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"He also hews to the rules of myth, as did the book's author, Jeanne DuPrau. Doon lives with his dad, and Lina has lost both parents, and will soon lose her grandmother. Fractured families, dead or absent parents -- this is the emotional space storytellers have set aside for ages (Bambi, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Harry Potter) in order to allow their fictional charges to run off into places that children should know better than to go. This is the land of childhood terrors, filled with subterranean fears and the yawning gulf of adulthood. It's the last stop for children -- the place where you can cry in the dark, but nobody is ever coming to turn on the light and pat your back and tell you everything is going to be all right in the morning. You have to make it that way yourself."
~Neely Tucker, Washington Post, in a review of the film "City of Ember"
"I write to find out what I'm thinking."
~ Edward Albee
As Frost might have written, "The woods are lovely, dark and thick. But I have many butts to kick and some to poke and just one stick."
~ Garrison Keillor, 2006 |
Writers on Writing (complete archive of the NY Times series, writers exploring literary themes)
E-mail Pat (pat at patmcnees dot com)
Letters of Note (fascinating letters, postcards, telegrams, faxes, and memos--that you were never expected to see)
Aha Moments (from the brilliant Mutual of Omaha campaign to record people's stories about moments of clarity, defining moments when they gained the wisdom to change their life)
TED: Ideas worth sharing Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world
Freelance National Anthem (Bill Dyszel, 4 minutes)
KeepMeOut (addicted to a website? bookmark this page and it will remind you to get back to work!)
Today's Front Pages (check out Newseum's U.S. map -- move your cursor across the map and see the front pages change)
Online Education Database150 resources to help you write better, faster, or more persuasively
Help a reporter out (HARO)(useful for reporters and for sources)
Paris Review "Writers at Work" Interviews (selections from 1953 on, a gift to the world, and with a single click you can view a manuscript page with the writer's edits)
The Onion (if the news is making you sick, try this approach)
Truth-o-meter (St. Petersburg Times, www.politifact.com)(St. Pete Times on whether, and how much, various notable people are telling the truth)
Fact Check (Annenberg sorts political truths from half-truths)
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For screenwriters, playwrights, documentary filmmakers, critics, fans Crying at the Movies: A Film Memoir by Madelon Sprengnether, about which Library Journal writes: "By exploring her extreme reactions over the years to a range of films, including Pather Panchali, The Piano, and Shadowlands, and trying to place them in the context of her own life, Sprengnether has created a vivid, passionate description of the therapeutic value of cinema."
Harlan Ellison, the Great Ranter, writer of "speculative fiction"
Harlan Ellison: A Kind of Twisted Fantasy, Kurt Andersen's interview with Ellison on Studio 360 radio program (and check out the Bonus Track: "Harlan Ellison uncut")
http://www.studio360.org/episodes/2009/05/29
Click here: http://www.sundancechannel.com/digital-shorts/#/series/20958611001/20977196001 for readings and film clips starring Harlan Ellison, a series of Sundance "digital shorts (breakthrough Web videos for progressive minds)." Most ranters get boring; Ellison's rants are as verbally creative as his "speculative fiction."
"I have never written science fiction...What I write is a kind of twisted fantasy." ~ Harlan Ellison
Movie review sites and databases
To check out reviews, review-score averageor "consensus at a glance":
Internet Movie Database (IMDB) (great for for when you know the name of the actor but not the film, or only the name of one of the films one of the actors played in; you can retrace your steps and fill in the blanks -- for reviews, look at "external reviews"; plug in zip code at "showtimes & tickets" and see where it's playing near you)
Rotten Tomatoes (scores movies as fresh or rotten)
Movie Review Intelligence (monitors and scores reviews of dozens of critics)
Metacritic.com (review aggregator for movies, video/DVDs, TV, music, and games).
Is anyone good missing?
[Go Top]
Books on screenwriting, playwriting, video production, and documentary-making
Akers, William M.. Your Screenplay Sucks!: 100 Ways to Make It Great
Artis, Anthony Q.. The Shut Up and Shoot Documentary Guide: A Down & Dirty DV Production
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Chandler, Gael. Cut by Cut: Editing Your Film or Video
Chitlik, Paul. Rewrite: A Step-by-Step Guide to Strengthen Structure, Characters, and Drama in Your Screenplay
Crowell, Thomas A.. The Pocket Lawyer for Filmmakers: A Legal Toolkit for Independent Producers
Douglas, Pamela. Writing the TV Drama Series: How to Succeed as a Professional Writer in TV
Dunne, Peter. Emotional Structure: Creating the Story Beneath the Plot
Egri, Lajos. The Art of Dramatic Writing
Epstein, Alex. Crafty Screenwriting: Writing Movies That Get Made
Field, Syd. Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting
Field, Syd. The Screenwriter's Workbook
Field, Syd. Four Screenplays: Studies in the American Screenplay
Flynn, Danny Martin. How Not to Write a Screenplay: 101 Common Mistakes Most Screenwriters Make
Glebas, Francis. Directing the Story: Professional Storytelling and Storyboarding Techniques for Live Action and Animation
Goldberg, Eric. Character Animation Crash Course
Hunter, Lew. Lew Hunter's Screenwriting 434: The Industry's Premier Teacher Reveals the Secrets of the Successful Screenplay (the one the Miller Bros used)
Iglesias, Karl. The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters: Insiders' Secrets from Hollywood's Top Writers
Keane, Christopher. How to Write a Selling Screenplay
King, Viki. How to Write a Movie in 21 Days
Laybourne, Kit. The Animation Book: A Complete Guide to Animated Filmmaking--From Flip-Books to Sound Cartoons to 3- D Animation
Maschwitz, Stu. The DV Rebel's Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap
McKee, Robert. Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting
Riley, Christopher. The Hollywood Standard: The Complete and Authoritative Guide to Script Format and Style
Rosenblum, Ralph and Robert Karen. When the Shooting Stops, the Cutting Begins: A Film Editor's Story
Seger, Linda. Making a Good Script Great
Snyder, Blake. Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need
Thurlow, Clifford. Making Short Films: The Complete Guide from Script to Screen
Trottier, David. The Screenwriters' Bible: A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your Script
Truby, John. The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller
Vachon, Christine. Shooting to Kill
Van Sijll, Jennifer. Cinematic Storytelling: The 100 Most Powerful Film Conventions Every Filmmaker Must Know
Vogler, Christopher. The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers
Whitcomb, Cynthia. The Writer's Guide to Writing Your Screenplay: How to Write Great Screenplays for Movies and Television
Memoirs and Biography:
· Goldman, William. Adventures in the Screen Trade; Which Lie Did I Tell: More Adventures in the Screen Trade
Meyer, Nicholas. The View from the Bridge: Memories of Star Trek and a Life in Hollywood
Miller, Logan and Noah Miller. Either You're In or You're In the Way: Two Brothers, Twelve Months, and One Filmmaking Hell-Ride to Keep a Promise to Their Father
You'll find reviews of these books at the Amazon links imbedded in the titles and at this website: Shooting Scripts.
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