Writing Inrochester

Authors all over the world have seen the wisdom in launching a website to sell more books. With varying degrees of success, many wonder what the next step is. To make sure your marketing goes the extra mile of success, write a sales letter and post it on your web site.

Let your prospect’s know about your book’s benefits and help them visualize how it will help them. Believe it or not there may still be some people that hadn′t heard about your insightful book. They missed your book signing and the book tour. They haven′t seen it in a catalog nor have they been gifted with it. With a sales letter, you hire a 24/7 salesman that keeps your book alive and selling well for years to come.

You don′t have to be a famous copywriter to write effective sales letters. In fact, you have everything it takes to write an order-pulling sales letter for your book. You have the passion, the knowledge of your product (book) and now the sales letter template. Follow these 8 steps to get organized and then write your compelling letter to convince every prospect that your book is the next book to buy.

6) Offer your prospects three to four chances to buy.

It’s true most of us want to find out about someone gradually. But you never know when one is just READY. I have often observed in myself as I am reading a sales page, suddenly I’ve read enough and I’m ready to click the purchase button. When I’m ready to purchase, I don′t want to go looking for a button.

7) Develop your guarantee.

A lot of businesses shake in their shoes when it comes to developing a guarantee. But think about it; most small businesses including authors have a built in guarantee. If someone ask for their money back, most small business professionals will just give their money back. They don′t have the money or the time to haggle over whether they should or shouldn′t. So there you have it. Don′t be afraid; post your built in guarantee.

Share a couple of things your book won’t do.

Create empathy by expressing that you know your book won’t do it all but it will do…For example, this book won’t write the article for you or even get it published but it will show you the steps and resources to write helpful articles, fast and before tens of thousands readers in less than 60 days.

9) Include credentials.

Don’t be afraid to use your life experience credentials as well as your professional credentials. For example, a mompreneur said, “When I started my home business, I had 3 children under the age of 5 at the same time. I have real-world experience to offer home business moms. My background includes 15 years of business consultation, presenting 50 home business workshops a year, and 100 email consultations last year.”

10) Add value.

Add as much value as you can by including free bonuses to what you offer. Give until you want to take out your wallet and buy it yourself. No really, add value until it moves you. Remember, if it doesn’t move you it probably won’t move anyone else. This will create a competitive edge over your competitors. Free reports are a great way to add value and increase the perceived value of your product. Place your bonuses below your pricing to add even more perceived value to your offer.

Profit Tip: Remove any remaining skepticism. After adding value, if your offer sounds too good to be true, you will have to do the following: Increase your price and/or justify why you are able to offer such a great deal for so little. To achieve maximum sales, you must get rid of all skepticism.

If you don’t write a sales letter for your book′s website, your book may never go the extra mile of success. Your prospects may leave your site vaguely curious as to what your book is about but not enough to buy. Write your compelling sales letter to act as your 24/7 mini-salesman that stirs your prospects interest and moves them to buy your insightful book. Write a sales letter; sell more books and prosper!

© Earma Brown, 11 year author, business owner, web developer
ebk: 10 Easy Ways to Market Your Books Online
helps service business owners, professionals and writers who want to write and market their best book now! Visit her at bookwritinghelp.com bookwritinghelp.com or book-marketing-help.com book-marketing-help.com for more book writing and marketing tips.

What’s blocking you from releasing your significant message in a book this year? For many, an unfinished manuscript is the culprit. No worries; read this article to finish strong and sell sooner than you imagined.

Don’t make the simple mistakes that blocked many of us for years. A wildly successful book could be in your near future. But you’ll never know if you don’t complete and release it to the world.

To make sure you finish strong and your book garners all the attention it deserves, start with correcting the simple book writing mistakes below:

Mistake 1 Failure to make the editor’s cut.

Many inexperienced writers are in love with their words. They can’t bear to part with the long wordy prose in their manuscript. Shorten your stories and examples. Use the popular question answer format. Ask a question in the heading; then answer it in the text. Most audiences are busy and respond better to this easy direct style.

Solution: Go ahead you can do it. Edit your book and cut anything not necessary to support your thesis (main central point). Editor cuts make your book concise, easy-to-read, and compelling for your readers. They will reward you by reading it and telling all their friends about your easy to read helpful book.

Mistake 2 Failure to submit one’s writing to a professional editor

First time authors settle for the easiest opinion to get (their family and friends). Always get a professional opinion of the final edition. Someone not blinded by love and concern for your feelings will tell you the truth about your wordiness or grammar mistakes. They’ll help you weed out passive constructions like, “there is″, “is″, “has″, “begin or start”. A professional editor will energize your writing by limiting the “ly” adverbs that tell instead of show. A good editor will spot your tense changes.

Solution: Invest in your book to make it the best it can be. Make it your goal to paint a picture that your readers respond to with their emotions. Professional proofreading pays off with more book profits.

Mistake 3 Failure to know your audience.

Aspiring authors gather all their extensive knowledge and write a book. They often fail to consider the audience they will serve. Write for a specific audience. Top selling books focus on one topic for one audience at a time. Your audience waits for the easy to read and easy to implement solutions you provide in your book. Save them time and money, make life more enjoyable, help them profit; they will love you for it.

Solution: Today choose one or two of your audiences; prepare a profile of their needs or problems. Keep it close to your book writing station. With a targeted market, you’ll write a book for an audience that’s looking for solutions.

Mistake 4 Failure to sizzle your title to sell well.

Titles set the stage for your potential audience. They either work to grab your reader by the collar and pull them in for the read or they don’t. Top titles create excitement, anticipation and enthusiasm for more. You want your titles to express the heart and passion of your book or be ‘the match’ that ignites your reader’s interest in reading your important message.

Solution: Develop this valuable skill and you add magnetic pulling power and punch to all your marketing documents including your front book cover and chapter titles that will get your message read. Remember, don’t stop at your book cover title, sizzle your chapter titles, headlines, bullets and sell more.

Mistake 5 Failure to focus on one main topic.

Top selling authors focus on one main topic. They make sure each chapter supports that subject. If you scatter your focus, you’ll come across as unorganized, long winded, and boring. Your readers may find your book hard to understand.

Solution: Instead of an encyclopedia type book, chunk your information into modules, segments, chapters or parts. In each segment, offer plenty of detail to make it useful to your reader.

To continue with these book writing mistakes could mean your book never reaches the audience for which it was designed. On the other hand, you could finish strong and put your book into the hands of those waiting for your easy to read solutions. Don′t make them wait any longer. Go to your destiny; write and complete a wildly successful book.

Earma Brown, 12 year author and business owner helps small business owners and writers who want to write their best book now! Earma mentors other writers and business professionals through her monthly ezine “iScribe.” Send any email to mailto:iscribe@bookwritinghelp.com iscribe@bookwritinghelp.com for free mini-course “Jumpstart Writing Your Book” or visit her at bookwritinghelp.com Book Writing Tips

There’s nothing quite so satisfying than seeing your name in print, whether it be in the local newspaper or on a website article.
And to be quite honest there is no better way to promote your website than writing articles, out of all methods discussed by the online promotion experts this always makes its way to the top of the list as being the must do to succeed in web promotion.

Its sometimes baffling then why so many people find it difficult to write a short article to promote their website and usually resort to many other ways that usually involve great cost.

With the advent now adays of so many online article directories there has never been a better time to start writing articles and having them published on this vast array of article websites.

I always aim to write an article containing approximately 300 to 500 words regarding my chosen subject, try keeping the general wording in easy to understand paragraphs and if possible a little light humour is always an added bonus.

Always try to provide interesting subject matter for the reader so that they want to know more and continue to read the article to the final word, if you can achieve this goal then you have produced a quality item that all website publishers and ezine owners will be willing to place on their websites and in their publications.

Remember that if you place your website address in the resource box at the end of your article they will be more likely to click onto this if they have enjoyed or found interesting information from your article and in turn this will produce a steady flow of visitors to your website.

Having written your first article you will find that writing your second and subsequent ones becomes easier and easier and before long you will have built up quite an impressive portfolio, each one of which will bear a unique link to your chosen website and will be providing a steady flow of visitors for you in the future.

Copywrite 2005 Terry Till

We invite you to submit your articles to Articlebliss.com

Webmasters and ezine owners may use this article for their website or publication provided they leave the resource box and all links fully intact.

articlebliss.com articlebliss.com

I don’t believe in writer’s block. (I can hear the gasps of disbelief already.) Listen: If you hire a plumber to come to your house and fix a problem, do you expect him to say, “Sorry, I can’t figure out what your problem is. I think I have plumber’s block”? Probably not, and if he did, you′d toss him out and call another guy faster than you can say Drano. Not that plumbing can be compared to writing, but if we follow the proper steps to get the job done, I find that writer’s block melts away, the drains are unclogged, and the words start flowing like water from a faucet. But what are these “steps”? Well, a big part of my job as a book marketing specialist is to help people create something they can actually market: a finished book. Many of us have ideas aplenty but not a clue how to get them down on paper.

Unlike other professions, authors operate under a whole different set of rules. We often can’t just sit down and pound out a story, and those who do have created their own formula for doing so. We see this huge story with all sorts of directions we want to take it, we see the cover, we see the characters, we see the market potential. Then we see Katie Couric or Oprah smiling and holding up our book for the whole world to see. Then we glance back down at our monitor and see a tormenting blinking cursor and blank screen. And we are again reminded of what a failure we are. We have all these stories and nothing on paper. We are idea generators. We have zillions of them running through our minds, but none of them on paper. Unless you make your money in a think tank, operating this way probably isn’t getting you any closer to your goals.

When a project looms before us, it’s like this big elephant — huge, overwhelming and ready to stomp us flat any minute. There’s an old saying: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” The same is true for writing. You finish a book, one step at a time. But to create these steps, you first have to break down your book into manageable, bite-size pieces. This can be accomplished by creating a TOC (table of contents) that can guide you through the book. My reasoning behind this is as follows: You′d never think of driving from California to New York without a map, right? Well, how can you expect to finish your book without one? Your TOC is your roadmap, guiding you through your book. If your chapters don’t have individual headings, then write a 2-3 sentence description of what the chapter encompasses. Don’t get too elaborate on this. Remember, it’s not going in your book; it’s just a brief descriptor. Once the TOC is outlined, you′ll have a vision of your book from start to finish.

A few things that creating this TOC will do for you: It will show you any gaps in your story that might need to be fleshed out, and it will give you a sense of completion, of seeing the book or project actually done, and this is a serious psychological turn-on for most authors, because we often live in a world of half-completed projects. Sometimes this step alone can propel an author enough to get their book done, or at the very least give it a darned good kick-start.

Once you′ve developed your TOC, you′ll want to go through it and create a “to do” list. Regardless of what genre your book is, you will always have a to-do list. Whether it’s getting endorsements, doing research, or getting approvals for quotes or excerpts for your book, this to-do list will become yet another item that will help propel your book toward completion.

Once the to-do list is done, set it aside. Now you should have your completed TOC with a vision of the entire book and a growing list of items that will need to be handled for the book to get done. Now the real fun begins.

Some books on writing will tell you to set aside a day or two a week, or an evening here and there to get your book completed. I disagree with this theory, and here’s why: You need to stay dialed into your topic. When I was working on an upcoming book, I would often put the project aside for days or weeks at a time, promising myself to schedule time “as soon as I could.” Well, that rarely happened. What I found is that if I set aside some time every day to do something on the book, I got it completed a lot quicker.

The more you keep your hands in your project, the more it will stay at the front of your mind and on your radar screen, and the more energy you will invest to finish it. I won’t tell you to set aside hours of your time each day — in fact, you don’t even have to set aside an hour. Take 15 minutes, or even five — whatever your schedule permits. If this seems like a ridiculously short amount of time, consider this: You now have your to-do list and your outlined TOC! . If you are short on time one day, pick a quickie item from your to-do list and get it done. If you have more time, then pound out a chapter or two. The idea behind creating the to-do lists and a TOC is to not only give your project a structure, but to also eliminate any and all excuses for getting it done. Don’t feel like writing today? No problem. There’s probably a mountain of research just waiting to be traversed. Get the picture?

But let’s say you can’t even get through the TOC. “My book has too many layers,” you lament. “Too many back stories, tons of stuff going on. I can’t possibly be expected to filter it down into a neat little TOC.” Yes, you can, and you must. If your book has no focus, your book will have no focus. It’s as simple as that. But it doesn’t stop there — if your book is all over the place and you do actually manage to get it done, you′ll never be able to keep a reader interested because you will be the only one who will get it, and what’s the point of that? What you′ll need to do in this case is find the “core” of your book or the focus of your story. Ask yourself this: What’s the one thing this book cannot do without? What’s the one thing this story circles around? That’s your core. If you′re still coming up with three or four things that your story circles around, you aren’t focused enough and neither is your book. Find that one thing and build your story or book around it.

If you follow these steps, your book will get finished quicker than you could have ever imagined. And the once-dreaded writer’s block will go from a stumbling block to a building block.

Penny C. Sansevieri
The Cliffhanger was published in June of 2000. After a strategic marketing campaign it quickly climbed the ranks at Amazon.com to the #1 best selling book in San Diego. Her most recent book: From Book to Bestseller was released in 2005 to rave reviews and is being called the “roadmap to publishing success.” Penny is a book marketing and media relations specialist. She also coaches authors on projects, manuscripts and marketing plans and instructs a variety of coursing on publishing and promotion. To learn more about her books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at
amarketingexpert.com amarketingexpert.com.

I recently led a series of intro calls for a book-writing program I’m leading at CoachVille.

Most people who showed up on the calls had been thinking about writing their book for a year or so. Not a surprise.

I was surprised, however, to discover how many people on the calls had started thinking about writing their book five or six years ago … but still hadn’t done it. Wow.

So … what’s getting in the way?

Could be just about anything. Creative block. Fear. Lack of knowledge, or information. Procrastination. No support. Time management (or lack thereof!). Other priorities. Lack of confidence. Maybe all of these…

In thinking about it, one word kept coming up for me: overwhelm.

For almost anyone setting out to write a book … or create an information product … the sheer size of the task can be very overwhelming.

And when overwhelm hits, we generally can’t get started.

One suggestion that often works? Tackle a smaller project that feels comfortable, and do-able.

Less can be more

Instead of writing a book … or workbook, or e-book, or teleclass series … how about writing just one article?

You could start by choosing an article topic that you’re already very familiar with.

For example, what’s your book going to be about? What’s the general topic, or your particular slant on that subject?

Once you′ve decided on the general direction you′ll be heading, look for an article format that’s comfortable for you - and will work well with your topic.

Article formats that work

Back to my book-writing program for a moment.

Let’s say that I’m thinking about writing a ‘how-to’ book for first-time authors that would support my program at CoachVille.

Yep, that would be a big project.

But instead of ‘facing’ the whole book, I could start with one article.

Here are several different formats I might consider for my article (along with some ideas for titles that came to mind):

steps: “10 Steps to the Perfect First Chapter”

secrets: “Writing Secrets of Amazon.com’s Best-Selling Authors”

questions & answers: “Answers to the Top Ten Questions Beginning Writers Ask″

just a question: “Are You Ready to Become an Author?”

how to: “How to Write Your First Book in 12 Weeks or Less”

tips: “14 Tips for First-Time Writers”

checklist: “Writing Your First Book: A Checklist for Success”

expert approach: “Best-Selling Author Kathy Gulrich Shares Her Most Successful Writing Formats”

DOs and DON’Ts: “Writing Your Book: DOs and DON’Ts That Will Save You a Fortune”

a twist on the familiar: “Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About Writing a Book, But Were Afraid to Ask”

quiz: “Authors: Take This Quiz Before You Write One More Word!”

challenge: “Do You Have What it Takes to Become a Successful Author?”

or combine more than one

It’s really quite easy, once you’ve got the ’skeleton’ to hang your information on. So just get writing!

Now what?

Okay, you’ve got your article. How the heck does that help you write your book?

Ah, many ways….

- First, the article got you writing, and that’s a very good thing

- Perhaps your article will become a chapter in your book

- You could use your article for advance publicity, to get people interested in your upcoming book

- If you enjoyed working with it, you might use the same article format (how to, DOs and DON’Ts, etc.) as the format - or underlying structure - for your book

So … why not give it a try?

And when your article’s finished, get it out there! Include it in your newsletter, submit it to a magazine, or submit it to your favorite article distribution site.

Best-selling author Kathy Gulrich helps clients get from idea, to action, to results - more quickly, and more easily. Clients love her direct, no-nonsense approach - and her gentle insistence on great results.

In a nutshell? Kathy is all about taking action - and getting exceptional results. If you’ve got an interesting project in the works (or almost in the works…), give Kathy a call.

Or check out an upcoming teleclass - or pick up a free worksheet - at Kathy’s website, smARTbusinessCoaching.com smARTbusinessCoaching.com

From our deconstruction of hundreds of Hollywood blockbusters at www.clickok.co.uk/

The Hero’s Journey is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. In fact, ALL of the Hollywood movies we have deconstructed are based on this template.

Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters.

The Hero’s Journey:

a) Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.

b) Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.

c) Interpreted metaphorically, laterally and symbolically, allows an infinite number of varied stories to be created.

and more…

Sample Movie Deconstructed: Constant Gardener (2005)

[complex structure: lots of repetitions of Hero's Journey elements and many antagonists to deal with].

FADE IN: the antagonism: Tessa and Arnold are murdered.

Meeting the Shape Shifter: Sandy.

Herald (Shape Shifter) brings Call to Adventure to the Hero: Sandy tells Justin Tessa and Arnold are dead.

Flashback: Polarization of Hero and Romantic Challenge: Tessa heckling Justin.

Resisting the First Threshold: Justin hesitant to go into Tessa’s apartment.

First Threshold: Justin and Tessa in bed.

Inner Cave: Justin identifies Tessa’s body.

Physical Separation: Tessa asks to be taken to Africa.

The Creatures of the World of the Transformation: Africa and the performance.

Magical Gift: Tessa gets the baby present.

Meeting the Supernatural Aid / Mentor: Arnold.

Mentor leads deeper into the Journey: Arnold leads Tessa and gives the sick lady some medicine. Aids referenced.

Mentor guides: Arnold fusses over Tessa.

Trial 1: Tessa gets the email message; Justin tests her about Nairobi Hotel.

Meeting the Antagonist: Bernard Pellegrin, Dr Joshua Ngaba and Kenneth Curtis et al at the party.

Warnings: Justin wants Tessa to stay at home, at least until the bay is born.

Trial 2: Tessa argues with Dr Joshua Ngaba et al.

Warnings: Sandy tells Justin to control Tessa.

Shape Shifter attempts to conquer Hero’s Romantic Challenge: Sandy hits on Tessa.

Trial 3: Arnold tells Tess that the Africans are only given medicines if they agree to be guinea pigs.

Establishing the Journey to the Sword: Tessa loses the baby; asks Sandy if he will push the information she and Arnold will retrieve.

Foreshadow of ACT III: Justin and Tessa see Lorbeer.

Pulled Back: Justin has to think of Tess first; they go back to England.

Reminder of the Inner Challenge: Tessa erupts over the pesticide Arnold tells Justin he has to trust Tessa.

Inner Challenge: Justin checking up on Tessa (who’s she conversing with on the video link).

Romantic Challenge: Justin wants Tessa and Arnold to stop whatever they’re doing.

Shape Shifter in league with the Antagonist: Sandy talking to Kenny over the phone.

Seizing the Sword: Tessa gets the letter off Sandy.

Rebirth through Death: Tessa murdered at Loki the police and news reports.

Reward: Justin finds Sandy’s letter to Tessa.

Resistance to Losing the Old Self: Justin doesn’t allow them to pour concrete; nothing can grow in concrete.

Pulled toward the Apotheosis: the child leaves a card at Tessa’s grave.

Atonement with the Father; conquering the Romantic Challenge: Ghita tells Justin that Arnold was gay.

Resistance to the Apotheosis: no records in the hospital.

Apotheosis: Justin discovers that the Africans are being used as guinea pigs.

Refusal of the Return: Justin refuses to not get involved now;; knows Sandy is lying; asks Ghita what is going on.

Developing the Antagonist: we meet Kenny Curtiss playing golf.

Hero’s character change: Justin confronts Kenny.

Magic Flight: Justin forced home.

Obstacle to the Rescue: Justin’s passport taken away.

Threshold Guardian: the doorman at the club.

Rescue from Without: we meet Bernard Pellegrin in London Justin realises there is another letter; meeting Tess’ cousin, breaking into her files; memories.

Crossing the Return Threshold: Justin travels to Germany to meet Birgit; he has to finish what she started; “welcome to my World;” Justin in changed clothing. Conquering his Inner Challenge: admitting that he lost his faith in her.

Shape Shifter turns: Sandy against Justin now that he has escaped with a false passport.

Pushed towards the Final Conflict: Meeting with Birgit; she tells him to go back to Africa.

Foreshadow of the Freedom to Live: Sandy goes over how the Dr was tortured Allies challenge overcome: Ghita stands up to Sandy.

Travelling to the Final Conflict: beginning in Kenya.

Master of Two Worlds: Confronting the Shape Shifter (Sandy); Shape Shifter reveals himself.

Confronting the Antagonist 1: Kenny:’s bankrupt. Foreshadow of the Freedom to Live: Kenny shows Justin Tessa′s grave. Foreshadow of the downfall of antagonist 3: Kenny wants Pellegrin’s head.

Confronting Antagonist 2: confronting Donahue. Warnings about the Final Confrontation: Donahue tells Justin how the Dr was crucified.

Danger travelling to the Place of the Final Confrontation: Justin goes to see Lorbeer.

Time Pressure: the hunters arrive.

Inner Challenge overcome: “but this is one we can save…”

Freedom to Live: Justin allows himself to be butchered.

Learn more…

The Complete 188 stage Hero’s Journey and other story structure templates can be found at clickok.co.uk/ clickok.co.uk/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

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You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author’s name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. His specialities include Knowledge Management and Creativity and Innovation Management. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached at clickok.co.uk/ clickok.co.uk/

The Hero’s Journey is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. In fact, ALL of the Hollywood movies we have deconstructed are based on this template.

Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters.

The Hero′s Journey:

a) Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.

b) Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.

c) Gives you a tangible process for building and releasing dissonance (establishing and achieving catharsis).

d) Gives you a universal structural template upon which you can superimpose your situational story.

and more…

Heroes and Superheroes

The distinction between heroes and superheroes is slight. Most heroes are imbued with some special characteristsics. Even antiheroes tend not to be normal. Even losers have something about them that causes them to be the focus of the story.

In ancient storytelling, most heroes had specific characteristics: for example, they were orphans, descended from ancestors who were special or honoured in their own right. Moses was orphaned, Jesus was the Son of God and today, Harry Potter is the son of famous wizards and Luke Sykywalker’s father was a supreme Jedi Knight. This tendency continues today even in “gritty, real world stories.”

Superheroes are simply more endowed Heroes, often with a physical ability outside that of the normal human horizon.

Learn more…

WRITE THAT SCREENPLAY!

The Complete 188 stage Hero’s Journey and other story structure templates can be found at clickok.co.uk/ clickok.co.uk/

Managing Creativity and Innovation and related techniques and tools can be found at managing-creativity.com/ managing-creativity.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

**********************************

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made, the author’s name is retained and the link to our site URL remains active.

For 188 stages of the Hero’s Journey, successful story deconstructions and the Advanced Screenwriting Worksheets goto clickok.co.uk/ clickok.co.uk/

FORWARD

The 188 stage Hero’s Journey (Monomyth) is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. In fact, ALL of the hundreds of Hollywood movies we have deconstructed (see URL below) are based on this 188 stage template.

Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters. This is the template you must master if you are to succeed in the craft.

[The terminology is most often metaphoric and applies to all successful stories and screenplays, from The Godfather (1972) to Brokeback Mountain (2006) to Annie Hall (1977) to Lord of the Rings (2003) to Drugstore Cowboy (1989) to Thelma and Louise (1991) to Apocaplyse Now (1979)].

THERE IS ONLY ONE STORY

THE 188 STAGE HERO’S JOURNEY:

a) Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.

b) Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.

c) Gives you a tangible process for building and releasing dissonance (establishing and achieving catharses, of which there are usually four).

d) Tells you what to write. For example, at a certain stage of the story, the focus should be on the Call to Adventure and the micro elements within.

ABRIDGED TIPS, EXCERPTS AND EXAMPLES:

(simply go to heros-journey.info/ heros-journey.info/ for full details)

*****First Threshold Middle Cave*****

The Middle cave of the First Threshold is where the Hero meets Allies and Enemies. This is also then, obviously, where subplots are initiated or further developed. In Straw Dogs (1971), Henry plays with Janice.

*****Belly of the Whale*****

It is in the Belly of the Whale where the Hero comes face to face with what he (or she) must become or deal with or be. In Straw Dogs (1971), Cawsey asks if “…they got anything worth taking…ten months inside is enough for me….” ; Ratboy steals Amy’s knickers; “…I want what was in them…..”

Learn more…

WRITE THAT SCREENPLAY!

The Complete 188 stage Hero’s Journey and other story structure templates can be found at screenplay-structure.com/ screenplay-structure.com/ or herostransformation.com/ herostransformation.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made, the author’s name is retained and the link to our site URL remains active.

**********************************

Kal Bishop, MBA

Did you know that your teacher gets all of her homework ideas from the terrorists themselves? – NOT! That was a rumor. (Or for some of you it was just a slight exaggeration.) But what would happen if you believed that rumor. Some people might even go far enough to call the police or the CIA because they might imagine their teacher is interacting with terrorists. If the police or CIA believed the rumor then she might be thrown in jail for life!

Rumors are often lies or complete exaggerations. Some, if not all, are hurtful to others and can drive people away from you if you’re the one who starts rumors. Think about it … who wants to hang around someone who is always spreading rumors? Pretty soon, they’ll be spreading rumors about you.

And, listening to a rumor and repeating it is as bad as starting it, because it makes you part of the rumor, and you will be partly responsible for whatever harm it causes others. Also, if you listen to a rumor about someone you don’t know, and believe it, you might stay away from that person. Or, you might not sign up for art class, for example, since everyone says the art teacher is mean. And then it turns out the art teacher is really nice, and you missed out on art – your favorite subject – because you believed a rumor instead of making your own judgment about a person based on what’s REAL – what you see with your own eyes, not what someone is telling you to see.

Rumors are as bad as poison and just a waste of breath. So why do people start them? Some do it because they think making someone else look bad will make themselves look better. And maybe it will at first, but in the end, everyone will know the truth about who started the rumor and why … the ugly rumor monster!

To show people how rumors can affect them, I wrote a comical book called “The Student from Zombie Island” about a kid at school who is hearing tons of rumors about a new student that’s coming to school after winter break. There are some really outrageous ones like he will make you play football with real feet, and he once ate an entire class for lunch. In the end, it turns out he’s not bad, and it was all the rumors that made the new kid sound like a horrible person.

The story was as a gift for my second-grade teacher, Ms. Lujan, She inspired me to read and write more than anyone I know. She read to the class, lent me books, and even let me work on assignments past the due date because I had a lot more I wanted to write about to make the assignment really great. Then I thought maybe there was something in return I could give to her, so I wrote a story and illustrated it for her. She loved it so much that now she reads it to every class she has.

Several years later I read over my past work and I thought it may be worth publishing. So I asked my parents, and they said that if I was going to publish it I would need to spend some time editing it. That summer I edited my book and finally sent it in to some publishers. The first publisher that accepted it, hung onto it for a year then changed his mind and didn’t print it. But I knew it was a good book, so we sent it out again. Little Five Star Publications loved it and printed it. Which goes to show that with the right amount of effort anything is possible – even for an 11-year-old.

Michael Moorehead, author of “The Student from Zombie Island,” is a sixth-grade student who lives in Tempe, AZ.

When Michael J. Moorehead isn’t writing, he’s hiking, baking oatmeal cookies, playing video games and participating in Boy Scouts. His favorite animal is the polar bear, and he hopes to one day become an environmentalist. He’s concerned about the plight of the polar bears and says he wants to stop global warming to save the majestic white creatures from extinction - but he will have to graduate from junior high school first. Michael lives in Tempe, Arizona, with his mother, a freelance writer and editor for the SanTan Sun News and Arizona Parenting magazine, and his father, an insurance property adjustor, who moonlights as a movie critic for the Wrangler News.

I recently answered a call for submissions to write articles for a newsletter.

This was to be an ongoing position, but the advertisement didn’t mention remuneration, article length, or turnaround time.

I contacted the person who posted the article and asked questions about these issues. What I got back was an open email telling me - and every other writer who contacted him - what the aim of the publication was (to have articles written for a dating magazine), but apart from saying they would require articles twice a week, my questions were not answered.

So I wrote back, again asking specific questions. I received another email, and again my questions were not answered. The person concerned did however say he was taking ‘quotes’ and would take the cheapest one. But I still didn’t know what he wanted. So I wrote again, this time withdrawing my interest.

What I received back was a very nasty email from the person saying I was ‘too quick to judge’.

In this last email from him, he finally mentioned that he was looking for someone skilled, but wanted the cheapest price he could get.

Call me stubborn, even call me stupid, but I wrote back and told him what I thought – in the nicest possible way.

I let him know that taking the cheapest quote was not necessarily the best option. That if he needed or wanted an experienced newsletter writer, then lowest price shouldn’t come into the equation.

My twelve plus years of experience in this area could have proven more valuable to him than securing someone at the cheapest rate he could lay his hands on.

He wrote back and agreed. By this time it was too late. I’d had several emails back and forth with this ‘editor’ over a period of less than thirty minutes. During that time he had been elusive, arrogant, and downright rude.

After the second email with him I’d decided not to pursue this position, even though it was ongoing work. It came through loud and clear that he was not only inexperienced (which is not necessarily a bad thing), but he had no respect whatsoever for the writers he was dealing with.

At no time did he disclose the name of the magazine, whether it was a print magazine or for the internet, and how young or old the publication was.

These are all important issues for writers, and of course, if the publication was internet based, it makes a huge difference to the length of articles to be produced.

I’ve only once before come across something like this, and it left a bad taste in my mouth.

If our first, second, or even third encounter with an editor is not particularly good, then what will your subsequent dealings be like?

I’ve worked with loads of editors over the years, but only two have been unprofessional like this. The majority of editors are easy to work with, very trustworthy, and treat writers with respect.

If they don’t, then my friend, you have a problem. Writers are the bread and butter of publications. Without us, there would be no magazine, or website, or whatever it is they’re producing.

Go with your gut; if things don’t feel right, forget it. Run a mile. And don’t look back.

: Cheryl Wright is an award-winning Australian author and freelance journalist. In addition to an array of other projects, she is the owner of the Writer2Writer.com website and the Writer to Writer monthly ezine for writers. Her publications include novels, non-fiction books, short stories, and articles. Her upcoming release is “The Write Resources” from Central Avenue Press. Check out Cheryl’s website: cheryl-wright.com” target=”_new cheryl-wright.com