Live for today. Write for tomorrow.

Imagine spec scripts sales divided into a pie chart of sale probability and potential.

The biggest slice of the pie would go to Hot New Writers With a Unique Concept, Great Rep and Attachments. I’ll translate to, say, 75%.

The next slice is much smaller: Promising New Writers With a Unique Concept, Good Rep, No Attachments but Fans of the Work. Let’s call this 15%.

Then, much, much smaller slices would be evenly divided among Risky/Provocative Passion Projects With Influential Fans and Freaki… Continue

Everyone who writes in formats considered “old media” are at risk. This list includes: novelists, poets, short story writers, playwrights, screenwriters, journalists, academicians, and anyone else who has something to say in the written word (bloggers excluded). Now don’t panic, books are not going anywhere, or films/TV, or short story collections, etc. The risk part has to do with missing out on all the new formats and distribution channels developing to get your work into the hands of potentia… Continue

In 2001, a small team within Ubisoft's Montreal studio led by producer Yannis Mallat began concept development on the project that would become Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Initially a consultant, I later joined the team as writer and game designer. Being part of this project was a great experience and I'm glad to revisit it for this book.

By its nature, video game writing is inextricably bound up with game design, level design, and the other aspects of production. A film screenplay is… Continue

Andrew Wheeler, a marketing manager at Wiley, has a long, thoughtful essay about why the national chain bookstores don't order every book published, including some books by imprints at the biggest conglomerates. "I market books for a living, so I can tell you an unpleasant truth: the order for any book, from any account, starts at zero," Wheeler warns. "The publisher's sales rep walks in the door with t… Continue

What makes for a great story in a video game? Sometimes, with all the innovative development and cool graphics the actual story a game has to tell can get lost in the shuffle, or at least can seem to be an afterthought. When a game arrives on the shelves that presents one of the more engrossing stories we've seen in awhile, it's worth noting. Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne has been recognized by many people with their heads screwed on straight as a benchmark in video-game storytelling… Continue

Deconstruction is a poststructuralist theory, based largely but not exclusively on the writings of the Paris-based Jacques Derrida.

It is in the first instance a philosophical theory and a theory directed towards the (re)reading of philosophical writings. Its impact on literature, mediated in North America largely through the influences of theorists at Yale University, is based in part on the fact that deconstruction sees all writing as a complex historical, cultural process rooted in the relat… Continue

Earlier this month, at the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association trade show, bookstore owner Carol Besse made a speech calling upon her peers to join forces against Amazon.com or risk eradication. Her suggestions included a "grassroots effort to re-educate every author" until they stop linking to Amazon on their web pages, and reminding customers about why they should shop at local indies rather than order books online. (Oh, boy: lectures! Those are always strong motivators; as we obse… Continue

Looks like the Barak Obama-Bill Ayers-Running On Empty connection has come up again, this time at Ed Driscoll's and Roger L. Simon's blogs.

My essay "Bildung in Hollywood", another take on the subject, can be read in its entiret… Continue

§ A poet can write about a man slaying a dragon, but not about a man pushing a button that releases a bomb.

§ A poet is a professional maker of verbal objects.

§ A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.

§ A professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep.

§ A professor is someone who talks in someone else's sleep.

§ A real book is not one that we read, but one that reads us.

§ A tremendous number of people in America work very hard at somethin… Continue

In semiotics, a code is a set of conventions or sub-codes currently in use to communicate meaning. The most common is one's spoken language, but the term can also be used to refer to any narrative form: consider the color scheme of an image (eg red for danger), or the rules of a board game (eg the military signifiers in chess).

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913) emphasised that signs only acquire meaning and value when they are interpreted in relation to each other. He believed that the r… Continue