Billy Wisdom

One of the best screenwriters of all time is Billy Wilder. My personal favorite of his is Some Like it Hot.

I saw this list of Billy Wilder's ten screenwriting tips and wanted to share some of his sage advice:

1. The audience is fickle.

2. Grab ‘em by the throat and never let ‘em go.

3. Develop a clean line of action for your leading character.

4. Know where you’re going.

5. The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.

6. If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.

7. A tip from Lubitsch: Let the audience add up two plus two. They’ll love you forever.

8. In doing voice-overs, be careful not to describe what the audience already sees. Add to what they’re seeing.

9. The event that occurs at the second act curtain triggers the end of the movie.

10. The third act must build, build, build in tempo and action until the last event, and then—that’s it. Don’t hang around.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!
The turkey is in the oven, the pies are lined up in the fridge and Arlene is diligently prepping the green bean casserole, and the sweet potatoe souffle! I am taking a minute to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone here on the blog.

Here are a few things that I am grateful for this year:
Three wonderful children
Fabulous friends who understand me (especially the awesome Inkers!)
Loving family, even though they are far away.
A loyal dog (I'm missing right now as we are out of town.)
My husband was going to be at the top of this list, but he just mocked me so he's fallen off the list momentarily. (Seriouly, he mocked me on Thanksgiving while Arlene and I are preparing a feast. He'll be lucky if he get a giblet much less a turkey leg.)
Back to the list:
A warm home and enough of everything I need, but not all that I want so that I still have things to reach for.

What are you grateful for?

PLEASE READ!

Best news story ever! Please click here.

Warning: If you are a fan of Breaking Dawn, this story might not be for you.

Slacker

I'm feeling incredibly unmotivated to do anything productive today. I could blame my very long work week, the icy cold weather and ensuing first real snow of fall, or the fact that hubby is down with a quite violent stomach virus. The result is, I don't think I am going anywhere today, and the only things on my to-do list are some Christmas shopping (online, of course), a serious game of Seinfeld Monopoly with my oldest, and a snuggly movie evening with the whole fam, with sick daddy at a safe distance.

That being said, I'm going to continue my slacker trend with my post today and invite you to visit the blog of a literary agent, Rachelle Gardner. I have found her blog to be very interesting and informative, and I hope you will too. Please enjoy while I switch over to Barnes and Noble to order some presents!

www.rachellegardner.com

Hijackers beware! Oh yeah and buy "Variant" by Rob Wells Today!

I see that my Thursday spot was hijacked today, but I do have a message I want you all to see.

Larry Correia posted about some struggles our friend Robison Wells is having and how we as a writing and reading community can make a difference.
Check it out!!

HERE

I Missed My Wednesday

I missed it.  Not really.  I was delightfully busy with my family.  But I completely forgot all of you.  My apologies.

My daughter (12) has loved writing for several years now.  She's pretty accomplished.

But my son (10) has never loved it.  In fact his teachers and I have struggled to find ways for him to write anything.  When the rest of the class was writing on a preassigned topic he was free to write about anything he wanted.  Just so that he would actually write.

Yesterday as I was driving him and two other Inkers' children home he announced that he loves writing now.  I almost wrecked the car for shock (not really).  I haven't read his work but I am just so happy that he loves to write.

Then the other Inker children talked about how much they love to write as well. 

As mothers, we will influence our kids for good or bad.  But I think its pretty cool that our kids are following in our footsteps and expressing themselves on paper.

Matched

I just finished reading Matched by Ally Condie, a Utah based author. Matched is the first of a trilogy, YA, dystopian. The second book, Crossed, was just released last week, and the third is due next November.

Here is a plot summary courtesy of Amazon:

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

I really enjoyed this book, which is inspired by 1984 but is less gritty, with elements of Farenheit 451 and the Stepford Wives. I liked the characters and especially the relationships, with love being an overarching theme. Whether the bond is family, friends, or passion/true love, they are all well represented here. I recommend it as a good read and hope the story stays strong through the next two books.

As a side note for those of us who aspire to be published authors, Condie blogged about her journey to publication here if you are interested (there are two parts).

Pinterest

Have you heard? There's a new way to track your Internet browsing.  Its called Pinterest.  Now I will admit that I use it more for keeping track of sewing projects or cool decorating ideas or yummy food I want to try.  But I also use it to keep track of Writing Tips. 

Check it out and see how it expands your world! Or at least your World Wide Web.
(If you want an invite, leave a comment with your email and I'll send you one.)