The Writing Show Needs Your Help
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
The recession has hit The Writing Show hard. If you've enjoyed our podcasts, contests, and reality shows over the last several years, please give generously so we can continue to bring you the programming you love. Everyone who donates at least $10.00 U.S. gets a free copy of one of my e-articles or ebooks on writing. Your choice!
Thank you!!!
-- Paula B.
Announcing our new series: The Writing Show Slush Pile Workshop
The Writing Show announces a new podcast series designed to help you practice capturing readers’ attention: “The Writing Show Slush Pile Workshop.” Inspired by literary agent Kristin Nelson’s two-page pitch sessions, Writing Show host Paula B. and freelance editor Ann Paden will play agent and comment on your anonymous submissions on the show.
We’re sure you know by now how important it is to hook a prospective agent or publisher in your first couple of pages. But if you send your work out before it’s ready, you could squander an important opportunity. Don’t risk it. Try your material out on us first—for free!
For each work, there will be three possible outcomes:
- We stop reading before we get to the end. If that happens, we’ll tell you why.
- We get to the end of the chapter, but aren’t interested enough to see more. We’ll tell you why.
- We like it! If we were agents, we’d be asking to see more.
Submissions selected for the show will also be available as PDFs, linked from our site at WritingShow.com. We may make some of our comments available within each document. Haven’t decided yet.
We know how hard it is to put your work out there, so we want to stress that all pitches will be anonymous! (We must know who you are because we need a disclaimer from you, but we won’t divulge your identity.)
More...
Mentoring for writers from The Writing Show
Are you having trouble writing your story or nonfiction work? Getting nowhere with agents? Writing show host Paula B. helps writers get unstuck. Time to break through that barrier and achieve your dreams. Details here.
"Therapeutic! I highly recommend Paula's mentoring service!"
-- Deb Mukherjee
"Paula's services are invaluable...I'll never work with anyone else."
-- Kim Wollenburg
Paula's new Self-Mentoring Checklist for Novelists now available at the Amazon Kindle store and Lulu.com for 99 cents!
Paula B.'s Ebooks for Writers Now Available.
Get Paula's ebooks and articles at the Amazon Kindle Store and Lulu.com. Check out "Point of View in Fiction," my series of articles on writing dialogue, my book of creativity exercises for writers, and more.
Jurgen Wolff's Tips, Ideas, and Inspirations for Writers
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Why did Tim Burton's parents wall him in? (Well, it paid off...)
I met Tim Burton years ago when a friend who worked at Disney at the time and I pitched him an idea for a Halloween-themed script (this was pre-"Nightmare Before Christmas"). It never happened, one of the handful of near-misses that I still think about once in a while. He was extremely shy and polite--you could easily tell there was a lot more going in inside than outside.
The Independent quotes him about his sense of isolation as a child and some rather strange experiences:
"Growing up, I had these two windows in my room, nice windows that looked out on to the lawn, and for some reason my parents walled them up and gave me this little slit window that I had to climb up on a desk to see out of. I never did ask them why. But my parents are dead now, so I guess the question will remain unanswered as to why they sealed me in a room."He also says,
"In movies you kind of work out your issues, but then you realise that those kind of traumatic issues stay with you forever so somehow they kind of keep recurring. No matter how hard I try to get them out of my head, they sort of stay there."Probably that explains why he was drawn to his latest project, "Alice in Wonderland." He says, ""All these kinds of stories, whether it be The Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland, are an internal journey. I think that's a fairly universal concept. These characters represent things inside the human psyche. I think that's what every child does. You try to work out problems as you go along. Same thing as an adult. Some people get therapy, some people get to make movies."
And some write.
(Get my book, Your Writing Coach, from Amazon or other online and offline retailers. And for a monthly dose of inspiration and guidance on how to be more productive, sign up for my free Brainstorm e-bulletin. Just send an email request to BstormUK@aol.com). You can read my entire blog at Time to Write.
Our Most Popular Shows This Week
| 1 | Text Management for Writers #3, with Ricardo Amigo |
| 2 | A Disgruntled Ebook Enthusiast Speaks Out, with Joanna (Ficbot from TeleRead.org) |
| 3 | I Make Money By Giving Stuff Away, with Jonathan Harnum |
| 4 | Writing Humor, with Brad Schreiber |
| 5 | Announcing The Writing Show Slush Pile Workshop, with Paula B. |
| 6 | The Importance of Detail, with writer Erin O'Brien, featuring guest host Alanna Klapp |
| 7 | Publicizing Your Book, with Karen Villanueva |
| 8 | Text Management for Writers #2, with Ricardo Amigo |
| 9 | Text Management for Writers #1, with Ricardo Amigo |
| 10 | Would You Like to Be a Script Consultant? with Derek Rydall |
Our Most Popular Show of All Time
A Different Kind of Detective, with C.J. Box
Upcoming Shows
Friday, March 05, 2010
March 20, 2010: "Writing Flash Fiction" with writer Michael Wilson and guest host Alanna Klapp
