Why did I resort to this deed? After all my muse was lovely and gave me many gifts over the years. She saw me through dark times and helped mark the joyous ones. Many times she inspired me to reach for more and push myself beyond what I thought I could achieve. Knowing all this why would I kill the very source of my inspiration?

Oh, I had my reasons…

It started out quietly. As I would sit at my keyboard or curl up with a notebook, she would perch on my shoulder as was her wont to do. “I don’t think you meant to write that sentence,” she would whisper in my ear. “That doesn’t sound like the best description,” she would snipe. “Is that the best you can do?” she would sneer.

I took to sneaking my writing in when I knew she was occupied elsewhere. She never could resist critiquing the writing in the morning paper if it was left spread on the kitchen table. That way I could sometimes write several pages before she began her commentary. “Surely you can find a better way to approach this topic,” her mocking voice would interrupt. “That has been so done.”

Soon I was spending more time arguing with her, defending my words, than I was writing. Then my production slowed to a crawl as I would overanalyze each word choice and sentence formation before committing it to screen or paper. All that did was give her more time to find fault with the few words I did write.

Despite urgent deadlines and simmering ideas, I started avoiding the computer and all writing materials. I cleaned my house. I read for hours on end. I made plans for a new garden. The need the write built within me but always my muse was watching me with those eyes — so judgmental, so critical. I would turn away from my office with a sigh and find some other project.

When I could no longer suppress the urge to write I locked her in a closet and had a wonderfully productive morning. I was so happy with my work that I let her out as I went out the door to run some errands. That just made her mean.

She was waiting for me at the door when I came home. Her glasses had slid nearly to the tip of her nose and somehow she’d found a red pencil (I certainly never brought any such thing into the house). I shuddered at the sight of my happy morning’s labor marred by vicious slashes of red. The red blurred before my eyes into a crimson haze and then…

Perhaps it is better that you don’t know the details. Suffice it to say that I have selected several old-fashioned roses with luscious aroma and delicate coloring. I am sure they will provide both inspiration and comfort.

Despite my late hours and the physical toil involved, this morning I awoke early and have already logged in several hours at the keyboard. My fingers flew across the keys and after completing several long-stagnant projects I outlined notes for some new. Writing is joyful and rewarding again.

I think I might dedicate this next book to the memory of my muse. Perhaps it will serve as a warning to those other muses out there who are on the verge of going over the edge. Perhaps it will inspire those other writers out there who have let their muse stifle their creativity and shove them right into writer’s block. Maybe my warning will mean those other muses and their writers will find a way to work things out.

Deanna Mascle has been teaching and writing professionally for more than 20 years. Find more articles about writing at Word Craft at Word-Craft.info

I don’t read many novels anymore. I tend to read nonfiction. Occasionally I will grab one of my novels and sit down and read it and wonder where in all creation all the stuff came from.

My last novel reading binge was in 1956 when I lived on a remote lake in Massachusetts and there was nothing to do but fish and read. Every night and on most weekends, that’s exactly what I did. I didn’t catch many fish but I did read about a zillion novels provided by I don’t know who.

None of these novels were classics. They were the humdrum that is produced continually in our country and none of them were memorable. They fulfilled one of the basics of novels; they told a story. Each of these stories could have been told as a short story if the story was more poignant and interesting; great stuff for romance magazines.

I read The Hunt for Red October, The Day of the Jackal, Hawaii and other such novels. Clancy became boring as had Michener before him and I didn’t have the stomach for Jurassic Park and such. You can tell if an action novel is written to become a movie so I wait for the movie.

The Kite Runner is both poignant and interesting. Too many things complex the story to keep it short; there are 371 pages. The story is written in the first person so that the writer can show the childhood cowardice of the protagonist. (The protagonist in a novel is the main character.) As an adult the protagonist gains courage, first because it is forced upon him, and then by his own determination. That’s the stuff that good novels are made of; action is only a backdrop to what’s going on in the mind and heart of the protagonist.

The thing that interested me in this novel is the setting. It occurs in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and then back in the United States.

You see rich boy, poor boy playing together in Afghanistan before the war. Then you see the life of refugees from Afghanistan in the United States followed by life in Afghanistan under the Taliban.

People suffer and die and life is never the same after that.

Setting is the background descriptions of the environment where the action takes place. Action is what the characters in the novel do. It might be sleeping on the couch or riding a bronco. Setting is the couch and the rodeo arena. People do not sit quietly on their hands when watching a cowpoke ride a bronco.

Details of setting must be controlled according to their importance. Too much detail turns what could be interesting facts into endless diatribe.

An author can succeed or fail according to how well he handles the setting. The setting must contribute to interest and sympathy and help unfold the string of events that make up the novel. Weed growing in the garden can indicate the passing of time.

Here is what Robert Louis Stevenson said, “You may take a certain atmosphere and get action and persons to express and realize it. I’ll give you an example-The Merry Men. There I began with the feeling of one of those islands on the west coast of Scotland, and I gradually developed the story to express the sentiment with which that coast affected me.” Read this story at http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/merrymen.htm. That’s your first assignment.

The Kite Runner reveals harsh times, sometimes brutal. Afghanistan is tough country. High elevations and harsh winters can bring misery. But the real harshness and misery comes from the Russians, followed by the revolutionists that took place when the Russians left, and finally, horror of horrors, the Taliban.

At the first of the novel, noting the toughness of the protagonist’s father, I thought that the protagonist would be fighting the Russians. Everything indicated that his father would lead in that direction. It turned out that the lower class did the fighting and the upper class immigrated to other countries.

The Afghanistan rich became the American poor who struggled to earn money by selling yard sale junk in flea markets on the weekends and working long hours in mundane jobs during the week.

Whether in America or Afghanistan, the family rigidity and structure were maintained. The double standard for men and women was strong. The since of being, knowing your ancestors, your class, was not lost. Being poor did not make you a member of the “poor” class. That anomaly bothered no one.

In the end, it turns out that the poor boy—

Wait, the author just chimed in: For gosh sakes, don’t reveal the story!

Well, here is your second assignment; read The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe. You will find it at http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/poe/works/cask_amo.html.

The End

John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com, a retired VP of R&D for Lenox China, is author of detective & western novels, nonfiction (business, scientific, engineering, humor), poetry, etc. Former editor of Ceramic Industry Magazine. He calls himself “Taylor Jones, the hack writer.”

More info: http://www.tjbooks.com

Business web site: http://www.dumbincome.com

So, indeed if you are brand new listen to what they have to say, but then ditch the place and move on. If they were totally great writers they would have several books by now and indeed be well on their way and perhaps too busy writing to socialize at a Bookstore Writers Club.

This is not to say that many of these clubs are not great, but most left me so under whelmed, well let us just say even as an amateur writer, well I could not stay. As an amateur writer or should I really state online article amateur author it is obvious that I have a lot to learn about writing too.

Nevertheless you are a writer and you are reading this article right? So, then it makes sense if I got a writer to read my article then obviously I am doing something right and know a little bit about what I am talking about too.

And I have traveled around this nation and I have been too at least 30 of these book store writing clubs in many different states on the East and West Coast and a few in the middle too and they are not very good really and you should indeed be careful which ones you attend. By all means check them out, but be leery for obvious reasons. Consider this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Indeed, short format videos have turned out to be a superb tool for business or self-promotion. The following are a few tips to circulating your own short format videos.

Firstly, you can post your online video clips on your own site; but this would require you to find your own video hosting arrangements. Instead, ask your web hosting solutions provider if video downloading or video streaming options are supported.

Video downloading is where your company viewers must download your Web video to their PC’s hard disk. They need to store the video to their own workstation before they can play it using their computer’s video player or a downloadable video player application. There are hundreds video downloading service contractors that are reasonably priced. There is also a progressive downloading mechanism where your viewers can play the videos at the same time as downloading them.

Video sharing streaming on the other hand completely does away with the demand to download the short format promotional videos and lets instantaneous playback so it gives the most worth to your web visitors. Naturally, getting a video hosting business that supports video streaming can cost you a pretty penny. Maximise the full potential of the web with strategic internet video marketing from Vidify.

And finally, the more popular way to circulate online video clips is by posting your sites to video distribution websites which have their very own video hosting infrastructure. These web sites cost you nothing at all to become a member and will on occasions pay you to post video content. They also have a large market base and grasp; for example, YouTube obtains around fourteen million Web visits every month.

Each article in the experiment I conducted contained a pre-title such as; “What if…” or “Read This Article if You Want…” Immediately I noticed a few articles had very poor article view ratings; articles read by less than 100 people, while my average over 3050 articles written is about 262.29508 article views. Up slightly by 4.51632 due to high Thanksgiving Internet Traffic Peaks. Today I am already up by 0.01377 in the first three hours of morning peak Internet traffic EST. Now then mind you I chose EzineArticles.com for my scientific experiment to document the empirical proof of my findings because, I thought it was important to know the truth.

The data completed in my experiment is interesting and appears to be somewhat skewed, my first thought was; I wondered if certain articles you treat somehow differently causing them to miss the spidering of search engines? But they are not on EzineArticles.com. I further questioned this and asked; “Is EzineArticles.com is treating some articles differently?” Still that isn’t it. So what is it?

As I do my research here, by trying to gage the Internet Reader and Surfer to figure out what they are really concerned with, it appears that Internet Surfing subjects goes in cycles. Almost as if there is a global type consciousness where millions of Internet Surfers all at the same time start searching the same types of things. Almost as if there is a pattern of cycles that occurs. Taking the Internet Guru, experts who tell us of key words and titles in their articles does not work any better than choosing cool subject matter. In fact my article views beat out most all the so-called experts, yet my topics are all over the place.

Some might say that this is just the finicky Internet or Search Engine “Dance” as some of the long-term real world experienced Internet folks call it? Indeed that appears to be more so than those who are into article optimizing thru titling and key words over actual content. Sure you need to be smart about how you are writing what you write, yet it is obvious from my results that the best plan is to just write articles which are meaningful about the subjects you choose and then re-read them to see if you can change a few things here and there. My point is worry more about what you write than how you write it, write a lot and be careful to write well.

Although the charting of my data for article views of 3050 looks erratic, it does not look anymore erratic than Alexa’s Website Traffic heartbeat graphs. So, when gauging such things, I would say do not listen to anyone who claims to be a Guru of Article Marketing until they have written 700 articles. Because it took me 500 articles to see something was starting to appear like a trend and 600 articles to figure out how to use this knowledge. And with 3050 articles and 800,000 article views, well I get it now and well, it seems the experts caused me more harm than good. Had I simply concentrated on the fundamentals and writing more articles from the very beginning like I have been recently my calculations put me at 323.93443 article views per article or 988,000 article views, which would mean I would have 1,000,000 Article Views by Christmas, whereas now it is will take me until Mid-February to get to 1 million article views. So please be thinking here.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

But in your book, “Story,” you give the Hero’s Journey barely a passing mention.

OK, you do call it the “Quest” and on page 196 you do say that “all stories take the form of a quest.”

Having admitted that, surely you should have devoted more than a paragraph to it. This is a screenwriting book, right?

First, why not call it the Hero’s Journey? Using the common and well known frame of reference helps screenwriters, instead of confusing them.

Second, calling it a “quest,” is misleading. It implies that it covers a particular genre – Lord of the Rings, Arthurian Legend etc. But as you yourself state, all stories take the form of a quest. That includes Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990), Out of Africa (1985) and a million other very good and subtle stories that are not very “quest” like.

Third, if it is the template that all stories are structured around (and it definitely is), then you should have constructed your arguments around it.

Fourth, the Hero’s Journey is also a study of repeating patterns in successful stories and screenplays. It is compelling that screenwriters have a higher probability of producing quality work when they mirror the recurring patterns found in successful screenplays. Any screenwriting book is incomplete without it. As is yours.

Fifth, why the resistance to the Hero’s Journey? You, a screenwriting “guru,” should know it’s range, adaptability and flexibility. Most screenwriting “gurus” ignore it, actually. It’s as if they’re in denial because they didn’t spot the pattern.

Consider this:

• Titanic (1997) grossed over $600,000,000 – uses the Hero’s Journey as a template.

• Star Wars (1977) grossed over $460,000,000 – uses the Hero’s Journey as a template.

• Shrek 2 (2004) grossed over $436,000,000 – uses the Hero’s Journey as a template.

• ET (1982) grossed over $434,000,000 – uses the Hero’s Journey as a template.

• Spiderman (2002) grossed over $432,000,000 – uses the Hero’s Journey as a template.

• Out of Africa (1985), Terms of Endearment (1983), Dances with Wolves (1990), Gladiator (2000) – All Academy Award Winners Best Film are based on the Hero’s Journey.

• Anti-hero stories (Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990) etc) are all based on the Hero’s Journey.

• Heroine’s Journey stories (Million Dollar Baby (2004), Out of Africa (1980) etc) are all based on the Hero’s Journey.

SAMPLE deconstruction: Million Dollar Baby (Academy Award Winner Best Film, 2005)

Call to Adventure – where the hero is pushed to resolve a challenge. Maggie needs to escape her White Trash roots and Frankie needs to resolve issues concerning his daughter.

Refusal of the Call – where there is refusal, resistance, warning and foreboding. Frankie refuses to train Maggie.

The Supernatural Aid – where a mentor encourages the hero along the path. Eddie (Morgan Freeman) begins to help Maggie with her training and simultaneously guides Frankie towards her. As is usual, the supernatural aid has a challenge of his own (Danger Barch).

First Threshold – where a point of no return is crossed. Maggie persists in the gym. There is no dissuading her or going back for her.

Physical Separation (Belly of the Whale) – where the hero physically separates from his Old World and heads into the Transformation. Willie leaves Frankie, who has little else to do but train Maggie.

Transformation (Road of Trials) – where the hero significantly, but not completely, transforms. Maggie becomes a professional boxer.

The Ideal and the Seizing of the Sword – where the hero faces a difficult choice and journey to (often) the heart of the antagonism. Maggie buys her family a house and Frank takes on the role of father.

Rebirth Through Death – where the Hero is reborn. Eddie saves Danger Barch from the gym bully; Maggie doesn’t know what to do about the bear.

Atonement with the Father – where the hero confronts the obstacle to the apotheosis. Maggie loses to the blue Bear.

Apotheosis – where the hero has the illumination. Maggie should have listened to Frank and protected herself.

Ultimate Boon – both hero and heroine get a family.

Refusal of the Return – where the hero is repulsed by his Old Self or, on a practical level, there is refusal on some level. Frankie refuses to go back to the gym.

Magic Flight – where the hero attempts to escape from the antagonism or, for some reason, is unable to confront it. Frankie takes Maggie away and attempts to find doctors who can reverse the situation.

Rescue for Without – where the hero is pulled back toward his or her challenges. Maggie’s family return; Frankie wants to replace them and resists their arrival.

Crossing the Return Threshold – where the hero confronts the antagonism. Maggie loses her legs and asks Frankie to kill her.

Master of the Two Worlds – where the antagonism is defeated. Frankie kills Maggie.

Freedom to Live – where the hero is freed from the antagonism. Frankie does not return to the gym.

Learn more…

The Complete 188 stage Hero’s Journey and FREE 17 stage sample and other story structure templates can be found at http://managing-creativity.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

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You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author’s name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://managing-creativity.com/.

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