Hillary DePiano's Blog, page 76

Why fear of formatting, filmmaking & the future shouldn't intimidate you out of writing a script

There's something familiar about prose. We've all read at least a book or two in our lives and we understand generally how words flow together in a story. There's also something comfortingly self-contained about writing a book or story. We write it and someone reads it. The experience is pretty much complete with no external influence necessary.

But people get intimidated by scripts. I think it's because they have this aura of mystery around them, brought on by how we see TV, movies and...

A little something I just made for my own amusement…

Because at least once in everything I write, someone tells someone else to "clam down."

Sick of your novel? Stuck in a story? Rework your prose as a script for a fresh perspective.

We've all got that story that we haven't been able to get quite right yet. Maybe it's a novel that stalled out so you never finished it. Maybe it's a short story that just isn't working no matter how many revisions you do. Maybe it's that memoir that you just can't figure out the right way to tell.

Try rewriting it as a script even if you've never written a script before in your life. Try that same story out as a movie, stage play or comic book. Here's why:

You'll get a fresh perspective...

Playscripts' #PitchNPlay contest: Want a publishing deal & a $1000 advance for your Script Frenzy script?

[image error]One of the most frequent questions I get about Script Frenzy boils down to this: OK, maybe I'm willing to go out of my comfort zone and try writing a script but what would I do with it once I finished?

If you're one of those people who are thinking this, I want you to check out Playscripts #PitchNPlay contest.

All you need to do is write a comedic, PG-13 stage play script of 20 to 40 pages with at least 8 characters based on one of these three general pitches:

The real Puck messes with hearts...

How one NaNoWriMo veteran tried Script Frenzy… and ended up preferring script writing to novels

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OK, a little background. Over on the Script Frenzy site, some of us NaNoWriMo alumni were talking about Screnzy and what it's like being a veteran of both. nature-elf aka Melinda Chen mentioned that she was originally reluctant to try Script Frenzy because it seemed so different from National Novel Writing Month but, once she tried it, she ended up discovering that she liked it better than NaNoWriMo! Since so many Wrimos express reluctance to try Screnzy for this very reason, I asked if...

Meanwhile, on my other blogs… March 4, 2012

Don't read all the sites I blog for? Here's what you missed in the last week outside of HillaryDePiano.com.

E-Commerce & Social Networking Week in Review March 3, 2012Straight from the source, here's what happened in the world of e-commerce, social networking and selling online in the past week: Blog Changes and Enhancements Over the last few weeks we've been busy making improvements to the ePN blog that we hope will improve the overall user experience. First, we migrated our five global blog...

Giveaway Alert! Grab a copy of my award winning novella, The Author, for free this weekend!

OK, fine. Because you asked for it, I'm giving you two more free days. The book will be free again on March 3rd and 4th but this is absolutely 100% your last chance to get it free! -Hillary

The free promotion for Daddy Issues was a rousing success so I wanted to give you another little present. From February 18th through midnight on February 20th (President's Day), you can grab The Author free from Amazon.

Don't have a Kindle? Here's how to read your free copy in your browser, on your...

Photo from GBHS's production of The Love of Three Oranges

During a rehearsal of the Great Bend High School production of "The Love of Three Oranges" Wednesday, the King of Hearts (Alan Clark) meets the world-famous clown Truffaldino (Danen Levingston). Left to Right: David Webster, Levingston, Dalin Hinds, Holly Mosier, Clark, Aaron Mull.

Check out this great picture from Great Bend High School's production of The Love of Three Oranges coming up this weekend! You can read the article about the production here.

How many characters can you identify?

...

Five things you should know before you start editing your novel or script

Image via Wikipedia

Editing. Maybe you envision some proofreading, correcting a few typos, and trimming a few sections. But until you've actually edited an entire book or script you don't really know quite what you're in for. Here's five things you should really know about editing before you begin.

Editing always takes longer than you think it will. Figure out how long you think it will take you to finish editing your project and then double it. Now double it again. Trust me on this one… no...

So sick of being sick

I was on vacation the week of February 13th. It was lovely. After a very busy holiday season and depressingly just as busy January, it was a very nice little break. I came home feeling ready to work and with a plan for a productive rest of the month. Sadly, it was not to be.

I'm sick. I don't normally indulge in public airing of grievances but, as I cannot recall ever having been this sick in my whole life, I feel a need to record this ridiculous week of misery for posterity. I think it's...