Whether your mouth salivates over the mere thought of a thick juicy rib eye steak marinated in honey mustard barbecue sauce, or drools over a creamy rich strawberry sundae with chocolate sprinkles, you must admit, the food industry KNOWS how to get you addicted. What are they doing? You don't see people mainlining Twinkies or selling their car to get another brownie, but still, people keep buying that stuff whether they need it or not. If only we could get people that hooked on reading our books. When it comes to junk food (defined as something people do not need but want) the food industries focus on three main areas, these being Salt, Sugar, and Fat. Salt is highly addictive. It regulates fluids and acts as a flavor enhancer. At the top of your tongue, you have special sensors called "taste buds" which recognize sweets and other specific flavors and send out pleasure signals to your brain. Fatty foods like chocolate, french fries, and pizza interact through texture and affect how different flavors are perceived. It's not magic, it's how the brain works. When it comes to writing a great story, there are five basic elements which include: Characters, Setting, Plot, Conflict, and Resolution. To break this down further, in this article I will focus on what makes your reader want to explore your Plot. The Plot (sometimes referred to as the story line) describes the events that make up your story. Every great plot needs three things: Questions, Engagement, and Conflict. Questions - We are curious by nature, we want to discover things as we go. If you look at the original Harry Potter book, you find she started with many more questions than answers. Who is Harry Potter? Where did he get that scar? What happened to his parents? Who are the Dursleys? Plus, more. She does NOT start by giving you all the answers, she starts by creating intrigue and suspense. Engagement - If a reader can not relate to one or more of the characters, they have no reason to continue. Like the first element, you do not start by giving every physical detail down to the size of his or her shoes. You want the reader to bond with your character. Whether they be the hero or the victim is not the point, does your reader have feelings for them? Important to note, the reader does not have to like them. Jack the Ripper is still a very engaging character. Conflict - Get to the point, if the fate of the entire free world hangs in the balance, don't wait until page 63 to casually mention there might be a problem here. Conflict is the glue that holds everything together. Boy versus girl, good verse evil, life verse death all grips the reader by the throat because the reader understands what is at stake. For conflict to be effective it must come often, and it must come quickly. This is your shock factor, this is what the reader is looking for. It could be man vs man or man vs the supernatural, but this is why your reader keeps turning the page. These three areas are what appeal to most readers. These are the promises you make to let them know, yes, it will be worth the effort. Of course, if you make a promise, you better be able to keep it. Do not raise questions with no answers. Do not make us love someone then kill her three pages later (unless that's motivation). Do not leave a conflict unresolved. It doesn't have to be happy ever after, but there must be some kind of change. In my humble opinion, you should always start with Engagement because once they are emotionally committed, you've made it personal and they want to continue. Face it, nobody NEEDS another fudge brownie. They reach for another because they want it. Focus on making your reader want to answer the questions and want to resolve the conflict. Remember Questions, Engagement, Conflict, repeat. This is the key to a great plot, a great story, and a great writing career. Award-winning writer/photographer Tedric Garrison has 40 years experience with various creative skills. As a Graphic Arts Major, he has a unique perspective on the visual arts and believes that creativity CAN be taught. His photography tells a story and his writings are always visual. Tedric shares his insight and perspective at: http://writephotos.weebly.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Tedric_Garrison/88147 Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9940348
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We've all heard of "Writers Block". It's frustrating, depressing and discouraging. It's usually defined as a temporary period when a writer cannot write. For most people, one of the major symptoms is a blank mind. You want to write, your schedule has been cleared to write, you sit with the intention to write, then... your mind goes blank. No words, no thoughts, no prompts, enter your head. As tragic as that sounds, a few of us, have a different obstacle when it comes to writing. I refer to this ailment as "Writers Chunk". When you suffer from writers chunk, ideas are not the problem, doing something about it is. The easiest way to detect if you have a chunk versus a block is you still have ideas. You can visualize what your character is wearing, you can hear what he or she is thinking. You may even be thinking two or three chapters down the road. So, if you have all these wonderful ideas, why aren't you doing something about it? Procrastination has killed more dreams than all wars, diseases, and handicaps combined. It starts simple enough. What is that part of a wagon called? Time for Google, oops, not a kid's wagon... I want a western wagon. OK, covered wagon does make more sense. History of the covered wagon? No, I want parts of a wagon. Two and half hours later you have dozens of pictures, videos and even a DIY blueprint of how to build your own covered wagon, but you haven't written a word. That's only one example of course, but you can also procrastinate writing until after you go to lunch, or go to the gym, or change your clothes. If you are not writing like you want, to it could be as simple as everything else keeps becoming a priority. The solution is not buying another book on writing or taking another writing course or looking for motivational speakers on YouTube. The answer is writing. Now before you get all ticked off and say, "duh, if I could do that I wouldn't have a problem", let me clarify that statement. The answer to writers block AND writers chunk is to form the habit of writing. This can be done in four easy steps. The first step - set a time. When all my kids were still at home I realized if I wanted to do anything for myself the best time was to do it before they woke up. What works for me, may not work for you, but to create this new habit you must establish a set time, one with the least amount of excuses for you to do anything else. The second step - establish a word count. This might sound like you are limiting yourself, but this is a starting point. When I tried NaNoWriMo camp for the first time I set a daily goal of a thousand words per day. I did ok for a couple of days, then I only did 500 words one day, then I skipped a couple of days. Eventually, I wrote 250 words and thought "what's the point, I'll never catch up." If procrastination is the number one killer of writers inspiration, the second greatest evil to avoid is depression and discouragement. It took me a while to figure this out, but even at only 250 words per day, that's still a page per day or 365 pages per year. My last book, once edited, was only 285 pages. Meaning I can still edit almost a third of my work later. The point is don't set your goals on what Stephen King can do, make your words count. (No pun intended.) Once you have the habit you can always raise your target later. The third step - learning to write. The other bad habit myself and many others share is the tendency to edit as I write. For creating this habit - do NOT edit! If I write 250 words and edit as I'm writing, I may only end up with 140 additional words. I'm making the goal twice as hard as it needs to be and I'm setting myself up for failure. Related to that, when you do write 250 words, give yourself a treat. To avoid diabetes, I suggest it be something besides food. Even if you only meet part of your word count, something is better than nothing. Give yourself credit for everything you achieve. Save "editing" for a different habit. The fourth step - repeat with praise. Now you're going write an easy 250 words per day (no stress), you get up early, say 7:00 am (or whatever works for you), and... you give yourself credit. Ideally, you want to do this habit for at least 30 days, but if you can only do it Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays that's still a plus. The key here is to acknowledge what you achieve, not focus on what you don't. Let your new habits work for you not against you. Napoleon Hill once said, "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve." Everybody has good habits and bad habits. To be a better writer you must believe you can write every day. Like a concert pianist, once you form the habit you don't have to think about which note to play next, you just do it. If you could sit down and write every day, every time you wanted, just imagine the possibilities. Award-winning writer/photographer Tedric Garrison has 40 years experience with these creative skills. As a Graphic Arts Major, he has a unique perspective on visual arts and believes that creativity CAN be taught. His photography tells a story and his writing is very visual. Tedric shares his insight and perspective at http://writephotos.weebly.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Tedric_Garrison/88147 Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9933535 |