Writers and Editors

Updated 11-5-22
• A Primer on TV & Film Adaptation for Writers (Where the Rules Change Often) (Jeanne Veillette Bowerman on Jane Friedman's blog, 11-2-22) The elements of a great pitch package, logline, synopsis, treatments, the book, pitch deck. Do you need the screenplay written in advance?
• How Does a Book Get Adapted for TV or Film? (Chaya Bhuvaneswar, LitHub, 5-20-21) A Roundtable Conversation with Laura Van Den Berg, Daniel Torday, Melissa Scholes Young, and Stephanie Beard
• How Are Books Adapted for the Screen? Two Agents Demystify the Process (Sangeeta Mehta on Jane Friedman's blog, 8-10-22)
• What Hollywood Wants (and How to Give It to Them): Intellectual Property Adaptations (Ken Miyamoto, Screencraft, 4-5-22) What types of screenplays are most desirable in the eyes of Hollywood insiders and decision-makers?
• The best book-to-film adaptations ever, ranked (Marc Chacksfield, ShortList)
• How to Adapt Jane Austen, and Why It's So Hard to Get It Right (CNN, 8-7-22)
• The Best Movie Adaptations of TV Shows (IMDb)
• 31 Movies Based on Short Stories (Emily Temple, LitHub, 10-1-18) Or How to Turn a Nine-Page Story into a Feature Film
• 10 Best Movies You Didn't Know Were Originally Short Stories (Amber Nuyens, CBR, 5-14-22) Many great films have their origins in the short story medium.
• 10 Books You Should Still Read Even After Watching The Movie Adaptation Ajay Aravind, CBR aka Comic Book Review, 4-22-22) Though movie adaptations of books are exciting, they tend to leave out interesting information and moments.      

  The Color Purple by Alice Walker

  Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

  The Help by Kathryn Stockett

  One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

  The Call of the Wild by Jack London

  Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

  Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

  Dune by Frank Herbert

  To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

  Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• 10 Things The Game of Thrones Series Changed from the Books (Ajay Aravind, CBR.com, 5-3-22)
• 40 of Our All-Time Favorite Book-to-Movie Adaptations (Jeff Somers, BookBub, 4-22-21)
• 15 Must-See Book-to-Screen Adaptations Coming Out in 2022 (Melissa Flandreau, BookBub, 1-6-22)
• 29 Best Movies Based on Books That Are Actually Worth Watching (Anna Moeslein, Glamour, 5-19-21)
• 100 best movies based on books (Jacob Osborn, Stacker, 8-29-20)
• 50 movies that address the history of racism in America (Elona Neal, Stacker, 1-23-21)
• The 19 Best Movies Based on Books of All Time (R. Eric Thomas, Elle, 4-17-20)
• Lists of works of fiction made into feature films (Wikipedia)
---List of short fiction made into feature films (Wikipedia)
---List of plays adapted into feature films (Wikipedia)
---List of non-fiction works made into feature films (Wikipedia)
• 25 Best Movies Based on Books: Read It Then See It (Yen Cabag, TCK Publishing)

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A few extracts (quotes), not unlike what you might keep in a writer's journal:

 

•"Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea forever.” ~ Will Self, quoted by Judy Reeves in A Writer’s Book of Days (See a long, interesting selection on that Amazon page.)

• Not a Journal Person? Post-Pandemic Might Be the Perfect Time to Start (Anne Carley on Jane Friedman's blog, 5-5-22) A journaling practice can serve as a laboratory for your writing and your life. See Your Journal as Time Machine (5-12-22): Our unprogrammed available slices of time, only a few minutes per slice, become time confetti. We can use them to write in our journals. The pages of our journal can transport us from the here and now to snapshots of our internal world, over the years.

• Morning Pages (Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way) "There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages– they are not high art. They are not even “writing.” They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind– and they are for your eyes only. Morning Pages provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and synchronize the day at hand."
---"Julia Cameron’s time-honored three pages a day have populated millions of journals."~ Anne Carley

• "The daybook is a record of my intellectual life, what I'm thinking and what I'm thinking about writing." ~ Donald M. Murray, A Writer Teaches Writing

•"Writers react. And writers need a place to record those reactions....That's what a writer's notebook is for. It gives you a place to write down what makes you angry or sad or amazed, to write down what you noticed and don't want to forget, to record exactly what your grandmother whispered in your ear before she said good-bye for the last time.... A writer's notebook gives you a place to live like a writer, not just in school during writing time, but wherever you are, at any time of day." ~ Ralph Fletcher, A Writer's Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You

• "Pay tribute to all the everyday and extraordinary things. Everything's essential; every thing belongs in the pages of this notebook." ~ Natalie Goldberg, The Essential Writers Notebook: A Step-By-Step Guide to Better Writing

• Silent Companion (Anne Carley, Bacca Literary, 11-16-20) "I turned to my green notebook. I needed to sort out my feelings about this good news that turned sideways when it revealed a transgression. I found a steadfast companion that night.... Open to whatever I write, annotate, or doodle, it welcomes me every time. Virginia Woolf’s ideal, a framework 'so elastic that it will embrace anything, solemn, slight or beautiful that comes into my mind,' is attainable."

• “[T]he habit of writing … for my own eye only is good practice. It loosens the ligaments. … What sort of diary should I like mine to be? Something loose knit and yet not slovenly, so elastic that it will embrace anything, solemn, slight or beautiful that comes into my mind." ~ Virginia Woolf, A Writer's Diary

 

"The writer's notebook is a sourcebook of collected insights and a testing ground for ideas. . . . [I]t's important to know the differences between this sort of notebook and a diary, so that you avoid making entries that will not help you. A diary is a daily record of events. It is for recording everything that happens. A writer's notebook, on the other hand, is for recording only special perceptions that might serve as the core statements of essays. These insights may arise from the particular way in which you view something that occurred during the day, from your response to some book, or simply from an unsummoned idea that pops into your head.

To illustrate:

Diary: Finished reading Norman Mailer's book about Gary Gilmore.
Writer's Notebook: Mailer ennobles the killer Gary Gilmore in his book.
--This shows how naif Mailer is. The most satisfying part of maintaining a writer's notebook is that it becomes a record of how your perceptions change and grow over time."

          ~ Adrienne Robins, The Analytical Writer: A College Rhetoric

• 8 Reasons Keeping a Journal Can Help You Reach Your Goals (Joshua Becker, Becoming a Minimalist)

 

Several of the quotations above and others can be found at Writer's Notebook (Richard Nordquist, ThoughtCo., 2-12-20).

I honestly don't understand how these entries on the proposed Digital Services Act and Digital Marketing Act will work or if they will affect people in the United States, but they seem to be a game-changer in Europe and might eventually create pressure for more regulation of social media in the United States. I am providing some links here, moving the Popular Science entry from last to first because it's in the plainest English:
• Everything you need to know about the battle between US tech and EU laws (Harry Guinness, Popular Science, 4-27-22)

    "The European Parliament recently approved the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act. Here's how that could affect big tech.
     "According to the EU, the DSA and DMA have two big goals: “create a safer digital space in which the fundamental rights of all users of digital services are protected” and “establish a level playing field to foster innovation, growth, and competitiveness, both in the European Single Market and globally.”

     "In practice, this means overseeing how large social networks, search engines, and other tech companies do business, and limiting how they use consumer data.
     "The DSA in particular has rules targeted at online services like Facebook, Instagram, Google, and TikTok. It bans targeted advertising aimed at children, or based on sensitive data like religion, gender, race, sexual orientation, or political affiliation. It also bans “dark patterns” or deceptive design elements that can trick you into buying or signing up for something unintentionally. For example, websites will have to present the buttons to opt in and out of targeted ads equally; the option to opt out can’t be tucked away behind a text link on the second page of settings and written in a small font colored to match the background. Unless US tech companies create separate page and app designs just for EU customers, this will hopefully improve the web user experience around the world."

     Etc.

• EU poised to impose sweeping social media regulation with Digital Services Act (Technology + Press Freedom, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, 5-8-22) The European Union is on the verge of doing what the U.S. has not done (and, in some cases, could not do) — comprehensively regulate social media platforms. Last week, the European Parliament and EU Council reached an agreement on the Digital Services Act, and while the final text has not been released, the law would impose sweeping new rules for internet platforms, regulating everything from “dark patterns” and algorithms to public safety threats and illegal content.
       The DSA, and its partner regulation, the Digital Markets Act, were introduced to the European Parliament in 2020. The European Commission said the regulations were intended to accomplish two goals: “create a safer digital space in which the fundamental rights of all users of digital services are protected” and “establish a level playing field to foster innovation, growth, and competitiveness, both in the European Single Market and globally.”
• Digital Services Act: Council and European Parliament provisional agreement for making the internet a safer space for European citizens (Council of the European Union, 4-23-22)
    The Digital Services Act package "The Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act aim to create a safer digital space where the fundamental rights of users are protected and to establish a level playing field for businesses. What are Digital Services?
Digital services include a large category of online services, from simple websites to internet infrastructure services and online platforms.
      "The rules specified in the DSA primarily concern online intermediaries and platforms. For example, online marketplaces, social networks, content-sharing platforms, app stores, and online travel and accommodation platforms.
      "The Digital Markets Act includes rules that govern gatekeeper online platforms. Gatekeeper platforms are digital platforms with a systemic role in the internal market that function as bottlenecks between businesses and consumers for important digital services. Some of these services are also covered in the Digital Services Act, but for different reasons and with different types of provisions.
• Deal on Digital Markets Act: EU rules to ensure fair competition and more choice for users (Press Releases, European Parliament, 3-24-22) Twitter LinkedIn Whatsapp

     "On Thursday evening, Parliament and Council negotiators agreed new EU rules to limit the market power of big online platforms.
      "The Digital Markets Act (DMA) will ban certain practices used by large platforms acting as “gatekeepers” and enable the Commission to carry out market investigations and sanction non-compliant behaviour.
       "The text provisionally agreed by Parliament and Council negotiators targets large companies providing so-called “core platform services” most prone to unfair business practices, such as social networks or search engines, with a market capitalisation of at least 75 billion euro or an annual turnover of 7.5 billion. To be designated as “gatekeepers”, these companies must also provide certain services such as browsers, messengers or social media, which have at least 45 million monthly end users in the EU.and 10 000 annual business users.
      "During a close to 8-hour long trilogue (three-way talks between Parliament, Council and Commission), EU lawmakers agreed that the largest messaging services (such as Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger or iMessage) will have to open up and interoperate with smaller messaging platforms, if they so request. Users of small or big platforms would then be able to exchange messages, send files or make video calls across messaging apps, thus giving them more choice. As regards interoperability obligation for social networks, co-legislators agreed that such interoperability provisions will be assessed in the future.
• Digital Services Act: agreement for a transparent and safe online environment (Press releases, European Parliament, 4-23-22)

---Access to platforms’ algorithms now possible
---Online platforms will have to remove illegal products, services or content swiftly after they have been reported
---Protection of minors online reinforced; additional bans on targeted advertising for minors as well as targeting based on sensitive data
---Users will be better informed how content is recommended to them

• Digital Services Act: Council and European Parliament provisional agreement for making the internet a safer space for European citizens (Council of the European Union, 4-23-22)

      "The DSA follows the principle that what is illegal offline must also be illegal online. It aims to protect the digital space against the spread of illegal content, and to ensure the protection of users’ fundamental rights. The DSA introduces an obligation for very large digital platforms and services to analyse systemic risks they create and to carry out risk reduction analysis. This analysis must be carried out every year and will enable continuous monitoring aimed at reducing risks associated with:
---dissemination of illegal content
---adverse effects on fundamental rights
---manipulation of services having an impact on democratic processes and public security
---adverse effects on gender-based violence, and on minors and serious consequences for the physical or mental health of users."

• EU officially boots Russia’s RT, Sputnik outlets (Laura Kayali and Clothilde Goujard,Politico Pro, 3-2-22)

     "Kremlin-backed media outlets RT and Sputnik are officially banned in the EU as of Wednesday morning, in a move meant to crack down on Russian disinformation amid Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
     "The sanctions against the news groups were published in the EU's Official Journal, effectively providing legal grounds to implement the Commission and EU governments’ decision to take both Russian state-run organizations off the air and offline within the bloc.
    “[The measures] are also limited in time, because they should be maintained until the aggression is put to an end and until Russia and its media outlets cease to conduct propaganda actions against the Union and the member states,” the EU official added."

In this order:

Books (fiction) Books (nonfiction) Children's books (fiction and nonfiction)

BOOKS (FICTION) in alphabetical order by title:
• Burntcoat by Sarah Hall (“A slim, tense page-turner . . . I gulped The Fell down in one sitting.”―Emma Donoghue, author of The Pull of the Stars)
• COVID Chronicles: A Comics Anthology ed. by Kendra Boileau and Rich Johnson ("As the pandemic lengthened and deepened, the response across the comics community intensified-first online, where many went viral, a turn of phrase that tinged a few shades darker in light of the virus....In a diverse, impassioned book, these quick responders illustrate the impact of the pandemic with work of lasting value."~ Kirkus)
• The Fell by Sarah Moss ("Explores the way individual freedom conflicts with collective responsibility . . . [It] crystalizes our shared moment of global danger and allows us to observe its different facets.” ―Hannah Joyner, Star Tribune
• 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard (a pandemic murder mystery by an Irish writer)
• French Braid by Anne Tyler (“The wonder of French Braid is the easygoing fluidity with which Tyler jumps and floats between characters and decades to create what in the end is a deftly crafted family portrait that spans some 70 years . . . We read in fascination.” —Christian Science Monitor)
• Life Without Children stories by Roddy Doyle (“There is an immediacy in the stories in Life Without Children, an emotional charge that comes with writing in real time, and an optimism too.")
• Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart ([Shteyngart’s] usual humor and absurdity, but it’s deepened by a new empathy.”—Los Angeles Times)
• The Sentence by Louise Erdrich ("A novel that reckons with ghosts—of both specific people but also the shadows resulting from America’s violent, dark habits."~Kirkus Reviews)
• Together, Apart by Auriane Desombre, Erin A. Craig, et al. (A collection of love stories by young adult writers, set in pandemic lockdown. "Romantic, realistic, sweet and uplifting.") For young adults ages 14-25.
• Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult (“Stealthily surprising and very moving . . . absolutely a must-read.”—Booklist, starred review)

 

BOOKS: NONFICTION
• Alone Together: Love, Grief, and Comfort in the Time of COVID-19 anthology ed. by Jennifer Haupt ("...showcases the human desire to grieve, explore, comfort, connect, and simply sit with the world as it weathers the pandemic. Jennifer Haupt's timely and moving anthology also benefits the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, making it a project that is noble in both word and deed." ~ Ann Patchett)
• And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again: Writers from Around the World on the Covid-19 Pandemic, a collection of essays, ed. by Ilan Stavans. Title from the last line of "Dante's Inferno." (“Mexican American writer and educator Stavans has gleaned powerful responses to the pandemic from 52 contributors who share their experiences in deftly crafted essays, poems, photographs, and artwork. . . . The impressive cast of contributors―Jhumpa Lahiri, Mario Vargas Llosa, Claire Messud, Ariel Dorfman, Rivka Galchen, Daniel Alarcón, and others―reveal feelings of fear, loneliness, and, for some, a surprising sense of connection. . . . Although many look optimistically to the future, for others, the pandemic has laid bare a long plague of inequality and hatreds. Stirring reflections to illuminate dark times.”~ Kirkus Reviews)
• The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet essays by 'young adult' author John Green. ("... loved The Anthropocene Reviewed podcast, and the book has a similar delightfully engaging, emotional, funny, and thoughtful take on the human experience.")
• Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live by Nicholas A. Christakis (“Provocative…Astutely shows how pandemics are as much about our societies, values, and leaders as they are about pathogens.”―Samuel V. Scarpino, Science)
• Covid By Numbers: Making Sense of the Pandemic with Data by by Anthony Masters and David Spiegelhalter ("A concise, humane, data-driven guide to all the big covid questions of the day in a series of crisp chapters."~Tim Harford)
• How We Live Now: Scenes from the Pandemic by Bill Hayes ("...a living, breathing diary of the city in one of its darkest times―and a celebration of New York’s grit, its people." ~ Afar)
• Intimations by Zadie Smith (six powerful essays about the lockdown)
• The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid by Lawrence Wright. (“By far the best book yet on COVID-19 . . . [An] exemplary chronicle [with] countless examples of hope, sacrifice, and heroic feats. Wright’s interviews with experts in virology, economics, public health, history, politics, and medicine are enlightening . . . Wright is at his finest here in frontline research, expert analysis, and lucid writing.” —Tony Miksanek, Booklist)
• The Premonition by Michael Lewis. ("Frightening and honest, this book looks at the many ways governing systems were not prepared to respond to a pandemic of this size."~Business Insider, and "I would read an 800-page history of the stapler if he wrote it."― John Williams, New York Times Book Review)
• The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread -- And Why They Stop by Adam Kucharski (explains "the principles of contagion, which, Kucharski argues, can be applied to everything from folk stories and financial crises to itching and loneliness, are suddenly of pressing interest to all of us."―Sunday Times, UK)
• Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World's Economy by Adam Tooze ("Economic historian Tooze examines the unprecedented decision of governments around the world to shutter their economies in the face of pandemic . . . As the pandemic hopefully continues to fade, other crises remain....a valuable forecast of future problems."—Kirkus Reviews)
• Spike by Anjana Ahuja ("an excoriating insider account of how the UK mishandled the early months of the pandemic."~Tim Harford)
• The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why by Amanda Ripley (“The thinking person’s manual for getting out alive.” ~NPR’s “Book Tour”)
• Vaxxers: The Inside Story of the Oxford AstraZeneca Vaccine and the Race Against the Virus by Sarah Gilbert and Catherine Green

CHILDREN'S BOOKS
• Coronavirus: A Book for Children about Covid-19 by Elizabeth Jenner, Kate Wilson, Nia Roberts (ages 5-10, illustrated by Axel Scheffler) ("I have explained the COVID situation to my son, but this book made me realize I left out many things. I also have probably not acknowledged his feelings enough. This book goes through everything and explains what is happening, why it is happening, and why we need to take the extreme steps."~ John Diggs)
• Lucy's Mask by Lisa Sirkis Thompson, illust. by John Thompson ("It takes just a few words from her mother to convince Lucy that she will be playing a much more important role than an ordinary superhero when she wears a mask that covers her mouth instead of her eyes. That is a kind of everyday heroism we can all emulate..." ~Cotsen Children's Library, Princeton University)
• Outside, Inside by LeUyen Pham (ages 3 to 6) (“This authentic, important book will mean a great deal to many kids.” --School Library Journal)
• Paula and the Pandemic by Dorothea Laurence ("A sweet book for helping kids cope with a hard situation." ~Mark Zweigenthal and "The illustrations make this book" ~Micah Harris)
• What is Social Distancing?: A Children's Guide & Activity Book by Lindsey Coker Luckey

BROAD RECOMMENDATIONS and ROUNDUP REVIEWS:
• The best books about the pandemic (Tim Harford, 12-13-21)
• How Covid Breaks All the Rules of Human Narrative (Frederick Kaufman, Opinion, NY Times, 4-23-22) "The plague version of the Covid plot may also help to explain why some evangelicals were suspicious of human interventions to prevent the virus’s spread, such as vaccines and social distancing. But as death rates decrease and masks come off — and both apocalypse and rapture have, once again, been postponed — the vengeance-of-God narrative may be harder to sustain."
• The Problem With the Pandemic Plot (Alexandra Alter, NY Times, 2-20-22) Literary novelists are struggling with whether, and how, to incorporate Covid into their fiction.
• These are the first books about the COVID-19 pandemic to have been published in the midst of it (Katherine Fiorillo, Business Insider, 1-25-22)

Let me know if I've missed any good books.