This is a primer for children I wrote while trying to avoid another project. If it has one useful lesson, it's the idea that just because you care about a story, ie, you have emotional ties to a story, doesn't mean anyone else will. Your job is to make it stick in someone else's brain. STICKY STORIES HOW (NOT) TO TELL STORIES A guide for children The most important rule for a story is that it must be a story. A tree is not a story. A tree getting cut down is not a story. The last tree getting cut down on earth by the last boy or girl on earth who loved trees more than anything else so the last baby on earth can be warmed by its fire- now, that is a story. So, a thing (a noun) by itself is no
When you don't feel like writing, but want to feel like you're writing, you can always read about writing- or about writers. A recently discovered collection of great little books is 'The Last Interview Series', which collects interviews of deceased authors. In honor of the 20th anniversary of 'Infinite Jest', you can read the David Foster Wallace one (his YouTube interviews with Charlie Rose are cool, as well as a bit disarming- you can sense this brilliant mind ready to burst, uneasy, as he parses out his words to avoid the untrue). The Hemmingway book is also a great read- making him seem a pompous ass (as portrayed in 'Midnight in Paris'), but also really human, humble, and full of doub
These are some of the sources I turn to when I have no idea what the hell I'm doing- 'Three Uses of the Knife'- David Mamet As he usually does, cuts to the bone, no bullshit. 'Naked Playwriting' by William Missouri Downs and Robin U. Russin Great book on not only playwriting, but writing/storytelling in general. 'your screenplay SUCKS!' by William M. Akers It's kind of true, most of the time. Meant for 'mainstream' Hollywood screenplays, it's best used for revising after you've written your beautiful screenplay, and then need to see it in the light of day. Also, if you ever get the chance, hear Oscar-winning screenwriter (Little Miss Sunshine) Michael Arndt's talk 'Endings: The Good, The Bad
