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Credible Gunplay: Does my 16 year-old nephew know more about firearms than you?
My nephew recently begged me to get Hollywood to include more realistic gunplay in action movies and TV shows. He points out that the sound of a gun going off … Continue reading
6 Formulas for Formula Fiction (by Jim Denney via Michael Moorcock)
1. Length formula: 60,000 words, divided into four sections of 15,000 words, six chapters in each section, no chapter longer than 2,500 words. Each chapter is required to contain elements … Continue reading
Track Publishing Trends (or anything – or anyone – else!) in Published Books
Meet Ngram, an intriguing data-mining device from Google that charts the relative citation of any words or phrases in all books published (that are in the Google database). Enter your … Continue reading
The Top 10 “Common Elements” in Best-Seller Novels (via J.T. Velikovsky)
Stieg Larsson, Stephanie Meyer, J K Rowling, James Patterson and Dan Brown… What `Top 10 Things’ do their best-selling fiction novels all have in common? 1) ALL ARE IN THE SAME GENRE… All … Continue reading
Which 2014 Best Picture Nominees Pass the Bechdel Test: A New Yorker Quiz
American Hustle Captain Phillips Dallas Buyers Club Gravity Her Nebraska Philomena 12 Years a Slave The Wolf of Wall Street The Bechdel Test, created in 1985 by the cartoonist and … Continue reading
Managed Fantasy
Fantasy is important – especially for writers. But maybe we should try to fantasize more about simply finishing the project, not the wild success we’ll enjoy after it’s written. Here’s … Continue reading
A Smaller Piece of the Pie: Gender Imbalance in Magazine Publishing and Book Reviews (via VIDA)
It’s not just your imagination, there’s still a major gender imbalance in magazines, especially book reviews and coverage of books. Keep your fingers crossed that things might have gotten a … Continue reading
Color Coding: The Psychology of Color in Marketing and Branding (as it may apply to your book cover)
Don’t believe pseudo-science that says red always means excitement (and other color fallacies). It’s not that simple. See this interesting article by Gregory Ciotti for details.
The Case for Not Rushing It: Where Good Ideas (and Good Book Trailers) Come From
“The Latin verb cogito for ‘to think’ etymologically means ‘to shake together.’” Writers are often at their least creative when it comes to beating themselves up for not working, or … Continue reading
7 Tools for Critical Thinking (from Philosopher Daniel Dennett)
As I say in my book, “How To Be A Writer Who Writes”, (a phrase I love saying and really should say more), different phases of the writing process call … Continue reading
THE OTHER NETWORK WRITER'S ROOM 