The story structure that will skyrocket your novel to the bestseller list

So, you have an idea for the novel. Maybe it's fully trained, and you've been thinking about it for a while. Perhaps they are at an early stage, and have only a rough idea of the genre and the action. You might also be good to write and you read to get this to some additional ideas.

One thing that many mainstream novels and films have in common is their story structure. American lawyer Joseph Campbell during his life all over the world traveled and studied the mythology of the past, present and more than a hundred different cultures. And what he found was truly amazing. In almost every civilization, he found that their mythology, the stories that was say for hundreds and thousands of years, had shared the same basic structure.

A structure called it "the hero's journey." For some reason, this history structure on our subconscious mind is deeply embedded. The basic story structure is as follows:

It is to a young hero, soon. He is an OK life, but he is bored. Something is happening, and he gets an invitation from some higher authority (a person or a God or an enlightened being), and he refused. Then there is also a minor tragedy is, and he must take the journey. On the journey, he discovered new skills, new befriends himself and conquered a kind of evil power, either a specific person or a company or a demon in.

If you think about the most popular stories in today's market, you will see that many of them follow this basic structure. Harry Potter, Spider-man, the wizard of Oz, star wars and the recent transformers.

If you have a novel to write the much read and enjoyed, to maintain if not thousands, even millions of people, so much money it might be one good idea structure maintain this story. It is said for thousands of years of shamans, mystics and religious leaders has and can be said, as good if not better that you.

One of the most common ways is to increase your passion for writing and your skills, consistently to read what others write. Many bestselling authors confirm that a significant amount of their ideas and techniques are inspired by the works of others read regularly. It's no secret that the fastest way to success in all areas is able to learn from others.

Because people can easily imagine methods for applying the insights from this probably enjoy George Hutton widely read Zapotec. One of the reasons why, which begin many how you quickly discover that Zapotec easily may be the most gripping force novels to get one is the incredibly engaging characters in a long time. Many find, because you read start, quickly be deepened, and you can not stop until you experience the stunning climax. You can learn more and find out what others are saying, if you visit http://www.georgehutton.net/zapotec

Some simple tips to make your blog popular

All bloggers want to popularize their blogs. And for that it is popular, they work hard whenever they have some time. I have been blogging for the last four years and have learned to make many blogging techniques that can help our blog more popular. I discuss some techniques that will help you to make popular your blog in today's article:

Have your own domain: If you take seriously about blogging, an own domain buy. With your own domain, your shows professional dealing with things. Choose a domain name, the short and is easy to.

Frequent update: to make your blog successful, you must regularly update it with the contents of your niche. If you update your blog more often, search engines, as well as people find not hard to get it to your blog.

Forum post: Search on Google to find some top forums in your niche. If you make in your blog about money and may be the best forum for you SEO sort of thing, then DP Forum, SitePoint and SEO Chat. You can add your blog URL in your signature section in most of the forums. To add your blog address in your signature, but try not to a forum with independent links of your blog in your answers spam.

Social Media Sites: spend one or two hours every day at the top of social media sites like Digg, StumbleUpon and del.icio.us. You should develop your profile on this social news sites, by he the popular stories you around the Internet found. You should aim, you can submit a story from your blog with other stories on these news sites.

Blog directories: Make a search on Google you will find top blog directories in General and in your niche and submit it your blog to blog directories.

Posting comment: find the top bloggers in your niche and regularly visit their blogs to see how they go ahead with their blogs. Leave these blogs without any intention of spam comments.

Link exchange: make a list of bloggers in your niche and some top bloggers in General. And send then politely requested that you are interested in exchanging links with them. When you send the link request in this way, it will be many bloggers who will be interested in exchanging links with you.
These are some tips that every blogger can follow their blog popularity. I will discuss more tips about blog popularity in the coming days.

Visit my blog to learn ways to make money online and know how you your blog popular

Gideon Bible story - signs of the times

The book of judges is set at a time when Israel was uncivilized to say the least. God they supplied constantly with heroes around her self-induced problems to get. At present, the most popular of these heroes is Samson... or so I thought.

When you create a Web site to offer free Bible story downloads and activities for children, I have the character to write, I thought that most parents and teachers want to read and teaching; Samson, Jesus, Noah and Daniel to name a few. Little, I knew that the most popular download from my website would be the story of Gideon.

Gideon consistently ranks # 1 in page views, every month. I had no idea the Gideon Bible story such very was asked. This article examines one possible explanation for this phenomenon.

If you have a moment to the Gideon Bible story in judges 6-8, may the rest of the article make more sense. I'll wait for you while you read it.

All done? Let large, us further.

Do you have this ever nagging feeling that something for God should do?

Deep down in a voice calls, pushes and prods you step out in faith. Perhaps he wants you to write a book, start a new church or Bible study, or perhaps he wants you to open a dialogue with your neighbor. With regard to this feeling of nagging you were nervous? Fear? Not sure where to begin?

I know the feeling. I had an appointment three years ago, led to the birth of two sites. Scary stuff, if it had never done you.

Gideon called of God lead Israel against the Midianites, which Israel houses and fields were destroyed. In this story God sent an Angel physically in human form, to talk with Gideon personally.

We all know Gideon's response. Immediately he hurried throw against the entire Midianiter army to defeat them with a single blow.

Okay, not that is exactly how it happened.

Gideon felt real fear, say an army would lead his clan was the weakest clan and that he was the weakest in his clan. In other words, Gideon felt completely unworthy to do anything for God, and allowed fear to his actions instead of trusting God for things to take care to control.

It needs from step courage, for God. God knows that, but he looks still for us, to make the right decision.

It would be great, if faced with a difficult decision in life, we could shake our special Gideon miracle 8 ball and God would point us in the right direction. Life would be so easy. We would make not no decisions.

In fact, it is exactly what Gideon did, unless it uses fabric instead of a magic 8 ball. One night, he asked God to confirm a sign that he to lead the Israelites into the war. God gave him the characters. The next night, Gideon asked always still uncertain to confirm another sign, and God answered his prayer once again.

Have you ever asked yourself have God for a sign in the right direction? Have you got one? Count even if you are not blessed.

God is no traffic Director. It set our paths and catches us, when we stray away, but we are not constantly questions, for a "pillar of fire" to light the way. How much faith will take to live our life if God what do us, always says?

Lord knows we all need perform surprise us once in a while from the misery to get, and God lives these small wonders for his children. Requests for sign is God in a box, and leaves to work miracles no room for him in our lives.

Gideon shows lack of faith and confidence, he asks for a sign from heaven. Fortunately, our father is so loving and patient, that he gives to us what we need to make progress.

Everyone looks for sign from heaven, so they're on the way, decisions, which is why the Gideon Bible history is such a popular history. We have to trust that we need to show us that God gives us in the right direction of the path he wants to take us.

Anything else would be uncivilized.

Free Bible stories and other Christian resources that you and your children understand the Bible and a relationship with God to http://www.bible-stories-library.comgrow download

Halloween ghost stories

Story sessions on Halloween are a great tradition. Kids love fear, but be careful in the selection of the relevant stories how need their imagination not much encouraged, especially in this night as ghosts our world to roam!

As also the terrifying stories also mystery could tell you stories. History meetings can quiet at your Halloween party to bring you. While this goes in the preparations for other parts of the party can take place.

Where do you find scary stories? The Internet contains several sites for such stories of Halloween horror.

You can you stories of your own - might be personal experiences to embellish. Children find it credible, if it is an experience of the Narrator. A personal touch is achieved and is more credible.

Do not do about it! You do not want to go your guests who suffer from home of nightmares or you are not popular with their parents! Now is a real scary situation!

There are many classic ghost stories out there. Most children come still not over them, although they may be old favorites you.

Such a history is "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". Washington Irving Headless Horseman is a storm to go down. An other treacherous tale is "Flying Dutchman". This strange ship brings doom for those who to cross their path. Another popular story is that of Dr Frankenstein monstrous creation.

Also available is "A ghost story"-Mark Twain. It several adjustments were suitable enjoyment for your children. Some people say that "the Willows" by Algernon Blackwood, one of the best ghost stories is. ' "The empty House ' by the same author is another classic, which could ghastly wet their appetite. You get creepy stories on the Internet or from the local book store.

Keep in mind that you audience especially children. Certain versions are easier to understand for them, so choose accordingly. A good guideline for children is short and simple. If you are entertaining adults there is a different matter. Here, the beredter the better.

Alternatively, you scary a CD or DVD could acquire entertaining stories to the troops. Easily bought from local stores or the Internet, there is more to purchase available.

Keeping your options open. Of course, play lively with Halloween parties and dance must be, but as a ghostly stories or two is not evil.

Helen Harvey loves scary Halloween ghost stories. Take a look at their current site, Devil's mask, where she reviews and talks about scary Devil masks for children and adults.

Culture of the African history

For five years in the 1970s I lived and worked in Botswana and Ghana in Africa. I also traveled to Western, Eastern, and South Africa. From this experience, I collected these impressions of the culture of storytelling in Africa.

History in Africa is sacred (thus my capitalization), and history is interwoven into the daily fabric of life. History is not only words in Africa. The story is told by baskets, cloth, dance, ritual and relationship. May all history show a slight gesture of a body worlds. I experienced a tremendous depth and subtle communication in every country I visited. Normal interactions was exceptional. I remember a woman on the market of Accra, Ghana break into a spontaneous dance with me as part of our history together.

First of all I taught English as a second language (ESL) and literature in secondary schools by peace corps. Made beautiful drawings with stories go my students of Botswana, which she wrote in the school newspaper. She moved history with ease and confidence, as part of their early training was at home.

I opted for story-telling as a teaching tool, to clarify plot lines and cultural bridge separates. The curriculum, I taught a mixture of English classics such as Shakespeare, Milton and Chaucer was in wonderful African books like China Achebe "things fall apart combination" and "The beautiful ones are not yet born."

I students for two sets of examinations, which certainly prepared pretty much their future: "O" level or ordinary level (about the equivalent of the late Middle School in the United States) and "A" level or advanced level (about the equivalent of a high school diploma or even first year of Community College in the United States). My students have quite good.

Botswana was one of the books, which we examined "Lambs Tales from Shakespeare". I put my students the task of writing scripts for each of these stories and act out. If you do this kind of analysis, is the commonality between classic European literature and history of the world into sharper relief.

I went end to Botswana on my own to my peace corps tour in secondary schools and was projects each with history as a powerful tool in three village.

With the villagers in Gabane I Tshwaragano Craft Center a puppetry consultant for a popular culture team was, and wrote stories and lesson plans for a literacy curriculum. Learned by working on these projects I story is the life force that moves the brain, heart, and forward limbs. Puppetry consultant I was simply because I have a puppet in the back of a pick-up truck picked up, his arms around shaking started and gives it a voice and lines to speak. We built popular theatre work on the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire critical theory.

Community development workers brainstormed critical questions and then we built stories around them, performed in drama, dance, song and puppetry. We stopped at the height of the action, the audience questions: "Would you what now?" These discussions led to common work projects in the village. We have something similar in the literacy curriculum, which we had designed and illustrated.

I was so impressed with the results that I had seen in the other two projects that I started with puppetry performances at the Tshwaragano to develop critical incidents and stimulate discussion of sensitive situations meets new venture, such as "whose turn is it now sweep the floor?"

I love Africa and their stories. I feel Africa really is the mother of mankind, and certainly archaeological wear off this. In Africa, I felt through embraced that mothering energy.

Never in my life have I was thus includes, maintained on observed, looked after, cared for..... and, who I enjoyed just flat out. Africa is a continent, not a country, of course, but I felt this no matter where I went.

Stories make difficult and painful situations. In Botswana, I remember stories told a campfire under a sky full of piercing, Star one night, our truck in the Bush between then and Maun broke.

I remember in Ghana in stories the brim tells Mammy trucks that could plunge us in an accident around the next corner replete. But in one of these situations if we would have been in danger, would we have it as friends, not as foreign, and this would have been by the power and the grace of the story.

History is to know the thread of the celebration and the thread. While I went to a village of the peace corps training no outsider had lived ever. We were brought through history each other each other curious and print. Their stories, I collected, and she created stories and song-to the memory of my visit.

Stories in an any language and culture are our children worth telling and disclosure. Africa has the oral history, of course, and you could probably talk on the impact of technology on their oral history tradition.

Because by definition history requires time and time together, as well as the willingness of a tradition over and use our imagination. It's good, stories of your family and your employees... provide a sense of continuity between generations have a thread of time and life over place moves.

I have a shelf full of books from and about Africa. Among them are books of African tales bearing wisdom of ancestors to the modern day.

There is a large discrepancy between popular stories about Africa ("it's dark, exotic, and war torn") and I brought stories which after I lived and worked five years in Africa. I am concerned by the popular perception of the United States of Africa as this place (only) the war, poverty, hunger and tribal dispute-AIDS crisis. Granted the African Nations and the African continent have great difficulties and problems continue to resolve, but all make up for what I want to understand people, the warm heart of Africa, that as the essence of being human... hit me felt for me at all, but very civilized non-primitive and humane.

Visit Janet grace Riehl blog "Riehl life: village of wisdom for the 21st century" see http://www.riehlife.com for more ideas and information about how to connect to through the arts culture across generations, and within the family. Read also sample poems and other background information from "view relationships: A poet's diary" to Janet's website.

Script technique # 4-10 story techniques you need to use to sell the script

The key question that all screenwriters should ask themselves is: how do I write a script that Hollywood wants to buy? Most writers mistakenly think that success is all about connections and star power. Not so. The real trick to writing a script that will sell is to know and use Hollywood's central marketing strategy. And that can be summed up in one word: genres.

Former Universal Pictures chairman Marc Shmuger recently said, "There's no doubt the star system is in transformation. Arguably the two biggest stars in the first half of 2009 were Kevin James (Paul Blart: Mall Cop) and Liam Neeson (Taken)...That's a significant shift in the meaning of star power and a shift to the premium that is being put on concept and genre."

Shmuger is telling any screenwriter who is smart enough to listen the 1st rule of the entertainment business worldwide: it buys and sells genres. Genres are story forms and each has from 8-15 special story beats (story events) that make up the form. The reason Hollywood marketing is based on genre is that executives are selling to a worldwide audience. And people the world over love particular types of stories that speak to their deepest desires. I'd like to tell you 10 story techniques that must be in your script if you want the best chance of selling it in a genre-dominated business.

1. Know the 10 most popular genres.

Step 1 in writing a script Hollywood wants to buy is knowing the 10 most popular story forms. If you write a script that is not based on one or more of these genres, your chances of a sale plummet. They are Action, Comedy, Crime, Detective, Horror, Fantasy, Love, Myth, Science Fiction and Thriller.

2. Combine 2 or 3 genres.

In the genre-focused entertainment business, the most important story strategy today is to mix genres. 99% of films made, not just in Hollywood but worldwide, are some combination of the ten most popular genres. Why? It all goes back to that old rule of selling: give the customer 2 or 3 for the price of 1. This, in a nutshell, is how Hollywood works.

Let me give you some examples. The super-popular Twilight films are horror + fantasy. The Bourne films are action + thriller. Knocked Up is comedy + love. Little Miss Sunshine is myth + comedy. Titanic, the most popular movie of all time, is love + disaster film + myth. The Dark Knight is crime + myth + fantasy. The Harry Potter stories, the most popular books of all time, are fantasy + myth + horror + coming of age drama. The Pirates of the Caribbean movies are fantasy + action + horror + myth.

3. Find the right genre for the story idea.

The single biggest decision you make in the entire writing process occurs right at the beginning, when you are developing your premise, or story idea. The decision is: which genres should I use for this idea? Here's a shocking but eye-opening fact: 99% of scripts fail at the premise. And why? It's not because their original story ideas weren't good. They fail because the writers didn't know the best genres to use to go from a 1-line idea to 2-hour, 120-page script.

Each genre will take a story idea in radically different directions. So when writers choose the wrong genres to develop their idea, the result is not only a lot of bad scripts but also the waste of thousands of great story ideas. Given that you can use many genres to develop the same idea, the key question is: what are the right ones? The secret to choosing the right genres is buried in the story idea itself. You need to dig into the premise and find the genres inherent to that idea. Instead of trying to copy a popular movie from the past, you need to find what is original, what is organic to your story. One of the powers of genre is that the right genres highlight the inherent strengths of the idea and hide the inherent weaknesses.

In my genre classes, I talk a lot about techniques for digging into your premise and finding the best genres for you. One of them is to focus on the desire line, one of the seven major story structure steps. It turns out that each genre has a unique, pre-determined desire line. For example, the Crime desire is to catch a criminal. Detective is to find the truth. Horror is to defeat a monster. For Love, it's to find love. Myth is to go on a journey, ultimately leading to oneself. Figure out the goal of your hero and see if it matches the desire of any of the main genres.

4. Use myth as one of your genres.

Because Hollywood only wants scripts with blockbuster potential, your story must be popular in over 100 different cultures and nationalities. That's a lot of communication barriers to cross. Unfortunately, most writers don't know which genres travel well and which don't. For example, comedies based mostly on funny dialogue DON'T travel. Myth, on the other hand, loves to travel. That's why myth is found in more blockbusters by far than any other form.

Myth is the oldest of the 10 most popular film genres, and is surprisingly complex, with 15 special story beats. But boy is it popular. Try adding up the box office of these myth-based films: Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Shrek, Star Wars and The Lion King.

5. Combine myth with one or two other genres.

While myth is the foundation of more blockbusters than any other genre, it almost never stands alone. That's not just because Hollywood wants to give people 2 or 3 genres for the price of one. It has to do with the deep weaknesses found in the form itself. The myth form is thousands of years old. And it has a very episodic structure, so it can grow tiresome and decline in power through the middle of the story. Top professional screenwriters know this, which is why they always add 1 or 2 other genres to modernize the myth form and overcome its episodic quality.

6. Make one genre primary.

Screenwriters who are smart enough to study Hollywood as a business know that it's all about combining genres. Where they sometimes go wrong is in execution. It's one thing to say, "Take 2 or 3 story forms and put them together into a seamless whole." It's another thing to do it well. Combining genres is more difficult than it looks, because of what it does to the story structure under the surface. Each genre has a pre-determined hero, opponent, desire line, thematic focus, and so on. Which is why most writers combining genres end up with a structural mess. They have too many heroes, desire lines, opponents, themes and story beats. Any one of these structural mistakes will kill a script, so imagine what happens if you make them all.

When mixing genres, the key is to make one form the primary one. This will give you your hero, a single desire line, a single story line and the most important unique story beats. Then put in other genre elements where they fit, so they amplify the primary form.

7. If you're writing a screenplay for an indie film, write horror, thriller, or love.

One of the best ways to break in and separate yourself from the thousands of other screenwriters in the world is to write and make your own film. Of course, that requires keeping costs to a bare minimum. And the cheapest genres to shoot are horror, thriller and love. These genres require the fewest actors, sets and special effects. Of these, horror is the most popular worldwide. But the most important determinants of which genres you use for your indie film are which genres are best for your story idea and which genres are you best at writing.

8. Hit all the genre beats.

Writers of blockbuster movies always know their genres so well that they hit every one of the story beats unique to their form. In genre writing, this is known as "paying the dues." And it's absolutely essential or the audience feels cheated. Remember, they are there to see the story forms they love, so you have to know your genres better than anyone else and give the audience what they crave. And that means, knowing how your genres work under the surface, in the structure, where the real story work is done.

9. Be original, transcend the genre.

It may surprise you that the biggest reason a reader turns down a script is because it's "derivative." That's a fancy way of saying that the writer hit all the beats of the genre, but nothing more. Readers have read scripts from every genre hundreds of times. So you can't stand out from the crowd just by "paying the dues."

That's why professional screenwriters not only hit all the genre beats, they do the beats in an original way. This is known as transcending the genre. And you simply cannot succeed if you fail to transcend the genres you're working in. Unfortunately, there are no simple rules for how to do this for all genres. Transcending genre is different for each form. In the 1-day class I teach in each genre, I spend a great deal of time on exactly how to do this. Transcending depends on the story beats that are unique to your form. It also requires that you study the best films in your form so you know what has already been done.

10. Be honest with yourself, and specialize in the forms that are right for you.

Genres are extremely powerful structural tools for a screenwriter, and they are the key to your success in the entertainment business. But they are complex story systems. I don't know a single professional screenwriter who has mastered more than 2 or 3 of them. That's why it's so important that you look honestly at yourself and assess your strengths and weaknesses as a writer. Determine which genres highlight your strengths and express the themes you believe in. Then apply yourself with laser-like focus to mastering those forms. When you let genres do the hard story work, and concentrate on writing them in an original way, you will be amazed at how good, and how successful, your scripts will be.

For more screenwriting techniques, go to http://www.truby.com.

Best Public Relations tactics

Public relations, marketing and advertising is important for all businesses. If potential customers don't know about your product or service that they will hardly be able to buy what you sell.

Relations public tactics are important. There are of countless tactics that you can implement, there are countless tactics that so-called "professional communication" may suggest that implement you PR tactics that you do not understand correctly.

When I give my clients of advice on public relations tactics, there are some important things that we share with them. Technical and tactical PR should only be selected if they meet the following key criteria:

Those who are easily measurable- If you do something that you want to know about its success or failure. If the results of an activity that you make are not measurable, you should not waste your time. Easy to measure the results means that you can also follow the improvements, to assess what effect any change in the activity on your overall results and then make any change accordingly.

Those that are easy to work- Tactical which are complex to implement can be complex to understand. Easy-to-implement techniques also averages are less likely to be errors. This also means that you can implement different tactics quickly if circumstances change.

Those that you can be involved with- In a more social and an increasingly digital world. Sometimes, there is a need for instant action. In a world where marketing and advertising are more and more community and on the bi-directional communication, you need to be part of the process that you are the only one who can explain what it is you do.

Networking - social platforms and social media sites You cannot ignore the social media and social networking platforms. Facebook alone has more than 600 million registered profiles (and half the Australian population is on Facebook). Talking also about brands online and it is likely that they can talk about your brand. You must be where the people are to participate in the conversation and talk about your own brand.

Those that you can understand- If a "professional communication" convinced them to implement tactics of public relations that you do not understand and that they cannot explain, it is time to look for another consultant. If I work with a company, I want to that they all fully understand. If they will include well everything I do for them, they will be more appreciative of the results.

Those that make your customers feel important- Two way conversations online means that the customers expect to be contacted. If you have a social presence and they asked a question, they expect a response. You must ensure that your customers feel important. An example may be putting featured then on your Facebook page, it may be providing additional information or perhaps just free promo products.

Better public relations tactics covering all the points I have mentioned above. Make sure that you use easy to implement, easy to measure and understand the tactics and those that you can be involved with.

Hamish Jones is the founder of Greenlight Communications, as a specialized organization that helps clients to create conversations with their customers and prospects. Become a Fan on Facebook to get good advice on how to grow your online business.

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Election campaign PR - the caravan of the campaign which crashed

All news organizations include the cornerstone of any campaign political television exposure. Over time a candidate can get on the news, plu its chances to collect votes. The appearance also saves wear and tear on the campaign coffers because exposure of news is essentially a commercial free campaign. It is a game and on both sides, press organs and candidates know all too well the rules and how the game is played.

In this game, the candidate is the crime, trying to score points on the evening news in disguising an appearance of blatant campaign as legitimate a press event. The media play defence, ensuring that there is a semblance of the value of the new appearance and not letting the candidate to make with free advertising.

In doing so, the news organization can at least without enthusiasm convinced himself that his journalistic integrity was not compromised. Thus, the candidate gets his face time and media gets his news. But the truth be said - the media consider it as a victory. The media show the coverage of the campaign as two strangers meeting in a bar and leaving together for stand proverbial one night. In most of these after-bar meetings, one of the parties leaving feeling "I'm gonna hate myself in the morning". When it comes to cover decisions of the campaign, the journalists wait til morning, say, "I hate now me!"

A candidate of the Congress of the United States area has attempted a technique to attack that the media is proven to be a little too offensive. His Office sent a press release announcing a tour of the media across the district. He and his staff would be edge on a bus of 32 feet (wrapped in a representation of the Constitution of the United States) and stop, to quote the press release "goes back to a time before mass media when candidates would take the train or bus from city to city campaign, meeting with people in person.". A unique, interesting and picturesque idea with a fatal flaw. Its judgments of campaign came just to be in the city newspaper, radio station group major and three main stations affiliated with the television network - at the time! His campaign tour was not so much about the meeting with people in person ', but rather about media exposure. The media considered this tactic of the campaign as a challenge in your face by the candidate who was essentially telling the media, "Come, I dare you not way to cover this event.". We looked out the window of the press room of entertainment that we have seen a few workers standing campaign outside the bus on the sidewalk and the candidate. We saw all "people". Then we returned to our offices and got back to work on the news of the day.

Advice here for candidates seeking media coverage be - Yes, we are going to play the game with you, but you must play fair. As the song of the Don Henley "Dirty laundry" said, "Just give me something, something that I can use." The media give something to legitimize your event as something more than an appearance of (commercial) campaign. In doing so, the media gets its news, the candidate gets the coverage of the campaign. In this way, the game ends equality and everybody goes home a winner!

Tom Zalaski is a television news anchor who spent 35 years behind the anchor desk. It is there that day-to-day decisions are made about what will and what will not make it on the evening news. Tom's latest book, "How to manipulate the media For Fun and Profit" is an inside look at how to deal with the media in times of crisis and to cover your positive news.

"How to manipulate the media for fun and Profit" is now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and http://www.tomzalaski.com/.

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The vital Importance of the exceptional Relations public training

When your company seeks to expand the capacity of public relations of the members of its staff, the training of public relations is the best place to start. Find a company that designs their PR training with your company specific in mind. Their strategy of media training helps to seduce customers and staff, leaving to feel really excited about your business.

Think about it. Who can pass better than its workers brand of your company? They fully understand your business, individual eccentricities, they studied your mission statement and the chances are they are working with you, because their actual belief in what you are at least on some level. But, in the daily routine can be easy to lose their sense of direction. Occasionally, it is important to collect yourself with someone outside the Organization to remind you that you knew was there all the time. Too much training products are too as being in a session of the school or University. They are being spoken to by instructors that same acronyms which staff will hear each day the spout and the same speeches are provided through the city to another company. A good trainer knows that it will not inspire anyone, and it is difficult to attract customers without winning from the start in your workers.

You can also find a provider that uses an active method in their training of staff is committed in training and leaving feeling much more engaged with the objectives of the company. It brings to their awareness of the work they do every day. Through various activities of role play, workers will understand how to apply the strategies used in their training sessions in their every day work life.To achieve this very powerful concept of education, qualified instructors should first meet executives of the company to acquire a full understanding of your company to design a training program that puts on a confident and inspiring message. You are also willing to have trainers that are flexible and transparent with their contours of course to give confidence that they have had everything covered before the program gets its course.

And of course when they are not training your team, you should be aware that certified trainers must traverse their own process of training. The best trainers and coaches to keep their own for certification of the ICPD, Insights Discovery, and ICMP. Ideally, you will benefit from teachers with combined experience of the past decades in Public Relations and related fields who are able to spread their enthusiasm in all of your business.

Obviously, with the flexibility and knowledge of the formation of public relations, any company would be a wise choice from to get the best assistance offers to all their media training and their Pr training to keep their workforce happy and effective in their professional life.

Amber is a training, development and communications consulting group. We help our clients achieve their business objectives by ensuring that they have communication programs and marketing the most effective in place and that their people have the right to training, development and tools to make a real difference in the performance of the company. We have many programs, including the training of public relations, media training, coaching and customer presentation audit. To see what we can do for you visit to the http://www.ambergroup.co.uk/.

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Tips for becoming a productive Freelancer

To be efficient and productive on a freelance basis, you will need to get out of things. Freelance is something that not everyone is cut out for, and it is something that you cannot try without any preparation beforehand. Although people may think that it is easy, it has its difficult aspects. If the advantages outweigh the disadvantages to your eyes, it may be an occupation so that you can look for yourself.

The first thing to do is to obtain a routine. Most people believe that it requires that you go to sleep early and get up at seven in the morning. But in reality, with freelance, you can wake up at noon and still be very productive. You decide on your own schedule and your time is up to you. But to produce much work, you need to decide on a type of fixed working time; actual hours are totally to you.

Determine your ideal work hours and hours of rest and build a schedule on this list. Your hours of work may be any time of day, as long as you feel that you can be truly productive during these hours and to not do other things. Some people prefer to work in the morning, while others prefer to work at night. It is important when you work, as long as you reach your deadlines.

Freelance means that you will not have a stable income and set to rely on independent jobs don't always last very long and appear to be very random. You may need to 15 jobs today and only one or two next week. You must always be ready to take on another project, and you will need to ensure that you are always looking for new markets for the regular workflow.

Freelancing means that things can get unpredictable. The work can be very unstable, and even if do you have a job and complete it on time, customers can be difficult to work with. They can send the work even if you did, pay you at the end or pay you even not at all. Fees and invoices come from anything and you have to pay them, so it is very important to be responsible with your money. Just because you have a good week does not mean that you should go directly to spend the money that you earned. Work on the launch of an emergency fund on the weeks you additional income. Once you've built, you can begin to splurge on little things, or reinvest the money in your business freelancing in the form of equipment or even another employee.

Be productive all the time without a "boss", by say, is one of the most difficult aspects of being a freelancer. Since there is no pattern or the Manager come on you all the time and you're in the comfort of your home, it is easy to forget that the work is even there. You must follow these tips and become productive to succeed as a freelancer.

Aveta Solutions - Six Sigma Online (http://www.sixsigmaonline.org/) offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

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Never underestimate the power of PR

Business management is a constant juggling act. You are either issue or chasing invoices, dealing with issues of customer service, to try to reconcile or respond to email and your phone books. This is a rollercoaster that is almost impossible to control at times.

When it comes to marketing your business you then have to decide where best to spend your money. Your Web site must be updated regularly, you need to build links through blogs and article marketing and, of course, your brochure is now looking a little tired and a reorganization complete needs.

All this takes time and money, but there is something that you can use which could potentially offer you free advertising.

Are you interested?

Don't forget your PR

It is true that most business people have lost confidence in print marketing and advertising. It usually involves a very high cost for little return. After all why you would want to spend hundreds of pounds on an announcement of text surrounded by many ads from your competitors? It is not going to stand.

But a form of marketing print should not be ignored, and it is the power of great press coverage.

This could be an interview, the quote, the functionality or the editorial. This kind of exposure in the documents and the "rights" magazines can pay dividends.

And here is why...

1 Cheap

Have your professionally written press release is much less expensive than to pay for advertising space. Assuming that it is accepted by the Publisher, it could potentially appear on a page in a magazine or on a blog/website to you.

2. Credible

The public are not daft and can identify a blatant piece of a mile of offshore marketing. But good press coverage (as a success on your case study of company or client) is much more credible.

3 Connect

Advertisement (if purely text or text and images) is very impersonal. While a good story will be customizing your company in the eyes of your readers and therefore make a connection with them.

4 SEO

Press releases are not just off the coast of release. By submitting your news releases online sites and blogs, build you back links to your website and help your SEO. In addition, being online, they might have a very long shelf life.

5 Recycle

When you issue a press release will only be used once and then throw it. Why not reuse content as a blog or articles ticket? It could then be taken up by other publications and lead to other features and articles. The possibilities are infinite.

Don't forget that pr is not just for large companies. You are unlikely to have the budget for the exposure in some of the leading magazines, but you can cultivate relationships with local press and industry journals.

Sally Ormond, Briar Copywriting, is editor professional freelance writer, editor of site Web SEO and writing of advertising with extensive experience in markets both B2B and B2C.

To have a discussion about how it can help you send an e-mail to sally@briarcopywriting.com or call + 44 (0) 1449 779605.

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Money in now the fourth quarter, sales - by making your product irresistible Christmas media

A few years earlier, one of my clients was presented in December "O list" in Oprah Magazine - publication Holiday Gift Guide. That the investment led to hundreds of thousands of dollars of sales.
While this is obviously a "home run" in the world of advertising product, one thing is certain: Holiday Gift Guide courses lead to sales.

What Holiday Gift Guides?

They were the raids of product that see you everywhere in the media in the fourth quarter, with recommendations for great gifts to buy.
If you sell products, and the fourth quarter, sales are important to you, this information is essential:

Top magazines accept submissions of products for the fourth quarter Holiday Gift Guides during the summer. Once their summer deadlines have been met, they are more open to the comments of gift Product Guide.

After thousands of advertising investments, I can share with you five ways to make your product irresistible to media for the fourth quarter Holiday Gift Guides:

Offer something new. Even if you have no new features this year, you can create something new, in grouping of several products together under the form of a gift or offering a travel size option. And if you have something new, drive with this product. The media always want the latest thing featured.
Provide something colorful. Discover the best gift magazine Guides and you will see that they are all compatible a way - they are coloured. Artistic directors have a lot of comments on the choice of Gift Guide, give em what they want. If your product is not coloured, use colorful packaging, or photos with colored accessories.
Help others. Some publishers of Gift Guide require that the elements included give a percentage to a charity. Others require that you offer readers an exclusive discount on your products. Provide these, and you will be in advance which is not to provide these offers.
Consider changing your point of price. Most of the Gift Guides are broken down by category: under $10, for $25, $50 and less than $100. So if you have a product that is $10.99, down to $9.99 updates available to pitch in the category Under $10, which generally increases the likelihood of media coverage (the media is always looking products very, very good markets).
Provide photographic grand. One of the biggest mistakes that I see with product companies offer SO - SO photos of products. The media usually sees a photo of the product before the actual product, and a large photo can make the difference between the interest and no interest.

For more information on how you can plant the media (or do us) in an affordable manner, please visit http://www.zfpr.com/holidaygiftguidepitchingsecrets.htm.

Copyright 2011 Margie Zable Fisher all rights reserved
Reprint this article, you must use the article in its entirety, with the resource box below.

Margie Zable Fisher, President of Zable Fisher Public Relations, is the leader in small business P.R. product

If that you enjoyed this article, you can get additional free advice in practical Margie P.R. newsletter. To register now, please visit http://www.zfpr.com/.

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Flowtron BK-80D 80-Watt Electronic Insect Killer, 1-1/2-Acre Coverage

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Protect your business with online reputation management

Bad PR, negative press and damaging reviews reach. You cannot always prevent, but you can mitigate the effects. This is reputation management online detailed assistance, effective methods for dealing with bad media exposure. Anyone using the Internet knows how quickly anything can go viral, videos, photos and tweets all have made front page, headline news, be it an individual in the eyes of the public, mega-corporation or small business. A time damaging information out there and gains traction, you're behind the eight ball and play catch up. Reputation management online professional, timely and targeted help to manage the effects and to support your message.

Discuss how online, (ORM) reputation management is a key component of your marketing strategy research on the web, how to reverse search engine optimization (SEO) integrates into your ORM efforts and how public relations online differs from the ORM.

What is SEO and how these Techniques for the management of reputation online?

Too often, companies hire reputation management after negative results dominate the landscape of search engine and have grown. It is preferable to engage in some ORM preventive proactively; However, the techniques SEO can help to reduce the negative entries and get off on the first page of search engine result pages (SERP).

Manage proactively your reputation online should already be a part of your social marketing strategy. Optimization of the content you produce results of search rule engines to minimize the effect of negative publicity.

The appearance of the reputation management online Search Engine Marketing

Effective search engine marketing campaign is to build trust and create a positive reputation among current and future customers. The appearance of bad reviews and negative comments on the search engines may cancel your marketing strategy for their work. Add to this the increase in the prevalence of the results from social media sites, and a negative tweet or the rating assignment has the potential to reap harmful effects that are difficult to reduce to a minimum once they are posted.

That is why ORM is an essential aspect of your marketing efforts. Without it, you control the content and the location of the results surrounding your name or your company and are likely to be the victim of a bad press.

Online reputation management is different in Public Relations online

It is easy to confuse the efforts of public relations in line with the strategies of the ORM. Although they are similar in their objectives and common elements, there are subtle differences that are important to take note of. Public relations, the objective is to deliver your message to your online community and obtain feedback from users and customers. ORM is a more directed effort to minimize the effects of the bad PR and monitoring conversations on and mentions of your company.

With constant monitoring of what is said about your company and by that, you have the power to respond quickly and effectively to control the conversation. Therefore, public relations and online reputation management both must be used in your online marketing campaign.

Optimization of engine research reputation online: cornerstone of the strategy of the ORM

Part of the technique of reputation management online uses strategies SEO reputation online. Reverse SEO is used to reduce the appearance of negative publicity, ORM SEO is the effort to dominate the SERP landscape with your own content before negative press is and has the opportunity to gain ground. When you have positive, company controlled and - content monitored ranking high in search engines, then it is more difficult to damage the reputation of the entries is displayed before your positive content.

Online reputation management protects your business

Web search for your company marketing plan must involve the important aspect of the ORM. When you use multiple techniques involved in the ORM, you protect your image from the negative effects of harmful advertising. Tactical reverse SEO decrease the rank of potentially negative press search engine which is already listed on the first page of SERPs. Proactive ORM technical SEO so protect against future instances of negative entries and prevent them from having visibility in search engine results. With vigilant monitoring of online presence of your business you will be ready to quickly recognize the potentially damaging references and respond in a timely manner to mitigate the possible problem.

Unfortunately, many companies recognize the need to ORM until after they are already in damage control mode. Protect the hard work you put in your business or good name is better with preventive action.

Jennifer Greenfield wrote articles on public relations and online reputation management strategies. Visit http://www.reprepair.com/ to learn how RepRepair helps individuals, businesses and the marks of repair and restore their reputation online.

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Small business advice: how to get media coverage

One of the major challenges to be a small business owner is to get noticed in a very crowded market. Get your name from the pack is one of the main arts that once mastered, will enable your business to grow exponentially. Press and news media coverage is one of the best ways for your business to get noticed.

But the questions is important... How to get media coverage.

Small business owners don't realize is that it is very easy to get the media coverage if you have a story to help the media to sell their business, news and entertainment. Many years ago started collecting the price of fuel in our region and each day indicating what was the highest price and the lowest available published a press release.

After the first two press releases, one of the stations of radio premiere of Townsville and a television station picked up our history and we gave free media coverage on what we were doing. This has given me the opportunity to tell my story and share what was going on in the local fuel prices. Then, how does this in our company, well whenever I have the history that I I was wearing my shirt company with our logo plaster all over the Web site and it. This allowed us to combine history with my business. In the 2 years that we have we doubled our business so that it certainly works.

The key question that you need to know about the media is that they are always looking for people to tell an interesting story and if you have an interesting story, then you need to share your story with the local media. Regardless if you are working in a small town or a major capital, the way you do it is always the same... you must have a credible news story.

I recently worked with a new Kebab shop and we were looking for new ideas on how to sell his company to the local community and gain maximum exposure. When I talked with the owners, I asked them what their Unique Point of sale. At the time when they did, so we have developed a. He finished that we have developed an entirely new product which has been the Hottest Kebab worlds!

Now if you want to have a USP like this, then the media will want to know about it. Claim as this is something that they will study, so I worked with him on the development of a strategy to get media coverage and media release.

The owner of the store now has many opportunities to use the USP to obtain coverage through media fun events such as running the hottest kebab worlds eating competition or achievement the man or women who ate the most possible warmer skewers as King.

The main lessons you should learn how to get media coverage is as follows:

1. Don't be afraid to send a press release on what is happening in your unique business

2 Build a relationship with your local things media that you do

3. If something is happening in the media, share your thoughts and feedback with them

4. Never be afraid of media coverage, the more people who have heard of your company most likely to buy from you.

5. Never to send a press release just sell a product. However if you are launching a new product that will change the world is something that the media will want to know.

Chris is the owner of the business meetings professional and can help you increase your business success. If you are looking for other sections of big business, and then visit its company repository. If you have staff who must first aid training and then visit its Web site to help you get the qualified today.

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Snugg iPad 2 Leather Case Cover and Flip Stand with Elastic Hand Strap and Premium Nubuck Fibre Interior (Black) - Automatically Wakes and Puts the iPad 2 to Sleep. Superior Quality Design as Featured in Wired Magazine.

The extremely popular Snugg iPad 2 Case is here! A black PU leather premium case which folds in all the right places. Stands up perfectly for FaceTime or watching movies and there is a cut out for the rear camera so that you can use the camera without removing the iPad 2 from the case. Other features of the case include the ability to fold into the perfect typing position. Elastic hand strap for a comfortable, improved hold while walking, exercising, lounging, or using FaceTime. High quality soft nubuck fibre interior and velcro flap to secure iPad 2 tightly in place when in landscape position.

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Advice on the provision of comments to the Magazine features - an underutilized PR approach

When a company decides to use a PR agency or has an internal person to create and execute a communications strategy, as the most common to try to get a story in the newspapers or magazines is through a press release - a document to a page describing a story, which incorporates also extract the appropriate Manager or Director. However, as most of the professional public relations have been holding over the past few years, it becomes increasingly difficult to place stories in this way, in many ways related to numbers decreasing of the journalists working for a particular publication. Hold of the right person can be difficult, history may be in competition with hundreds of others, and there is then the task demanding and time-consuming "sale-in" the story on the phone to a number of different titles.

An approach to underutilized to ensure that the companies name is referenced in newspapers of the target or magazine is to provide expert commentary in a feature. This positions the company as particularly competent and trustworthy in his area so that can have a significant impact on readers. It is also an amount of time to discuss opportunities for comment with publications, but once a relationship has been built and the first comment has been provided, often journalists will return in contact with a company, they know can be relied upon to deliver a comment interesting and relevant.

There are a few ways to try to get comments; If it's an approach you want to try here are pointers in the right direction.

Ask before the lists of characteristics of magazines to see what are the relevant sections on the horizon. Talk about the journalist written feature and this follow-up with all the details of the company and those who could comment. Provide a short biography and the reasons for which such person is appropriate may also help to give the weight of a comment.
When you read an article in a newspaper or magazine, which relates to the company, come into contact with the journalist and offer help with the next similar functionality that they write.
You can also contact the editor with a good bio on the company, potential commentators and specializations, they would be happy to discuss. Once a good relationship has been formed, and then also may be easier to height in press releases.
Keep an eye on the flow of social media, journalists and publications as you never know when they will post a request for assistance on an article that they write.

Punch is a UK based, boutique PR, research, and society of social media with the skill set, the scope and the client of an international agency. PR specialists online, the objective is to provide clients strategic advice which has a significant and measurable impact on their business. To learn more about the tech PR, the Punch Communications Agency and integrated services, visit punchcomms.com or call the team on + 44 (0) 1858 411600.

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Promotional custom coffee mugs

Customized promotional coffee mugs are an excellent way to do many things with a simple task. Obtaining promotional coffee mugs made you can announce your brand, give gifts or reward employees, to name a few things. You can use them for gifts, gift baskets include or give them to everyone on your Christmas giving holiday gift list. In addition, you are investing in advertising for everyone who sees your promotional coffee cup.

Types of custom promotional coffee mugs

Customized promotional coffee mugs come from all forms, colours and types and sizes, the big thing today. You can get different types of finishes, such as brilliant or mat, and a wide range of colours. White standard classical form and the base size is still one of the most popular choices, but there is so much more to choose. There are also travel cups come in a variety of sizes and can be double wall double glass or just standard. Travel cups, the standard classic is always, stainless steel.

Obtain promotional mugs

What you want to do is browse companies and offers the options of each company. Some design work for you, for a fee, and some require that the work is done and ready to print. If you have a logo or notice the design in may navigate with greater ease. With each company that prints custom, promotional coffee mugs take into account the ease with which you can use the website to put order in place. In addition, check the required amount of the minimum number of cups. Although they are much less expensive if you order more, you cannot be no need for many. Therefore, be realistic about how much you want or need and select a company ready to print this number.

Other points to consider are the costs and shipping involved. Some companies of costs to the chart on the Cup, while others do not. But the cost of the bottom line is that you want to search. If a company does not charge a fee for including the works of art, but their elements are more expensive anyway, then it does not matter. For example, also take a look at shipping. There are even companies that offer free shipping. Or, some companies offer free shipping on orders on a certain amount. In this case, it may be useful ordering more but to save on shipping costs.

Create basket

You can also think about branching and order other promotional items. You can create gift basket gift because then the recipient is most likely elements to transmit to another person. This means more people will be seeing your promotional items and familiarize themselves with your brand. You can include items such as magnets, pens, cups or be and much more. If you use the same company you can probably get a discount for multiple items as well. Find out more about how your custom today promotional coffee mugs.

For more information about the promotional coffee custom cups to visit: http://www.promotionalproducts.org/

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Is advertising really good publicity?

The expression "there is nothing like bad publicity" is associated with P.T. Barnum and is a belief of fitting for a man who made a name with a circus featuring qualified and the exploitation of persons with a physical disability that makes people call the freaks. Laude him or her hate, as long that you were talking about him Barnum was pleased, but in this day of 24 hours new cycles, internet research, and social media, is really good advertising of any advertising? Let us dwell on it.

What type of Image you are trying to project?

Much publicity all is good depends on the image you are trying to project to the public. For companies such as Toyota, General Motors, Sony and Disney, they are trying to project a positive image, which makes feel you safe doing business with them. Even athletes and celebrities try to project an image clean and respectful of family, the nightmare of PR recently a certain golf course more severe star.

Others, however, tend to look at all advertising as being good. Many stars of celebrities and sports such as to be under the spotlight, even if they have to put there themselves.

Choose what type of advertising you want to

Ideally everyone would prefer to have positive advertising - very few people and less companies really want to be evil, but is not really always a choice. Then, how settle you on what type of advertising you want to search and what kind you want to avoid and even bring an action against?

The first step may be to hire a PR firm that specializes in crisis management. They will guide you through your head options and legal aid on the path of the type of advertising and public image that you want while helping to deal with the types that you do

Second, decide if you are struggling to advertising for yourself or a company. There are celebrities and owners and the own sport than firms that are successful, but stars are sold also as a distinct mark which has another type of advertising. Knowing what you need and prefer can affect what type of advertising you are looking for.

Finally, don't forget that you'll never make everyone happy. Any image you project and maintain, someone to be unhappy with you and try you bring, therefore taken it all with a grain of salt is essential to maintain your composure and protecting your brand.

Thom Constantine has worked with several companies of crisis management, including a legal Office of the PR and PR santée company. To learn more about crisis management, visit: MACStrategies.com.

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7 Tips to write a super powerful story

No time to lose so let's have a right.
First create the situation. This is the problem, or challenge your character must overcome. It can not be a situation your characters can just walk by and decided they will adapt to the challenges. So, if you do not need to be addressed, preferably for the sake of survival, then it will be a situation of vulnerability.
Some good examples of situations? If you do not take care of him, then everyone in the neighborhood or city, or the planet, is about to die. The asteroid streaking toward Earth, the robots have gained a knowledge of malicious self, plot murder, the death of a family member, the destruction of an entire economy, the change history.
When Apollo 13 had oxygen tank number 1 blow, making it inoperative oxygen tank number 2 and leaving only oxygen tank number 3, which was a situation that needed to be remedied. NASA could not just walk away from it.
Tip 2, let the characters solve the problem. They will probably come up with some pretty stupid ideas at first, but metaphorically sit back and let unravel the mess.
Tip 3, a solution exists. You might not think so at first, but it exists. Every problem has a solution insurmountable. A functional, beautiful and credible solution. Do not leave the story until your characters have found. Never get up from your chair thinking: "I'll figure out how to kill the monster Almighty tomorrow."
Tip 4, write to a deadline. If someone all the time in the world to do something, imagine how long they take? The deadline must be just a little 'less than you think you need. I give my students dozens of useful ideas and strategies, but they still tell me that only by using the concept of maturity, which do more than ever before. If you've ever wondered how TV writers can be a script every week, because this is the end. They have no choice. They accomplish the task, or at maturity, or go get a job parking cars.
Tip 5, the first to write a story. No form material point, a true story. But it can be as short as you want it to be. In fact, the lower the better. If you can do on a page, great. Only a few paragraphs, even better. Just make sure you have a complete story. Beginning, middle and end. And to have an insurmountable situation, the solution, and that you have completed the course within the term.
Tip 6, virtually every sentence in a short story gives you the ability to create a new insurmountable problem. Your great solution requires that several things right. Make sure do not. The climate changes, changing the personality of the characters, change their ability to shoot a gun, change their religious beliefs, change the chemical composition of the atmosphere, change anything you can begin to throw up obstacles and create solutions to these problems well . Remember, they can not walk away from the problem. A solution must be found.
This structure gives very popular story, "It 'just one damn thing after another," that readers of such love. You will also find you're spending very little time on character development. Most readers care very little that poor childhood led Papa Bear. They want to know what to do next Goldilocks. And continue to use that term.
Tip 7, the majority of your book will tell the reader what the problem is and a look at how people find and implement the solution from time to time. Do not include other characters unless it is essential for the reader's understanding. So do not say that Claudia is claustrophobic unless it becomes a way of changing the game in the middle of the book. Come to think of it, not even talking about it. Show that she had an episode claustrophobic at the very beginning of the book.
Steve Manning is a master writer that shows thousands of people how they can write their book faster than you ever thought possible. Here's your free book library and writing mini-course, http://www.WriteABookNow.com/main.html

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Toblino 2: Leather iPad 2 Case (Folio Convertable Case Multi-angle Stand for the Apple iPad2)

The professional look of the MobileVision TOBLINO 2 leather iPad 2 case is perfect for traveling to the office, school, or the corner coffee shop. Uniquely designed for convenient use any time, any place, the TOBLINO 2 cover not only offers premium protection - but it also doubles as a stand! Without ever taking the iPad 2 out of the case, the TOBLINO 2 allows you to prop up the screen at two different angles, for use on tabletops and desks for hands-free viewing.
The TOBLINO 2 exterior is made of leather with a soft finish to provide ultimate protection for your iPad 2, with elegant styling and access to all buttons, ports, speaker and rear facing camera. The case also takes advantage of the iPad 2's sleep/wake function, waking it up when you open the case and putting it to sleep when you close it. Inside, the gray plush microfiber interior keeps the screen free from scratches. Additional padding protects against sharp impacts and punctures, without giving up the slim look of the iPad 2. With a case like this, you can go where you like and do what you like - and look good doing it.

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Technofiction writing tips - part 1 of 4 - first contact stories

First contact stories are the crown jewel of much science fiction writing. First contact was at it most popular and innovative in the Golden Age of pulp science fiction -- the 1930's and 40's. This is because rocket-based space travel was then a new and exciting concept and it sure beat its predecessor! -- prior to the 30's, space travelers were going to be shot from cannons. (Ironically, the cannon's high tech successor, the rail gun, does offer interesting contemporary possibilities for launching from places with no atmosphere, such as the moon.)

The 30's and 40's were also when planetary science had determined that planets were like Earth, in the sense of all being massive and earthlike objects that orbited the sun, but the details of the environments of each planet were still not well determined. This was the era when it was considered a real possibility that there could be alien-made canals on Mars, and Venus could be a jungle planet under all its clouds.

It was a rich time for first contact stories.

By the 1960's the Golden Age era had come to a close. With what we learned from the American/Soviet Space Race, it became clear that boost-and-coast rocket technology (the kind we use today) also put hard limits on practical space traveling just as cannon shooting had -- the stars were still a really, really long way away if you had to use a rocket ship that coasted for 99.9% of the journey. Even Mars was still far, far away. We also learned through advancing planetary science that Mars, Venus and the other solar system planets were not alien civilized life-friendly.

In response to this better understanding, first contact stories were displaced from the center of SF mainstream, by more introspective ideas such as cyberpunk and VR adventuring. Popular space travel stories transformed from first contact stories into warp-drive equipped space opera stories of which the Star Trek and Star Wars formats became iconic.

But first contact stories are not dead. They are still very fun to read and write. One popular example of contemporary first contact stories is the Stargate series where the world-visiting device is a massive teleporter.

So, if you want to write about a first contact, what are the big challenges? What must you figure out? Here is a starting list:

o How do the humans and aliens come in contact?

o How are the aliens different from humans?

o What's the point of the story?

Each of these has a big impact on how your story will be structured.

How do the humans and aliens come in contact?

These days, there are three common choices: warp drive, alternate universe/magic or teleporter. What these three have in common is that the transit time is fast -- from days to hours to essentially instantaneous. These are FTL solutions -- faster than light speed. The advantage of these is that in all of them the story line can chug along at full speed as the characters move from one interesting world to another. The Star Wars series takes full advantage of this capability.

The first disadvantage of these FTL solutions is that they are completely divorced from our real world -- they are all fantasy solutions. (This, by the way, is why so much of contemporary science fiction is now called speculative fiction.) Since they are fantasy, there is no hard constraint on what the author can bring into the story, so there is a powerful tendency for the story to get silly or internally inconsistent which makes it weak.

To avoid silliness and inconsistency, you, the author, need to make hard choices about what is possible in your world, and what is not possible. This should be the first step in your story making process. Make your limits, make them consistent limits, then explore what you can and can't do within those limits. Take some time at this because you will discover that within any limitation you set, there will always surprises. One example of not setting consistent limits is Star Trek teleporter and holodeck technologies -- these got famously silly as the franchise evolved.

The second disadvantage is a bit subtler: all these FTL solutions mean that the alien world is very close to our world -- Planet Xenon, or where ever, is now a suburb of Los Angeles. This leads to the problem of: If it's as close as a suburb of LA, why shouldn't it act like a suburb of LA? Why aren't there immigrant Xenonians tending the gardens in LA?, and so on.

In sum, if you are going to write good first contact stories that have fast travel in them, you need to face up to these two issues and have good, internally consistent, answers for both of them.

An example: Stargate solved these problems for a while by making the travel process new, secret and expensive. But as the seasons rolled on, this collection of premises got shakier and shakier: these worlds being discovered were so interesting that other parties, such as commercial interests, should have become involved, and as they did the whole structure of the program would have changed dramatically. For instance, the launch platform area should have become a shipping dock, and the defense system consisting of people lining up and pointing guns at the portal started to look real silly. They were hinting at changes in the relation in the later seasons, but they never let it really happen.

An alternate solution to fast travel is the one I use in many of my stories: Do without, don't have FTL travel.

This changes the nature of the story structure a whole lot. It is a challenge because the characters in the story cannot just chug along from planet to planet and solve crises in a few minutes or days. This means, for instance, that there is no Galactic Empire or any equivalent. Think about it: What does it mean to rule a distant star system when it takes ten, twenty, a hundred years to just send a simple "Hello? How are things going today?" message and get a reply?

So if you take on the challenge of STL space travel, you end up with very different stories, and that can make them groundbreaking -- you will be writing in a style that few other people are currently embracing.

The other advantage is that what you are writing about doesn't have to be fantasy. You can be writing some real science fiction, you can be writing about a real possible future.

How are aliens different from humans?

This issue is as big an intellectual field as any can be. Alien portrayals can range from being just like humans, to god-like, to so different that they are incomprehensible. This range can apply to how they look, how they act, and how they think... lots of choices!

Once again, if you don't plan well first, you will end up with silly. And, very much a part of your planning is the issue covered next: What is the point of your story? Holding off on that point for a moment, what can help you shape your aliens?

The other element that can shape how you design your aliens, beside what is the point of your story, is human emotion: What are easy ways for readers to think about aliens?

The easiest aliens for readers to identify with are those that are as close to human as possible: If the aliens look like humans and act like humans and live like humans, readers can say, "Ah... I can identify with those aliens." and they are usually very comfortable with the choice. This emotional level relation explains the popularity of alien portrayals in movies like the recent District Nine (2009) and its older version Alien Nation (1988). In both these movies the aliens were living like people and acting like people.

If the point of your story is to make an editorial comment about an existing condition on earth, human-like aliens are a good choice -- both of the above movies were making editorial comments on poverty and racial discrimination.

Another emotionally comfortable role for aliens is to be gods -- they are coming to earth to tell us right from wrong, and to tell us that we should mend our ways. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951 and 2008) is an example of that.

And yet another, they can be conquering monsters, with War of the Worlds (1953 and 2005) being one very comfortable arch-typical version of that portrayal.

These are examples of the emotionally easy ways of portraying aliens. They are not real, but they are easy for readers to identify with, so they are common and comfortable.

If you want aliens that are not as easy emotionally, not one of the above, then you get into the next point: What is the point of your story? So let's go there now.

What's the point of the story?

Why are you telling this story? What is it that you want your readers to get from this story?

You should be thinking about these at the beginning, middle and end of your story writing. It is all important....However, the answer to these questions can change. You can change your mind has your story evolves. But, you should always have an answer, and it should be a short and snappy one.

o Is this about a neat science idea? -- Mommy, Why Am I here? (my story)

o Is this editorializing about some current human condition? -- District Nine

o Is this moralizing about some human weakness? -- Stranger in a Strange Land

o Is this a hero's quest story with an alien world setting? -- Star Wars

Something to keep in mind is that what you put into a story may not be what readers take away from it. War of the Worlds was written by H. G. Wells to moralize about how the British Empire was not as invulnerable as it seemed at the time. What people since have take from it is a general purpose conquering alien invasion story where the aliens die because of a disease -- in later versions a disease inflicted by a human hero.

Whatever your point is, be sure to double check that you have made your point when you finish each draft. This is something you can easily check with a reader on: ask them, "Did you see that I made this point?" In reality, this is a lot easier question for a reader than, "Did you like it?"

So those are the big three to keep in mind: How do the humans and aliens come in contact, how are the aliens different from humans, and most important, what's the point of the story?

Roger Bourke White Jr. has been around. He was a soldier in Vietnam in the '60's, an engineering student at MIT in '70's, a computer networking pioneer in the '80's, and a teacher in Korea in the '90's. He loves writing science fiction and has many works posted at White World.