be the story

The Center for Interact-a Huh?

This made me laugh so hard, I just had to post it. I was looking at “interactive advertising” via Google. (The reason why is a subject for another post.) And I found the Center for Interactive Advertising. On their web site, right at the top, here’s what they say— But first, a warning: Don’t try to understand this. I don’t actually think it means anything.

The purpose of the Center for Interactive Advertising is to advance knowledge and understanding of advertising and other persuasive communication which involves “mutual action” on the part of senders and receivers of those messages by pursuing a research agenda to examine critical issues related to interactive advertising, computer-mediated communication and electronic commerce.

Yeah, well, for an advertising outfit… I’m sold!

But seriously, if you write like that, you’ll never sell anyone on anything. Your readers’ eyes will glaze over and they’ll go on to read something else. We readers don’t have time, attention, or mental energy to spend on dense gobbledygook like that. If you write like that, punch up your style.

-TimK

The Fourteen-Day Screenplay

As an aspiring screenwriter, have you ever felt left out by the aspiring novelists and their NaNoWriMo? What kind of a silly name is NaNoWriMo anyhow? No one can even pronounce it right! It’s much easier to pronounce “14-day screenplay,” and it rhymes! (Well, I guess “NaNoWriMo” would rhyme, too, if we could actually say it.)

The next 14-day screenplay is coming up fast, June 3 - 17, at 14DayScreenPlay.com.

(By the way, the part above, about NaNoWriMo, is just funny silliness, good-natured ribbing at what is actually a great annual event. )

-TimK

My Interview at The Writing Show

Paula B. at The Writing Show a couple weeks ago interviewed me about storytelling in video games. Here’s the podcast audio, and please check out the other fascinating interviews she has over at her site. The Writing Show is one of my favorite podcasts, and one of the few I listen to regularly.

-TimK

Setting the Mood With Conflict

In a story, starting a fight is an easy way to make the mood tense. But conflict can do more than just make a story feel tense, suspenseful. Conflict engages the audience. It makes us sympathize with the characters and root for them. And it heightens other emotions in the story.

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Using Conflict to Keep the Flow

How do you add in description, humorous banter, back-story, asides, character reactions, all without interrupting the flow of words off the page?

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Short Stories for Success

Holly Lisle said something pretty profound on the latest episode of her podcast. She was talking about prologues, whether or not to include them, but the advice applies to writing in general: (Read more…)

Story Games and Empty Reviews

It occurred to me recently that game reviewers ignore story. I don’t think they do it on purpose. I’d like to think they just don’t grok story. Or maybe they think gamers don’t care about story. So they talk about gameplay. They talk about genre, perspective, graphics, audio, controls. But they ignore story. Two examples from videogames.yahoo.com illustrate the point well.

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So Much Time And So Little To Do!

No wait— Reverse that.

Pamela Slim at Escape from Cubicle Nation understands what it’s like to have too much to do and too little time.

I still have not completed my ezine for April. And today is … May 1! Egads! I have babysitting 2 1/2 days a week, then the rest of my work gets done in the evenings… articles… “life management” stuff… paying bills… paperwork… my gigantic “Successful Manager’s Handbook”…

By the way, Escape from Cubicle Nation is a must-read blog. Pam Slim’s articles are interesting and fun to read.

-TimK