Saturday, December 03, 2005

Lines that should be taken out and beaten with a stick

Since the best part of Project Greenlight was its community and the messageboards, that part of it was sorely missed when the messageboards came down for good. Many friendships and mutual help groups formed. We reviewed one anothers' scripts or some were able to provide helpful contacts in the entertainment industry. When the Project Greenlight messageboards disappeared for good, we sure missed the fun we had just shooting the shit.

One of our favorite subjects was, of course, writing. And under the heading of writing, we did have some fun with each other and with various loglines and lines of dialogue we'd encounter in some of the mandatory reviews we did as part of our contest participation.

In the third and last Project Greenlight contest, our discussions about Project Greenlight moved to other messageboards such as the Ezboard I started that was called, "The Kickass Resource." Click on that name to visit the archives of some old posts (if that tickles your fancy).

I present to you here, one of the most fun group reviews we had at the Kickass Resource. It was all about writing. Sort of.



And the conversation continued...


Set Lingo for Writers

This great little article is from the Artful Writer Blog by Craig Mazin. Not familiar with some of the terms used on set by the crew? Here's a good place to start picking up the lingo. Click title above or click here to get started with your "on set" education.

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

GENRE: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller Writer's Resources - Part One

See below post for "categories of mysteries" and some reading material that may be of interest.

This post will be geared toward those who want to learn how to write in the mystery genre or those who already know how but are looking for new points of view and fresh resources they haven't seen before.

There are so many resources, I'm dividing this into two posts. Hope you find something useful here...

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Categories of Mysteries

I really do love mysteries, all kinds, all forms - movies, books, short stories, magazine articles... And, I love to indulge in writing a few from time to time. So that's why I found the following information from the Ticket2Write website to be so incredibly helpful. It lists the main "categories" of mysteries. How many will you recognize? How many have you written? Enjoy!

some mystery-related books and publications you might enjoy:

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Banished Words (Overused, Abused, etc.)

Taken from a thread at my old Ezboard,
"The Kickass Resource"


Banished Words (Overused, abused, etc.)


This is kind of funny. A university makes a list of words and expressions every year that they think needs to be "banished" for overuse and misuse, etc. Here's some of their list:


Quote:
METROSEXUAL
- An urban male who pays too much attention to his appearance. Bob Forrest of Tempe, Arizona, says it "sounds like someone who only has sex downtown or on the subway." Fred Bernardin of Arlington, Massachusetts, asks, "Aren't there enough words to describe men who spend too much time in front of the mirror?"

X - Last year it was 'extreme.' This year, 'X' follows in its footsteps. "Marketers have latched onto this letter to grab the 'Generation-X demographic. X-files, Xtreme, Windows XP and X-Box are all part of this PR-powered phenomenon," said John Casnig of Kingston, Ontario.

PUNKED - As in bamboozled, duped, flimflammed, hornswoggled. Nominated by the Frank and Johnnie Show, WGN, Chicago. An old noun given new life as a verb because of the television show. Kill it before it grows.

PLACE STAMP HERE - Dennis K. McDermott of Oneida, New York, says, "It appears on 99% of the return envelopes provided by creditors with monthly billings. It's especially annoying when enclosed in a rectangle drawn in the upper right corner. (What if you miss?) And then…they inform you that 'The Post Office will not deliver without postage.' Can we legitimately claim to be a superpower if we need to be reminded to put a stamp on an envelope?"Eric Hooper of South Lyon, Michigan, agrees: "If I'm too stupid to figure out where to put the stamp, then paying the phone bill is probably the least of my worries."

COMPANION ANIMALS - "They're called PETS." Nick Leach, Bloomington, Indiana.

BLING or BLING-BLING or any of its variations - "Hate, hate. Grate, grate," says Steven Phipps of Pueblo, Colorado. Received many nominations from across the United States. "This once street slang for items of luxury has now become so overused and abused that (everyone) has incorporated it into their vocabularies. Yes, your mom might say it. Nothing could kill the mystique of a word faster." Todd Facklas, Chicago.

LOL and other abbreviated 'e-mail speak,' including the symbol '@' when used in advertising and elsewhere - Alex G. of Warsaw, Poland, says, "It's everywhere on the net! OMG! u r chattin to sum1 then…lol this and lol that….Get it away!" "I wonder if anyone really laughs out loud when they use this short-hand Instant Messenger slang?" Rachel Rose, Pickford, Michigan.

EMBEDDED JOURNALIST - Nominations for this Iraq War II phrase came from throughout the U.S., Canada and overseas. "I'm a journalist and until the war started, I'd never heard this term. In the interest of objectivity, journalists probably shouldn't be embedded with any organization they regularly cover." Ken Marten, Hamtramck, Michigan. "It seems to be a hip way of saying, 'at the scene,'" said Tim Bednall, Tokyo. "The next time I hear it used by the media, I'm going to embed my foot in the TV!" Ellen Brown, San Diego.

SMOKING GUN - Another one that came to us from Iraq, but is widely used elsewhere. "Let's give the 21-gun salute to this overused analogy," says Andrew Pagano, Montgomery Village, Maryland."Remember the television show 'Gunsmoke'? Now THERE were smoking guns!" Scot Moss, Madison, Wisconsin. "What's wrong with 'hard evidence'?" Kevin O'Sheehan, Bangkok, Thailand.

SHOCK AND AWE - Still another from Iraq. "I'm just waiting on 'Shock and Awe Laundry Soap' or maybe 'Shock and Awe Pool Cleaner,'" says Joe Reynolds of Conroe, Texas.


LINK

Old Comedywriter Registered User
Posts: 329
Re: Banished Words (Overused, abused, etc.)

Two that I hope made the list: "fair and balanced" and "spin"...
Queen Uhuru
ezOP
Posts: 15625
ezSupporter

Re: Banished Words (Overused, abused, etc.)

ha ha