Video

Super sweet, darkly humorous and incredibly clever safety advert for Melbourne Metro. Now viral and apparently the most awarded advert EVER by agency McCann Melbourne check out the full execution (no pun intended).

Ricky Gervais Tells A Story About How He Learned To Write.

Mental Floss:48 Names for Things You Didn't Know Had Names

It’s Not Porn, it's… (NSFW but NOT Porn...)

Neil Gaiman’s 8 Rules of Writing

From Brain Pickings is Neil Gaiman’s 8 Rules of Writing

1. Write
2. Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.
3. Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.
4. Put it aside. Read it pretending you’ve never read it before. Show it to friends whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is.
5. Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.
6. Fix it. Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.
7. Laugh at your own jokes.
8. The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it ­honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.

A Lecture with Charlie Kaufman

A sensational and inspiring BAFTA lecture by Being John Malkovich screenwriter Charlie Kaufman

Choose Your Own, Choose Your Own Adventure

Write your own Choose Your Own Adventure with Inklewriter.

22 Story Basics from Pixar

From the Story Shots Blog:

22 #storybasics I’ve picked up in my time at Pixar

I tweeted these forever ago, but the internet just noticed and I figure I should probably at least put them on my blog. I’m glad people are finding them useful.
Here they are, a mix of things learned from directors & coworkers at Pixar, listening to writers & directors talk about their craft, and via trial and error in the making of my own films (see link above)

#1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.
#2: You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be v. different.
#3: Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.
#4: Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.
#5: Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.
#6: What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?
#7: Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.
#8: Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.
#9: When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.
#10: Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.
#11: Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.
#12: Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.
#13: Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.
#14: Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That’s the heart of it.
#15: If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.
#16: What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.
#17: No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on - it’ll come back around to be useful later.
#18: You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.
#19: Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.
#20: Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d’you rearrange them into what you DO like?
#21: You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can’t just write ‘cool’. What would make YOU act that way?
#22: What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.

David Ogilvy 10 Tips on 'How to Write'

A memo from one of the original Mad Men David Ogilvy to employees: 'How to Write'

The better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather. People who think well, write well. 

Woolly minded people write woolly memos, woolly letters and woolly speeches. Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well. Here are 10 hints:

1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing. Read it three times.
2. Write the way you talk. Naturally.
3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.
4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.
5. Never write more than two pages on any subject.
6. Check your quotations.
7. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning — and then edit it.
8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.
9. Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.
10. If you want ACTION, don’t write. Go and tell the guy what you want.

David

Imagine- How Creativity Works: Jonah Lehrer

An examination of the new science of creativity explains how it involves distinct thought processes that can be tapped by anyone, revealing the practices of successful companies and creative individuals while considering how to use scientific principles to increase creativity.

I have not read this book, but the exert below piqued my interest; see a full review here.

On the creative processes that resulted in Nike's "Just Do It" campaign
"This is a great story from Dan Wieden at Wieden+Kennedy, the very honored Portland ad firm. ... He'd come up with seven videos for the new Nike ad campaign. ... He knew these different videos which featured different sports needed a shared slogan. But he just couldn't think of the slogan. ... At some point during the day, somebody must've mentioned Norman Mailer to him. And so Norman Mailer was in the back of his head somewhere.
"It's near midnight. His deadline's approaching. He's really, really frustrated at this point because he can't come up with this damn slogan. And then suddenly he thinks of Norman Mailer. He remembers Norman Mailer wrote this book called The Executioner's Song about Gary Gilmore. And he remembers Gary Gilmore's last words right before he's executed by a firing squad in Utah. His last words were, 'Let's do it.'
"And Dan Wieden thinks to himself, Geez, that's pretty brave. That's a pretty brave sentiment to have right before you die — to just get it over with. But he realizes 'Let's Do It' isn't quite right, so he tweaks one word. And there you get 'Just Do It.' ... But that's a perfect example of how, in a sense, that's an old idea. It was a line in a Norman Mailer book, and he tweaked it ever so slightly. He substituted one word and came up with one of the most influential advertising slogans of the second half of the 20th century."

Great Expectations

Speaking of classic literature, I'm yet to read a Dickens novel but I plan to now- I just finished the rather stunning three part BBC production of Great Expectations. Hopefully you've been watching it too; if I'd posted this earlier, those of you lucky enough to access ABC iview might have been able to catch up on it, though the last two episodes are still available...

It is a rich, textured and gritty production with an authentic cast and complex characters telling a brilliantly layered story; worthy of a Cohen Brothers farce... Or is that just me?... Check it out if you can!  

Call me Ishmael

 "Call me Ishmael. Some years ago -- never mind how long precisely -- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off -- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me."

160 years ago, a promising young writers career came to an end when his treatise on life as a whaler was labelled by critics as a disaster; strange how it’s now a classic… Moby Dick celebrated its 160^th year anniversary this week and  I would recommend you read it; though it’s kind of like the Star Trek movies, skip every second chapter which goes into the ‘science’ of Whales (no, every second Star Trek movie isn’t about whales, it’s just crap)… You can download it for free here

Literary Tattoos

There are many sites dedicated to BAD tattoos, but here’s one showcasing thoughtful ‘literary’ tattoos.

Interview: Theatrical Copywriter

A great interview with a ‘theatrical print copywriter’

Richard’s favorite was one he worked on with David for an ESPN documentary called “The Streak.” It was about a wrestling team that had never lost a match; it had “the longest running winning streak in the history of high school sports.” But “the tension was so unbelievable. If they lost they would be disgracing their grandparents. So my line was, ‘The more you win the more you have to lose.’”

I asked why that was his favorite.

“Because it’s NOT clever.”

David and I both tell him well, yes, it is clever.

“No, it’s truth! It’s true.”

“So truth trumps cleverness?”

“Absolutely.”

Thou art a vain, swag-bellied nut-hook!

Shakespeare Insult kit

Silo Nine

My Art Director from Infinite Interactive; as well as spending a lot of time talking to me about Westerns, inspired me with his dedication to writing the ‘great’ Australian horror novel. S.J. Ford has just finished his first book published for the kindle- Silo Nine.