How To Archive of Useless information - corroboratory.com

You can write a ebook in many different ways. The most important thing, when it comes to the writing, is that your material is interesting and holds the attention of your reader. One way to do this successfully is by using a common theme throughout your book.

A theme is the underlying idea that will run consistently throughout your chapters. It may even start with the title. This is a way that your reader knows that you have written the entire ebook while thinking along the same lines the whole time.

There are many popular books that have used this idea. One of my favorites is All I Ever Really Needed To Know I Learned In Kindergarten by Robert Fulgham. Even though we all knew what kinds of things he would talk about in the book, it has gone on to sell millions of copies and has even been made into a play. The author took a simple theme and turned it into a book. You can do the very same thing.

Think about the ebook you are working on right now. What is the common thread that runs throughout your story? Look for the main points and ideas you want to share with your readers to see how you can integrate a theme into the story.

You may want to begin each chapter with a story or a quote. That could be the theme that carries the material forward in an interesting way. The story can be true or you can adapt something that happened into a story that will be relevant to your content. People enjoy reading stories that make a significant point.

It is very easy to find quotes if you search on the internet. Someone at some time in history has said something that you will be able to use in your ebook.

I encourage you to find out more about this ebook writing technique.

So we have finally arrived at the main reason why you have written your article. The ever important Bio Box. The honest truth is people who distribute articles on the internet aim to write informative, accurate and provocative articles. But really the main purpose is to generate interest in you, the article writer, and hopefully get a click through to your website.

Here we will discuss a few features of the bio box and how to optimize your click through rate

The article must be interesting. You must give the reader enough information to arouse his imagination. Let him/her know that while they have read a useful article, there is so much more to learn

Your Bio box should include a backlink to YOUR website. It is important that the backlink be to your own site and not an affiliate link. If you are able to get visitors to come to your content rich website, which may or may not have an opt in form on it, chances are that you will get repeat visits to that site. If you send them to an affiliate link, it is highly likely they will not buy and you lose them permanently

Avoid Hype: If your signature at the end of your article contains an incredible statement, like lose 10 pounds in 1 week, you run the risk of losing credibility with your readers.

Arouse their curiosity: A bio box that includes a statement like ‘Discover some effective methods of losing weight without starving’ is more like to generate a click through than ‘lose 10 pounds in 1 week.’ Obviously this tag should be relevant to you article. It would only be relevant if your article was about weight loss

Anchor Tags: Use an anchor tag containing your keywords in your bio box link. If your website that you are linking to is about weight loss, then the anchor tag to the website should contain the words weight loss. That way, people clicking on the link know that the site they are about to open is about… You get the point.

Conservative approach: There is just no point in including links to 20 websites or 10 links to your website in your biobox. First this is one way of ensuring that your article s rejected by the article site you are submitting to. Second, even if you find a site that will accept your article, your bio box will appear so busy that it becomes meaningless to your readers.

Article marketing is truly a worthwhile method of creating reputation for yourself and generating traffic to your website. It however only works effectively if you work within the rules
Abi Noah Shares Affiliate Marketing Tips and Affiliate Marketing Guides at http://www.affiliatemarketingintro.com

Let us begin on a positive note: Anyone can learn how to write a good essay, if only they tried. Writing well is not essentially a divine gift. It is something you can acquire with sufficient practice. A good essay as many would like to believe is not about bombast. On the other hand it is about simplicity and clarity. Time is increasingly becoming a rare commodity. Few people have the time to peel away the fluff from wooly writing to eventually get to the substance. As long as the focus is on structure, brevity, simplicity and clarity it is quite likely that you will end up writing a good essay.

As in many of the other things you do, the starting point of a good essay is a plan. The plan is what gives an essay structure and coherence. Often we think we have a great idea and reach for pen and paper. Such knee-jerk approach to writing often results in a paper that is meandering and totally disjointed. Decide what you want to say, how you want to say it, and in what order.

To be able to give your essay a suitable plan you should first of all research your subject sufficiently. Because unless you have a thorough understanding of what you want to say, you will not be able to decide how you will want to say it.

Basically all essays have an introduction, a body and a conclusion.

The introduction is a few sentences that list the main points of your essay. On going through it your reader will know what it is that your paper is about, what your views on the issue are, and how you will support your point of view through the body of your paper.

The body of your essay will contain arguments in support of your views. You probably have more than one view on the subject and the arguments in their support should be listed in a logical and convincing order.

The concluding paragraph is a summary of all that you have said in the body. Restate your points of view and briefly repeat the arguments you have put forth in support of your views.

That is basically your route to a good essay. However unless you say what has to be said clearly for readers to easily understand you will have failed even if you have the best structure. So while writing the essay, remember to keep your sentences short and use everyday words. If there is a four letter word why use a ten letter synonym.

Next focus on paragraph structure. Every paragraph should begin with a topic sentence. This is the sentence which will tell the reader what the paragraph is about. Sometimes we tend to introduce two topics in one paragraph. This defeats the purpose of the paragraph. If you have two topics separate them and devote different paragraphs to each.

The body of the paragraph contains supporting sentences. The last sentence of the paragraph is the concluding sentence. It summarizes the contents of the paragraph.

Now as a last step check your work for correctness of grammar and spelling. You certainly would not want an essay of substance, correctly structured and well written to have spelling and grammar mistakes. So proofread your work. Or better get someone to proofread it for you.

If you follow these simple steps, you can be sure that you will in a very short while, know how to write a good essay. Of course it may not happen overnight and could take you a while depending on how much time you devote practicing these simple steps.
Sarah Brodie

Let’s face it: when you send your writing off in the hopes it will be published, every word is important. You wouldn’t give yourself permission to get sloppy after page 37, assuming the editor can handle choppy prose or “inventive” spelling if she made it that far. But what you may not realize is that the beginning of your manuscript is by far the most important part because it will encourage an editor to read on or to toss the whole thing aside. After all, you may have crafted an admirable middle or a breathtaking ending, but no one will get there if your beginning is mediocre.

Despite the fact that more books are being published than ever before, the publishing world is more competitive than ever before. Agents and editors are inundated with staggering heaps of unsolicited manuscripts, and it is physically impossible for them to plow through — in their entirety — every one. The beginning is the only chance you have to make the right impression.

Face it, unless you have to, how often do you push through a book when you’re under-whelmed by the beginning?

Which brings us to some rules for great beginnings. There are exceptions to every rule, of course, but often those exceptions are only successful in the hands of experienced writers or those with multi-book deals. For the typical writer, it pays to heed what the current market demands.

Make your beginning shine:

~Start with action.

“Action” doesn’t necessarily mean a fist fight or an explosion or a sky-dive gone awry. Action means starting your book or story at a compelling place, with a scene, with something at stake for your characters. Look closely and you may find that you have pages of material that shouldn’t start your book. They may fill in some important blanks for readers, but those pages of backstory can safely be moved to a spot in chapter two or later (or, better yet, spread out in smaller chunks throughout the work).

Don’t start your story with history — start it with a riveting now that grabs the reader by the collar and doesn’t let him/her turn away.

~Never put dialogue or straight description in your opening lines.

To clarify: Dialogue is fine in the first scene. Actually, many experts agree that first scenes without dialogue don’t achieve their potential. This is because the most compelling reading material involves tension between people, and people usually talk to each other. However, if your very first lines are dialogue, it’s impossible for the reader to understand who is speaking right off the bat (or why s/he as a reader should care), since the reader hasn’t had any history with the characters.

Similarly, description right up front will not pull your reader into the story. Not because it confuses or disorients them like dialogue does, but because static description can be dull and plodding and doesn’t tell the reader anything about the story (the action, the story problem) itself. If the setting is somehow crucial to your first scene and you feel you must start there, limit it to one or two sentences and then get right into the meat of the scene. There will be time for description later.

~Make sure your writing is accessible and engaging.

Your beginning is not the place to try out some experimental stylistic device or to stump your readers with a puzzle. You want to make your readers think, but you don’t want them to feel stupid or say, “Huh?” If the reader feels frustrated and confused right away, you can bet they won’t sign up for 300 more pages of it.

~Set up the story promise.

You’ve seen shoppers at bookstores. They scan the bookflap for a description, and, if that intrigues them, they’ll flip to page one and skim the opening to see if it’s the kind of book they want to read. Immediately make it clear what kind of story yours is. Don’t start with a knock-knock joke if it’s an essay about a serious subject. (Although there’s room for humor in almost any piece, it must be appropriately woven into the work and not tacked onto the wrong place. But that’s a subject for another article.) Don’t start with the point of view of a character you’re planning to kill off by page three. You get the idea.

Readers like surprise — they don’t like to feel disoriented.

~Always remember that boredom kills readership.

If you’re bored when you write the opening, if you fall asleep at your desk when you reread it, and if trusted readers can’t stop yawning when they review it, what makes you think strangers you send it to will be riveted by it? Readers have more choices than ever before (in print and online), and they will not stick with you past a few dozen words if they’re bored. Make sure your beginning glues your readers to the page, wide awake and eager for more.
To discover more ways to give your writing the best odds in a highly competitive market, visit http://ManuscriptRx.com and sign up for “Write Through It,” a free, monthly e-newsletter that offers tips on writing more clearly and effectively.

Lucia Zimmitti, a writing coach and independent editor, is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and the Editorial Freelancers Association. Her fiction and poetry have been published in various national literary journals, and she has taught writing at the high school and college levels.

But as soon as you got to university, you got confused about college essays which you are required to write which you realize are more complex and varied than the ones you used to write, take for example a compare and contrast essay. No matter what type of essay you are required to write, whether admissions, analytical, argumentative and some other essays, selecting a topic is most important.

When selecting a subject for this type of essay, first ask yourself these questions: Who is the person I want to impress? What is the purpose for writing this essay? Once you have addressed these questions, take time to brainstorm your ideas. Look at some really good samples of essays to guide you along the way.

If possible, make a draft or two of the subjects you have chosen to write about. Describe the first subject, followed by a description of the second subject. Reflect on the similarities and differences of your chosen subjects in order to for your reader to gain a deeper understanding of the events, places or people you are comparing.

Make a list of as many similarities as you can find. The order of similarities should be the same throughout the paragraph in order not to confuse your reader, using cue words such as: the same as, on the other hand, in the same manner, similarly, likewise, too, both, and also.

In your contrast paragraph, discuss the differences between the two subjects using conjunctions and contrastive expressions such as: whereas, however, another difference, but, while and different in many ways.

Make up your mind on which similarities and differences you have listed above to focus on. Organize your essay around them. This way you can effectively put across your ideas on the particular subjects you are comparing and make a connection with your reader, the person who you want to impress.

To make a clean and clear presentation, develop an outline technique. One technique is the divided or alternating pattern wherein you describe the details on one side of the comparison and then oppose it on the other side.

You can structure your essay subject by subject-one subject on one side and the other subject on the other side-then show how the subject on one side compares or contrasts with the subject on the other side.

In the final paragraph, make an effective summary of the most important similarities and differences of your two subjects to influence your reader to act positively on your. Do not forget to proofread your work.

Read and reread or have your friend read it aloud and listen to it. Is your essay coherent? Check for spelling and grammar errors. Better yet, make a post editing checklist. You may have to revise a sentence or two. Editing and revision are part of your compare and contrast essay.
Sarah Brodie supports Free Essay Writing Help to give students open source of how to write good, non-plagiarized and well-formatted compare and contrast essays.

Writing a story is hard work, even for authors. There are characters to create, dialogue to deliver, plots to plan, tension scenes to capture, endings to invent and starts that have to sizzle so much they superglue your reader onto a chair.

Then you have to put it all into interesting sentences that flow smoothly. Whew! Breaking the complex process of writing into chunks makes helping kids with their writing more effective - and far more fun too.

Here are two ‘chunks’ you could try to help your child write with more impact.

Show, Don’t Tell

As we read words, pictures form in our mind. See what happens when you slowly read the lines below:-

• Snow glistens, thick and white on a mountain top.

• Orange and yellow poppies stand tall and cheerful in a vase.

Our job as writers is to create these pictures in the brains of our readers. That’s what Show, Don’t Tell is all about.

However, how can we do this when the idea is more abstract - like emotions? That’s much harder for kids to write as there is no picture. Therefore we need to show them how to create one. For instance:-

TELL: My brother is lazy.

SHOW: ‘Your turn for the dishes Tank,’ said Mum. ‘Yeah, later,’ he said, yawning, and turned up the TV louder.

‘No, now,’ said Mum. She stood in the doorway, arms crossed. She knew later in Tank’s mind meant somewhere between the year 2012 and infinity. Once, as punishment, Mum put all the dishes and saucepans Tank had forgotten on top of his bed. He just dumped them on the floor. A week later they were still there, a shoe in the spaghetti sauce, sweaty socks on the plates and a really bad smell wafting out the door.

Ah, now we have the picture for our minds. It takes much longer to write - but as readers we are far more convinced.

How to Write Tension Scenes

Imagine a birthday party, a top restaurant, friends and family - and a massive earthquake that ends in disaster.

Here’s the starting point by a 9 year old boy:

We were having fun in the restaurant when suddenly the ground started to shake. I didn’t believe it. Then glasses started to break all over my plate. My sister tried to stand up, she was afraid. The ground was trembling, there was noise everywhere…

Tension scenes are one of the hardest parts of a story to write. Kids often make them too basic and short. Why? Well, we say ‘write what you know’, but children often don’t have enough ‘emotional experience’ to imagine this sort of thing.

However, other people do - and their words are all in a dictionary or thesaurus.

So try this: Get your child to underline key words in the story - and then use a thesaurus to help bring the scene alive. You can actually do this BEFORE they write as well. Just ask, ‘what are some things which will happen?’ and make a list for them to use.

e.g.

fun - delight, enjoyment, amused, teasing, laughing, happy

shake - shudder, shiver, quake, quiver, buzzing, tremor,

break - crumble, disintegrate, collapse, crush, shatter

afraid - scared, fearful, terrified, panicked

tremble - quiver, shudder, beat, vibrate, grind

The idea is NOT to merely substitute one word for another. It is to give a greater variety of words/inspiration/ideas to the writer - and let their subconscious do the melding.

After:

The waiter smiled as he put down a hot chocolate pudding right in front of me.

‘You’re not going to eat all that!’ said my Dad. ‘Here, I’ll help!’ He reached across with his spoon, teasing me. I pulled my plate away fast. Everyone laughed.

‘Just a little bit,’ Dad begged.

I shook my head. It was weird, but there was a strange buzzing sound as if everything was not quite real. I lifted my spoon, my hands felt like they were shivering. Or was it really the floor shaking? It wasn’t possible, but now all the glasses were starting to clink. Suddenly one fell, shattering glass across my plate and into the dark chocolate. Then the noise hit me, harsh, grinding, vibrating right into my brain…

Get the idea? See how the word ‘fun’ has turned into something more specific - teasing and Dad trying to steal chocolate pudding. A simple ’shake’ now has triggered ’shivering’ and a ‘buzzing’ in the head. Best of all look at that last line; the words suggested from ‘tremble’ have now made this incredibly evocative and powerful.

If you want rich writing, give kids plenty of rich ingredients to work with.

© Jen McVeity, National Literacy Champion.
Try our FREE Creative Chatterbox to find over 500 story ideas.

The Seven Steps to Writing Success program, designed by successful author, Jen McVeity, is used in over 900 Schools. Suitable for the home school curriculum and gifted children, it has been shown to rapidly advance children’s writing skills and enjoyment.

Visit our website at http://sevenstepswriting.com/ to learn about all the Seven Steps to Writing Success and to find more free writing resources.

Why Write Better Business Reports?

Each time you write a business report, you have an opportunity to make an impression, a positive one that is, on someone. This may be your boss or bosses, colleagues, customers or someone whose opinion of you may have direct or indirect consequences for you. Being in a position to write the report or being requested to do so is a definite advantage though many think otherwise. Be thankful for the opportunity, appreciate it, do the job but make sure you do it well. Does it only apply to the reports that are for the eyes of your superiors? No, it applies to all reports. Even the short, informal reports. You will never know where or with whom it may end up. So treat all business reports as important more so because the business environment is a competitive dollars and cents environment.

Start By Questioning Yourself.

Why am writing the report? What is the main objective? This will help you determine the most appropriate writing style.

What do I wish to convey or communicate? Is it information, data, opinion? What else?

Who is the reader? Who is my target audience? What do they know? What would they want to know? How much details must I provide? Would time be a constraint? How best can I connect with them?

What would be the desired outcome? Share information? Influence someone? Provide the facts? Call for action?

How or where can I get the required inputs? Who can help me with the report? How much time do I have?

General Guidelines

A business report essentially consists of some information that needs to be conveyed to a certain party. It is important to note that in our current environment, information is regarded as a commodity. In this context therefore, we have to ensure that the information is reliable and convey it by writing the report in a well organised, clear and easy to understand manner. Adequate research is the key and this would depend on the nature of the report in terms of importance, urgency, length and so on. Research could be in the form of observations, reference to the relevant files, using the information resource center, discussions, interview, questionnaires, books, articles and other printed material. In organising the document, the layout must be logical, practical and easy to refer and cross-refer. It may be arranged chronologically, alphabetically, by subject or sequence. Whatever approach that is used, the report must be organised systematically. Check and re-check spelling and grammar. It has been recommended that the business report be written in an active rather than a passive voice. Rather than writing “this report should be read by all managers”, write “all mangers should read this report”. Essentially, using the active voice helps you keep your sentences short and crispy.
Do you wish you could produce well written business reports that you can be proud of? Managers, Executives, Officers and others who have to write business report can now do this easily with a special version software for business writing. It has a text enrichment database streamlined for business writing and comes with documents and templates designed specifically for business writing. The software uses a unique technology to provide the first context-related, all-in-one solution for improving writing. Developed by a leading team of software, algorithm, and Natural Language Processing experts, for the first time ever, users can easily enhance their writing skills. This revolutionary writing tool instantly analyzes the complete text and provides context-based recommendations to replace words with synonyms, to add adjectives and adverbs, to check spelling, and to verify proper use of grammar.

Do you want to write great term papers and generally become a great writer? You will learn how to write superbly.

We will first cover the basics of writing. The basics include spelling and grammar.

Any literature you write must contain good spelling. Use a dictionary when you are unsure about how to spell a particular word. Make changes when the spell check feature in Microsoft Word and other software applications highlights your errors. After you finish writing a rough draft, read everything you have written once or twice to find and fix errors. It is important to do this because the spell check feature does not highlight every error.

Good grammar is essential. You must follow the rules for proper punctuation. Good punctuation involves using capitalization, periods, commas, quotation marks and other things pertaining to grammar in the right way.

Capitalize the names of places and living things. For example, the correct spelling for “john doe” is John Doe. A proper noun such as “John” requires the first letter to be capitalized. The first letter of the first word in each sentence must be capitalized. Each sentence must end with a period.

Any sentence you quote should be surrounded by quotation marks. A comma must come before the quote and you must insert a period before the second set of punctuation marks. Here is an example: My friend told me, “Todd, you must work harder.”

There are times when a period should come after the punctuation marks. Here is an example: If you want to share your personal life online, you can create a “blog”.

Use commas to separate three or more items. Here is an example: Todd has an apple, orange, banana and tomato.

A sentence that is posed as a question must end with a question mark. For example, if you want the opinion of someone you are talking with online, you should write: What do you think?

Insert an apostrophe between a pronoun and a verb such as “is”. Here is an example: Todd’s doing his job.

Use a hyphen to separate two words that combine to form an adjective. Follow this example: A friendship is a two-way street.

Good structure is important. Avoid writing paragraphs that contain more than five sentences. There must always be a space between each sentence in a paragraph. Paragraphs should be double-spaced. For example, after you finish a paragraph, you must hit ‘Enter’ twice before you start a new paragraph.

Organization and comprehension are also important. If you have a few sentences pertaining to the same idea, you should group them into one paragraph instead of writing them in various areas throughout your literature. Make sure your reader will always know exactly what you mean and that there is no area in your literature that will cause confusion.

We will now discuss how to write an article. An article should come with an abstract, or description, that lets the reader know what the article is about and why he or she should read it. Write an abstract that contains two or three exciting sentences. For example, if you write an article that teaches people how to handle their money, you could write: Learn how to invest your money wisely! Retire at an early age!

Begin your article with a paragraph that will get the reader’s attention and get him or her to continue reading. If you are writing an article on earning money, you could start your article by writing: Do you want to become a millionaire and quit your miserable job? You will learn how to earn a huge income.

Any article you write must motivate your reader or teach him or her how to do something. As you write your article, create keywords you think your target market will use to find your article. To avoid upsetting the search engines, you must only use keywords that can be found in your article or abstract. If you include someone’s name, reveal his or her first name and last name.

We will now discuss how to write an essay and term paper. Essays and term papers must have a beginning, main body and conclusion.

Begin your assignment with a paragraph that explains the topic your paper focuses on and why you chose your topic. Follow the opening paragraph with a main body, or body of paragraphs, that educate the reader about the topic or famous person you are discussing. Each paragraph in the main body must connect to the previous paragraph. Below is an example:

[John Doe was given instructions. He was told to buy groceries.

John obliged. He went to the grocery store in his town.]

A conclusion must come after the main body. The conclusion must be a paragraph that summarizes everything you have previously covered in your paper.

If you use references to find information you cover in your paper, you must insert a bibliography, or list of sources you used to get your information, at the end of your paper. List the titles, authors and publishers of the documents you used. Follow your teacher’s directions pertaining to how your bibliography should be formatted.

The last thing we will discuss is how to write an editorial letter. Your letter should be brief and relevant to society. Control your temper and write rationally. Avoid using profanity, vulgarity and slang. Do not call anyone names.

Follow these tips to become a great writer and get ahead!
Todd Hicks owns Skill Development Institute, an enterprise that provides a keyboard typing lesson and academic study guide. He has a communications degree and lives in St. Louis, Missouri. To become a great typist or student, visit Skill Development Institute.
http://www.ktaassde.com

Everybody knows writing a story is not easy. Like the drama or the poem, it is imaginative literature that should appeal to the emotions of the readers. Since it communicates the writer’s interpretation of reality, there must be an artistic use of language to signify human experience. But how do we write a great short story? What are the things to keep in mind in order to come up with a short story that works? Here’s a quick guide to get you started:

1. Read

Reading is essential to anyone who wants to write. In order to be able to write a good short story, you must read other short stories first. This will not only give you the motivation and inspiration for your own story, but it will also help you learn how other authors made an impression on the reader and use their style as basis to create your own style and impression.

2. Get inspired

For seasoned professionals, there is no need to obtain inspiration because thoughts naturally flow and they only have to put them into words on paper. But for novice writers, it is important to have one because it will not only help you begin your first paragraph but also keep you going throughout. Your inspiration may take the form of an object. a person, or an event that you just can’t seem to forget.

3. Conceptualize your story

Think of something you want to talk about with your readers. Let’s say you want to relate a story about a couple who fell in love with each other. What about the couple? What is it about them that you are interested to let your readers know? Focus on this idea and think of other concepts that you want to associate with this couple. Suppose the girl’s parents discommended their relationship. What about the parents? What did they do to stop the two from loving each other? This could signal a good beginning for your story. From here, you would have the notion what to write down.

4. Map out the scenes

In order to keep your writing aligned with your pre-conceived story events, it is good to briefly map out scenes of your story on a different piece of paper. Write down the possible characters of your story and list the main events in order. You don’t have to put so much detail on them because this only serves as a rough sketch of how your story will look like.

5. Chooose your point of view

Who tells the story and how it is told is very critical for a short story to be effective. The point of view can change the feel and tone of the story radically. Hence, you must decide carefully before finally resolving with the angle of vision to use for your story. But whatever it is you decide to choose as the point of view, make sure it stays constant throughout your story to maintain consistency.

6. Conceive your characters

For a short story, create a maximum of only three main characters. Too many main characters will make your story confusing since each new character will provide a new dimension for the story. Each character should be more than cardboard caricatures. Make your characters speak naturally in proportion with their traits. Make them believable but mysterious.

7. Furnish a good introduction

When you have everything planned out, start scribbling your first paragraph. Introduce your main characters and set out the scene. The scene must be some place you know much about so that you’d be able to supply the necessary snapshot for a clearly described setting. Make your introduction interesting to hold the reader’s interest and encourage them to read on to the end. It is also important to hold back significant details and the greater part of the action at this point so the mystery is kept.

8. Build up a great plot

From your introduction, draw out events that will eventually create a problem or a conflict for the main character/characters. After that, begin laying out an array of clues to keep the reader interested, intrigued and guessing. Intensify the conflict as the story moves forward. This will not only make your reader enthused to read more but will also keep them riveted to your story.

9. Show don’t tell

The characters should be the ones responsible for expressing the story through their actions and dialogue and not the writer telling the reader what is being expressed. Rather than saying, “Annette was really mad at her bestfriend Christina for stealing her boyfriend”, say “Annette felt an ache in her stomach and a strong pang of betrayal as Christina approaches her and flashes her with a sweet smile. She breathed hard trying to calm herself as she speaks with suppressed anger: “I hope you’re happy now that you’ve proven yourself as a friend.”

10. Use active verbs

Put as much life into your story as you can. In order to do this, employ verbs in the active voice in your story. Instead of saying,”The flower was picked by Johanna”, say “Johanna picked the flower.”

11. Use some dialogue

Dialogue is important in bringing your story to life. Don’t just use it to pad out your characters. Use it to convey your characters to identify with the reader. Use it in direct quotes like “Go there!” instead of indirect quotes as “She told him to go there.”

12. Keep references handy

A good reference such as a thesaurus or a dictionary is crucial in creating a good story. You can use them to check your spellings and to find the words which best fit your description. Instead of using one lengthy sentence or paragraph, you can utilize one or just a few words to convey what you want to say. Oftentimes, one strong word has a greater effect than a paragraph full of fancy language.

13. Conclude briefly

Conclusions are tough sledding. For a good ending, it is advisable to experiment and to add a little twist. Make your ending unique but not hanging in a loose end. Make it satisfying without making it too predictable. Keep in mind to keep it short but concise and lingering so that the reader is left with a feeling of resonance. Your conclusion should wrap up everything from start to finish.

14. Edit and revise

After fashioning the last words of your story, it is time to begin the editing cycle. Carefully go through your work and fix all your mistakes regarding sentence construction, word usage, formatting. punctuation marks, diction, spelling, grammar, and descriptive analysis. Scratch out words, phrases and even paragraphs which don’t seem to contribute to the basic elements of the story. After you’re done, let it sit for a while for days and even weeks, then edit it again. Reread your story over and over again at different occasions. This will make you see various things you may want to change to make your story shine at its best.

15. Let others proofread

Have your friends take a look at your work. They may just be able to see mistakes which you have missed. For instance, they may be distracted with some words or lines which you adore dearly. In this case, you have to decide on changing it or cutting it off completely.

Writing a short story may not be easy but it can surely be done. With some knowledge on the basic elements and some passion and patience, it’s effortless to pull together a story with just a few ideas. Just keep in mind that you’re writing not because you have to, but because you want to. Give it a go now!

© 2005 Rachelle Arlin Credo. All rights reserved.
Rachelle Arlin Credo is a freelance writer and web columnist from the Philippines. She writes on a variety of topics for print and online publications. Feel free to check her website at http://www.rachelle.co.nr

Imagine going on a out of state road trip to a place you have never seen or been to before. You know were you want to go and what you want to do when you get there, but you did not take a road map to lead you. How long do you think it will take to get there? How long before you give up and go back home? How long before the great vision you had in your head turns into frustration?

Same is true with life. Some of us have an idea what we want from life, the problem is most of us have no road map. We live everyday as if we were lost. With only one life to live, doesn’t it make sense to live for a reason, with a sense of purpose?

According to Brian Tracy less than 3% of people have written goals and only 1% of people review them regularly. Wow. That means only 3 out of every 100 people you encounter have written goals. Are you one of the 3%? Or are you with the majority? Studies have proved, people with written goals, that review them on a regular basis get more accomplished daily and earn larger wages than those who do not write their goals.

Use the following tips to help you plan your goals and help get you to your destination faster.

1. Your goals must be yours they must be personal.

2. Start small then grow.

a. First get into the habit of completing your goals so start small for example start

waking up at the same time daily.

3. Take action. Start achieving your goals right NOW! Do not procrastinate.

4. Stay positive. Remember nothing worth wile comes without work. Choose to be extremely positive don’t let anyone or anything throw you off track.

5. Review you goals daily. Review them until they become automatic and you can recite them without having to look at your sheet. Your goals must become a part of who you are, everything you do, think, or say must reflect what you have written down on your sheet. Write your goals as often as you wish, you can share your goals with someone if you like but I recommend you operate quietly and watch your life mold into what you always dreamed.

Remember you only have one life to live. Live on purpose and go get every thing you want.
Ed Rodriguez is a leading national business trainer. He has helped countless individuals reach six figures or better from in front of their computer. His primary areas of focus are internet business and marketing.