The new screenwriter tends to have a love affair with is/her “baby.” He’s married to every word and nuance he’s carefully scripted onto each page. Often, it reads more like a novel than a screenplay and usually it needs a serious rewrite. It’s time to get a divorce.
You must not be afraid to hack, chisel or cut-out ANYTHING that does not serve to push the story forward. Sooner or later, you’ll write a scene that is just plain good. You’re in love again and all is right with the world. Finally, you conclude that it doesn’t serve the story as it should. You must get a divorce and hack it out of the script.
Remember: not every story is movie material. Not every story is as fascinating on the screen as it is in our heads. This is especially true of biographical stories. As interesting as someone’s true-life experiences are, they rarely translate well to the screen. However, it often makes an excellent bestselling book.
In screenwriting, you only have TWO TOOLS to work with in a screenplay:
DIALOGUE: that characters say
ACTION: a visual description of what is seen on the movie screen
This does NOT include:
* Anything anyone “knows” (i.e. “Ed heard about Jennifer’s problem at school.”)
* Anything that cannot be photographed (i.e. “Mary loves chocolate ice cream.”)
* Anything the audience “knows” (i.e. “This is the same woman we saw earlier at the bar.”)
* Any background information (i.e. “John is Tom’s best friend.”)
* Any action description that uses ‘-ing’ words. (i.e. “Sue is reading the newspaper.” should be “Sue reads the newspaper.”)
Here’s a common sense approach to self-analysis of your own screenplay:
1. Read some FIRST-RATE scripts!
You need outstanding examples of well-written screenplays against which you can compare your work objectively. I recommend you read at least three, preferably nine, screenplays. Here’s the catch: You MUST read them ALL in the same week. Agents and development executives read 35-50 a week on their own time so I know you can read at least three. Don’t look at a single page of your script until you’ve finished reading the scripts you downloaded. Read one (or more) in each of the following categories:
* One in the same genre as yours,
* One that’s been made into an OSCAR-winning or nominated movie, and
* One that’s an all-time favorite movie of yours.
2. Now: read your script.
It might seem a little different now, but that’s GOOD. You’re becoming a little more objective.
3. Read yours again: OUT LOUD.
Isaac Asimov: “Either it sounds right or it doesn’t sound right.”
You might be amazed at how you’ll spot those things you know need a little extra attention. They’re those things that seem “odd” or don’t feel “right” to you when you read it out loud. You might find yourself thinking that certain characters say and do things that don’t seem to “fit” their backstory. You likely find this especially true of dialogue. Circle these dialogue passages so you can come back to them later.
4. Act it out.
This is also an opportunity to get actor friends to read your script. If scenes are awkward or don’t come across as you intended, they need work. Stage a reading of the script. Make sure all of the actors get a list of the characters they will portray and have someone assigned to all of the lesser, incidental characters. Don’t prep them! Let the actor get the information about the character only from the script. If he doesn’t get it, neither will an agent, reader or producer; and you need to go back the set-up the character so he DOES get it. During the reading, mark scenes that don’t work or have the intended impact and come back to them later.
5. Read it through out loud again, but only the ACTION DESCRIPTION.
Movies are a visual medium. If your story isn’t visual, maybe it shouldn’t be a movie. Did you get lost? Are things vague? Are the scenes not visual? Can you tell what’s going by the visual clues? Mark those scenes and come back and flush them out a little more.
6. One more time out loud, but this time only the DIALOGUE.
Do characters seem to drone on and on? Can’t tell WHAT they’re talking about? Do they talk about things not essential to the scene? Mark these scenes and come back and rewrite them later.
Rule of Thumb: Scenes and dialogue should start at the point where, if you cut out the start of the scene, what follows doesn’t make sense any more. This also applies to movies. Many screenplays really start around pages 30-50, which means the writer spent way too much time setting up the story. How do you tell? As you read, it suddenly seems as though you’ve started a “movie in a movie” and you like it better than the one you started. Time to get divorced. Unsure? Write a second script and see which version you like best.
Writing is Rewriting
Ernest Hemingway: “Don’t get discouraged because there’s a lot of mechanical work to writing…I rewrote the first part of Farewell to Arms at least fifty times.”
Paddy Chayefsky: “I’m not a great writer, I’m a great rewriter.”
Good advice from two guys who ought to know.
Someone Stole My Book
Patricia Gatto ©2004 All Rights Reserved.
Joyful Productions
At a recent library presentation, a woman stole our book. Not the copyright, not the story, but a single copy of our children’s book. Another person might view this as a compliment. The book has enough value for someone to steal it, but I disagree. I don’t believe it’s a compliment, nor do I view this action as a crime, but instead, I think it’s a testament to this woman’s character. Sadly, she missed the message of our presentation.
Library presentations serve as our personal gift to the community. We devote our time to promote literacy and share our anti-bullying strategies to benefit the children. My husband and I speak about friendship and trust. We read, sing, play guitar and talk to children about confidence and self-esteem. When we present at smaller venues, such as a library, everyone receives a goody bag, bookmark and free cassette. Even if they don’t purchase a book, we make sure no child will go home empty-handed.
A woman I’ll call Sue, approached me after our presentation. With her son by her side, Sue explained, “I don’t have any cash on me, but my son just loved your book. Bullying is such an important topic.” Her son confirmed his mother’s statement with a smile and nod of his head; however, it was the look in his eyes that melted my heart.
Sue promised to send a check immediately. She told me she is a teacher, and she wanted to share the book with her class. “You did a wonderful job with the story. The fantasy held his interested, but he also got the message,” she said as she wrote down her contact information. “Oh, by the way, can you sign this for me?”
So, in exchange for an autographed copy of our book, a cassette, bookmark and a goody bag, I received Sue’s promise and her contact information, scribbled on the back of our business card.
When the check did not arrive, I gave Sue the benefit of the doubt. I waited an extra week, and then attempted to contact her. When she did not respond, I let the matter go. Maybe Sue stole our book because she couldn’t afford to buy it. Maybe her motherly instinct to give her son something outweighed her common sense.
But what saddens me is that Sue just didn’t get it. If she did, she would have realized that all she had to do was ask. We would have gladly given her a free copy of our book if it meant that much to her son. In fact, if Sue told us she and her son were hungry we would have feed them. If she told us she didn’t have enough gas in her car to get home, we would have filled her tank. But instead, she lied.
Sue might have stolen our book, but she didn’t steal our faith or commitment. You see, Sue might not get it, but there is a chance her son does. Maybe, that little boy doesn’t have many books. Maybe, when that little boy reads our book, he will be entertained. Perhaps he will remember our message, or share the story with another child. Maybe, just maybe, our book will inspire him to read more, or more importantly, help him to hold his head high if he comes face to face with a bully.
I can only hope for that little boy’s sake, that his mother’s intention was pure, that this was an isolated incident. If Sue conducts her life with a chip on her shoulder, lying, cheating and feeling entitled, what chance does her child have?
If she could not afford to purchase a book for her child, Sue had other options. Of course, she could have told the truth, borrowed the book from the library, or reached out to a local chapter of First Book.
First Book is a national non-profit organization. It’s sole purpose is to promote literacy and to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. According to the statistics on their website, in the last three years alone, First Book has provided more than 20 million new books to children in need throughout hundreds of communities nationwide.
About the Author
Patricia Gatto and John De Angelis are the authors of MILTON’S DILEMMA, the tale of a lonely boy’s magical journey to friendship and self-acceptance. As advocates for literacy and children’s rights, the authors speak at schools and community events to foster awareness and provide children with a safe and healthy learning environment. For more information, please visit Joyful Productions at http://www.joyfulproductions.com
Writing a newsletter or article can be very time consuming.
First, you have to create your content. Then you have to
organize it. Fortunately, there are plenty of great tools
online you can use and don’t require you to clog your
computer with more software.
Best of all, each of these tools is absolutely free to use.
Here are five tools you can use to help you with your
newsletters and articles:
1. Newsletter Template
Formatting your newsletter will probably give you more
headaches than anything else.
You want to make it easy for your readers to read, and you
want it to look professional when you send it out.
This site solves the problem. All you have to do is select
the parts you want to include in your newsletter, cut and
paste the elements, and hit submit. It will completely
format your newsletter for you, and you can even get some
great tips and resources to help you with your newsletter.
http://www.ossweb.com/ez-ezine-template.html
2. Email Formatting Utility
Ever gotten a really great forward in your email you wanted
to use, but it was too time consuming to take all of the
>> out of it?
You don’t have to do that anymore. This email formatting
utility will strip any unecessary tags for you. You can
also use it to format your newsletters and emails to the
right character count.
http://www.jbmckee.com/formatit/index.htm
3. Article Formatter
Ok, I admit it. Before I found this utility I used to cut
and paste my articles into my word processing program
just so I could get a word count.
Now you don’t have to do that. Not only will this online
tool give you a word count, it will also format your
articles in an attractive format for submission.
This site is offered by the Freelance Writing Organization
Int’l a large database of information for freelance writers.
http://www.fwointl.com/FWOFormatter.html
4. PDF Creator
This may seem like an odd tool to recommend to a
publisher or writer, but wait a minute.
Have you ever wanted to give away copies of your articles
and newsletters to site visitors? What about the $249 price
tag for Adobe Acrobat?
Then you have to consider your readers computers. What if
they have a MAC?
Unless you have a format that can be read by both MACs and
PCs you’ll exclude certain readers from downloading your
documents.
Besides, giving away copies of your articles and
newsletters is a form of viral marketing for your business.
This site allows you to convert documents to both HTML and
PDF. http://www.gohtm.com/
This site converts text to PDF.
http://www.sanface.com/createpdf.html
5. Good Research Tools
There are tons of places you can do research on
the Web. That’s the beauty of the Web.
That’s also what’s horrible about the Web. There’s just too
much great material online to find it quickly and easy.
Ref Desk – http://www.refdesk.com – is like having your own
book shelf at your fingertips.
You can do searches in the major search engines, find
dictionaries, word of the day, quote of the day, and more.
There are so many resources located here, you may even want
to make this your start page.
Find Articles – http://www.findarticles.com – is a large
collection of print articles archived on the Web. It boasts
over 300 print publications in its database.
Writing and publishing can become a time consuming task.
Not only will these tools save you time, they’ll save you
money too.
About the Author
Jinger Jarrett is the author of “10 Ways to Promote Your
Business for Free”, Get your free copy of her
ebook by subscribing to her newsletter. Send a blank email
to MFW@parabots.com or visit her web site:
http://www.marketingforwriters.com
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As a CCNP candidate and a CCNA, you may be tempted to skip or just browse the many details of Spanning Tree Protocol. After all, you learned all of that in your CCNA studies, right? That’s right, but it never hurts to review STP for a switching exam! Besides, many of us think of the four STP port states – but officially, there’s a fifth one!
Disabled isn’t generally thought of as an STP port state, but Cisco does officially consider this to be an STP state. A disabled port is one that is administratively shut down.
Once the port is opened, the port will go into blocking state. As the name implies, the port can’t do much in this state – no frame forwarding, no frame receiving, and therefore no learning of MAC addresses. About the only thing this port can do is accept BPDUs from neighboring switches.
A port will then go from blocking mode into listening mode. The obvious question is “listening for what?” Listening for BPDUs – and this port can now send BPDUs as well. The port still can’t forward or receive data frames.
When the port goes from listening mode to learning mode, it’s getting ready to send and receive frames. In learning mode, the port begins to learn MAC addresses in preparation for adding them to its MAC address table.
Finally, a port can go into forwarding mode. This allows a port to forward and receive data frames, send and receive BPDUs, and place MAC addresses in its MAC table.
To see the STP mode of a given interface, use the show spanning-tree interface command.
SW1#show spanning-tree interface fast 0/11
Vlan Role Sts Cost Prio.Nbr Type
—————- —- — ——— ——– ———-
VLAN0001 Desg FWD 19 128.11 P2p
To see these states in action, shut a port down in your CCNA / CCNP home lab and continually run the show spanning interface command. Once you see this in action on real Cisco equipment, you’ll have no problem with BCMSN exam questions. Just don’t practice this or any other Cisco command on a production network!
Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNP and CCNA tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages.
You can also join his RSS feed and visit his blog, which is updated several times daily with new Cisco certification articles, free tutorials, and daily CCNA / CCNP exam questions! Details are on the website.
For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, “How To Pass The CCNA” and “How To Pass The CCNP”, just visit the website! You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Pass the CCNP exam with The Bryant Advantage!
Traditional mechanical watches had their origins in the 14th century. The mechanical watch is powered by a wound spring and the balance wheel regulate the time. The invention of the quartz watch in the 70’s has however dominated the watch market . Today , 90% of all watches manufactured are quartz watches. Quartz watches are cheaper, more accurate and reliable and require less maintenance. Quartz watches are 60 times more accurate than mechanical watches. A quartz watch lose or gain 1 second a week while a mechanical watch may lose 1 minute a week. This translates to bigger inaccuracies for longer period of time. In a month you would lose 4 seconds for a quartz watch while a mechanical loses up to 4 minutes in a month. The quartz crystal is accurate because of its extremely high oscillations of up to 32,768 cycles per second.
Quartz watches have few moving parts. Moving parts causes friction and wear and tear and as a result they are more prone to breakdown. By having less parts quartz watches do not have breakdown as often as mechanical watches. Also , the gear train of mechanical watches is under constant load from the mainspring. whereas the gear train in a quartz watch is not under any load.
Mechanical watches also require servicing every three years to keep the watch working in good condition and tell the time accurately.
Mechanical watches required winding up which provide power reserve of 40 hours. There are automatic watches that relies on the movement of the wrist to power itself. But still, if you do not wear it all the time and just wear occasionally, you will find the time on the watch has stopped and you need to adjust the time . A quartz watch powered by a battery is constantly powered and tells accurate time all the time and do not need time adjustment. Of course you do need the change the battery after two to three years.
Mechanical watches have a longer lifespan that that of quartz watches. Mechanical watch can last indefinitely with proper care and servicing. Should it break down , parts are always available for repair. Mechanical watches can become collectibles and they can fetch high resale value due to its rarity. Quartz watches on the other hand features electronic circuitry that have limited lifespan. You cannot repair it because the electronic components for them would be obsolete by then.
Lastly, a mechanical watch is not as sensitive to extreme cold temperature as quartz watches. In extreme cold, the mechanical watch still keeps working while the cold will temporarily shut down the battery of the quartz watch.
About the Author
The writer is the webmaster of understanding technology which explains to you the use of technology in your regular life.
As costs of PPC campaigns are increasing, internet marketers are more than even under the pressure to deliver positive results. The performance of PPC campaigns is dependent on following factors:
- The impression rate
- Your ad position
- Click thru rate (CTR)
- Conversion rate
Finding the right balance between impression rate, ad position and clicks is the starting point to successful PPC advertising. Before exploring tips to help your campaign perform better, let’s quickly sum-up the concept how Google displays your ads in its sponsored results:
* Daily budget controls frequency of your ad display
The frequency is expressed by number of impressions. If your daily budget is not high enough, your ad may not show all the time (meaning you don’t have enough impressions per day).
* Ad position depends on the Rank Number
The higher the rank number, the higher is your ad’s position on the page. The rank number is calculated based on the following formula:
Rank Number = CPC (Cost Per click) x CTR (click through rate) x (Ad quality)
Now we’re ready to explore what practices are more likely to help us improve PPC campaigns performance:
1/ Improve Ad Delivery
If your ad does not show up every time when searches are performed under your keyword, it may be a sign that your daily budget is not high enough. As you now know, how frequent of your ad display is controled by the daily budget. If you would like your ad to be shown more frequently, please consider to increase your daily budget in order to receive a maximum exposure for your ad.
Normally, you have 50% margin for your daily budget. For example, if your desired daily budget is $10.00 per day, you can set your actual daily budget on Google to $15.00 per day, because your actual spending is based on your click thru rate, by setting the daily budget higher will allow your ad to get more exposure, but your actual spending may still be in your desired daily budget range.
However, be sure to monitor your daily advertising costs and if they are rising too high, decrease the budget on the safe level.
2/ Improve Ad Delivery per Keyword
Each campaign can have one or more adroups. An AdGroup is a group of keywords and ads that will display when those keywords are searched for on Google. You may have experienced a situation when only few keywords out of the whole AdGroup trigger your ad. The explanation lies again behind the daily budget that controls a number of impressions for your campaign. These impressions are distributed between individual AdGroups and further between individual keywords. So it may happen that some keywords in a particular Adgroup have more impressions than the others, meaning some keywords trigger your ad more frequently than others.
If you want to improve the ad delivery for your targeted keywords, you can consider splitting your keywords and creating a new campaign for keywords with low impressions. This should improve the frequency with which they will trigger your ad.
3/ Optimize your Adgroups
As mentioned above, each campaign has one or more adroups that all share campaign’s impressions. Often, the impressions are not divided evenly between adgroups. So it may happen that some adgroups have more impressions and show their ad(s) more frequently than others. It is a very similar scenario as with keywords we just described above.
To improve results of your low-performing adgroups, you can consider to create a new campaign for them in order to increase the frequency with witch they show your ad on Google.
4/ Analyse your Clicks
Make sure the clicks are made for specific, targeted keywords. If you’re getting lots of clicks on non-targeted keywords, consider reducing Max CPC and/or your ad position in order to improve your ROI. Similarly, you can raise bids for targeted keywords that are performing well.
5/ Optimize your Ads
Make sure you bid on targeted keywords, create compelling ads and link them to relevant content on your website. The keywords you chose will segment the market and target your desired audience. If you won’t chose wisely, you’ll finish targeting the wrong market and wasting your advertising budget. The ad you create needs to attract attention of your prospects. It needs to communicate your unique selling feature – in other words, what makes your product/service different from others and why a visitor should visit your website. Be specific about your offer and include call to action. Lastly, guide visitors to the content on your website where they can access more information about the offer advertised. The landing page should also clearly state what is the next natural step to make – buy your product, download the white paper, sign up for a free trial, etc.
PPC management requires lots of work and testing but if you stick to the basics you can make money instead of losing them. Remember, the only measure that matters on the Internet is the profit you make.
You want to write. You really do. But the passion you feel never gets translated into actual writing. And if it does, it doesn’t last very long. You run out of steam.
There are reasons for this. First, you may be writing out of your conscious mind. Another problem for many writers is that they don’t have enough technical facility with the craft of writing to know how to develop a piece. That can be taught, but technical facility alone won’t do the trick. Technical facility lies in the domain of the left brain, and you’ll give the Inner Critic an open season if you fixate on technique alone. But technique fed by passion is unstoppable.
Passion = Creativity and Creativity = Passion
Think of what happens when you are passionately, lustfully in love. Are you not amazed at the risks you take to be with your beloved? Are you not amazed by how wonderful and beautiful you feel? Are you not amazed at the creativity that is unleashed all around? Passion, risk, belief in selfthese are paramount to the creative experience.
I have a theory that has been very successful in my teaching. I believe that anyone who has taken the trouble to find me and taken the risk of coming to see me much less signed up for a series of workshops or private lessons has a writer within dying to break free. With that in mind, even if the person is a novice, I never experience her as such. Instead, I imagine I’m talking to the Inner Writer whom I feel already knows everything I have to teach.
The aim of my teaching is first to acknowledge the Inner Writer and give her permission to come to the fore. She is a bit groggy from being kept in the shadows for so long, so I need to remind her of certain things. The Inner Writer literally soaks up the teaching, and if allowed, will guide the student into whatever landscape and characters beckon. Sometimes in only one session a character never before dreamed of flies free.
“But I’ve never thought about such things before,” the writer will say, sometimes delighted, sometimes taken aback. “I didn’t know . . .”
“Not in the conscious mind,” I tell them. “But in the dream world and flights of dark fancy you knew.” The knowing beyond knowing is a place of comfort and excitement for the writer within.
This method of teaching or dialoguing with a student’s Inner Writer has had results that I once found astounding and now muse over. Let me tell you about Jean, whose success is one of never-ending delight and inspiration not only to me but also to others in the class. Jean was an unassuming schoolteacher when she came into my workshop. She hadn’t written any fiction in five years, and her first months in class were difficult.
Week after week Jean was sent back to the drawing board; the situations she wrote about had potential, but the characters were somewhat stiff and unbelievable. There was one character of more interest than the others; he was emotionally bloodthirsty and seemed to devour, suck out the lifeblood of those around him. I urged Jean to go more deeply into his dark emotions. This was difficult for Jean, whose Inner Critic basically wanted her to make nice stories, certainly not to write about such subjects as violence and definitely not sex.
But Jean had a passionate need to write. It is possible to sense a writer’s passion even if it is shackled. It rises off the page in bursts of unexpected electric currents; it is like a caged panther filled with a devouring hunger for freedom.
Each week I pushed Jean further and further, driving her deeper and deeper into stories lying in her character’s past, exploring his motivations, finding out what makes him tick. In essence, I was pushing Jean to become this character. To forget herself and move into the skin, the blood, muscles and sinews of her character, to see the world through his eyes.
This is an extremely subtle and important moveout of self and into the character. You never want your character to be you. Instead, you must become your character. This is truly a wondrous metamorphosis, and when it happens, you can feel it in your body, mind and heart; it is the moment when you cease being you with all your doubts, judgments, desires and Inner Critic yappings and move into the being of another. Then no matter if the character stands for everything you are not (and some of your best characters will), you have moved out of judgment, you are no longer writing from the left side of the brain and you have fallen not only down the Rabbit Hole but in love. You see your character’s flaws, but no longer judge them. You love your character despite his flaws, you love him for his flaws, you love, you are in love, and the real magic can begin. You no longer try to stop or change the character. You are passionately along for the ride.
I could sense Jean was approaching this place. She kept on saying things like, “I don’t know why I like this guy so much. He’s mean, he’s brutal, he cheats on his wife, envies and hates his brother, but . . .” She couldn’t help smiling and her eyes lit up. “I can’t help loving him.”
She kept on writing about this fiend, and although the writing improved, it still didn’t reflect the passion that Jean clearly felt. And then in the middle of a workshop, her emotionally bloodthirsty character transformed in my mind into a vampire and I asked her, “Do you like horror stories?”
“I love them,” she said as if that were a deep, dark, dirty secret. Jean’s eyes are always a dead giveaway to her inner delights. They sparkled as she admitted to what her Inner Critic surely thought was a sinister truth, and she laughed nervously.
“So write a vampire story,” I said.
“Oh, no, I couldn’t!” she protested.
“Oh, yes, you can. Next week, come in with one.”
She did. She wrote a cute vampire story, on the surface. Underneath, however, I sensed she’d hit a veinso to speak. Beneath the cute, the characters were bleeding. She didn’t sense this, but I encouraged her to write more vampire “stuff,” to take more chances, go deeper, darker, bloodier.
It was a process that took months, and Jean had to wrestle with some pretty powerful demons, but a year and a half later, she is nearly finished with the first draft of a terrific horror novel. The hero is a vampire who is as seductive as he is bloody; but the novel is also humorous, sometimes deliciously tongue-in-cheek and, at its core, explores what all good writing explores, the shadow side of the human condition, that confusing place in all of us where good struggles with evil, love dances with hate, lust rushes unbidden through our veins, and mercy, tenderness and forgiveness slip through our fingers again and again. And sometimes I think that best of all is that Jean is having the time of her life!
The following excerpt from Jean’s book shows the lush sensuality of her embracing of the darkside. The vampire hero, Devon Ducayne, has just murdered an important politician to the strains of a chamber music concert. As the man falls lifeless, there is a knock on the door and his daughter enters.
****
“Father, you are missing the concert. Bring your guest out. Let’s enjoy the . . .”
A young woman, slender, tall, and attractive, stepped into the room. Devon recognized her as Frawley’s daughter, Mary. She looked with horror at the body of her father draped over the desk. She opened her mouth as if to scream when the vampire bounded through the air and hurled himself at her. She bounced against the wall with a loud sigh as the air was knocked out of her. Stunned, she dropped onto the floor and slammed her head against the edge of a cumbersome bookcase.
Blood gushed from an open wound. It splattered over the floor and formed bizarre patterns on the white wall. A satiny red puddle next to the girl widened and glistened in the dim light of the fire. She was barely alive; he felt the warmth of her body; he heard the soft irregular breathing. He smelled the sweetness of the blood, saw vapors lifting from the pool. He felt his loins grow warm. He ached to feed. He felt the sticky texture of the fluid on her soft curls. Flicking his tongue in and out he licked at the wound and pressed his lips to the girl’s neck in eager anticipation. The music stopped.
“Sir Henry! Are you there, sir?”
The guests were out in the hall just beyond the door. They were milling about waiting for their host. Devon rose. “Damn you all to Satan’s fires!” he muttered. He looked back with longing at the girl. Life was draining from her body. “Sorry, my dear,” he murmured as though they had been lovers who were interrupted in their mutual fervor.
****
Jean took the risk to go to places her Inner Critic thought inappropriate; she released the passionboth hers and her characters’and her belief in herself, in her creativity, flew free as a bat rising against a full moon!
©The Art of Fiction Writing, Emily Hanlon 1995-2005
Emily Hanlon is a writing coach who works with writers all over the world on the telephone. She is the author of 8 books of fiction, including Petersburg, translated into several languages and reached the best sellers list in England. She leads writing retreats for women and workshops in this country and abroad. Her websites are: http://www.thefictionwritersjourney.com and http://www.awritersretreat.com
In over 23 years of writing professionally (which for me means making money at it), I’ve talked with hundreds of other writers, many of them far more talented at writing than me, but who haven’t been nearly as successful financially at it. Why? Many of them haven’t avoided the pitfalls that I’m about to share with you.
See if you’ve managed to fall into any of these holes along your writing path. If so, don’t fret about it. You can climb out of every one.
1. THINKING ABOUT WRITING VS. WRITING. This is particularly common for novice wannabe writers. After all, it’s fun to think about one day writing the next great American novel, or seeing your article featured on the cover of your favorite magazine. And I believe a certain amount of dreaming is important because in a way our dreams are a form of prayer. Thoughts held in mind produce results in kind out in the world IF, actions are also applied. Just like the old Quaker saying, “When you pray, move your feet,” the same is true for writing. “As you think and talk about writing, also write.”
CLIMB OUT OF THIS PITFALL BY: scheduling daily writing time, even if it’s only 15 minutes a day to start. Not only schedule the time but surround yourself with people who will hold you to your word with yourself. This last suggestion is something most writers don’t do but if you want to write daily don’t count on yourself to keep yourself at the keyboard. Tell your friends about it, especially the supportive ones. If you have a spouse, ask him or her to support you by helping you keep your word. If you have kids, tell them, “Listen, you know how I have to make you do your homework sometimes? Well, here’s your chance to get even. I need to write something every day for at least 15 minutes. Will you hold me to it?” You bet they will!
2. WRITING BUT NOT SUBMITTING. The second most common pitfall of aspiring writers is the erroneous notion that if you write stellar prose, some well meaning “editor fairy” will fly into their office at night and find their manuscript stuck in the drawer. Sorry, only in fairy tales. If you want to be successful at writing you’ve got to submit, submit and resubmit your work.
CLIMB OUT OF THIS PITFALL BY: playing the 100 R Game. The game is simple — its one rule is summarized in the object of the game which is: collect 100 rejection letters as fast as you can while writing as well as possible.
What! Actually play for rejection letters? Yes, exactly. Here’s why. You can’t play this game without doing two things that are vitally important to being a successful writer: writing and submitting what you write. Along the way to winning the 100 R Game, you’ll also learn how to win at the much larger game of being a professional writer.
NOTE: Stay tuned. #3-5 will appear in the next issue of Purposeful Pondering Ezine.
The ideas in this article are from, FROM SPARK TO FLAME – a proven, systematic process for fanning your ideas into money-making magazine ideas that make a difference.
©2005 Brad Swift of Life On Purpose Institute, Inc.
This article can be reprinted freely online, as long as the entire article and this resource box are included.
Dr. Brad Swift founded Life On Purpose Institute in 1996 with the vision of creating a World On Purpose by assisting people like yourself to clarify their life purpose & live true to it. Determine how on or off purpose your life is with the fun & insightful Self Test at:
http://lifeonpurpose.com/_forms/self-test.php?source=ezart
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Have you ever had to give a speech?
Do you remember that feeling? A knot in the stomach, sweaty palms and a panic attack!
Not a very pleasant experience. And yet, I’m sure your speech was a success because 90 per cent of a typical audience want the speaker to succeed.
Yet according to The Book of Lists, speaking in public is one of our greatest fears.
Much of this anxiety is due to a lack of confidence in writing and preparing a speech rather than in the delivery.
Giving a presentation can be a great way to build your business, influence public opinion or kick-start your career.
It is an excellent way to stand out from the crowd and make a real difference in people’s lives.
What are the secrets of writing a powerful and persuasive speech for any occasion?
Here are 10 tips for turning a good speech into a great one!
1. Have a plan and set some objectives & outcomes.
There is nothing worse than not knowing what you want to achieve. Do you want to educate the audience, inform, inspire, motivate or touch their emotions? Always work out what you want to achieve before beginning the speech process.
2. Have a formal structure – beginning, middle and end.
Audiences love structure and the best speeches stick to this tried and true rule. As they say: “tell them what you’re going to say, tell them and then tell them again”.
3. Avoid having too much content.
Hands up those that are guilty of this sin. I know I am. I have lost count the number of technical presentations given by CEO’s, managers, scientists, engineers, geologists and other professionals who have just put too much content into their presentations. Far too much for an audience to absorb – remember even the best audiences face information overload after 20 minutes.
How do you overcome the content crisis? See Tip # 8.
4. Define who your audience is and use the most appropriate communication
channels to reach them.
Analyse how your audience likes to take in information – do they like to be visually stimulated or do they enjoy just sitting back and listening. Or do they like to get involved, to touch and feel in a kinaesthetic way. Work out the best mix of visual, audio and kinaesthetic and use this in your speechwriting.
5. Research your speech using a range of sources.
Be a keen observer of the trends your audience is likely to be interested in and keep a file of interesting articles and information. If you are time poor- a few quick questions when meeting an audience just prior to a speech, such as “what are the issues facing your business/industry/association at the moment?” can really help target your presentation and build rapport.
6. Use personal stories, examples and metaphors to make intangible concepts
tangible.
In many cases you are trying to sell ideas and concepts in a speech. These are intangible and often difficult for the audience to grasp. Personal stories, examples and metaphors make the invisible visible.
7. Have a strong opening and closing.
People remember the opening – first impressions count! The closing is important as it should reinforce the key message you want the audience to go away with in their head after they have heard the presentation. Ending with a ‘call to action’ can be a powerful way to get your audience to act on your message.
8. Add value and extra detail through a handout.
Here’s a tip: if you want to provide detail – put it in a handout! You can get far more content across in the written form than in a speech. Always refer to this in your presentation but hand it out after your speech so the audience is not distracted reading through it while you talk. There is nothing more soul destroying for a presenter to see the audience leafing through written notes rather than looking at you!
9. Use short words and plain English.
The short words are always the best words. Avoid jargon. Use active words instead of passive. This has far more impact in the minds of your listeners.
10. Evaluate and review on a regular basis.
There’s nothing more powerful than to hear back a speech you’ve written. If you are writing a speech for someone else always try and hear the speech or at least get some feedback. Recording and listening back to a presentation is the fastest way to improve your skills.
Thomas Murrell MBA CSP is an international business speaker, consultant and award-winning broadcaster. Media Motivators is his regular electronic magazine read by 7,000 professionals in 15 different countries.
You can subscribe by visiting http://www.8mmedia.com. Thomas can be contacted directly at +6189388 6888 and is available to speak to your conference, seminar or event. Visit Tom’s blog at http://www.8mmedia.blogspot.com
