A member writes: On the one hand, I'm eager to get feedback, especially since I haven't got anything published yet. On the other hand, when I do take part in critique sessions, the feedback can be confusing and frustrating. I once had a piece critiqued where half the group said I should remove a specific passage, and the other half said it was the best part! Ultimately the decision is up to me (at least until it's in an editor's hands), but do you have any hints on sorting out the useful… Continue

A member writes: "What I'd like you to do is awesomize our childhood memories that get ransacked by sequels. How do we ever recapture the wonderment killed by midi-chlorians and planet Zeist?" Regrettably, the Awesomzier cannot directly awesomize your mind. I cannot undo organic damage. Your fond memories of the original Star Wars trilogy and the cult 80s film Highlander have been wrecked beyond repair. This is as sad as it is true. You raise, however, an interesting ques… Continue

There are no questions in the hopper and so I'm asking myself a question on your behalf. Or I'm asking myself a question on my own behalf. In other words, I'm making up a question. I'd rather not, and will only do this once, but I'm making an exception because I've been meaning to report out on some off-line activities anyway and there is no question in the hopper and I don't want the site to die like my car did on Tuesday. Here is the question: You have alluded to the fact that you will loo… Continue

A member writes (as part of a longer list of requests): Well, query letters could always be made more awesome. You are correct. Query letters can always be more awesome. Here is one that I hope you like. *** Your name and contact information spelled correctly The date spelled correctly Name of literary agent (who still works at agency) spelled correctly Name of literary agency spelled correctly Address of literary agency spelled correctly Dear name of literary agent (who still work… Continue

A member writes (in response to this post about freedom vs. control): Do you have any tools for discovering where I sit on the freedom/control spectrum? I received this comment a month ago and have been working on a response ever since. I tried coming up with my own tool, but I'm not much of a tool builder. Then I tried to find a ready-made tool, but search… Continue

First, I am completely and utterly ripping off book agent Nathan Bransford with the premise of this post. (He calls his version You Tell Me, which is more elegant, but taken.) For this I am not ashamed. Bransford's agent blog was voted one of best blogs by Writer's Digest, and deservedly so. Nathan couples insider insight with a sharp wit and a generous spirit. He is also currently up for… Continue

A member writes: Please Awesomize Beetle Bailey. "Slacker in the military" is actually a promising set-up and it's nice to see a comic that's not just about a quirky, dysfunctional family and the crazy things they do; there's certainly some potential there. But it seems like every strip can be summarized as "Beetle does something to annoy Sarge, so Sarge beats the *&%$!! out of Beetle." That stopped being funny to me when I was about ten. Great suggestion. First, let us acknowledge… Continue

A member writes: I'm working on my non-fiction query letter and book proposal. I own the URL for the title of the book and have a friend ready to help me set up my blog. Here's the question: which comes first, the book or the blog? I am worried about copyright and (paranoid, I know) am afraid that if I put the material out there on the blog before I've sold the book, somebody will steal my idea. First off, congratulations on being organized, prepared, and thinking broadly about what y… Continue

One of my personal ground rules for this site is to write about myself as little as possible. I'm here to help you be more awesome, not advance my own nascent awesomeness, or complain to you when said nascent awesomeness isn't advancing the way I'd like. I'm making an exception to that rule because I think my experience with the internet today is instructive. Last week's Friday Question about social media prompted me to get off my ass and buff up this site with some social networking features.… Continue

A member writes: Can you awesomize Billy Joel's "Tell Her About It". Or "We Didn't Start the Fire". I argue for the former, since it stalks me in drug and grocery stores. My husband argues for the latter, as his personal worst song of all time. C'mon, guys. Give me a hard one. I can awesomize "We Didn't Start the Fire" in three easy moves. Step 1: Add visuals Check out Mr. Allsop's classroom-friendly version and note how the simple addition of lyric-tracking slides helps clarif… Continue

A member writes: I was wondering what you think of using MySpace, Facebook, etc. as a means of promotion. The reason I ask is because my blog has been going for a couple of months, and while I’m still getting hits and page views, I would naturally like more traffic. A friend of mine forwarded a musician’s MySpace page to me, and I couldn’t help but notice that literally thousands of people have downloaded this person’s music, without benefit of mainstream promotion. Are these sites better… Continue

1,000-Person Island On this island, people spend their entire day dealing. They have to gather food, and cook it, and fight off animals that try to eat them. That said, they're not incapable of fun. At the end of the summer, they have a harvest festival that is pretty rad. During the harvest festival, the most important person on the island's high priest tells amazing stories about the origins of the island and its people. It's a great gig, but a limited opportunity. If you want to hold… Continue

First, I have to admit that I was a little put off by this suggestion. I'm a big fan of Paul Thomas Anderson (am I supposed to call him PT Anderson now?) and found a lot to love about this movie. The opening sequence, when Daniel Day-Lewis and his crew will the sludgy crude out of the crusty desert, is a masterpiece of visual storytelling. Making a period film is always a risk. Making a period film where the first line of dialog doesn't come until almost the 15-minute mark (15 minutes!) i… Continue

A reader asks: I'm working on an assignment that requires that I travel out of state to do research at my client's archives. I'm currently charging $75/hour and will bill them for the time I'm on site working, but do I also charge them for the time I spend traveling? Last week, I promised (and perhaps misspelled) the nitty-gritty. I don't think it gets more gritty than this. Or more nitty. I think it's fair to charge half your hourly rate for the time you spend on the road. Even if you… Continue

For those of you who are just joining us, earlier this year we talked a lot about the importance of having a calling card. I wrote a (perhaps overly long) calling card definition and disclaimer back in March. I think the definition holds up, but in my constant effort to simplify and focus the work we do here, I'd like to offer this updated version, told in the form of a story: You meet someone new. T… Continue

Welcome to a special (and especially lazy) Memorial Day edition of the Awesomizer. Today, I'm inviting you to tell me about books, movies, or televisions shows from your youth that you would like to see brought back. I also want to know how you'd like them brought back. Bonus points for taking something patently awful, and awesomizing it. Here are two things I'd like to see come back and how I'd like to see it happen. (There should be three examples, but like I said . . . lazy.) Loga… Continue

A member writes: So you've got the novel about the very last unicorn thriving in the New York park. The rarity of 'corns (I agree this must be injected into the vernacular) makes one take notice of the character, but how do you manipulate your readers into caring about its life and death? It's an interesting hook, but what about the execution? And by "execution" I mean the manner in which the character is constructed so as to reach the reader's heart. There are lots of answers to… Continue

As part of my quest to help you be more awesome, I'm reading a broad range of books that you might not otherwise read. Currently, I'm loving The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam, a smart, entertaining book that teaches visual thinking and visual problem solving using simple drawings. BOTN is technically a business book. (Roam is a consultant who has worked with eBay, Sun Microsystems, and such.) His examples are very business-minded, but the basic… Continue

Perhaps you are part of the 67% of people who disapprove of the job George W. Bush is doing. Perhaps you are not. Either way, if you're a writer or an artist, then criticizing the President is at the very least on the table as something you can do with your work. And if you think Bush's time ends this January, I humbly direct you to watch Jay Leno tell Clinton sex jokes long past their freshness date. Political commentary changes with the times. Presidents are forever. Which is why it's so very… Continue

A member writes: I have just come up with an idea to write my first book (nonfiction), and I'm really excited about it. But right now I have only about 15 to 20 hours a week to work, during which I'm also meeting monthly income goals writing articles. Where I should start? Congratulations on finding an idea that excites you enough to take the plunge. That's a big deal, and I'm sure everyone at DCWYTBMA wishes you well, even if I have disguised your identity so they have no idea who you… Continue