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nanowrimo · 4 years ago

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Great Advice from the Great Writers of The Great Courses

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Today, The Great Courses Plus—a video-on-demand service for lifelong learning—shares some advice from great writers they’ve partnered with. The Great Courses Plus is a NaNoWriMo 2020 sponsor.

The past few months have probably shown you a different world than the one you’re used to: outside your door, there’s less commuter traffic, fewer crowds waiting to be seated at the local eatery or queueing up for the opening of the latest movie, no kids chasing each other with sticks and screaming as they wait for school buses.

Inside your door, however, it’s a whole new world. That’s because your job, your school, your favorite restaurant, your movie theater… all of your outside worlds are now contained within the four walls you call home. And all that chaos is stuck inside with you. (We know. We live there, too.)

Even if you don’t have children, pets, or additional adults going stir crazy around you, 2020 has provided enough chaos on a daily basis that it’s almost impossible to focus on a five-word tweet, let alone commit to a 50,000-word novel. The positive side is that these distractions could turn into some pretty fantastic book fodder. But of course, sitting down and writing about this hectic time while still in the midst of it? Well, that’s a completely different story.

To help out, we turned to some of our favorite writing professors to see what they are doing to get themselves through these trying times:

Jennifer Cognard-Black

Becoming a Great Essayist; Great American Short Stories: A Guide for Readers and Writers

Remember when your biggest frustration was carving out some time to write? And yet now, when so many of our usual commitments and pleasures have been stripped away, the one thing many of us have is time. But how to harness this extra time—that is the question. It's just so seductive to try out yet another sourdough bread recipe or to binge yet another show on Netflix. My advice? Engage in slowthink. Don't ask yourself, "Why am I not writing?" Instead, ask yourself, "What might I want to learn, to know, or to create?" During the Great Pause, I've been reading all of the millennial novels and memoirs about women and food that I can get my hands on, and I'm slowthinking my way through them. There's something there—I'm not sure what—that I want to write about myself, but since I don't yet know what that is, I'm just underlining striking phrases and making the occasional note in my writing journal. And that's okay; I'm relaxing my creative mind to see what bubbles up.

James Scott Bell

How to Write Best-Selling Fiction

Write tight. Don't think about the entire project, or how the world will receive your book once it's finished. Concentrate on the scene in front of you, beat by beat, emotion by emotion. Get lost in the action. Then your writing will become a respite as well as a passion. As Ray Bradbury once said, "You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you."

James Hynes

Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques

During the pandemic, writing fiction has become my chief solace from the stress of quarantine (and everything else). I've found that active engagement with my current project—the creation of characters and scenes, or just tinkering with the prose—has calmed me much more than bingeing another series on HBO or eating too much (though I do those, too). And it's not just an escape: It's the place where I can take whatever I'm feeling at the moment and turn it into narrative.

Angus Fletcher

Screenwriting 101: Mastering the Art of Story

I have a little insight into this because my next book is about how literature of all kinds—novels, poems, films—can help improve our mental health and well-being.

And a tip that comes from literature, and that’s backed by neuroscience, is gratitude. Gratitude shifts our focus away from ourselves, and it also shifts our negative emotions, which interfere with writerly flow, into positive emotions, which boost it. Gratitude isn’t always easy to conjure in times like these, of course. But one useful method for accessing it is what psychologists’ term “reframing.”

So, for example, when your lovely children are interrupting you, causing you to lose your train of thought, and possibly your mind, take a moment to think: How wonderful it is that I’m a parent. How lucky I am to have these kids. Recall a specific moment—as precisely as you can—when your kids popped your life with joy or wonder. And in that instant, your stress will drop, your calm will increase, you’ll be more effective at figuring out an effective way to give the kids a way to amuse themselves, and you’ll be more ready to write when you return to your keyboard.

Or, when you’re suffering from writer’s block, think: How lucky it is that I don’t need to write this novel, because I have so many wonderful novels already on my bookshelf. Then, go read one of those novels, immersing yourself in its flow. And as you get deep into that flow, you’ll often feel your block dissolve, allowing you to return to your own writing with a fresh energy and perspective.

Not every negative emotion can be converted like this, of course. When we suffer grief, it can’t be reframed away. Our brains need time to process sorrow and heal. But a great many self-doubts and daily frictions can be softened with gratitude. And no matter what happens to you in your life, you can always feel grateful for being a writer. For whatever the happening is, no matter how hard or painful it may be, you have been gifted a pen to take that happening and make some good of it.

Advice from professional writers who are facing the same distractions and roadblocks you are can be helpful. And to make things better, The Great Courses Plus provides you with a wealth of resources to help you get through these weird times. Clear your mind with meditation, focus your thoughts with mindfulness, jumpstart your creativity with a “brain hack,” research the worlds and periods you’re writing about, learn to create a single great sentence—whatever you need, we have a course that will help.

Stay well and keep writing.

Top photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash.

#nanowrimo #writing #amwriting #writing advice #nano prep #by nano sponsor #the great courses #jennifer cognard-black #James Scott Bell #james hynes #angus fletcher

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nanowrimo · 7 years ago

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So, You Want to Write a Book? Get the Answers with The Great Courses Plus

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. While it may seem like your list of questions about writing, editing, and publishing gets longer with every day of NaNo, The Great Courses Plus, a NaNoWriMo 2017 sponsor, is here today with some courses that may answer your most pressing creative questions:

Where do I start?

What does it mean to show and not tell?

When do I use an Oxford comma?

How and when do I edit my own work?

Is this a dangling modifier?

Will my novel stand out?

What’s the best word for…?

Once I’m done, how do I (and should I) query agents?

When it comes to writing, there are lots of questions. And, luckily, we’ve got lots of answers.

The Great Courses Plus gives you unlimited access to streaming videos from the greatest professors in the world. These expert resources can help you navigate from the Once Upon a Time of sitting down and starting your novel to the Happily Ever After of your published work, and to each of the dotted i’s and crossed t’s in between.

Our esteemed selection of literature and writing professors know what it’s like to struggle, to get stuck in the details, to hit a wall, or to feel overwhelmed with possibilities once your book is actually done. We’ve curated a list of resources below to help you along for every step of the way, and the professors have provided some words of wisdom to help keep you inspired and motivated:

Need some inspiration? Check out “Mystery & Suspense Fiction”, “Great Utopian and Dystopian Works of Literature”, “Folklore and Wonder Tales”, or “How Great Science Fiction Works”.

“Storytelling is core to the human experience––you shape your identity through stories. Who we are, where we come from, why we’re here––these are all life-shaping stories. If you don't know your story, you don't know yourself.”

––Hannah B. Harvey, professor of Folklore and Wondertales

Want to take your writing to the next level? Watch “Building a Better Vocabulary”, “Building Great Sentences”, or “Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques”.

‘Whatever your motivation turns out to be, and whatever struggles and triumphs you have with writing and publishing, I hope the act of creation provides … meaning in your life.”

––James Hynes, professor of Writing Great Fiction

Time to brush up on the basics? Try “English Grammar Bootcamp” or “Becoming a Great Essayist”.

“Each of us has the capacity to write meaningful essays that tap into the heartbeat of humanity.”

––Jennifer Cognard-Black, professor of Becoming a Great Essayist

And when you’re done? Don’t miss “How to Publish Your Book”.

“There's no single publishing path that's right for everyone. The correct choice depends on your goals and your personality as a writer.”

––Jane Friedman, professor of How to Publish Your Book

30 days of writing and 50,000 words: that’s no small feat. But, with some help from The Great Courses Plus, we know you can do it.

Happy writing!

#nanowrimo #nano 2017 #sponsor post #by oll guest #the great courses #the great courses plus #writing #nanowrimo 2017

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