In this issue, an author shares what she learned about storytelling from working on movie trailers; plus, writing true crime, jousting for writers, and more! |
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Movie Trailer School of Storytelling |
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After graduating from Harvard College armed with an English degree, I moved to Los Angeles and landed a job in publishing. A couple of months into my employment, the imprint was disbanded—right after I’d signed lease agreements for both an apartment and a car.
(Why I Don't Want to Quit My Day Job for Writing.)
I spent the next few weeks applying to every job posting I could find, but I wasn’t hearing back from anyone. As my bank account hit an all-time low, I remember staying up past 3am, just scrolling through postings, when I stumbled across an opening for a Jr Writer/Producer position at a boutique motion picture marketing company. In other words, movie trailers.
I was instantly intrigued. As a frequent movie-goer, I was already a huge fan of trailers—in fact, I always made sure to get to the theater extra early so I wouldn’t miss a single one. Yet I had never thought about who actually created those mini-movies or what went into making them. Read more...
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Researching and Writing True Crime |
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In December 2018, on the Law and Crime Network, I came across a video of a man named Brian Winchester giving testimony during a trial in Tallahassee. I knew nothing about the case or why he was testifying, but what he had to say was utterly gripping. For the first time, he was confessing to murdering his best friend, Mike Williams, 18 years earlier, to marry Mike’s wife, Denise, with whom he’d been having a long-standing affair. His testimony was extraordinary—yes, there was plenty of horrifying detail, but his guilt and anguish were palpable.
(4 Ethical Rules for Writing True Crime.)
Immediately, I began a deep dive into the details of the case, and was riveted by its characters, tangents, and secrets: A righteous Baptist couple involved in a sordid sexual affair. A man who apparently drowned while duck hunting, whose body never surfaced, and who was believed to have been eaten by alligators. His ex-wife, who became a police informant. His devoted elderly mother, who never stopped looking for her son. Read more...
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Rebecca J. Sanford: Stay True to Yourself and Your Story |
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"I didn’t anticipate just how slow the process would be. I work in the tech industry, where things move pretty quickly, so I had to adjust my pace and expectations for publishing. But patience and humility are important values, and the traditional publishing process definitely presents an opportunity to hone both." Read more... |
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Jousting for Writers (FightWrite®) |
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I love receiving questions from writers fighting their way through a fight scene. The most recent I received was from Dakotah G. who asked about jousting. Her character needs to dress the part, follow the rules, and hit their mark. So, in this post, we will do a flyover of jousting and help Dakotah’s character, and maybe yours as well, joust their way to victory or vanquishment. Read more...
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| Inspired by Nature
Nature has always been a source of inspiration for writers, and here we mean nature in the broadest sense. From what we typically think of as nature (e.g. flowers and trees, animals and weather systems, etc.) to the nature of human nature, the July/August 2024 issue of Writer’s Digest aims to explore how writers can use nature as an influence on their work.
Click here to learn more >> |
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Deep-Rooted vs. Deep-Seated vs. Deep-Seeded (Grammar Rules) |
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There are some terms used so frequently and interchangeably by people and organizations that it's easy to believe they're all real terms. And I admit, when I first started investigating this grammar rule that I thought I'd learn when it's most appropriate to use each term. However, when it comes to "deep-rooted," "deep-seated," and "deep-seeded," only two are real terms. The other is an impostor. So let's take a look at which are the real terms and when to use each. Read more...
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| From Your Writer's Digest Editor: Robert Lee Brewer
Robert Lee Brewer is a senior editor for Writer’s Digest and former editor of the Writer's Market book series. He is also the author of Smash Poetry Journal and Solving the World's Problems. He hopes his two youngest children have a good first day of school today. |
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