From the daily archives: Saturday, March 13, 2010
The main or lead character in any story is a lynchpin and has very definite qualities. Miss one of these and your story may well grind to a halt! This article takes a look at three crucial aspects of the main character.
The main character in any work of fiction is the one around which the entire story revolves. He or she must possess certain values or abilities if your story is to work, yet many aspiring writers miss one or more of these vital points and become frustrated when their story fails to work as it should. Let’s look at these three key ingredients to our main character:
1. The main character is the one who suffers most as a result of your story’s events.
2. The main character is the one who has the power to change things within the story.
3. The main character is the one with the freedom to change things if they so wish.
In more detail:
1. Let’s say that your main character, Jake, suffers most in your story. He has the freedom of choice to change this suffering but not the power to make it happen. Pretty soon your readers are going to realise that Jake is inept and weak, can’t change a thing and that he must, in the end, surely fail.
2. If on the other hand Jake is the one who suffers most and possesses the power to make it stop but lacks the freedom to do this, the story will fall flat on its face because Jake cannot act and the plot can go nowhere.
3. Finally, if Jake has both power to change things within the story and the freedom to do so but isn’t in jeopardy or doesn’t suffer, the story will lack any form of tension. Jake will also lack any real motive to make any changes you have him perform as he isn’t under any threat or duress. In this scenario the reader is left wondering why Jake has to do anything at all and usually gets bored pretty quickly!
What does this tell us as writers? Answer: that the main character must have a truly proactive role within your story – or he simply cannot be the main character! However, does this make the main character the protagonist? Usually the answer is yes, provided that the main character also acts in a proactive manner.
The protagonist must make things happen. If in your story you merely let the main character react to what his adversary, ‘the opposition’ (the bad guy) is doing, you risk the bad guy becoming the protagonist and your main character slipping into what is essentially a secondary role. This is a danger if the bad guy is particularly charismatic or has very powerful dominating character traits.
The danger here is that the bad guy becomes the lead character, an ‘anti-hero’. This is a very, very difficult line to follow and I would not advise beginners to go down this route. The anti-hero can work if handled expertly – think of Paul Kersey in ‘Death Wish’ or Lestat in ‘The Vampire Chronicles’. Both are anti-heroes but both work due to the expertise of the author. If you have any doubt as to your abilities to pull this off, stick to a good guy hero!
Therefore the main character must seek his story goal, overcoming the bad guy who seeks to thwart this. He must call the shots as to what happens in the story, driving it by being proactive. Incidentally, the bad guy isn’t there just to cause your hero trouble – he has to have his own goal that, to him, is just as valid as the one your lead character has or he risks becoming a ‘cardboard cut-out’ villain whose only role within the story is to give your hero trouble.
This set-up, with main character as the good guy and also acting as the protagonist, is the most popular in fiction simply because it works so well. All other types of main character require a much greater effort to make them work well (if at all) and so seldom work effectively unless handled by a very skilled writer.
In conclusion: for beginners, choose the easiest set-up for your main character as descried above. Learn to do the simple things well – after all, a straightforward plot with good, strong and conventional characters will for a beginner ultimately produce a better finished work than trying to manipulate character types and work with a difficult, laborious storyline. Keep it simple and write it well!
Steve Dempster writes fiction and informative articles for the web. Learn more about how to kickstart your writing career here!
Every writer has their own process when it comes to how to write an article. It may take a short trial and error period but every writer will eventually uncover the process or method that works best for them. Having said that; there are a few general ideas that you may wish to consider in order to become a prolific writer.
An important aspect of article writing is to consider who your audience is. Consider what types of people will be reading your work so that you can determine what style you should be writing in. For instance, if you are writing an article about a medical condition you may wish to write it in layman’s terms if you are writing for general readers. However, if you are writing it for medical professionals you will want to write the article in a more professional manner.
If you are writing an article for someone other than yourself, they will generally provide you with a list of guidelines that they wish for you to follow when writing articles. This will typically include a word count and will also include a general style which they wish you to use when writing. However, if you are unsure, you should speak to your client and clarify all doubts or get more details so you can learn exactly what they desire.
The most important thing to consider when asking yourself how to write an article is to back it with great research. An article that is properly researched can create an amazing article that actually has a purpose. You always want to come up with a purpose for the article you are writing, and follow through on that purpose.
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Every year, 100 million cell phones are replaced or discarded in the United States. Less than 20% of this total are recycled or sent back to the manufacturers – the rest are lost, thrown to trash bins, or kept in drawers.
Why donate or recycle cell phones?
Cell phones are an important source for recyclable materials like plastic, glass, silver, gold, and coltan. Throwing away these old phones is basically equivalent to throwing away precious resources that could otherwise be reused to manufacture new cellular phones and other products.
A grimmer aspect to cell phone recycling is the toxicity of some of the metals found in cell phones. Once deposited in landfills, dangerous chemicals leaching out of old phone casing and batteries like brominated fire retardants (BFR), cadmium, lead, and mercury have the potential to contaminate nearby underground water sources. These chemicals have been known to cause cancer, brain damage, and nervous system disorders, among a host of other illnesses.
Donate cell phones to charity or non-profit
Donating your used mobile phone to your favorite charity is a most viable option worth considering. There are many charities, non-profit, or informal community- and school-based groups that are always collecting used phones across the country. Most of these organizations are involved in food relief, rehabilitation, international education, health, environment, and domestic violence prevention programs.
By donating your used cellular phones to any one of these entities, you’re basically turning something – that would have been useless otherwise – into a tool to help these groups do their beneficial work. That old cell phone you’re planning to chuck into the trash bin or stash away in your drawer might just help someone out there today.
Tax-deductible donations
If your dropping off or donating your old mobile directly to the non-profit, you may want to ask for a receipt from them, which can then be attached to your April filing to get the corresponding tax deduction. Not all groups or non-profit are qualified to receive tax-offsetting donations, you just have to ask. Otherwise, it’s as simple as mailing or dropping that old phone in a collection box in your community.
Where to donate cell phones?
It’s up to you – most of the mainstream non-profit organizations today have some kind of a cell phone collection program to help generate funds. If you’re not sure where to make a used or old phone donation, here are some places you can go to:
Local groups. Look around, check posters or online community updates. Many of these groups are based in schools, churches, and social clubs. Are there kids from the nearby school going around collecting old phones door-to-door for their chosen cause or charity? Is your church conducting a fund drive to replace the old sound system? There are always many opportunities to donate and help locally.
Environmental non-profit. These are groups that are involved in environmental advocacy and conservation. Usually, the group will set aside a certain percentage of the proceeds from your cell phone donations to fund a specific environmental project – like gorilla conservation, coral reef protection, or rainforest-related projects.
Old cell phones for victims of domestic violence. Violence against women and children is the ugly underbelly of modern homes. Oftentimes, women and children who are victims of abuse in their own homes flee to protect themselves and seek help, with nothing but the clothes on their back. Organizations providing refuge to these victims are constantly in need of old cellular phones these people can use to contact other family members or seek legal help.
Cell phone for soldiers. Non-profits who are working with members of the military and their families are also in need of used cellular phone donations. Proceeds from the used phones they’re able to collect and sell to recyclers are used to purchase mobile phone cards to help soldiers stationed overseas communicate with their loved ones back in the US.
Health advocacy. Non-profits working for health advocacy often provide support to the victims of catastrophic diseases like cancer, leukemia, etc. and their families. They also collect second-hand mobile phones to help fund their conntributions to research facilities that are working to find the cures for these diseases.
Children’s organizations. These are non-profits involved in feeding, providing shelter and basic necessities, and educating children in needy communities here in the US and abroad. Organizations like “Feed The Children” are collecting used phones through their online partner, Pacebutler Corporation, to help fund their work on behalf of these disadvantaged children.
As you can see, there are a lot of groups out there that you can work with, to make a difference in the lives of others. whatever organization you choose to help today, you can be sure that your old cellular phones are put to good use. It’s easy and you know that it’s the right thing to do.
Donate cell phones to a charity or non-profit, today.
Michael Arms contributes cell phone recycling and other articles to the Pacebutler Recycling Blog. You can sell, recycle, or donate cell phones through Pacebutler Corporation, a US-based cell phone trading company.
Will my book pass or sell in a crowded book market?” Good question. You want to know. I want to know. We all want to know before we invest our time, effort and most of all our money. Here are a few tips to help you know if your book will just pass or sell well before you even write it.
Give your idea or your book manuscript the test of significance. Write your book to meet at least 2-3 of the areas listed below to attain significance in the book market place. To make sure your book passes the test of significance, does it offer:
1. Original, different information. Have you wondered what makes a new diet book sell well even when there are scores of diet books on the market? The author presents their unique set of successful diet rules, their exercise program, their perspective, their testimonials and their credentials. They use original, different information for the same results.
2. Expert advice to a specific group of people. Target a group of people within your broad market. For example, the Chicken Soup series for Teen-Agers, Mothers, even Prisoners sold much better that the original more general Chicken Soup for the Soul.
3. Inspire people to do something good. Weave inspiring stories into your book and sell more. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership spent 18 straight months on the Business Week Business Best Seller List. Dr. Maxwell started each chapter with a short story of a famous person successfully using the chapter’s law of leadership.
4. Solutions to your audience problems. Get this right and you could have a best seller. Do you know the solution to a vexing problem? Write the solution in your book. You might be surprised at who’s searching online for a little relief.
5. Entertainment, humor or fun. Do you have a talent to make people laugh? Use it in your book. Provide a little oasis of escape for your readers. People love it when you entertain them. Intertwine funny stories into your non-fiction manuscript. Entertain them, make them laugh; they’ll love you for it. Best of all, they will have fun telling all their friends about your funny book.
6. Greater understanding of life. Have you been gifted with a deep understanding of life? Put small excerpts of your understanding throughout your book. Sprinkle your quotes along with other famous philosophers or world thinkers within your book.
7. Success experiences that motivate your audience to do more, give more or share more. Share your experiences to motivate your audience. Share how you overcame seemingly insurmountable challenges in your field. It will motivate your audience to think if you did it; they can do it too.
8. Specific skills and information. Thousands of people search for specific information daily. They want simple to read and easy to understand information. Seek to educate your audience; include engagement tools in your book. Help them make more money, cut costs or solve their problems. Examples include: online assessments, how to tips, short reports, resource lists, how-to tutorials, dictionary of terms in your field, etc.
9. Opportunity to learn something new or interesting. Sprinkle your book with little know interesting facts about your topic. Be careful to avoid information overload with pages of detailed statistics. But if you sprinkle them as morsels throughout your book, you create anticipation that will lead your readers through to the end. People love statistics and bite-sized trivia about just about any topic.
10. An easy to read style to learn about something. Take a complex subject in your field and make it simple. Most people enjoy an easy reading language. They will not only reward you by reading to the end but your readers will be happy to tell all their friends about your insightful easy to read book.
Are you ready to start writing your top selling non-fiction book yet? Did your book idea pass the test of significance in at least two areas? Great! Now that you know your book is significant, go ahead dream big. Don’t hesitate any longer. Start today. Your audience is waiting for your unique ideas and viewpoint to help them. Make it different. Make it count. Make it yours.
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 iscribe@writeyourbestbook.com for free mini-course “Jumpstart Writing Your Book” or visit her at http://www.writeyourbestbook.com
A successful article is largely defined by the intention to which it was created & by the kind of results you wish to achieve. This kind of writing has plenty of uses, so a broad perspective will be taken here. All articles are designed to be read by a targeted reader, to be helpful, interesting, informative, & in a way that can be followed & understood by the largest number of people. Writing this way is not difficult if you follow these 5 simple pointers.
1. Know who you wish to reach & communicate with.
This means you need to decide before hand who you require reading your piece & design it accordingly. Know your audience & what they require before hand, also where these readers go to get their information. This is where you need to place your scoop, so that the greatest amount of hungry targeted eyes will see it.
2. Headline & the teaser copy.
As the headline & the teaser copy is what your reader is going to read first, special attention should be focused on this important area. This is where you have just 2 to 3 seconds to arrest your readers attention with something that they are looking for. This is normally a benefit so place this up front in your title. Look at other successful headlines to see & learn how to craft your own. This is skill that is learnt & perfected with practice.
3. Writing Style.
Most often the best writing style to chose would be to the most simple & direct. Use your words in a way that is easily understood. A simple style benefits & appeals to the broadest cross section of people,therefor the largest possible number. Most of today’s web users are wanting information in a hurry & in a way that it is easily digested. Supply what is wanted & in a way that is most appreciated.
4. The structure should be constructed in an inviting & open format.
This means using short, to the point, focused sentences. Each paragraph should normally contain around 5 to 6 sentences with plenty of white space between. These should be delivered in a crisp, concise & coherent way. Using numbers, bullet points & subheadings helps surfers to skim your thought piece to see if it’s relevant content. A successful piece should promote interest & desire for them to invest the time to read it properly.
5. what is your desired intention in targeting this audience?
what is your aim & intention? To share ideas, thoughts, opinions, promote a product or service? By knowing this before hand helps you to organise & source relevant material most suited to this task. If it is to promote a web site, then you should give information & benefits in your pieces body to require more. to pique your prospects interest in wanting to commit to a further action by clicking your link.
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At the recent International Fundraising Congress in the Netherlands, Ingrid Srinath, secretary general of civil society network Civicus, warned that the fundraising climate would be hard-hitting in 2010, and even more so in 2011. Given the number of organisations and worthy causes already battling for contributions and funding, along with the challenges already presented by the recession, this is bad news for the non-profit sector.Â
Non-profit organisations need to be proactive in adapting to survive and thrive in these harsh times. If they donâ??t they will be left behind by more switched-on competitors, and securing funding will soon become practically impossible. So, how can organisations stand out in a saturated marketplace? What makes individuals, and other organisations, decide to donate to or fund a certain cause? A strong brand has the answer. Think about some of the top UK charities for example: Cancer Research, Oxfam, British Heart Foundation, Barnardos. These are all principal names with big notable brands that are easily recognised, and that are designed to clearly communicate the culture of each organisation in order to engage their audience. All of these brands boast amazing positive brand equity. Brand equity is measured against factors such as brand loyalty, awareness, association, and perception of quality.Â
Today donors expect more. They want to interact with a brand and to feel that they belong to a â??brand communityâ??. Successful brands today are not merely lifeless â??thingsâ?? but are thriving entities. They have identities and personalities that allow customers to express themselves through their engagement with that brand. In order to attract customers and encourage them to actively engage, brands must have and visibly communicate a strong story and/ or set of values which customers can easily identify and relate to.Â
The value of a superior brand to businesses should not be underestimated. Speaking also at the International Fundraising Congress recently Paul Farthing, high-value relationships director at Cancer Research UK, stated that research showed 83 per cent of consumers in the UK would prefer to purchase products that were associated with a charitable cause. “Companies spend millions persuading the public to switch brands, so charities need to be telling them that they are a way of achieving that,” he said. Needless to say there are huge partnership opportunities for strong non-profit brands.Â
Creating the right brand for an organisation is certainly no easy task and is usually achieved as the result of a scrupulous and invasive audit process. This process is made easier, however, if an organisation chooses to work with a branding specialist with experience in the non-profit sector. New Revolution is a young, dynamic creative studio with a passion for working with non-profit organisations. Over the past 5-years New Revolution has worked with organisations such as LifeLine and Taitt Dance Academy in Essex, and on projects like the Urban Arts initiative â?? an education programme designed to get young people back into education through offering a range of non-traditional courses, including street dance and graffiti art.Â
New Revolution has accumulated a wealth of experience over the years, combining graphic design and motion graphics to create striking and original solutions for various non-profit clients. Owner James Ratnarajah believes that New Revolution can help third sector organisations to find their voice in these taxing times; â??Weâ??re really passionate about this sector and we fully recognise that itâ??s not enough for a brand and marketing materials to just look â??niceâ?? anymore. We also understand the non-profit marketplace well. We can help our clients stand out and make the very best of the restricted opportunities that are out there.â?Â
Visit www.newrevolution.co.uk
New Revolution is an Essex-based creative studio specialising in graphic design and motion graphics. Over the last 5-years of trading New Revolution has become something of a specialist in creating innovative design solutions for non-profit clients. It has worked with organisations such as LifeLine and Taitt Dance Academy in Essex, and on projects like the Urban Arts initiative – an education programme designed to get young people back into education through offering a range of non-traditional courses, including street dance and graffiti art. Visit www.newrevolution.co.uk
There are those who deny Neil Armstrong walked on the moon and maintain the whole story was a government conspiracy. The idea that man could actually break away from our cradle of atmosphere and gravity was once fiction of the highest sort. Yet one dreamer made it a reality. What is there not to believe about space travel? Will there be a time when such a thing is feasible?
If interstellar travel requires traveling at light speed, the situation is not promising. The biggest hurdles against such travel are g-forces and time. G-forces are the force exerted on your body when undergoing high accelerations. Accelerating to the speed of light would have to be done gradually or the body would be torn apart. It would take about 2 ½ months to get to just half the speed of light! This explains the need for inertial dampers—the cosmic shock absorbers created by the writers of Star Trek. Inertial dampers somehow cancel out the force responding to the accelerating force. While this solves the problem for script writers, there is no such tool in the real world of physics.
Which takes us to the problem of time in space travel. Theoretically, two things happen when objects travel at the speed of light. First, time becomes relative and “slows down” for the objects in motion. A ten year journey on a star craft would correspond to 25,000 earth years—making any communication impossible. In addition to this, objects get heavier the faster they travel. When approaching the speed of light they become infinitely heavy, which is why only massless objects, like waves, can travel at such speeds.
Hence, space travel at light speed or faster is probably not feasible; however, space travel could still become reality. Imagine you are a microscopic mite on a flat piece of paper. Your world would seem to be flat; and indeed, all experimentation on your immediate environment would lead you to that conclusion. If your world was flat, the fastest way to get from your position to a point at the other end of the page would be a straight line. However, if the page was to bend, and you could drill a hole through the page, you would find a shortcut. This is the idea behind wormholes. Unfortunately, geometric equations show wormholes to be impossibly unstable. Before they could be used as viable bridges to new star systems or galaxies, one would have to find a way to keep them from pinching off the moment a speck of matter entered its throat. Still, wormholes are our greatest hope for space travel. While wormholes are still only hypothetical (there is no experimental evidence for them), they are great theoretical fun, and valid solutions of the Einstein equations. It’s no wonder that they are a topic of interest among scientists and writers science fiction alike.
About the Author
Francesca Black has always enjoyed Science Fiction and she manages the content at: Science Fiction Corner http://www.science-fiction-corner.com
So you think you have a really cool idea for your first novel but don’t know where to begin with the writing?
Ok, here’s a question. Is your novel going to be a mainstream novel or a category novel? What’s a category novel, well it’s one that fits into in a category such as romance, science fiction, historical, crime saga, suspense, you get the idea.
A mainstream novel has a unique style and theme. These are books that cannot be put into any category. They are difficult to write, and even more difficult to sell. They are the type of novel we call literary – the type that wins the Booker prize.
Before you start your writing journey, do read lots of books including novels that have been published recently in your chosen area. Choose the publishing houses that are printing work like yours. You can send for guidelines and their current catalogue. The length of the book will depend on the category. If you want to write light romances, you’ll find these vary from 50,000 to about 55,000 words. Historical romances and sagas are often 100,000 words or more.
Have an idea of the sort of reader who will purchase your novel. Make sure that each chapter in your book has a hook. So this is a paragraph that raises a question in a reader’s mind, and one that can be answered only by reading further.
Your novel must have a character with a problem, and that difficulty should be presented from the start. If it helps, write out your story on a sheet of paper on on a spreadsheet. If this is your first bookit is best to use a background that is familiar to you.
PLANNING AND PLOTTING
Don’t rush into your writing. It is essential that you write regularly or you are in danger of losing the thread of your novel. Plot comes from characters, but remember that plot and character must fit perfectly together.
Don’t forget, every incident in your plot – like every word in the narrative, should be there for a purpose.
A novel should start with a problem at the beginning of your story. Make sure your plot has that ’X'factor – make it different. Somehow make the publisher want to buy it! Most of all enjoy writing and following these tips.
John (Tim) Mitchell trained as a journalist at the University For the Creative Arts (Farnham) after spending two years at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth specialising in audio-visual production.
After a brief spell freelancing in radio and print journalism, Tim went onto work for the UK Central Government’s Defra and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) in marketing/communications before working for RedRok Media
RedRok Media
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