Ruth Buchanan's Blog, page 31

How to Write a Script

The Ballad of Julio César
May 2012It doesn't matter your background, aspirations, hopes, dreams, or talents. Even if you've never written a creative word in your life, by following the following steps, you'll be cranking out the hits in no time. That's a guarantee. 
Tragedies, comedies, farces, monologues, dialogues, screenplays -- all of them lie at the very tips of your fingers. Yes, your fingers. 
I offer this advice as a free service to the community, asking nothing in return. Just...

How to Be Awesome

This weekend when my sister turned up for church, she sported sets of scratches up and down her legs that seemed to speak to a recent tussle with Wolverine.
"What happened to you?" I hissed.
"I ran through a blackberry bush," she shrugged.
Given her day-to-day activities, such answers should no longer prompt a browraise. We're speaking here of someone who was late to a training session because she first stopped by a friend's tack box for a Horse Anniversary party before stopping to help another...

How to Survive the Fall

Here we find ourselves knee-deep in September, facing another change in season. If you're one of those people who dreads the onset of colder temperatures, read on. (Even if you're not, read on anyway. I'd hate to think that I typed all of this out for nothing.)
How to Survive the Fall:
1.  Brace Yourselves for Pumpkin-flavored Everything. Cookies, coffees, teas, candies, candles, air fresheners, flavored creamers--you name it. Personally, I don't see the attraction. If I wanted squash-flav...

How to Feel Blessed

Recently, a team from our church returned from a short-term trip to Haiti. As thrilled as I was to sit and listen to their testimonies of what they'd learned and experienced, I couldn't help but feel a tiny sliver of disquiet; for among the spiritual lessons learned, most team members cited that the trip had taught them above all to be grateful - grateful for the material comfort and benefits that seem to come by birthright to most Americans. 
These comforts and benefits are generally sty...

How to Wait for the End

Whether in books, movies, or plays, endings are always difficult to wait for; however, the hope of a satisfying conclusion will keep us holding on through the dark moments, because in our hearts, we feel assured that all of the angst will be worthwhile if only we can see it through to the promise of that last scene. 
Such hopes have kept us wading through books that have broken our hearts, have kept us holding on to a beloved television series long after it went into its final throes of a...

How to Become a Ghostwriter

A friend recently asked me how I got started in ghostwriting. I really had to think about it for a few minutes, because much like Mr. Darcy's self-professed love for Elizabeth, "I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun." 
In keeping with the general tone of my adult life, success as a ghostwriter came to me as a complete surprise. I never intended to do any such thing. 
I figured that if I planned to spend hours feverishly pounding at the keyboard in tragic de...

How to Solve a Problem in Four Easy Steps

There are two groups of people on Facebook.
First, there are those who seem to have no problems and spend each day in shafts of buttery sunlight drinking gently-steaming cups of  perfectly-brewed herbal tea while watching kittens frolic in the dewey meadows of their perfect, hypothetical lives. Their children, golden-haired cherubs with no sticky-patches-turned-dirt-smears adorning their fresh cheeks, do differential calculus while potty training themselves. Their bosses love them, their...

How to Support a Book Habit, Part 2

MEANWHILE, INSIDE MY BRAIN...
Since we've already covered How to Choose a Book and How to Find Time to Read, it's now time to get down to the nitty gritty.

How to Support Your Book Habit without Breaking the Bank:

First, you would do well to note the  Reader's Prime Directive :

Never pay for books unless absolutely forced to do so.
Let's face it: like any habit, marathon reading can prove quite pricey. Even if you were only to read one book per week, the charges would really add up. 
A...

How to Support a Book Habit, Part 1

If you pay any attention at all to the list of books scrolling down the right-hand column of this blog, you're aware that I like to read. 
I like to read a lot.
For some reason, this fact seems to make people curious. The top three questions that people generally ask about my reading habits are as follows:

How do you decide what to read?How do find so much time to read?How can you afford it?

Since I've already covered How to Choose a Book in a previous post, I'll spend the next few post...

Things We Do in Summer

As we shiver through the long dark of winter, we eagerly look for the first hint of summer's warming glow. We glory in the lengthening days. We revel in shrugging off the mortal coil of thick sweaters and woolen underpants. The first night we sleep with our windows open, our giant collective heart throbs with unbridled joy.  
But then summer actually arrives, bringing in its train the forgotten horrors of sunburn, crowds of tourists, swarms of flies, plagues of locust, cars converted...