Aram Zucker-Scharff

You should be embarrassed to like Young Adult novels.:

katiecoyle:

You should be embarrassed to like novels at all. You should be embarrassed to know how to read. You should be embarrassed to take pleasure in words, arranged into sentences, arranged into paragraphs, arranged into scenes, arranged into books. It’s unnatural, and you should be embarrassed.

You…

amandaonwriting:

The storytelling elements:

1. The Contract

In the very beginning, you have to make a promise. Will this be violent? Scary? Fun? Tense? Dramatic?

2. The Pull

Keep it light in the beginning. You don’t want to scare people away by being too dense — you must trust The Contract.

3. The Incident

This is the event that sets everything in motion. Should occur early and keep the story together.

4. The Reveal

Just before the Point Of No Return, the main character learns what the story is really about.

5. Point Of No Return

The forces of good are faced with an impossible decision that concerns fear, safety, love, hate, revenge or despair.

6. Mini-Climax

Sorry, but you must allow the the forces of evil to have an epic win.

7. All-Is-Lost Moment

The moment where all is lost. You must portray the deepest despair for the forces of good.

8. News Of Hope

This is the possibility for one of the side characters to shine. A light that shines into the total darkness of the moment.

9. Climax

The shit hits the fan and the good puts everything at stake and overcomes — despite impossible odds.

10. The End

Public displays of relief and happiness, love and forgiveness. It’s great! We also learn that the hero has evolved.

Article from Doktor Spinn written by Jerry Silfwer aka Doktor Spinn

amandaonwriting:

Quotable – Anthony Burgess, born 25 February 1917, died 22 November 1993

Burgess: on the fate of the English language

‘English has a strange knack of doing well for itself, however much the old guard booms about threats to purity, the dangers of pollution. English did well out of the Danish and Norman invaders; it will continue to profit from the strange loan-forms and coinages of the mixed populations that—in both England and America—represent the new ethnological order. Whatever form of English ultimately prevails—the British or the American variety—it will still be a great and rich and perpetually growing language, the most catholic medium of communication that the world has ever seen.
Language survives everything—corruption, misuse, ignorance, ineptitude. Linking man to man in the dark, it brought man out of the dark. It is the human glory which antecedes all others. It merits not only our homage but our constant and intelligent study.’
~ Language Made Plain by Anthony Burgess

10 Anthony Burgess Quotes

How much my novel cost me:

Writing my first book got me into debt. To finish the next one, I had to become solvent

This is an amazing read for a lot of reasons, 
for painting a reality to the insanity of Girls, who’s creator Gould sets up as sort of her foil; 
for being an honest and well-written argument both for and against novel writing (as opposed to the quasi-mystical crap you’ll usually find); 
and for being a sort of snapshot of the literate Millennial.

More than that, it’s fascinating as a sort of counter-narrative to the old stories from our parents: this is no fairy tale, you’re not special, sometimes getting by is more important than starving for the ideal.