

Ever notice how some days you’re brimming with ideas, while others you’re staring at a blank canvas or computer screen and wondering how you ever found inspiration in the first place? Unfortunately, a creative block can happen to the best of us, and it can strike at any time. Feeling unmotivated and uninspired can be a frustrating feeling, but just because you’re feeling stuck in the moment doesn’t mean you’re doomed to unoriginality forever.

When these debilitating moments strike, you can sit and stare aimlessly at the computer until your eyes hurt, or you can figure out a way to kickstart your mind and get those creative juices flowing. If you find yourself at a loss for good ideas, or just need an extra boost of creativity in your life, try the following six strategies that have been proven to help stimulate your thinking.

Source: http://www.simplemost.com/6-scientifically-proven-ways-boost-creativity/

Take a walk
Studies have found that walking, whether indoors or outdoors, increases creative thinking in the moment as well as the moments after. Even mild exercise can have a positive effect on cognition, so next time you feel yourself in a rut, consider taking even a brief stroll.

Daydream
Though it may seem counterintuitive, allowing your mind to wander actually boosts your creativity, and it can even help your working memory. Next time you’re feeling stuck, you may be better off letting yourself space out than trying to force yourself to focus, as studies have found that daydreaming does enhance your creative problem solving skills rather than hinder you.

Drink a little
Whip out that glass of wine! Turns out, having a drink or two can help loosen your mind and spark creativity. Researchers have found that having a blood alcohol level of just under the legal limit of .08 helps you perform creative tasks better, likely because it allows your mind to wander to solutions you may have never considered before.

Play some music
Many studies have found that listening to any type of music that you like helps your creative thinking and improves cognitive functioning. It doesn’t have to be just Mozart; as long as you enjoy what’s playing, the song will put you in a positive mood and increase arousal, both factors in how you perform creatively.

Doodle
Now you won’t have to feel so guilty about covering that work memo in smiley faces and flowers during a meeting. Doodling helps stimulate visual thinking, which helps bring you out of one brain mode and into another. It also frees up working memory space, allowing your mind to wander and access new ideas.

Take a power nap
Not only can a quick 20 minute nap refresh and restore you, but it can also help increase activity in the right side of the brain, which is generally associated with creative thinking and problem-solving tasks. As long as you slip into REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, your nap can help boost your cognitive thinking, improve memory, and enhance your problem solving skills.

More ideas at: http://www.simplemost.com/6-scientifically-proven-ways-boost-creativity/

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July 22, 2015 · 7:22 am

Writing tip Wednesday: 5 secrets from Hollywood

How to Improve Your Writing: 5 Secrets From Hollywood

by ERIC BARKER

Source: http://time.com/3955361/improve-writing-hollywood-secrets/

  1. Structure lets readers know they’re in good hands. And finishing a draft is just the start. Writing is rewriting.
  2. Surprise comes from knowing the expectations of your audience — and then turning them on their head.
  3. The best writers know how to balance the negativity of perfectionism with the optimism that keeps them going. Making sure you have “small wins” can help.
  4. Collaboration is about suspending your ego. Stop thinking about yourself and focus on what would objectively make the piece better.
  5. Making a reader feel something is about honesty. You don’t have to come from the future to write science fiction but there does have to be something of yourself in the story for that emotion to show through.

Read the full article: http://time.com/3955361/improve-writing-hollywood-secrets/

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July 8, 2015 · 7:08 am

Writing tip Wednesday: “Missing comma kills parking ticket”

Ohio appeals court ruling is a victory for punctuation, sanity

by SARAH LARIMER

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/07/01/ohio-appeals-court-ruling-is-a-victory-for-punctuation-sanity/?tid=sm_fb

Look, I know you’re all busy, but let’s just take a minute today and celebrate Judge Robert A. Hendrickson and the 12th District Court of Appeals in Ohio.

These defenders of punctuation.

These champions of copy editors everywhere.

That one court that totally called out a village ordinance for its comma-related failings.

(I know!!!)

(Pretty great, right?)

Here’s what happened, according to court documents. Back in February 2014, Andrea Cammelleri was cited for a violation when she left her pickup truck parked on a street in West Jefferson, Ohio.

That was because an ordinance in the village stated it was illegal to park “any motor vehicle camper, trailer, farm implement and/or non-motorized vehicle” on a street for more than 24 hours.

At a bench trial, Cammelleri argued that “the ordinance did not apply because the language prohibits a motor vehicle camper from being parked on the street for an extended period of time.”

That’s: Motor vehicle camper.

Not: Motor vehicle, camper.

“The trial court held that when reading the ordinance in context, it unambiguously applied to motor vehicles and ‘anybody reading [the ordinance] would understand that it is just missing a comma,’” court documents state.

Cammelleri was initially convicted, according to the Columbus Dispatch, but filed an appeal.

The Dispatch reports:

She pointed out that the ordinance prohibited “any motor vehicle camper, trailer, farm implement and/or non-motorized vehicle” from daylong parking and argued that her truck is not a “motor vehicle camper.”

The village argued that the lack of a comma separating motor vehicle from camper was a typo and did not invalidate her violation. But the court sided with Cammelleri. Grammar counts, the judges said.

“By utilizing rules of grammar and employing the common meaning of terms, ‘motor vehicle camper’ has a clear definition that does not produce an absurd result,” Hendrickson wrote in his ruling. “If the village desires a different reading, it should amend the ordinance and insert a comma between the phrase ‘motor vehicle’ and the word ‘camper.’”

Additional details: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/07/01/ohio-appeals-court-ruling-is-a-victory-for-punctuation-sanity/?tid=sm_fb

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July 1, 2015 · 12:23 pm

Writing tip Wednesday: “Wheel of Words”

A quick chart that might help if you get stuck.

A quick chart that might help if you get stuck.

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June 24, 2015 · 7:24 am

Writing tip Wednesday: “Passion”

Five Tips to Keep You Passionate About Your Writing

by M. SHANNON HERNANDEZ

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/m-shannon-hernandez/five-tips-to-keep-you-pas_b_7537224.html

Tap, tap, tap — that is the sound of your creative fingertips hitting the keyboard.

As writers, we spend our days and nights hovering over our keyboards, pouring our ideas into a machine that will hopefully make sense of all that is going on in our brains. And don’t get me wrong — it is a wonderful life — but sometimes we look up to see that we have veered off track. Or perhaps we have worked so hard on a piece that maybe we aren’t quite so passionate about it anymore. I’ve been there before, and I am sure you have, too.

How can we stay on track, writing about those things which keep us passionate, when we must write for a living, day in and day out? Below you will find five tips to keep you passionate in your writing.

  1. Stay in your lane: To stay passionate throughout your writing career, it’s important that you know the topics you enjoy writing about, and you stick to those topics. When we venture off into writing about things that don’t fully interest us, we risk losing our luster for our craft.
  2. Define your writing qualities: What formats of writing do you enjoy most? Blog posts, email marketing campaigns, fictional short stories? Be sure you have a clear definition of the types of writing you are willing to take on, and stick to your standards!
  3. Create a mission statement: Now that you know what topics you are passionate about, and what forms of writing you will spend your time crafting, it’s time to connect to your bigger vision and mission in life. Why do you spend your time writing this stuff? Craft a mission statement that will help you pull it all together and keep you going strong when you begin to waiver.
  4. Remove the roadblocks:
  5. Weed out negativity:

Arm yourself with these five strategies so you can continue living and writing passionately. Tap, tap, tap… your keyboard is waiting on you.

Details: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/m-shannon-hernandez/five-tips-to-keep-you-pas_b_7537224.html

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June 10, 2015 · 8:44 pm

Writing tip Wednesday: “Writer’s Voice”

Don’t Muzzle (or Muffle) Your Writing Voice

By TOM BENTLEY

Source: http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/dont-muzzle-or-muffle-your-writing-voice?et_mid=758567&rid=239626420

I think about the issue of voice in writing quite often. You know, your writing voice, that whiff of brimstone or reverberant cello note or cracked teeth and swollen tongue that stamps your writing as having been issued from you alone. Many writers, particularly younger ones, struggle to find their voice: the word choice, the cadence, the tone, the very punctuation—the stuff that slyly suggests or that screams that you wrote it.

You’d never mistake Donald Barthelme for Ernest Hemingway; the word blossoms gathered in Virginia Woolf’s garden would have flowers not found in the window-box plantings of Joan Didion. So your writing and your writing voice shouldn’t be confused with Schlomo Bierbaum’s—it should be yours alone.

One of the things that made me think of a person’s voice was a literal voice: a few years ago I saw Ricki Lee Jones in concert, and was so struck by her uniqueness as a performer (and possibly as a person). She was cuckoo and mesmerizing in the best of ways on stage: banging on the roof of the piano, exhorting the other players, talking to them in asides during some songs. She played a lunatic version of Don’t Fear the Reaper(!), beating out a slapclap on the top of her piano. The performance was so Rikki Lee Jones: singular, eccentric, passionate, moody. You wanted to be around her just to see what she might do or say (or sing) next. Her voice was hers and hers alone.

Your Writing Voice Is There for the Singing

When you’re developing your writing voice, you might be so painstakingly wrapped up in expressing yourself JUST SO that you drain the blood out of your writing, or pull the plug on the electricity of your ideas. You might have read an essay by Pico Iyer or a story by Alice Munro or a novel by Cormac McCarthy and you might be trying so hard to source and employ the rhythms, humors and tics of those gifted writers that you spill onto the page a fridge full of half-opened condiments that cancel each other’s flavors.

Be yourself behind the pen, be the channel between what cooks in your brain and what courses through the keyboard. Even if that self is one day the grinning jester and another the sentimental fool, be fully that person, unmasked, on the page. Maybe you grew up in a slum in Mumbai or have a pied-à-terre in every European capital, maybe your adolescence was a thing of constant pain, maybe you never made a wrong move, maybe you never moved at all—it should be in your writing, whether in its proclamations or its subtext. Your voice is all the Crayons in your box.

For instance, if you’re inclined to the confessional (like all us old Catholics), turn to your sins: I was a very enterprising shoplifter in high school, running a cottage resale business on the side. While I don’t recommend they teach my techniques in business school, I later forged my history of happy hands into an award-winning short story, and then turned the account of having won that short story contest into a published article in a Writer’s Market volume. Ahh, the just desserts of an empire of crime.

A Voice, and Its Chorus

Of course it’s no monotone: Sometimes I might write about Sisyphus and sometimes I might write about drool (and sometimes I might speculate whether Sisyphus drooled while pushing the rock up that endless hill). By that I mean your short stories might have a female narrators, male narrators, be set in a tiny town one time and in a howling metropolis the next. But you still must find the voice—your voice—for that story.

I like to write essays that often take a humorous slant, but at the same time, that isn’t the limit or restriction I put on my own expression. I published a piece on not actually knowing my father despite my years with him, and another that discusses never finding out what happened to my high school girlfriend after she vanished in Colombia. Both had a tone of pathos. That pensive tone is also one of my voices, and its sobriety doesn’t cancel the chiming of my comic voice. So your voice might be part of a choir.

Rest of the article: http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/dont-muzzle-or-muffle-your-writing-voice?et_mid=758567&rid=239626420

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June 3, 2015 · 7:03 am

Writing tip Wednesday: “Write for Yourself”

Want to Succeed in Self-Publishing? Write for Yourself: Tips from an Indie Author

by DRUCILLA SHULTZ

Source: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/pw-select/article/66636-want-to-succeed-in-self-publishing-write-for-yourself-tips-from-an-indie-author.html

KP Ambroziak 100dpi_3x4K.P. Ambroziak knows the sense of fulfillment and independence that going indie can bring. After self-publishing her vampire novel, The Journal of Vincent Du Maurier, Ambroziak received a positive review from Publishers Weekly, with our reviewer calling her book “fast-paced [and] suspenseful” and saying “science fiction and horror fans alike will anxiously race toward this journal’s end and eagerly request the next installment.”

Ambroziak has studied the indie market, but spends more time writing than promoting. The way she sees it, “without a good story, one that is polished and well-written, you’ve got nothing to sell.” Her response is also rooted in the fact that indie authors must fight against the stigma of “bad” writing. Still, Ambroziak says she was surprised by how good it felt to know someone had read her story. “The first review I received was unsolicited, and the thrill I felt at knowing I’d shared something intimate (my words) with someone (a stranger) was most surprising.”

We asked author K. P. Ambroziak if she had any tips for other self-published authors:

Mistakes are Part of the Process
“The lonely road of self-publishing has both advantages and disadvantages…For instance, you get to choose the cover page, decide if you agree with an edit, you get to name your book, pick your release date and whether there’ll be a second, third, or 11th book in your series. These can seem like daunting choices, but in fact they’re part and parcel of the road, and if you can embrace them, the control they offer bolsters up the whole of your self-publishing venture. You learn with each mistake you make, and self-publishing affords you the opportunity to correct those mistakes and apply them to future projects. Not knowing everything is a good thing.”

Write for Yourself

Reviews Aren’t Everything

Rest of the article: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/pw-select/article/66636-want-to-succeed-in-self-publishing-write-for-yourself-tips-from-an-indie-author.html

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May 27, 2015 · 7:27 am

Writing tip Wednesday: “Supermentors One-Day Class”

Industry Landmines — And How to Avoid Them

One-day class: Sunday, June 7th
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM (Pacific time)
1:00 PM – 8:00 PM (Eastern time)

Learn what pitfalls to avoid.

Learn what pitfalls to avoid.

Hollywood is full of rules – only nobody tells you what they are!

Award-winning writer-producer-directors Elaine and Marc Zicree have written hundreds of hours of produced TV shows and movies for most of the major studios and networks – and now have their own studio! Let them share what they know with you!

In this eye-opening day-long class, Hollywood Insiders Marc and Elaine Zicree guide you through the soul-crushing, career destroying mistakes that many beginners and even long-term pros often make – and which YOU can now avoid:

Some of the many career disasters covered (and super-solutions given) include:

Representation:

  • How to waste time seeking it out – and make sure they’re lacking a pulse.
  • How to provide inadequate evidence and be sure to fail.
  • How to hand over power to folks who don’t give a damn.
  • How to mangle a potentially good relationship.
  • How to confuse the roles of agents, managers and attorneys.

The Script:

  • Sure-fire ways to make the script you write fail!
  • Great ways to find bad scripts by writers who will give you grief.
  • How actors can create characters ranging from invisible to actively annoying.

Cold Calls, Meetings, Pitches and Auditions:

  • How to come off like an amateur.
  • How to bore and confuse.
  • How to blow a meeting – or, better still, trample one that’s going well.
  • How to be under-prepared
  • How to bring in the wrong allies
  • How to alienate potential, long-term connections
  • Stuff you can do wrong in a pitch.
  • Auditioning so you lose you the role and any possibility of ever being invited back.
  • Failing to sell a series using great material.
  • Having no clue how the system works.

Teams:

  • How to be sure you mismatch your director to your script.
  • Creating a budget that assures your project will never sell – or is never finished.
  • How to cast to assure the above.
  • How to staff up with terrible people.
  • How to staff up with wonderful people – and then alienate every one of them.
  • How to write up agreements that you will regret to your grave.
  • Presenting yourself & your project in ways that send alliances running for the hills.

Money:

  • How to solicit funds in ways that will get you into really big trouble.
  • How to do a crowd funding campaign – that will sink!
  • How to be so grasping about credits and points you have nothing to deal with.
  • How to be so generous about the above you end up with zip.
  • Ways to rationalize not thinking about complex stuff like in-kind, trade agreements, incentives, banks and pre-sales (or other methods that may otherwise save your project).

The Sale:

  • How to fail at festivals.
  • How to never find a distributor.
  • How to find a distributor who will rob you blind and bury your project.
  • How to sign a contract that will allow you no recourse for the above.
  • How to burn through resources to not only deny promotional materials, but the deliverables which would allow the sale.
  • How to convince yourself the benefit of avoiding alternate platforms which may result in more money, larger audiences and an actual career.

Strategy:

  • How to embrace the defeatist and the negative.
  • Being sure your mentors have failed at what you’re attempting.
  • How to suck all the energy out of a room.
  • How to stand around waiting to be picked until you die.

Class is JUST $25 and SEATING IS LIMITED – but you can also listen to the entire class via live streaming and downloadable content!

To sign up, log onto www.paypal.com and indicate you want to pay marc@zicree.com

Feel free to email us at Send me an email marczicree@gmail.com or call (323) 363-1259 with any questions.

Don’t wait to be picked — it can all happen NOW.

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May 20, 2015 · 7:20 am

Writing tip Wednesday: “10 Poignant Practices for Every Writer”

Here are 10 smart, yet simple ways for every writer—from novelists to journalists to poets—to enrich his or her mind and become better at cultivating ideas and putting them to the page.

Source: http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/10-poignant-practices-for-every-writer?et_mid=752210&rid=239626420

by MELISSA CLARK

1. Travel the world
Old, young, rich, poor, there are many ways to see the world, soak up other cultures, see examples of creativity in art, food, music, architecture. Lately, I’ve been applying to and attending artist residencies to work on my writing in other countries including Spain, Portugal and Mexico. Even if you’re only able to take a day trip, take it! Soak up any experience you can get that lives outside your day-to-day life.

2. Journal
Not just the “My boyfriend broke up with me” kind. (Though that’s fine, too.) Write down your thoughts, ideas, memories, draw pictures, and record dreams. There are many ways to journal including blogs, Pinterest, and various apps. Who knows what ideas the younger you has in store for the older you. You’ll never know if you don’t record them.

3. Be a student throughout your life
So many colleges and universities offer extension courses. I like taking classes outside of my writing interest and have taken Nude Figure Drawing, Ceramics, Anger Management and Stand-Up Comedy, among others. Ultimately, anything you learn can be useful to your writing.

4. Also be a teacher
I grew up in a family that supported my creativity, but many people don’t and they need a mentor to help them navigate the waters. I not only teach in colleges, but at unexpected places, too, like spas and retreats. I love meeting and being inspired by different types of students all over the country. Why not volunteer your time teaching writing to kids or the elderly? Everyone has a story. How wonderful if you’re able to help someone express theirs.

5. Realize that no idea is too big/small/silly/crazy
One afternoon at lunch with a friend I ate too much (as usual). When I lifted my shirt to show him my bloated belly, he said, “Are you sure you’re not pregnant?” and I said, “Yeah, right, from a lazy sperm!” This off-the-cuff comment inspired my first novel, “Swimming Upstream, Slowly,” about a woman who becomes pregnant from a lazy sperm. Silly? Absolutely! Published novel? That’s right! What ideas are you preventing from being realized because you think they are too big/small/silly/crazy?

Other tips include:

6. When you hear “no” do it anyway

7. Accept your shadow side

8. Invest in a good therapist

9. Forgive yourself

10. Practice gratitude

About Melissa Clark: Clark is an author, television writer and college instructor. She is the author of the novels, Bear Witness, Swimming Upstream, Slowly, and Imperfect. Her essay, “Rachael Ray Saved My Life” is included in the anthology The Cassoulet Saved Our Marriage.

She is also the creator of the animated television series, “Braceface,” starring the voice of Alicia Silverstone which aired on the ABC Family Channel. She has written scripts for “Rolie Polie Olie,” “Totally Spies,” “Sweet Valley High,” among others. Melissa teaches creative writing and literature courses both privately.

Complete entry at: http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/10-poignant-practices-for-every-writer?et_mid=752210&rid=239626420

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