LESS IS MORE

Recently, during a table read of a screenplay, I found myself desperately struggling to stay focused on the story.  The dialog grabbed me, but then it was followed by overly detailed description that in some cases filled entire pages before the next words of dialog were uttered.  To escape the torture of this interminable glut of narrative, I allowed my mind to drift away into pleasant images of my upcoming weekend plans.

Sound harsh?  Maybe so, but the truth remains that excessive description is a fairly common problem amongst new writers and writers who never bothered to educate themselves in the craft.  Basically, you want to include only those details that will add something meaningful to your story.  You want your writing to be tight.

The Social Network And You

Recently, I saw The Social Network, the movie about Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook.  If you haven’t seen it, then I urge you to go…immediately, especially if you’re a writer, film-maker or someone who just needs the motivation to keep working toward your goals.

I was blown away, not only by the superb acting, but also by the manner in which writer, Aaron Sorkin, captured the spirit and internal force that drove Zuckerberg to succeed.  In the movie, he’s an animal, hungry for membership into exclusiveness, as if being a Harvard student isn’t quite exclusive enough.

You Just Put One Foot In Front Of The Other…

Kris Kringle and Winter Warlock Putting One Foot In Front of The Other 

YAHOOOOOO!

Writers out there, I have something exciting to share. After a month of working a full-time job, which exhausts me thoroughly, tending to home and family obligations, pushing myself beyond my limits of sleep deprivation and surviving a week at home and in bed with a sinus infection, stomach virus and Strep, I have finally posted at least one entry to all four of my blogs!

Balancing Act 101

Image by Rebecca Ford

When I launched this blog, I did so with the intention of posting something new and inspirational at least once per week. Something that would keep myself and my readers motivated to write on a daily basis. But if you look at the date of my first and only post thus far, and you do some second grade calculating, you’ll notice that I’m exactly a month and two days late.   As a teacher, I would consider this unacceptable from any of my students, and for sure they’d end up with a zero for the assignment.

Camera! Action! Roll’em!

Photo by Rebecca Ford

After three days of educating myself about blog hosting, domain names, and how to customize a blog’s theme, which I still haven’t mastered…by the way, I have finally moved this blog from Blogger to WordPress, and have it up and running after two years of dormancy.

Yaaaahoooo!!!  Let’s get this blog started!

It only took three extremely long days of neglecting household chores and three endless nights of sifting through websites full of text, watching more than enough YouTube tutorials for a lifetime, and listening to a variety of semi-interesting podcasts, to have finally emerged from heaps and mounds of overwhelming information. Let’s just say, I’m glad it’s over and I can now start blogging!  Oh, but wait, I have three other blogs to work on yet. Check’em out in my blogroll, and don’t forget to come back here soon for updates.