A Little Writing Housekeeping
Throughout my life as a writer I’ve alternated my focus between prose and screenwriting. Both share some similar precepts (structure, plotting, character arcs, etc.), but also have differences that delineate them as different beasts. Just because you have experience in one doesn’t mean you’ll be able to execute the other. I had this conversation with somebody on Twitter recently: books are a cerebral journey, while screenwriting is a visual journey. In a book, we can sit inside a character’s head and explore what they’re thinking, how they’re feeling, and things (such as circumstances, events, and memories) that shape their decision-making. In a film, you can’t sit inside somebody’s head (unless…
One Word
The thought of sending a book out into the world is – if you think about it seriously – daunting. Who knows if people will like it? If they don’t, what are the greater implications? Can you continue to build your writing career? Are you set back so far that it’s beyond repair? How does any of this affect your confidence? The blazing success stories are few compared to the amount of books published that sell only moderately, or underperform. But step that back: just submitting a book to a publisher can be intimidating. Oh, you might brim with mindless enthusiasm before you know better, but then the rejections come.…