You day-job might be more useful than you think. In a thought-provoking video interview at Open Road, author Fay Weldon explained how her time at an ad agency gave her invaluable lessons about the writing life. Here is a key excerpt:

I used to think creative writing couldn’t be taught and that you just kind of did it—until I realized that I had actually learned in an advertising agency all these skills of knowing what to say and what not to say. Of being rejected all time and having things discarded for reasons you couldn’t understand but had to come to understand. You can never teach what people are or what they have to say. Because they have to do that. But you can teach them how to have their words appreciated or to get the value of words. Nobody can say quite what they want to say or would say if left to their own devices. Because they want to be liked. It seems important that you should risk not being liked.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The great director Steven Soderbergh delivered a passionate speech about the current state of the movie business recently, quoting Present Shock by Douglas Rushkoff as he laid out the problems facing the industry.

Storytellers of all kind should watch this speech (embedded above) or read the Awards Daily transcript, it examines how audiences are changing in the 21st Century. Check it out:

I got my hands on a book by Douglas Rushkoff, and realized that I’m suffering from something called “Present Shock,” which is the name of his book. This quote made me feel a little less insane: “When there’s no linear time, how’s a person supposed to figure out what’s going on? There’s no story, no narrative to explain why things are the way they are. Previously distinct causes and effects collapse into one another. There’s no time between doing something and seeing the result, instead the results begin accumulating and influencing us before we’ve even completed an action. There’s so much information coming from everyone, from so many different sources that there’s simply no way to trace the plot over time.” So that’s sort of the hum that I’m talking about and I mention this because I think it’s having an effect on all of us. It’s having an effect on our culture, and I think it’s having an effect on movies. How they’re made, how they’re sold and how they perform. (Link via)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

A team of intrepid Thai actors have recreated the Iron Man 3 trailer using fireworks, body paint and toy helicopters.

FEDFE “sweded” the film, creating a lo-fi tribute to a big-budget movie–re-adapting the comic book adaptation with amateur actors. Check out the urban dictionary definition of sweded:

The summarized recreation of popular pop-culture films using limited budgets and a camcorder. The process is called sweding. Upon completion the film has been Sweded. Origins: In the Michel Gondry film BE KIND REWIND, the character Jerry accidentally erases the videotapes at Mos Def’s rental store, and the pair remake all the movies themselves. These versions become popular with customers, who are told they take longer to arrive and cost more because they come from Sweden. Hence, the films are referred to as ‘Sweded’.

(Video via)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The Tribeca Film Festival will feature a documentary called Out of Print, looking at the future of books and interviewing Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, self-published author Darcie Chan and other experts.

We’ve linked to the trailer above. AppNewser has more details:

We haven’t seen the death of paper books yet, but there’s already a documentary about its impending demise. EBooks are not as tactile, aromatic, or spatial as traditional forms of reading, but they are helping to spread the joys of reading to places where transportation is problematic. The works of philanthropic organizations like Worldreader and The Information Heritage Initiative would be impossible without digital books.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The list features poets who delivered poetry performances at the TED stage. This trio includes YouTube sensation Shane Koyczan, Project V.O.I.C.E. founder Sarah Kay, and Tony Award-winning artist Lemon Andersen.

For more recommendations, check out the “Spoken-Word Fireworks” playlist curated by TED. Which poets do you nominate to perform at future conferences?

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

National Poetry Month concludes tomorrow.

To close the celebration, we’ve uncovered a video of Grammy-nominated singer Jewel reading ”Poem Song.”

This love poem can be found in Jewel’s collection, A Night Without Armor. HarperCollins released this book in May 1998.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

To celebrate National Poetry Month, we found a video featuring pop star Madonna and her reading of the poem “If You Forget Me.” Pablo Neruda originally wrote this poem in Spanish and called it “Si Tu Me Olvidas.”

Madonna’s reading is featured on The Postman (Il Postino) movie soundtrack. It also contains poetry recitations delivered by Oscar-winning actress Julia Roberts, UK musician Sting, and The Avengers actor Samuel L. Jackson.

Neruda, a celebrated Chilean writer, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. You can read more pieces written by Neruda at The Poetry Foundation’s website. What’s your favorite Pablo Neruda poem?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In honor of National Poetry Month, we’ve dug up a video of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reciting Howard Nemerov‘s poem, “The Makers.”

Clinton, who at the time was serving as First Lady, recorded this video for “The Favorite Poem Project” in 1999. Her husband, President Bill Clinton, also participated in this project. This project was founded by the 39th poet laureate of the United States, Robert Pinsky.

In the past, Clinton wrote and published several books including the 1996 nonfiction title It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us and the 2003 memoir Living History. At the moment, speculations and rumors are circulating about the new book Clinton plans to pen. What do you think?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In the video embedded below, a real life galley cat eats some potent catnip and reads the trippy “Kubla Kat” poem from I Could Pee on This.

Both poetry collections were written by Francesco Marciuliano, the storyteller behind the syndicated Sally Forth comic strip. Tom Racine animated and read the poem.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

To help aspiring self-published authors navigate the tricky world of publishing platforms, we have collected video tutorials to help you explore these booming marketplaces before loading your book. Follow the links below to watch the videos…

Amazon Kindle Publishing Video Tutorial

Barnes & Noble NOOK Press Video Tutorial

Smashwords Publishing Video Tutorial

Apple iBooks Author Video Tutorial

Kobo Writing Life Video Tutorial

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In honor of National Poetry Month, we dug up a video of Saturday Night Live veteran Kristen Wiig reading from Suzanne Somers‘ poetry collection, Touch Me.

For this funny performance embedded above, Wigg recited three poems: “Two Week Love,” “Extra Love,” and “The Quiet Loneliness of Being Alone.”

Wiig delivered this entertaining narration for an off-Broadway theatre project called, “Celebrity Autobiography.” This show features a rotating cast of actors and comedians who read directly from celebrity memoirs.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The third trailer for Baz Luhrmann‘s adaptation of The Great Gatsby has been released, showing off the movie’s crowded soundtrack. The film will feature songs by Beyonce, Jay-Z, Kanye West and Lana Del Ray–Spotify has a free playlist of the songs.

Much has been written about the music in the new trailer, but nobody has mentioned how a famous green light shines throughout the trailer.

We won’t spoil the plot for you, but a green light at the end of a dock plays a major symbolic role in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel. If you want to find out more about the green light, follow this simple Google search.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Happy National Poetry Month!

To kick off this month-long celebration, we’ve dug up a video featuring actor David Tennant reciting William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18.” Tennant recorded this reading for Touch Press’ 2012 iPad app, “The Sonnets.”

What’s your favorite Shakespearean sonnet? While many have come to know Tennant for playing the tenth incarnation of Doctor Who, he is also a respected stage actor. In the past, he has acted in productions of Hamlet (playing the Meloncholy Dane himself) and Love’s Labours Lost (portraying Lord Berowne).

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The Axis of Awesome has released a video (with NSFW language) for “Rage of Thrones,” a rock and roll argument about George R. R. Martin‘s Game of Thrones series.

The singer wails the band’s answer to the eternal question: can a ever movie be better than a book? The song has a simple message: “Hollywood cannot live up to the power of imagination” and makes a long list of movies to defend his point.

What do you think? If you agree, you might want a “The Book Was Better” t-shirt.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Relationship expert and Ready for Love reality TV star Matthew Hussey staged the book trailer for his new dating book for adults in the most unlikely place: a playground full of kids.

Hussey will release Get the Guy: Learn Secrets of the Male Mind to Find the Man You Want and the Love You Deserve in April, but his book trailer is out already. In it, kids discuss relationship problems and dating worries that plague adults. Check it out:

Many of Matthew’s male clients pressed him for advice on how to apply his winning strategies not to just get the job, but how to get the girl. As his reputation grew, Hussey was approached by more and more women, eager to hear what he had learned about the male perspective on love and romance. From landing a first date to establishing emotional intimacy, playful flirtation to red-hot bedroom tips, Matthew’s insightfulness, irreverence, and warmth makes Get the Guy: Learn Secrets of the Male Mind to Find the Man You Want and the Love You Deserve a one-of-a-kind relationship guide and the handbook for every woman who wants to get the guy she’s been waiting for.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.