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Give Your Book Title Marketing Appeal for the Masses, Part 2
Finished your book? Congratulations! But wait, does your book title still sound like a working title?Read more…Has Cursive Writing Fallen From Grace?
Cursive writing flows across the paper like a magical song reverberating through the strings of a harp. Cursive lettering is more difficult than block lettering (or casual style writing). Lines, loops, spirals and swirls work rhythmatically in slants and rollercoaster hoops.Read more…Is Your Handwriting Revealing Some of Your Innermost Secrets?
How often do you find yourself sitting and talking on the telephone, while grabbing a pen or pencil and start doodling? Not necessarily having the artistic ability of Picasso or Van Gogh, you begin to scribble or draw little daisies, clouds, circles or stars on a piece of paper or on the back of a nearby envelope.Artistic expression and human emotion is portrayed in a variety of mediums.Read more…Reel Your Book Readers In With Top Titles, Part 2
Titles are one of the most important aspects of your book. Did you know the average reader, publisher or editor only spends about 6 seconds looking at the front cover of any book. They spend not much longer, about 15 seconds, on the back cover.Read more…Short Story Writing: Article 19: Writer’s block
Writer’s blockMany of us will come up against periods when we would like to be writing but just cannot do it - periods in which the difficulty seems much greater than the difficult patches we expect as a matter of course, and seems to go on for much longer. We may have no ideas at all, or ideas which fizzle out as soon as we try to develop them, or we may have become stuck in the middle of a piece of work and feel we cannot go on with it. There is no one type of writer's block, and no one solution, but I do think there are some useful things we can say about it.Read more…Short Story Writing: Article 9: Time
TimeThe time covered by the action of a short story should be short, and preferably continuous. Generally speaking a day or two, a week, or at the most two weeks is enough. We should be focussing on one single incident in the central character's life, and it should take place in as few episodes as possible.Read more…Short Story Writing: Article 10: Characters
CharactersThe centre of interest in almost all short stories is the dynamic interaction between characters; what people do and say to each other, how they affect and influence each other, and the effects of their actions on each other. This is what the whole business is really about, and we should keep our interacting characters in the spotlight all the time. Other elements, such as descriptive passages are embellishments.Read more…Short Story Writing: Article 11: Dialogue
DialogueDialogue, perhaps more than any other aspect of writing, is something one has to develop a feel for, but like other aspects, observing a few simple principles can help us on the way.Dialogue is definitely not a representation of the way people really speak. Everyday speech is full of repetition and hesitation and mundane comments which are extremely tedious when written down.Read more…Are You Talking to Me?
In poetic literature you will often find a poem that seems to be inviting the reader to participate in an adventure or a love story. The use of ‘you’ is evident in the poetry, but in most cases the reader understands that the poem is written to a third party and the author is simply allowing you the opportunity to read these moments of intimate conversation.Possessives in poetry, marked by an apostrophe, are a way to understand that the poem is written for and to another person – even when written from a first person perspective.Read more…On Writing: Give More
My husband and I took a weekend trip to do some holiday gift shopping. After dinner we stopped at a supermarket to pick up munchies and sodas. As we were checking out, Jason, the cashier, asked us if we had the store's value card which offered deeper discounts on some items.Read more…Creative Fiction Writing Workshop: Character Development
Creative fiction writing skills workshop.Would you recognize your characters if you ran into them on the street?Answering a resounding “yes” to this question indicates you have been able to develop solid, plausible characters.Read more…Share Your Knowledge By Writing: You Will Improve People's Lives & Contribute To Social Development!
What If Napoleon Hill Had Not Written Think And Grow Rich?What would this world have been like if Hill had not written that wonderful book? Think back to all the successful people you know who have mentioned that reading THAT book transformed their lives.Read more…How to Make Your Research Paper Perfect
The initiation phase started with making statements in general of where and how to gather the information. The cognitive process prevailed over physical and caused affective process consisted of frustration, uncertainty and anxiety. These feelings were resulted from huge amount of available resources that should have been read and understood in order to identify more specified questions upon the task.Read more…Words Used Right -- No. 5: An Accurate Quote Can Be a Misquote
Shakespeare didn't want to kill all the lawyers, and Robert Frost didn't think that good fences make good neighbors. Sometimes, people use famous lines by famous people to support their arguments. And, too often, the words they quote not only weren't intended to support what they're saying, they actually mean the opposite.Read more…Utilizing Book Publishing to Expand Your Ministry
I talk with pastors, organization leaders, and speakers about how they can expand their ministry or organization by developing a line of books and they are simply amazed. When we think of growing or developing our organization many times we think of TV, radio, more programs, etc. but many people just don’t think of expanding or developing their organization by publishing a book.Read more…Some Words Are Like Your Appendix: You Can Live Without Them
As far as I’m concerned the adverb anymore needs to be relegated to the dung heap along with its cousin, any more. Both make for awkward sentence structure, interrupting the flow of words and consequently the ability to communicate with precision.If writers insist on using the word anymore, the only acceptable place is in a statement about a change in a previous condition or activity.Read more…Short Story Writing: Article 4 - Dramatizing a Short Story
One principle no fiction writer can afford to ignore is that a story should be shown and not told. Another way of putting this is to say that a story should be dramatized. Strictly speaking this means to write the story as a play, and our meaning here is similar, but the stage we are writing for is the reader's imagination.Read more…Funding Your Ministry by Writing a Book
We all know that growing a ministry is financially difficult. The constant problem in non-profit organizations is the lack of money. The most successful organizations are the ones that develop a line of products and services that can be bought by the general public without the public feeling like they’re just giving money away.Read more…Write a Non-Fiction Book First to Sell More Than You Ever Dreamed!
Why do people buy non-fiction books? Most readers buy books to solve problems or help with fulfilling a need. For example, when I started speaking for a fee I went out and bought a couple of popular books about speaking.Read more…The Case for Self Publishing Fiction
When I read different books on publishing, I think it is implied that publishing your own informational, inspirational or self-help books are the only works one can self-publish successfully. Granted, this is the Information Age and people buy information. But all due respect to how-to books, there is still a market for self-published fiction.Read more…
Most Recent Articles in Speaking category
- 6 Speed Reading Myths Debunked - By: Ed Caldwell
There is so much misinformation about speed reading that as a user for over 30 years, and as an instructor of tens of thousands of learners from all walks of life and all levels of education, I feel compelled to debunk some of the most prevalent and popular myths. - Speak and Touch the Heart - By: Balwinder Singh
Presentations and seminars become all too familiar in the business world. Jim Speaker is there with the overhead projector and PowerPoint slides-each with four of five points. Hours later the seminar is over. Seminars are informative but can be deadly. Just give me the handout and I'll read it at home! - Interviewing Your Characters - By: Sonu Kumar
One of my favorite techniques for getting into the head of my characters is, interviewing them. This relies heavily on rapid writing, so be sure you fully understand that concept first. If you don't, you can read my article "Rapid Writing" on my den. Interviewing characters is exactly how it sounds. You sit down with your characters and interview them, just like you would if you were a reporter. - From You v. Me to We: Seven Strategies to Talk to Your Communication Opposite - By: Meryl Runion
Research concerning communication style uncovers four different communication styles that are determined by two factors - pace and people-orientation. - The Changing Role of Language Interpretation - By: Nate Rodnay
Interpreting involves the orally rendering the meaning of dialog which is spoken in one language into another language while retaining its essence. Interpretation is often thought of as an extension of translation, which is the other basic language service. - The Company Identity - By: Nawaz Lakho
A company Identity is a simple, well formulated and designed, yet self expressing logo or signage, which is the company’s visual identity, it is also called Company brand or Brand Identity. Company Identity designing is a visual aspects of any organization. - Three Explosive Ways to Grab Your Audience’s Attention and Keep It - By: Arvee Robinson
Your goal as a presenter is to grab your audience’s attention and keep it. Although there are numerous ways to open a presentation, I have found three methods to be the most effective, especially when making business presentations. - 9 Secrets to Better Speaking - By: Arvee Robinson
These are just a few of the secrets that professional speakers use to deliver powerful presentations. By using these simple techniques, you too can command your audience’s attention, keep their interest, and move them into action. - The Good the Bad and the Ugly: Three Types of Editing - By: Nigel Fogden
Q. How many copy editors does it take to screw in a light bulb?A. - Learning Theory - By: Aaron Schwartz
Nowadays, probably as never before, scientists are extremely interested in the process of learning. Naturally, a number of different theories aiming at the explanation of this process were developed. It is quite difficult to decide what theory is better and more successful.