Wonderful Q & A in the A.V. Club with Up director Pete Docter. I’ve long been a fan of Pixar’s mighty storytelling abilities, and this interview delivers sweet, juicy insights into their process. Dig this:
AVC: How late in the process do you continue tweaking the story? Is it set in stone before you start animating [...]
Entries from May 2009
May 29, 2009
What Are Your Tent-Pole Moments?
May 28, 2009
Question: Why Do All My Ideas Turn Out Differently Than I Thought?
A reader writes:
Every essay I’ve ever written turns into something else entirely. Also, I notice I often sit down thinking I’m going to blog about one thing, and it goes somewhere else. I know this is normal, but is there any way to make it less maddening?
One way to think about ideas (and this is [...]
May 27, 2009
Awesome Writing Prompt #10
Please describe the people and the circumstances surrounding the following piece of graffiti:
Bonus points for scenarios that have little or nothing to do with war, protesting and/or stopping.
May 26, 2009
Question: Are Generic E-mail Addresses a Black Hole?
A reader writes:
I want to submit an essay to the NYT Magazine’s “Lives” page, and the only way I can find to submit is via the lives@nytimes.com. I hate submitting pieces to generic addresses, but I’m wondering if it’s worth my time to dig further and try to track down another address for an actual [...]
May 20, 2009
Back Tuesday Links for You
Taking a short break. In the meantime:
This Is Your Wake-Up Call: 12 Steps to Better Book Publishing by Jonathan Karp, editor-in-chief of the awesome Twelve imprint. If you are interested in writing a book you will want to read this.
Mark Reiter and Richard Sandomir wrote a book called THE FINAL FOUR OF EVERYTHING. To help [...]
May 19, 2009
Question: Repackaging the Past
A reader writes:
I have the rights to 25 romance books hubby and I wrote back in the early 1980’s. Those books sold over 2 million copies. I have been advised that a smart promoter could package them as Classic Best Selling Romances and maybe sell the whole lot to Hallmark or a corporation as a [...]
May 18, 2009
In Praise of Freedom, SelfControl and “Outside Strategies”
I recently reviewed a book for Mother Jones called THE EMPATHY GAP by Loyola University philosophy professor J.D. Trout. Even though I kind of made fun of Trout and his book (TEG contains great information, but has, in my opinion, debilitating tone and voice issues), there is one story from the book that I cannot [...]
May 14, 2009
New Yorker Twitter Proposal Genius Dan Baum
Thanks to one of our readers for the heads-up on this story about Dan Baum, a writer who detailed his hiring and firing by The New Yorker on Twitter. I’ve always said that if you’re going to burn a bridge, burn it trendy!
Of more interest is Dan Baum’s website, where he generously offers .pdfs of [...]
May 12, 2009
Question: How Do I Pitch a Documentary?
A reader writes:
Any tips, references, links that would help me learn about composing a pitch for a documentary film? In this instance to the Major League Baseball Network. Similar in approach to a compelling magazine query? And thanks for sustaining your blog!!
Firstly, you’re welcome for the blog. I do it all for you.
As for the question, my [...]
