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[char27martin]

The 10 Real Secrets of Nonfiction Publicity

by Richard Campbell

You’ve written a nonfiction book. It’s up for sale on Amazon and hopefully in bookstores everywhere. Now you wonder what to do with it. Maybe it will sell millions of copies on its own merit. Or thousands. Not likely. Hundreds? Maybe. Your book deserves better.

Just look at the dozens of book marketing titles, each with its own angle. Social Media is the answer. Being famous is the answer. Powerful content is all that counts. Answers, answers, and more answers. None of them tell the whole truth.

Here are ten real secrets of nonfiction publicity that many people ignore. They are essential ingredients towards creating a real bestselling nonfiction title.

One of the most formidable ways to attract attention is by creating a marketing hook.

This is a short phrase that entices the reader onward. Rob Eagar is author of Sell Your Book Like Wildfire, considered THE bible of book marketing. Rob tells his clients: “Use the ‘What if I told you…?’ question to create an effective hook. For example, I always get an author’s attention when I say, ‘What if I told you never tell people what your book is about?’ They give me a quizzical look, because I grabbed their attention. Then, I say, ‘Never tell people what your book is about. Tell people what’s in it for them.’ Now, I know I have their attention.”

Credibility comes mainly from traditional publishing.

Think of this when planning to self-publish. Having a book published by a recognized company will give you greater access to the Barnes & Nobles of the world. It will make speaking engagements easier to book. The influencers of the world will be more inclined to hire your expertise. Yes, you can potentially earn more money by going on your own, but to do this you must have an entrepreneurial mindset. You need to be a marketing whiz.

Make connections daily.

Contact potential clients. Ask friends to introduce you to people they know. Jack Canfield, co-creator of the Chicken Soup series, has what he calls the Rule of Five. Every day, religiously, you need to connect with at least five influencers. Be relentless with this. It will pay off in the end with you creating your own luck.

You need to create an email list.

Having a website is not enough. Without that contact information, nothing else will work. In fact, many publishers and agents will not take you on as a client unless you have a strong, targeted email list. For example, if your book is about the pros and cons of retirement, you will need to target people in the 55+ range. Having several thousand targeted ‘contacts’ of a particular demographic profile suggests that many will buy your book when it is released. Without them, your website will not have the power to draw business. Create a strong email list before spending your time on social media advertising. Once you have set the email list process in motion, ramp it up and attract more readers by creating free website content. Examples include short newsletters, special reports, white papers, podcasts, and teleseminars. Then offer low to moderately priced content before offering an expensive product such as a major e-course. Remember to always under-promise and over-deliver.

Social media can play an active part in building your list.

An entire industry exists to help sell your products in this manner. But always remember that users of sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Pinterest are not necessarily there to ‘buy.’ It’s their social time. They don’t like to be sold to. Building their trust is most important and that takes time and effort. Many authors spend too much of their time and energy juggling content between platforms. They end up feeding a beast that chews up words and time relentlessly.

Amazon features a remarkable site called Author Central.

This is your opportunity as both a traditionally published and self-published writer to create a personal Author Page. You can post your biography, photo, blogs, and links to your website. Best of all, your book is featured for easy purchase. Why is this site so important? It helps promote your book and makes you easier to find. Plus it’s free.

Speaking engagements sell books.

This is where many authors must step outside their comfort zone. Join Toastmasters. Start off with local clubs and groups. Do it for free until you learn the basics of public engagement. Speaking gigs can lead to referrals—and at one point you can begin charging. An added bonus is that you can also make money through back-of-room sales of your book.

Guide to Literary Agents 2018

Hiring a publicist isn’t always the wisest investment.

It can be extremely expensive and the ROI is often difficult to determine. Yes, it may generate some initial media interest but that soon dies down. The energy leaves the building. Before hiring outside help, always ask: What books similar to mine have you promoted in the past? Being your own publicist can be your best investment in time.

Come from a place of giving.

In one way we live in a kinder, gentler world. Free access to the internet has led to an expectation of sharing. Don’t horde your knowledge. Give away as much as you can. Be generous. It will always come back to you. The same can be applied to media interviews. Producers don’t want to sell your book. They are looking for something that will interest their audience. It’s all about ratings. So give them what they need.

Ultimately, you will need to reframe your idea of book promotion.

In his book, “Your First 1,000 Copies,” Tim Grahl redefines marketing as: “The act of building long-lasting connections with people.” The world is growing less tolerant of self-serving hustle selling. You are not marketing your book to make a fortune. That’s the unlikely reality. You are selling it because you are passionate about what it can bring to readers. Believe in what you wrote. Own it. Live it. Sales will follow.

Bonus: Forget trying to make your book a Number 1 Amazon bestseller.

It’s an artificial measurement that respected publishers and literary agents don’t always take seriously. For example, Amazon has a “Pets” category. There’s a sub-section on Pets and Animal Care. That’s where you might easily have an Amazon Best-seller, even if for just a few hours. Invest your time wisely.

Richard Campbell runs his own life-story writing business in Ontario, Canada. As co-author of Writing Your Legacy: The Step-by-Step Guide to Crafting Your Life Story, published by Writer’s Digest, he teaches these concepts to students around North America. He also offers enrichment classes on life-story writing with a major cruise line on their transatlantic crossings. Richard can be reached through his website, www.guidedlifestories.com.

The post The 10 Real Secrets of Nonfiction Publicity appeared first on WritersDigest.com.

from Writing Editor Blogs – WritersDigest.com http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/book-marketing-guide-to-literary-agents/the-10-real-secrets-of-nonfiction-publicity

[char27martin]

IELTS Speaking test in India – February 2018

Our friend R took the IELTS Speaking test in India and was asked the following questions:

Speaking test

Interview

– What is your full name? – Can I see your ID? – Where are you from? – Do you work or study? – What do you do? – What kind of job did you want when you were a child? – Where do you like to go with your friends? – What activities do you do together? – Do your friends also like these places and activities? – Do you prefer typing on a computer or writing by hand? – What would you do more in the future, type or write by hand?

Cue Card

Talk about your favourite season. Please say

– What season is this? – Describe the season. – Why is this season your favorite?

Discussion

– Do your friends also like this season? – Why is the weather becoming hotter nowadays? – What are the effects of global warming? – What does your government do to control pollution? – Do you prefer a hot or a cold climate? – Would you like to visit a cold country? – What are the effects of rising temperatures on flora and fauna?

Related posts:

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IELTS Speaking test in India – January 2018 Our friend V took the IELTS Speaking test recently in…

IELTS Speaking test in India – February 2018 When A took the IELTS Speaking test in India, he…

IELTS test in India – February 2018 (General Training) Our friend U recently took the IELTS test in India…

IELTS Speaking test in India – January 2018 An IELTS test taker from India (thanks, R!) remembered and…

from IELTS-Blog http://www.ielts-blog.com/recent-ielts-exams/ielts-speaking-test-in-india-february-2018-3/

[char27martin]

2018 April PAD Challenge: Guidelines

Let’s break some lines together for the 2018 April PAD Challenge. This will be the 11th annual April poem-a-day challenge!

In a little less than a month, we’ll start meeting here every day to poem like it’s (Inter)National Poetry Month. Poets from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Germany, India, Japan, Australia, United Kingdom, South Africa, and several other countries have participated in this challenge over the years.

I’ve run into teachers and students who’ve used the challenge as a way to work poetry into the classroom. I’ve heard from published poets with multiple collections that contain poems inspired by the prompts in these challenges. I’ve heard from poets who wrote their first ever poems during in response to these challenges–and still other poets who’ve claimed the challenge helped rekindle their love of poetry when they thought it was dead. So I know this challenge is equally for the beginning and established poets, because it’s a springboard–a way to get started.

What is the April PAD Challenge?

PAD stands for Poem-A-Day, so this is a challenge in which poets write a poem each day of April. Usually, I’ll post a prompt in the morning (Atlanta, Georgia, time), and poets will write a poem in response.

Some poets share those poems on the blog in the comments; others keep their words to themselves. I don’t require comments on the blog to participate, but it does make it more fun when poets are firing away on the blog. Plus, I’ll try my best to recognize my favorite poems of the month this year by using comments on the blog.

*****

Re-create Your Poetry!

Revision doesn’t have to be a chore–something that should be done after the excitement of composing the first draft. Rather, it’s an extension of the creation process!

In the 48-minute tutorial video Re-creating Poetry: How to Revise Poems, poets will be inspired with several ways to re-create their poems with the help of seven revision filters that they can turn to again and again.

Click to continue.

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Who can participate?

Anyone who wants to write poetry–whether you’ve been writing all your life or just want to give it a shot now, whether you write free verse or traditional forms, whether you have a certain style or have no clue what you’re doing. The main thing is to poem (and yes, I use poem as a verb).

I should also note that I’m pretty open to content shared on the blog, but I do expect everyone who plays along in the comments to play nice. There have been moments in the past in which I’ve had to remove or warn folks who got a little carried away. My main goal is to make the challenge fun for all.

(That said, please send me an e-mail if you ever feel like someone is crossing the line. I don’t want to act as a censor–so don’t use me in that way–but I do want to make sure people aren’t being bullied or attacked in the comments.)

Where do I share my poems?

If you want to share your poems throughout the month, the best way is to paste your poem in the comments on the post that corresponds with that day’s prompt. For instance, post your poem for the Day 1 prompt on the Day 1 post in the comments.

You’ll find folks are pretty supportive on the Poetic Asides site. And if they’re not, I expect to be notified via e-mail.

If you are new to WritersDigest.com, you’ll be asked to register (it’s free) on the site to make comments. Plus, your comments will likely not immediately show, because I’ll have to approve them. This is just for folks completely new to the site. I believe after I approve your comments once, you’re good to go for future comments.

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Workshop your poetry!

In the Advanced Poetry Writing workshop, poets will write and receive feedback on 6 poems during the 6-week course. Receive feedback from the instructor, receive revision techniques, and more.

Click to continue.

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Here are some more April PAD Challenge guidelines:

Poeming begins April 1 and runs through May 1 (to account for time differences in other parts of the world–and yes, poets all over the world participate).

The main purpose of the challenge is to write poems, but I also will attempt to highlight my favorite poems of the month from poets who post their poems to each day’s blog posts. Some years this works out better than others.

Poem as you wish, but I will delete poems and comments that I feel are hateful. Also, if anyone abuses this rule repeatedly, I will have them banned from the site. So please “make good choices,” as I tell my children.

Other rules, questions, concerns, etc?

If you need any other questions answered, put them in the comments below, and I’ll revise this post as needed.

Other than that, I can’t wait to start poeming in April!

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Follow me on Twitter @robertleebrewer

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For a taste of what April might bring, here are a few prompts from last year:

Write a family poem.

Write a memory poem.

Write a “(blank) of love” poem.

The post 2018 April PAD Challenge: Guidelines appeared first on WritersDigest.com.

from Writing Editor Blogs – WritersDigest.com http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/2018-april-pad-challenge-guidelines

[char27martin]

Do You Really Need Life Rights?

Doug Richardson, writer of Die Hard 2, Bad Boys and Hostage, shares advice on whether you need to get the life rights before you start that screenplay.

As advice goes, mine is pretty much like most everybody else who’s had a lucrative career in the writing game. What pearls I share are gleaned from my own experiences, observances, and wisdom gained from failure as much as success.

And some failures are way more instructive than others.

The following advice may sound so simple and obvious you might want to quit this post, skip through it, or just hang in for the amusement of the unbelievable anecdote of such extraordinary failure despite my fist pounding warnings. That said, let’s get on with it.

At a recent writer’s conference I had a good friend-slash-fellow instructor regale me with her own retelling of the true-life story told her that very day by a conference student. It was an amazing tale, the stuff of New York Times bestsellers. Not that I had any notion of penning it myself, the novelist in me was salivating at the chance of writing it as well as my screenwriter self was already casting the film adaptation in my head.

“Wow,” I said to my friend, pouring her a second shot of tequila.

“Don’t you know it,” she confirmed.

“You told her to lock up the life rights, yes?”

Balls of Steel: Pursuit of the Project

She surely had, also passing along her own experiences acquiring the rights to Pulitzer Prize-winning book she’d eventually adapted for the big and small screen. The following day, that very same student had signed up for a one-on-one sit down with me to discuss how she should approach writing that true-life tale. Screenplay first? Then a non-fiction book? The reverse? My first inclination was to ask her this simple question.

“Have you locked up the life rights?” I pressed.

“Well, I have their permission,” she replied.

And she did. Theirs was a friendly relationship. Next door neighbors, in fact. The life rights holder and the would-be writer with only a friendly fence to separate them.

“Believe me,” I kindly implored. “Invest in an attorney. The kind of lawyer who understands the ins and outs of acquiring and maintaining another’s life rights and adapting them into a publications, movies, etcetera.”

I told her to get it on paper. Signatures. Dates. Conditions. Terms. The whole nine yards written down and agreed upon from publication, monetary percentages, scaled out through potential publishers or movie deals. Until that chore is complete, the rest is hot air, not to mention a potential litigation disaster.

I was serious as a heart attack, having myself been hung out to dry on projects where I thought I had the rights locked down – only to later discover I didn’t. Yes. Projects. As in more than once, I’ve erred. And I had both lawyers and agents on my side and the rights still slipped through my fingers like ashes.

But this isn’t about me. It’s about her. And you. The rights holders and those hoping to attain certain rights. I know, I know. I sound like I’m lawyer pimping. Believe me, I’m not. And like you, when I’m wanting to write a particular book or movie on speculation, I sure as hell don’t want to slow my roll with expensive attorneys who bill by the hour.

But like I said. This teaching moment comes from my own failures as well countless others.

Or like this guy named Phil.

Developing Diverse Stories Featuring Disabled Characters

Okay. That’s not his real name. And he should be happy I’m keeping him anonymous. He was a blog fan who’d tracked me down, offered to buy me a few friendly beers at my local cantina in exchange for some advice of sorts. FYI, I’ve stopped doing this so please don’t show up on my doorstep hoping that if you buy me a couple foamies or cups of gourmet coffee, I’m going to lend you my knowledge.

Back to that guy named Phil. He was so excited to tell me about his pet film project based on a character made famous by a recently deceased author.

“Of course, you’ve contacted the (author’s) estate?” I asked.

“Do you think I should?” he asked.

“I know for a fact you should,” I said. “You’re playing with their I.P.” The I of it meaning Intellectual and the P of it being Property.

“I was hoping to finish the screenplay first and then show it to them,” he defended. “That way they can see what a great job I did.”

“You’re playing with fire,” I advised. “In fact, don’t be surprised when their attorney sends you a cease and desist letter for trying to exploit their property.”

“You think they’d do that?”

“It’s the (author’s) estate. It’s the estate’s job to jealously defend their property rights.”

“I think I’ll be okay,” he said. “I really love this thing. It’s my biggest passion project.”

“If it involves (the famous character), your passion project doesn’t belong to you.”

“It’d be such a great movie if I could only –“

“– If it’s a movie,” I interrupted, “then you’re also crossing the movie studio. I’d have to expect they might still own the movie rights to (the character) considering they’ve already made two movies featuring (that character). You think jealous estate lawyers are killers? Tangle with a mega studio and see if they don’t squish you like a bug.”

I went on to implore poor Phil to abandon his passion project for something else he had such big feels for. Surely, if you’re a writer worth a damn, you have more than one passion project. At least that’s what I argued, to no avail. Phil continued to claim that because he loved his movie that his sheer will and affection would push him over Himalayan-sized obstacles I’d just identified. How could this man be so dense?

Then it hit me. From somewhere in my spongy sub cortex, I retrieved a factoid that would surely save poor Phil from his inevitable creative doom. After all, he was buying the beer. I couldn’t let him leave like a lamb to slaughter.

“You know,” I recalled. “I think in the past few months or so, I read a blurb about some cable network mounting a TV show based on (the character).”

“Really?” he replied. He’d heard nothing of it, let alone the notion of performing a simple Google search. “Do you think that’s a problem for me? That’s a TV show. I’m talking about a movie.”

“Based on the same character? I think they’d have a big problem with some nobody thinking they’re going to make a movie based on the TV show they’re trying to mount.”

Download FREE Screenwriting Resources Now!

He questioned my memory. Whether my facts were correct. So instead utilizing an internet search, I simply texted my agent with the query. Seconds later, she returned with the name of the show, the network, and news that a full season of episodes had just been ordered.

“There,” I showed him. “Irrefutable evidence that there is a network owned by a very big parent corporation who not only owns or has exclusively secured the rights to (the character) but has also made a significant capitol investment in exploiting those rights. If they get a whiff that some putz is running around with a screenplay based on (their character), attempting to get financing for a movie, they are going to personally enjoy greasing the pole that slides you into a vat of boiling oil.”

“Wow?” he said. “You really think?”

This is where I pounded my fists into the table.

“I don’t think,” I said. “I know!”

I ended up paying the check. I told him he was going to need his money to defend himself from his own foolishness.

It was just last week that I was in the same cantina at the very same patio table. Only this time I was seated across from that writer’s conference student who’d been keen on acquiring the amazing life rights from her neighbor. She informed me that because of my strong suggestion, she’d engaged a life rights attorney. From there paperwork was spawned, negotiated, redrafted, and signatures properly applied. She was well into her screenplay, free to chase and create her vision without the self-inflicted encumbrances.

We toasted to her wise work.

Moral. Don’t be like Phil. Or me even. Be like her. Get those life rights on paper.

Screenwriter Contracts Decoded On-Demand Webinar

Download Now!

Understand Common Screenwriting Contract Terms so You can Sign Your Contract Confidently

The post Do You Really Need Life Rights? appeared first on WritersDigest.com.

from Writing Editor Blogs – WritersDigest.com http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/questions-and-quandaries/legal-questions/do-you-really-need-life-rights

[char27martin]

IELTS test in Auckland, New Zealand – February 2018 (Academic Module)

Our friend C took the IELTS test in Auckland, New Zealand, and remembered the Writing and Speaking questions as follows:

Writing test

Writing task 1 (a report)

We were given four pie charts in total showing two different services provided by a university and a comparison between the number of full-time and part-time students using both services.

Writing task 2 (an essay)

The old tradition of a family having a meal together is disappearing. Why do you think is this happening? How does it affect individuals and the community?

Speaking test

Interview

– What is your full name? – Can I see your ID? – Where are you from? – Do you work or study? – What do you do? – Where do you live now? – Can you describe your neighbourhood? – Do you like the place where you live? – Why or why not?

Cue Card

Describe a situation from your life where you had to be polite to someone. Please say

– When and where did it happen? – How did you manage to be polite? – How did you feel about it later?

Discussion

– Do you think it is important to be polite all the time and to everyone? – Do you think people are being polite these days only for personal gain? – Do you think the elderly should teach young people to be polite? Why? – Is it important to be polite to strangers, in your opinion? Why? – Would you still be polite to a person who is not polite to you?

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IELTS test in New Zealand – February 2018 (Academic) The topics and questions below were shared by an IELTS…

IELTS test in London, UK – February 2018 (General Training) Our friends L and K took the IELTS test in…

IELTS test in Sri Lanka – February 2018 (Academic Module) An IELTS test taker from Sri Lanka (thanks, C!) remembered…

IELTS test in Japan – February 2018 (Academic Module) Our friend N took the IELTS test in Japan and…

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from IELTS-Blog http://www.ielts-blog.com/recent-ielts-exams/ielts-test-in-auckland-new-zealand-february-2018-academic-module/

[char27martin]

Writing Exercise: 3 Reasons to Write Imitations of Your Favorite Authors

Many artists have encountered the advice to “imitate the masters.” Aspiring composers generally study, practice and perform pieces by others before attempting to write their own concertos, for example, and visual artists often attempt to recreate museum pieces in their own sketchbooks. This practice of imitation makes a great writing exercise for strengthening your technical skills.

But the way to apply this advice to writing can be unclear. For writers, imitation may be a general idea that they keep in mind while reading or working (“Got to keep my sentences direct, like Hemingway”) or, perhaps, a plan to write certain types of novels based on what’s having success on the market.

Yet, just as with other types of art, practicing imitations directly can be a useful endeavor for writers looking to step up their game.

Here’s how imitation works as a writing exercise:

Once you’ve finished reading a book, a story, a poem, or any other type of written work, write just a few paragraphs or pages in the same style. You can imitate by writing a “missing” piece—whether that be a scene that occurred offstage, a rewrite from a different character’s perspective, or an event that could have fit plausibly within the world of the story—or you can write an imitation that takes place within a separate story. The point, whether using your own characters and settings or not, is to notice the qualities that make that piece of writing unique and emulate them.

Some notable writers—including Hunter S. Thompson, Jack London, and Benjamin Franklin—practiced by literally copying writing that they admired in longhand. Personally, I find more use in imitating than copying, as the former requires you to be a bit more active in the process, but both are useful. (It’s like the equivalent of running on a track or a path versus running on the treadmill: Both will help you get in shape, but one removes some of the mental work of pushing yourself to keep moving.)

Three reasons why you should consider writing imitations.

1. You will learn to read like a writer.

It is virtually impossible not to read like a writer when writing imitations. Even if your initial reading was more about enjoying the text than paying attention to the way it works, preparing for the imitation will force you to go back and think: What makes the voice in this story unique? How does this writer use punctuation? How does the writer establish mood and tone, and what is the pace? What are the effects of the writer’s choices? What could be a plausible addition to this storyworld? How would this character function in a different setting?

[Online Horror Writing Intensive: Analyzing the Work of Genre Master Stephen King]

2. You will stretch your skills and improve your technique.

Athletes cross-train by practicing multiple sports or exercises to help them improve in their main sport. They may practice movements that aren’t directly replicated in their own sport, but those movements stretch their capabilities and help their athletic performance where it counts.

By crafting imitations of many styles and genres of writing, you may practice skills that feel tangential. (“Why imitate an introspective family drama when you only want to write fast-paced thrillers?” you wonder) But the more skills you add to your wheelhouse, the more you will become a strong, well-rounded writer—and those skills will influence your writing when you do need them.

Alternately, maybe you only want to imitate stories within your genre, and you can still stretch your skills even while you limit your scope. Look for writing that’s strong in areas where you’re weak. Having trouble creating dialogue? You may want to take the characters from a writer whose dialogue you admire and try placing them in your story’s setting. Trying to develop a certain mood through description? Find a successful example of that mood and practice describing something or someone else that fits into the same storyworld.

3. You may find your own writing voice.

Paradoxically, imitating the styles of other writers can help you find your own niche. If you love reading many different styles and genres of writing, you may not know what—or how—you want to write. You may even assume that you should be writing in the style or genre you most like to read. That could be the case, but it isn’t necessarily true for everyone.

As you’re writing imitations in different styles, pay attention to the ones that come most naturally to you and that you truly enjoy writing. What about that style works for you? If you want to write in a different genre, what type of reading experience would result from the combination of that style and your genre?

In addition, as you’re focusing on the styles and sentence structures of other writers, you’ll become more aware of what you like and dislike—and more prepared to make active stylistic choices in your own writing voice.

…

Of course, there’s an additional challenge for writers creating imitations: Avoiding plagiarism. Just remember that these imitations are exercises, and they should be for your own, personal use. And if you do stumble into an idea on which you want to keep working, make sure to use the imitation as a jumping off point for something unique to you.

Over the next several weeks, keep an eye out for sample imitations and explanations of how they mimic perspective, pacing, mood, and more.

The post Writing Exercise: 3 Reasons to Write Imitations of Your Favorite Authors appeared first on WritersDigest.com.

from Writing Editor Blogs – WritersDigest.com http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/craft-technique/writing-exercise-3-reasons-to-write-imitations-of-your-favorite-authors

[char27martin]

IELTS test in Sri Lanka – February 2018 (Academic Module)

An IELTS test taker from Sri Lanka (thanks, C!) remembered the following topics and questions from his recent exam:

Listening test

Section 1. About land line phone services. Section 2. About a cement production factory. Section 3, 4. Don’t remember.

Reading test

Passage 1. About an earthquake in Tasmania. Passage 2. About Tasmania wild life. Passage 3. Don’t remember.

Writing test

Writing task 1 (a report)

We were given two maps showing the same place before a historical discovery in 2004 and after that discovery in 2014. We had to compare and describe both maps.

Writing task 2 (an essay)

In some countries people think women should have equality with men, in particular equal rights to work as police officers or serve in the Army. Others think women are not suitable for such jobs. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Speaking test

Interview

– What is your full name? – Can I see your ID? – Where are you from? – Do you work or study? – What do you do? – Do you need more training related to your work? – Do you use a computer? – Do you use the Internet? Why? – Do you think the computer use will change in the future? – Why do you think so? – How do you usually travel to your office? – What are you doing while your commute? – What transport do you use mostly, public or your own car?

Cue Card

Talk about a rule at school that you liked or disliked. Please say

– What was it? – Why did they have it? – What was the result if someone broke the rule?

Discussion

– Do you think this rule is still there? – Do you think schools should have more or less rules? – Why is that? – Do you think schools should ask student’s opinion before creating rules? – Why is it useful in your opinion? – Should office working hours be fixed or flexible? Why? – Should companies allow to work overtime? Why?

Related posts:

IELTS test in Japan – February 2018 (Academic Module) Our friend N took the IELTS test in Japan and…

IELTS test in the UK and Sri Lanka – January 2018 (Academic Module) Our friends took their IELTS exams in the UK and…

IELTS test in the UK – February 2018 (Academic Module) Our friend F took the IELTS test in the UK…

IELTS test in New Zealand – February 2018 (Academic) The topics and questions below were shared by an IELTS…

IELTS test in Kazakhstan – February 2018 (General Training) Our friend N took the IELTS test in Kazakhstan and…

from IELTS-Blog http://www.ielts-blog.com/recent-ielts-exams/ielts-test-in-sri-lanka-february-2018-academic-module/

[char27martin]

IELTS Speaking test in Perth, Australia – February 2018

Our friend K took the IELTS Speaking test in Perth, Australia and was asked the following questions:

Speaking test

Interview

– What is your full name? – Can I see your ID? – Where are you from? – Do you work or study? – Do you like music? – What type of music do you like? – Do you download or buy music CDs? – Would your music preferences change in the future? – Do you do any physical exercises? – Do people do more physical exercises nowadays?

Cue Card

Talk about your favourite furniture at home. Please say

– What is it? – Describe its design. – How do you use it? – Is it important to you, and why?

Discussion

– Do you think people spend too much money on furniture? – Is it easy to buy furniture for home or office? Why? – What kind of furniture do you have at your workplace? – Do you think that there is an appropriate age to buy furniture? – Who decides to buy furniture at your home country, men or women? – Do you think TV ads influence our decisions to buy furniture? – Do you think nice furniture is important to make us happy at home? – What kind of furniture do you normally buy?

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from IELTS-Blog http://www.ielts-blog.com/recent-ielts-exams/ielts-speaking-test-in-perth-australia-february-2018/

[char27martin]

Announcing Walter Mosley, Central Keynote at the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference

Writer’s Digest is proud to formally announce the legendary Walter Mosley as this year’s Writer’s Digest Annual Conference central keynote.

Novelist and social commentator Walter Mosley is one of the most powerful and prolific writers working in any genre today. He is the author of more than 50 books, ranging in genre from crime novels to literary fiction, nonfiction to political essays, young adult to science fiction. The New York Review of Books calls him “a literary master as well as a master of mystery,” and The Boston Globe declares him “one of the nation’s finest writers.”

In a career spanning multiple genres—and multiple decades—Mosley is sure to inspire you to realize your fullest potential as a writer. Join him, along with dozens of the industry’s most knowledgeable mentors and industry experts, for an expansive program covering both the craft and the business of being a writer. It all takes place this August 10–12 in New York City.

You won’t want to miss a moment of what Writer’s Digest has planned for you this year. Save your seat—and lock in your savings—when you register by register by April 17.

Learn more and register.

The post Announcing Walter Mosley, Central Keynote at the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference appeared first on WritersDigest.com.

from Writing Editor Blogs – WritersDigest.com http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/conferencesevents/announcing-walter-mosley-central-keynote-writers-digest-annual-conference

[char27martin]

Under Construction: Rethinking the Process of Building an Author Platform

Many writers wait until they’ve completed a novel—or a screenplay or a short story or any other significant piece of work—before attempting to build an author platform. Here’s why you should make expanding your audience a daily practice.

by MNBrian

There is a mentality that I see consistently with authors that always puzzles me. Maybe they’ve just finished a book. Or maybe they’ve signed with a literary agent. Or maybe they’ve just sold their novel to a publisher and they’re excited to get started on those edits. But the response is almost always the same when I ask them this question:

What’s your platform?

There’s usually a long pause, followed by the intention to begin building some form of author platform when they reach the next step in the process.

If they’ve just finished the novel, they’ll say they need to find an agent before they start marketing.

If they’ve found an agent, they’ll say they want their publishers help. Isn’t that the publishers area of expertise?

And if they’ve got their contract and advance, they’ll say once they finish their recent round of edits, or once they get their book cover in, they’ll cross over to that dark-side known as marketing.

It’s like, we have this idea of what it means to market a book, how to sell a lot of books, and most of our ideas are based on a fallacy—and a lot of negative connotations.

Learning about modern marketing has almost become its own kind of marketing. It has its own language and terminology. And for most writers, that language comes with some cringe-worthy baggage.

We hear “target audience” as “group of suckers who buy our books.”

We hear “branding” as “lying about how cool we are.”

We hear “building your audience on social media” as “blasting your book cover 100 times so all your friends buy it.”

But the real fallacy here, in my opinion, has a lot more to do with what we authors think success looks like. In our heads, success is something that just happens, like a lightning strike. It’s as if we think the Rowlings and the Kings of the world built their audiences in a few tiny moments of massive growth. They won the marketing lottery. One day they had no fans. And the next they had millions.

14 Resources to Help You Write A Breakout Novel in 2018

But the truth is, a following is built, quite literally, one person at a time. That isn’t to say there weren’t instances of large gains. But for most bestselling authors, the large increases alone wouldn’t have ever held sway if it weren’t for the daily small gains that built up over time.

You see, I’d argue that every bestselling novel that has ever existed had at least two things in common: A completed novel that is subjectively good, and a lot of people to buy it.

As authors, we tend to put the onus of the first on our shoulders and assume someone else will cover the second. But if we’re not passionate enough about our own work to make the small gains, how will anyone be passionate enough about it to put our book cover on the side of a bus or on a billboard in Times Square?

It is my opinion that doing just one of these two things, writing my book, is as silly a methodology as someone saying “today I will write my entire novel.” Novels are written one line at a time, not in a single day. So how silly it is to complete a novel and then say, “Today I will find my audience.”

Audiences are built one person at a time, one day at a time.

For most of us, writing never goes quite as we planned it. We expect our book will be done in six months, and it takes nine. We expect our edits will be done in three months and it takes six. That’s just part of the process of writing. But very rarely do I find a writer who uses that time to their advantage, no matter what stage of the publishing process they are in.

My last novel took me a year and a half to write, despite all my plans to finish it in six months. And when it was finished, I was confident that I had written something good enough to acquire representation. Here we are two years from that first sentence, and I still have not found the perfect fit. It’s possible I won’t. Of course, this won’t stop me. I’m hard at work on a new novel that will most certainly be the one! But what if I had used that time to build my author platform—to gain one new prospective fan a day?

It could be as simple as joining an X-Files forum, and just chatting with people about something I love. Or maybe joining a book club that focuses on thrillers, or perhaps a writing group.

Because those people, those individuals that you meet and befriend and connect with, those will be your first readers. They will be your champions. And if you’re not meeting those people now, while you’re still working on that novel, you’re still going to have to meet those champions later. And it will still take time and effort to meet them.

So take the time today, now, wherever you are, to meet people and engage with them. Not because you have some grand design to force them to buy your books. Just because you want to talk about The Expanse, or Artemis, or Iron Gold (holy cow I’m on a space kick right now). Take some time to deliberately meet one new person each day, and your publisher will be thrilled with you later.

MNBrian is a reader for a literary agent, founder of the PubTips writing community on Reddit, and author of Habits & Traits, a twice weekly newsletter geared towards helping authors navigate the world of traditional publishing.

Subscribe: Habits & Traits Newsletter Follow Brian on Twitter: @PubTipsBrian Or Send Him An Email: HabitsandTraits [at] gmail [dot] com

The post Under Construction: Rethinking the Process of Building an Author Platform appeared first on WritersDigest.com.

from Writing Editor Blogs – WritersDigest.com http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/writer-platform/under-construction-building-bestselling-author-platform

[char27martin]

Wednesday Poetry Prompts: 429

For today’s prompt, write a direction poem. Of course, there’s north, east, west, south; backward and forward; up and down. But direction could also equate to stage directions, parental directions, and any number of other interpretations. Let’s all take a poetic direction with this prompt.

*****

Order the Poet’s Market!

The 2018 Poet’s Market, edited by Robert Lee Brewer, includes hundreds of poetry markets, including listings for poetry publications, publishers, contests, and more! With names, contact information, and submission tips, poets can find the right markets for their poetry and achieve more publication success than ever before.

In addition to the listings, there are articles on the craft, business, and promotion of poetry–so that poets can learn the ins and outs of writing poetry and seeking publication. Plus, it includes a one-year subscription to the poetry-related information on WritersMarket.com. All in all, it’s the best resource for poets looking to secure publication.

Click to continue.

*****

Here’s my attempt at a Direction Poem:

“Direction Sense”

I’ve got a pretty good sense of direction when the lines are straight, when roads meet and form myriad 90-degree angles,

which is why my good sense of direction is better driving through the rural farm lands of Ohio than the suburban labyrinth

of just-outside-Atlanta, where roads start off going east and bend back to the west for no logical reason at all, and street

names jump from one road to the next (and half of them involve a Peachtree), so I’m trying to say that I understand

Georgia drivers. Their sense of direction is twisted up so that things are never what they appear, and it appears to be

rubbing off on my sense of direction too.

*****

Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Content Editor of the Writer’s Digest Writing Community and author of Solving the World’s Problems (Press 53). He long thought he had a good sense of direction, though that notion has been challenged often when navigating the roadways of the Atlanta suburbs.

Follow him on Twitter @RobertLeeBrewer.

*****

Find more poetic posts here:

Wednesday Poetry Prompts: 425.

One Year, One Hundred Rejections: Brett Elizabeth Jenkins.

30 Poetry Prompts for the 2017 November PAD Chapbook Challenge.

The post Wednesday Poetry Prompts: 429 appeared first on WritersDigest.com.

from Writing Editor Blogs – WritersDigest.com http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/wednesday-poetry-prompts-429

[char27martin]

IELTS test in Ahmedabad, India – February 2018 (General Training)

Two IELTS test takers from India (thanks, S and P!) remembered the following details about their recent exam:

Listening test

Section 1. Making a flight booking.

Section 2. About an activity centre.

Section 3. A discussion about robots for medical purposes.

Section 4. The history of Emus.

Reading test

Passage 1. About mountain radio services in New Zealand.

Passage 2. About the Australian travel pass system benefits.

Passage 3. About the use of tidal power for electricity production.

Writing test

Writing task 1 (a letter)

You are studying in a college and your friend recently asked your opinion about the college. Write a letter explaining about the college and giving your recommendations. Include the following in your letter:

– Why did you apply for admission to this college? – What do you like and dislike about it? – Would you recommend this college to your friend? Why?

Writing Task 2 (an essay)

Many people say that applying heavy taxes to industries will prevent industrial pollution. Others believe that there are other effective solutions to curb the industrial pollution. Discuss both views and give your own opinion. Include appropriate examples in your response, if necessary.

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from IELTS-Blog http://www.ielts-blog.com/recent-ielts-exams/ielts-test-in-ahmedabad-india-february-2018-general-training/

[char27martin]

New Literary Agent Alert: Whitney Ross of Irene Goodman Literary Agency

New literary agents (with this spotlight featuring Whitney Ross of Irene Goodman Literary Agency) are golden opportunities for new writers because each one is a literary agent who is likely building his or her client list.

About Whitney: Before joining Irene Goodman in 2018, Whitney worked as an editor at Macmillan for nearly a decade, culminating in her role as a senior editor for Tor Teen, Tor, and Forge. Over the course of her career, Whitney has had the pleasure of editing many talented authors, including Susan Dennard, Cora Carmack, Eric Van Lustbader, Steven Erikson, Katie McGarry, Ann Aguirre, Dan Wells, and Stacey Kade.

Whitney represents middle grade, young adult, and adult fiction across all genres, with an emphasis on historical, SF & fantasy, romance, and contemporary fiction. She is also open to non-fiction submissions in the areas of design, cooking, and fashion.

Whitney loves to read novels set in unusual time periods and locations, whether that involves a fantastical element or not. She is rarely able to resist the trickster king motif, and has a weakness for read-between-the-lines subtle romances. Yet she’s constantly surprised by books not on her “wish list,” and is always open to stories with compelling characters and emotionally involving plotlines.

Whitney earned her B.A. in English Literature, a B.S. in Entrepreneurship, an M.S. in Publishing, In her spare time, she enjoys competitive sports such as skiing and shopping, and tasting wines with her winemaker husband.

She’s seeking: middle grade, young adult and adult fiction, adult non-fiction in design, cooking, & fashion.

How to submit: Please send queries to [email protected], emailing your query letter and the first ten pages, along with a synopsis (3-5 paragraphs) and bio, in the body of the email.

The biggest literary agent database anywhere is the Guide to Literary Agents. Pick up the most recent updated edition online at a discount.

The post New Literary Agent Alert: Whitney Ross of Irene Goodman Literary Agency appeared first on WritersDigest.com.

from Writing Editor Blogs – WritersDigest.com http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/literary-agents-guide-to-literary-agents/new-literary-agent-alert

[char27martin]

IELTS Speaking test in Vietnam – February 2018

When S took the IELTS Speaking test in Vietnam, he was asked the following questions:

Speaking test

Interview

– What is your full name? – Can I see your ID? – Where are you from? – Do you work or study? – What do you do? – What part of the day is the most productive and efficient for you? – Why is that? – Do you like computers? – Do you think computers/mobile apps are helpful? – What mobile apps do you use the most? – Would you like to develop an app in the future? Why? – What kind of app would it be?

Cue Card

Talk about something that you have learned outside of school or college. Please say

– What is it? – When and where did you learn it? – How did you learn it? – Who did you learn it from?

Discussion

– Did you like it? – Was it easy or challenging for you? Why? – Do you think adults should keep learning? – What do you think adults should learn after college or school? – Do you think seniors possess better knowledge than current generation? – How much sleep do you think is sufficient for you? – Do you think seniors need less sleep compared to younger people? – Why do you think it is?

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from IELTS-Blog http://www.ielts-blog.com/recent-ielts-exams/ielts-speaking-test-in-vietnam-february-2018/

[char27martin]

Interview: The Oscar-Nominated Writers Behind The Disaster Artist (Part Two)

Screenwriters Michael Weber and Scott Neustadter describe their creative process and the decisions that went into writing their Oscar-nominated comedy, The Disaster Artist.

Screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber, THE DISASTER ARTIST. Photo by Julie Neustadter.

Interview: The Oscar-Nominated Writers Behind The Disaster Artist (Part One)

How do you write an Oscar-worthy movie? What’s the secret, the key, the magic formula? Screenwriters Michael Weber and Scott Neustadter don’t claim to know but they must be doing something right—the script for their latest movie, The Disaster Artist, has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. It’s already received many other nominations and won other awards, but an Oscar? That’s the brass ring, as big as it gets. So how did they do it?

Michael and Scott have worked long and hard to reach this point. Their produced credits include 500 Days of Summer, The Spectacular Now, Pink Panther II, The Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns, and Our Souls at Night. They’re now in the enviable position of having producers and executives seek them out for projects—just as actor-producers James Franco and Seth Rogen did when searching for the perfect talent to write The Disaster Artist.

If you haven’t seen the movie, it’s a funny film about the making of a very bad film, The Room, a real-life cult classic that many deem “the best worst movie ever.” The Room premiered in 2003, playing on just two screens for two weeks—and that’s only because its passionate producer rented out the theaters. That producer is Tommy Wiseau, a would-be actor with tremendous drive and perhaps less talent (being kind here), who decided to invest $6 million in his quest for stardom. Tommy wrote, financed, produced, directed, and starred in The Room, a drama about a hardworking man whose girlfriend and best male friend betray him, leading to a tragic end. The film was widely panned and it quickly died, only to resurface later as a so-bad-it’s-funny classic cherished by a small but loyal fan base.

Ten years after the film premiered, Greg Sestero, Tommy’s close friend and co-star of The Room, published a memoir about their relationship and the struggles involved in making the movie. Titled Disaster Artist: My Life Inside “The Room,” the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made, the book quickly earned its own following and praise for being laugh-out-loud funny. And it was the book, not the original film, that caught James Franco’s eye and led to his making the Disaster Artist film now playing in theaters.

The steps taken to develop, finance, and produce this long-shot project form an interesting story and are a lesson for all screenwriters, but we won’t cover those business matters here. You’re reading the second installment of a two-part column. For details on how Michael and Scott were recruited to write The Disaster Artist and how they helped to get the film made, see Part One of “The Oscar-Nominated Writers behind The Disaster Artist,” published separately.

In this article, we’ll focus solely on Michael and Scott’s creative approach to writing the script: their process, choices, discoveries…commercial considerations, audience expectations…creating a balance between characters…things to be hinted at but left unsaid… decisions made as they first sat down to work on the script.

So, you saw the film and read Sestero’s book about the film, and agreed to take the job. When it was time to start writing, how did you begin?

Michael: One of the things that came out of our first conversations was deciding that the emotional stakes of this story were going to be, “can the friendship survive the making of this piece of art of questionable quality?” It wasn’t, “do they make a good movie or a bad movie?” Because that second question is not a question that one can emotionally feel connected to. When starting a script, we don’t necessarily know what the last scene is going to be, but we do have an idea of what the stakes are, and the bigger idea of what it’s about and where the emotions are going to come from.

Scott: Yes. And one of the major changes we made from the manuscript was… The book was written about ten years after the film. So, there’s definitely a lot of the book’s author, in hindsight, coming across as quite savvy [about Hollywood and filmmaking], as if he knew all along what was what. And our feeling on that was…he probably didn’t know. [Both laugh.] Because you don’t know what’s going to happen next when you’re going through something, and who can predict the future? So, in our film version, Greg Sestero is more along for the ride than he is in his book. Both men were just newbies in the business, babes in the woods, and that is what makes the movie and their relationship…nice. So we decided early on to make that change.

Also, a lot of stuff was discovered in the filming. A lot of material we wrote into the script ended up not making it into the movie because it didn’t really fit into what the purity of the narrative became, a story about these two guys and their crazy dream. For example, the book has Greg moving to L.A. before Tommy does, and Greg starts to get a little traction, landing an agent and a role in a Puppet Master movie. Then Tommy moves to L.A., and there is an interesting undercurrent of darkness as Tommy greets Greg with, “okay, you’re going to help me now, now that you’ve made it.” But none of that worked in the context of these two guys sharing a crazy dream, so it ended up on the cutting room floor. For us, the undercurrent of trouble needed to start during the filming of The Room, as Greg starts pulling away from Tommy. And Tommy wasn’t expecting that, he thought making the movie would bring them closer together. So, we didn’t really want the stutter-start caused by their relationship being in jeopardy to surface before they began shooting their movie.

Michael: Yeah, the hardest thing to calibrate was why Greg hangs in with this friend for so long. If we had used the tenor of the book, which shows Greg being so savvy about things, it would be even harder to understand why he would stay. Making the change that Scott described helped us to justify why he does.

How to Transform Funny Stories into Comedy Writing Gold

At the beginning of your film, before the story starts, we see a funny sequence in which recognizable stars face the camera and share their opinions of The Room with the audience. Why did you include that? And was it written into the script from the beginning or added after seeing cuts of the produced film?

Scott: That was an idea we had when working on the script because when people asked what we were writing, some had never heard of The Room or they thought we meant Brie Larson’s film, Room—which wasn’t a bad film so how could we call it the worst movie ever made? [Both laugh.] In fact, some initial audience testing of our movie indicated that many viewers who didn’t know about the original film liked our new film, but thought that Tommy was a new Borat, some fictional character we had created. So, rather than introduce our film with just “based on a true story,” we thought having famous people share their experiences with The Room would give it a bit of cultural context. This was a way to explain, “No no, this was a real film, and these are real people giving their real reactions to it.”

Why did you pick those stars to appear in the opening sequence?

Michael: We wrote a bunch of them in based on reading stories saying they were fans of The Room, reports about actors having private screening parties of this weird film that nobody had seen. People like Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, and Adam Scott. Thanks to the fact that James Franco and Seth Rogen know everyone, we were able to get a lot of the people we had written in. And then they asked J.J. Abrams and others, all real fans, to also be part of that.

When the film’s story does begin, you open with the sequence in which Greg meets Tommy for the first time, in an acting class. Had you considered other ways to launch the story?

Michael: There were a couple of different versions we played with, and one we shot. It involved spending more time with Greg and his dream of becoming a movie star, and his mom sort of dumping on that dream. It wasn’t until we shot that and were in the editing room that it became obvious that everyone would understand all of that already, so we should just get right to the acting class.

Scott: Also, James Franco’s electricity is so intense, if you spend too much of this movie without bringing him in, you’re making a huge mistake. The audience is going to say, “Go, give me what I want to see!”

Actor-producer-director James Franco, THE DISASTER ARTIST. Photo by Justina Mintz, courtesy of A24.

What are the steps in your writing process, once you move from discussing major story issues to typing away at your keyboards?

Michael: It’s a lot of emailing and a decent amount of phone calls. Emailing early on about macro things like what the story’s about and the emotional through-line, and talking about favorite moments, like wouldn’t this be a great scene or an interesting turn. And because we’re two writers, and so two anxious people who foresee a lot of doom-and-gloom, before we even create the outline, we’ll discuss “how are we going to solve this?” and “that part might be a little thorny” and “we might have to truncate this.” Concerns and questions. We just email each other back and forth; every project starts as a dialogue. And then we craft an outline out of those discussions.

Debate and Tips for Outlining a Script

How long and detailed are your outlines?

Michael: Four to six pages?

Scott: I never print them out. They’re always sort of, like, weird emails on my desktop.

Michael: I print them out. We cram the outline full of detail. If we have ideas for a joke or dialogue, or a transition—the more stuff we have in there, the better. Our outline is loose and contains hieroglyphics and shorthand. There’s almost a language between the two of us, terms and phrases that we’ve been using for 15 years, that only we understand. Our approach with an outline is to try to figure things out and solve as many problems as we can before we start so that the writing goes so much faster.

And when you write the script, do you divide the scenes up as you go?

Michael: Yes, small batches of scenes, usually just a day or two of work.

How did you approach creating a structure for this story?

Scott: The book we were adapting has every other chapter deal with Greg and Tommy’s friendship, and the odd chapters dealt with the making of The Room. We put the odd chapters aside to focus on the friendship, and then cherry-picked from the best stuff in the odd chapters when writing about the production of their movie. It’s a fairly straightforward three-act story about two friends who do something incredibly nuts, that tests the boundaries of their friendship. But then they come out the other side even closer than when they started. Inextricably linked for the rest of their lives.

When you began writing dialogue, knowing that Tommy’s fans are very familiar with his wonderfully odd speech pattern, what steps did you take to get that right?

Scott: We relied on transcripts and audio recordings he had made. Our first stop was always turning to source material, like where can we get something that he said here or said there. And then there were stabs in the dark where we’d try to write in Tommy-voice, that we were told later on we really nailed, which was very nice to hear.

Did you find yourselves talking in Tommy-voice when working on the script?

Scott: I find myself doing it now! It’s really strange. When you hear other people say things not in Tommy-voice, that Tommy says, you immediately hear it in Tommy voice.

Michael: I didn’t start to do the Tommy-voice out loud until we heard Franco at the table-read. After that, I started doing it and it became like a virus that infected the set, because everybody was doing it. You’d walk by a crew member who’d go, “My god lunch today.” [Both laugh.] Everyone started talking like that.

When shooting the film, did a lot of scripted lines change on set because someone, most likely James Franco, came up with a better version of the line?

Scott: Oh man, James was brilliant at that, very funny. Some of his asides are way better than the dialogue we came up with. And the Rogen guys like to do “alts,” they like to throw out alternative lines from behind the camera. But Franco was almost always the one to come up with the funniest option.

Charlyne Yi, Kelly Oxford, Seth Rogen, Paul Scheer, and Dave Franco in THE DISASTER ARTIST. Photo by Justina Mintz, courtesy of A24.

How much ad-libbing was there on set?

Michael: A little bit, but to James’s credit he really did protect the script and made sure that we got takes as written. At the same time, he did allow the actors to explore a bit.

Scott: We would talk with James and say, “Today’s a great day for improv.” Like when Tommy’s character is going to hold auditions with actors—go crazy, right? But other days, as when Greg and Tommy are going to have it out or when Greg is moving out, though the instinct might be to make jokes and be funny, James knew that those days were not the time to mess around.

Also, we used to say we both prefer sad Tommy in this movie. Whenever James was playing a depressed Tommy, you were just leaned in so much more. James knew that there was enough funny here so that you didn’t have to go crazy on the funny in every scene.

Writing Process – The Fog at the End of the Tunnel

Recognizing that a screenplay needs to be lean and tight to hold a reader’s attention, do you have a specific approach to writing scene descriptions?

Scott: We started out [in the business] reading tons of scripts. I would read maybe 25 a week, always internalizing what I liked and what I didn’t like. One thing I didn’t like was having to do too much work with my eyes. So, I was definitely cognizant of the need to only use words that you need to use. Our primary mantra is, don’t bore people. Get to the dialogue quickly.

Any other advice for writers?

Scott: Read, read, read everything you can get your hands on…know the rules before you break them…and don’t get discouraged.

Michael: Right. And I would only add, try to write every day. And surround yourself with people who care about this work—being creative, putting stuff out into the world—as much as you do.

Good advice. And perhaps that’s the formula that will win Michael and Scott an Oscar.

To learn how The Disaster Artist got made, and about the role Michael and Scott played in developing and producing the film, see Part One of “The Oscar-Nominated Writers behind The Disaster Artist.”

Get ready for more screenwriting articles and interviews when Script merges with Writer’s Digest in 2018 to bring all writing resources together on one powerful, newly-designed site at writersdigest.com! Learn more about our expanding community here.

If you want to write an Oscar-worthy script, you need to be able to take feedback and do the rewrites. We want to help!

Our ScriptXpert Critique Service is back! Our team consists of more than experienced working screenwriters, we also have story analysts, development execs, directors, producers, and even filmmakers. Rest assured, we do not hire interns or college students. We only use readers who understand the industry on a professional level. Get Coverage or Coverage with Development Notes to see how your screenplay stacks up to what studios are looking for. Rush service available!

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The post Interview: The Oscar-Nominated Writers Behind The Disaster Artist (Part Two) appeared first on WritersDigest.com.

from Writing Editor Blogs – WritersDigest.com http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/script-notes/screenwriting-film/interview-oscar-nominated-writers-behind-disaster-artist-part-two

[char27martin]

IELTS test in Australia – February 2018 (General Training)

Our friend G took the IELTS test in Australia and remembered the following Writing and Speaking questions:

Writing test

Writing task 1 (a letter)

A while ago you have lent a friend a suitcase, which he/she has not returned yet. Writing a letter to him/her reminding to bring it back and say

– What suitcase and when did he/she borrow it? – Why do you need it back? – What should he/she do about it?

Writing Task 2 (an essay)

Some people believe we need to pay higher taxes in order for the government to build population’s basic needs services. Others say government should find other means to get funds for it. What should the government do, in your opinion?

Speaking test

Interview

– What is your full name? – Can I see your ID? – Where are you from? – Do you work or study? – What do you do? – Do you like your job? – Do you like rain? – Why is that? – When do you have your meals? – What is your favorite meal? Why?

Cue Card

Talk about an item you have bought that you are happy with. Please say

– What is it? – When and where did you buy it? – Why do you like it so much?

Discussion

– What are the purchasing patterns of your community today? – Why do you think it is so? – What do you think about a consumerism approach? Why?

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[char27martin]

Where Do Characters Come From?

By Mitch Silver

When people find out I write novels—thrillers—for a living, they often ask, “Where do you get your story ideas from?” No surprise, that’s the question a lot of writers get. The second-most-asked question is, “Where do you get your characters from?”

Hmmm, that one’s trickier. The obvious answer, even if I don���t phrase it this way, is, “From my brain, of course.” But, how did Larissa Mendelova Klimt, the heroine of The Bookworm, my newest historical thriller, get in my brain? Or Amy Greenberg, the Yale art historian who was the protagonist of my first book, In Secret Service? For that matter, how did any of the other characters—the good guys, the bad guys, the real guys (Noël Coward, Winston Churchill, Antony Blunt, JFK, Marlene Dietrich in The Bookworm; Ian Fleming and Princess Diana, among others, in Service)—lodge up there all together?

Alchemy? Don’t think so. I’m pretty sure characters come from the life you live and the people you know, the books you read, the movies you see. And the paranoia you yourself bring to the party.

David Cornwell, a.k.a. John Le Carré, says, “My characters are drawn from bits of different people.” Sure enough, I used a girl I knew from high school (oh so long ago!) as the basis for Amy Greenberg, especially her ability to sketch and her love of all things Irish. My wife Ellen is probably the starting point for Larissa Mendelova Klimt and the way she solves problems by letting her unconscious do the work. I’m mixed in there as well, with my appetite for history and my willingness to research trivial tidbits to death.

But none of the above accounts for the fact that I write history-based thrillers, with incidents from the past serving as deadly tripwires in the present. You’ll remember that thrillers, as opposed to mysteries, are defined as stories in which the protagonist is in personal jeopardy … life-or-death jeopardy. I’ve never been in life-or-death jeopardy, unless you count the time, after a Lovin’ Spoonful concert in New York’s Central Park, I tried to make a left across Park Avenue.

No, there has to be something more for a writer of suspense than Mom and Dad and people you’ve known. More even than all the stuff books and movies and the TV news plant in your brain. For me … it’s the nightmares I sweat through.

My nightmares are always the same, ever since I was a little kid afraid of the dark: I know something I shouldn’t know, and I’m running away from the people who want to shut me up. Permanently. None of those naked-in-public or not-having-studied-for-the-test dreams some people call nightmares. I’m talking about the thugs who are in on the secret, the plot: the bad guys with guns … in cars … or in boats…or in planes—hunting me down. Maybe I’ve seen North by Northwest too many times.

Non-fiction writers have it easy. Their characters are flesh and blood humans whose looks, speech and other characteristics can be simply jotted down on the page. But novelists have more work to do.

11 Resources for Thriller and Mystery Writers

I’m absolutely sure when I think of the people who’ll populate a story of mine that I transmute the real-life people I’ve known and the vivid fictional characters I’ve read or seen on the screen through the meat grinder of my terrifying dreams. So, since we’re talking about where characters come from, here are a few of my favorite books and films that have, well, plot-driven plots and characters you just can’t forget or ignore when you sit down to write.

Let’s start with by James Grady’s Six Days of the Condor, which was cut in half to three days for the movie starring Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway. Ronald Malcolm, a guy who reads books for a living, goes out to get sandwiches and returns to find everyone else in the private library machine-gunned to death. He’s on the run from evil forces the rest of the way. A Mitch Silver nightmare stripped to its bare essentials.

Then there’s The Parallax View by Loren Singer, a book made into a movie starring Warren Beatty in the paranoid 70s. Same deal: Presidential aspirant is gunned down, and the photographer who got the picture has to run for his life.

Of course, Hitchcock was the real pro when it comes to ordinary people caught up in villainous plots. The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, and the aforementioned North by Northwest all involve regular folks who uncover conspiracies that may cost them their lives. Certainly their sleep … and mine!

Those plot-driven plots and their evildoers constitute an acre of library shelves, going back to Graham Greene and The Ministry of Fear, made into a great noir film starring Ray Milland. For Milland’s character, an Englishman named Arthur Rowe, the trip to the charity fair in the countryside (as the blurb on Amazon puts it) “is a joyful step back into adolescence, a chance to forget the nightmare of the Blitz and the aching guilt of having mercifully murdered his sick wife. Just released from a sanitarium, he’s surviving alone, outside the war, until he happens to win a cake at the fair. From that moment on, he’s ruthlessly hunted by Nazi agents.”

I’ve read the book and seen the movie every time it comes around on TV. For the hours I’m immersed in the story, I am Arthur Rowe, and I hang on by my fingernails right to the thrilling end.

There’s at least as much good nightmare material in William Goldman’s Marathon Man. Another group of Nazis, this time leftovers from the war, are after Tom “Babe” Levy, a graduate student in (what else!) History at Columbia. They want to know what his CIA agent of a brother might have told him before he died. Dental visits will never be the same.

Now that I think about it, I probably based my suave villain in In Secret Service, a guy I named Devlin for good reason, as much on the American baddie in Marathon Man as on anyone I’ve known in real life.

Want to feed a nightmare? Ira Levin went all the way in Rosemary’s Baby, where nice, sweet Rosemary finds herself living next door to a coven of devil worshipers in the Dakota. Mayhem ensues.

Last but absolutely not least is Coma, by Robin Cook. His protagonist, Susan Wheeler, is an attractive, 23-year-old third-year medical student working as a trainee at Boston Memorial Hospital. She stumbles upon something not-quite-right in OR 8: people come in for minor surgeries and go out vegetables.

Now that I think of it, I must have modeled my Professor of Geo-History at Moscow State University, Lara the Bookworm, at least partially on smart, determined Susan Wheeler. They, too, must match their wits against the evil that men do. Without knowing who those evil men are.

So the next time someone asks me where my characters come from, I’ll answer truthfully.

“I dream them up.”

Mitch Silver was born in Brooklyn and grew up on Long Island. He attended Yale (B.A. in History) and Harvard Law School (“I lasted three days. I know the law through Wednesday, but after that…”). He was an advertising writer for several of the big New York agencies, living in Paris for a year with his wife, Ellen Highsmith Silver, while he was European Creative Director on the Colgate-Palmolive account. A previously published novelist (In Secret Service), Mitch and his wife Ellen live in Greenwich, Connecticut and have two children: Sloane is a nurse at Wake Forest Medical Center and Perry is an actor and the drummer for Sky Pony, a band in New York. Mitch also won the American Song Festival Lyric Grand Prize for “Sleeping Single in a Double Bed.” His blood type is O positive, and he always writes his biography in the third person. For more info, please go to mitchsilverauthor.com.

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from Writing Editor Blogs – WritersDigest.com http://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/by-writing-genre/mystery-thriller/thriller-story-ideas-where-do-characters-come-from