The Comic Muse » Daniel McInerny

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 00:53:01 +0000

“There is so much Catholic literary talent—creative, critical, and scholarly—but most of it seems scattered and isolated. It lacks a vital sense of cultural community—specifically, a conviction that together these individuals can achieve meaningful change in the world. If Catholic literati can recapture a sense of shared mission, the results would enlarge and transform literary […]

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Syd Field, Screenwriting, and Three-Act Structure

Sun, 01 Dec 2013 03:09:20 +0000

Only the immature artist scoffs at the demands of form. “Free verse,” quipped Robert Frost, is like “playing tennis without a net.” There is a reason why the films of Terence Malick, as brilliantly associative as they are, tax our patience. Syd Field died on the 17th of this month. He was, along with Robert […]

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True Confessions of a Self-Publishing Author

Thu, 28 Nov 2013 14:05:58 +0000

And here’s Part 2 of my talk to the Annapolis Chapter of the Maryland Writer’s Association, in which I get into more of the practical details of self-publishing and marketing one’s books.

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Writing High Comedy in an Age of Irony

Thu, 28 Nov 2013 14:00:56 +0000

This is Part 1 of a talk I gave last week (November 20, 2013), to the Annapolis Chapter of the Maryland Writer’s Association. What a delightful evening I had with this group!

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Go Make a Movie

Tue, 27 Aug 2013 20:14:25 +0000

An iPhone and a computer with an editing program, preferably on a Mac. That’s all you really need to make a movie. Nowadays it truly couldn’t be simpler to shoot and edit something that looks pretty darn decent. You don’t need an expensive crew. You just need an idea and some basic equipment. (Though I […]

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A Conversation with Disney Animator David Block, Part 2

Daniel McInerny — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 15:20:18 +0000

A Conversation with Disney Animator David Block, Part 2 Get ready to be inspired by my conversation with veteran Disney animator, David Block. In the interview David and I talk about: the special qualities that animation brings to storytelling the aesthetic differences between traditional hand-drawn and computer animation David’s revered animation mentors the distinctiveness of commercial […]

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A Conversation with Disney Animator David Block

Daniel McInerny — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 15:00:33 +0000

A Conversation with Disney Animator David Block Get ready to be inspired by my conversation with veteran Disney animator, David Block. In the interview David and I talk about: the special qualities that animation brings to storytelling the aesthetic differences between traditional hand-drawn and computer animation David’s revered animation mentors the distinctiveness of commercial animation […]

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Point of No Return

Tue, 16 Jul 2013 13:31:40 +0000

Last night at our company’s table read of Macbeth–our local community theatre is just starting rehearsals for a fall production of the play, for which I’ve been (great hollering haggis!) cast as the lead–I read these lines that Macbeth speaks right before our intermission (and as he contemplates further murder): I am in blood Stepp’d […]

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It’s Time. Come Learn the Art of the Storypreneur

Thu, 11 Jul 2013 19:02:45 +0000

From the launch of The Comic Muse it has been my intention to offer courses to entrepreneurs and executives from around the world interested in learning how to bring the principles of great storytelling to bear upon their businesses. Now I’m ready to go from intention to execution. Are you? This coming Monday, July 15, […]

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The Marketer’s Shorthand

Wed, 10 Jul 2013 10:57:06 +0000

As a challenge to the thesis of my last post, Andrea Phillips via Twitter very kindly offered the following counterexample: Does this Audi ad manifest a novelist’s or screenwriter’s sense of story, or a marketer’s sense? Does it present, even implicitly, a protagonist’s pursuit of a goal amidst obstacles, or is the image simply meant […]

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