Know Your Audience

What is worse than wearing a tuxedo to an event
when everyone else is attending in shorts?

I have said the same thing over and over again: before you attend the event, get to know the audience. If the audience is not right for you, you may attend, but it is unlikely that you will gain any new business. If on the other hand, you want to attend just to form new relationships with others in the business community, then by all means attend the event. Just do not stretch yourself so thin that another event will topple you. So the first thing you must do before attending is to find out who will be there. If there is someone specific you want to meet, then find someone who knows them and get a proper introduction.

A third party introduction will go a lot farther than just introducing yourself from left field. Introductions have a way of confirming that you are worthwhile knowing. Remember the person you meet should be the one that makes the decisions for his company. Do not try and get introductions from subordinates, this will not lead you too far down the path. These subordinates often do not have the decision making power and simply sit as influencers in the decision. I am not saying you should not form relationships with influencers, just the opposite; you need to first have the relationship with the decision maker who will allow you to work with the influencers.

Make sure you know exactly who will be attending the events and then find out their status within the company. The size of the company may matter to you, so make sure you know the size of their company before making any approaches. It is often said it is not who you know but who knows you that counts. So one of the items to plan for when attending an event is who knows you and who they can introduce you to.

You have now discovered who is attending the event and perhaps even why they are there. Most often you will find that attendees are there to get more business. Sometimes they may attend to hear the speaker as the speaker is often the draw. Once you have the audience analyzed, you need to prepare yourself not only for your pitch, but also for the questions you need to ask to get the answers you are looking for.

Bette Daoust, Ph.D. has been networking with others since leaving high school years ago. Realizing that no one really cared about what she did in life unless she had someone to tell and excite, She decided to find the best ways to get people’s attention, be creative in how she presented herself and products, getting people to know who she was, and being visible all the time. Her friends and colleagues have often dubbed her the “Networking Queen”.

Blueprint for Networking Success: 150 ways to promote yourself is the first in this series. Blueprint for Branding Yourself: Another 150 ways to promote yourself is planned for release in June 2005. For more information visit http://BlueprintBooks.com

Part 1 of 5 - Have You Established Your Main Character At Th

In the beginning of your story you have to grab your readers’ interest and sustain it till the end. Our hook is our character. Readers keep on reading to find out more about the character. To see what he’ll do in the story; how he’ll solve his problems. What his goals are and whether he’ll achieve them.

And because our character is the reason readers become hooked on our stories, establishing him at the start is a must in a short story. And it is essential to establish him at the start because we don’t have the capacity in our limited word length to introduce him at our leisure.

The bond between readers and character has to be developed almost immediately.

You might have a few characters though. How do you decide who your main character will be? A main character is one that drives the story.

Think of it this way… If we were to take him away, there will be no story because it’s his story we are telling. The story will unfold by what is happening or what has happened to him.

When you establish who your main character will be, the next thing to do is to find which of your characters is in the best position to tell the story. Will your main character tell his story or will you give that role to another character?

This is what we call Viewpoint and what we’ll see in more detail in proceeding chapters.

Your main character isn’t necessarily the one who is telling the story; he might not even appear in our story ‘physically’ but will be there through the thoughts of others. So the viewpoint character might be a secondary character.

Whoever is telling the story is the viewpoint character.

The viewpoint character gives the colouring of the story. Whatever this characters says, we will believe. It may or may not be true, according to the main character, but because he isn’t there ‘physically’ to voice his opinions, we will have to take the viewpoint character’s word for it.

In a novel you can play around with viewpoint. You can have several viewpoint characters. In a short story it works best with one.

So your main character, whether he’ll be telling his own story or someone else will be doing it for him, has to be established at the start of your story.

Having said that, let’s see the reasons why the main character may not be telling his own story…

• Perhaps our main character is one that readers won’t sympathize or empathize with.

• Or the main character will not view highly with our readers

• Or the viewpoint character knows all the facts and can tell the story better

• Etc.

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Let me give you an example of a secondary character telling the story of a main character…

Let’s say your secondary character is a psychiatrist and the main character is the patient. Depending on what’s going to go on in the story, we’ll have to choose who’s in a better position to tell it. In this case, I will choose the psychiatrist.

I’ve done this because the patient is confused, being the one with the problems. The psychiatrist knows all the facts and his opinions will make things clearer to readers.

So, as the secondary character (the psychiatrist) unravels the story, we’ll become involved in the main character because it’s the main character’s story that is been told.

This may get a little confusing to the beginner writer. As they write they will have to keep in mind that the secondary character, although he’s telling the story, is NOT our main character.

The secondary character is there to do perform a task. He’s only the voice. It’s the main character we’ll become involved with.

A secondary character doesn’t play such an important role as a main character does. Therefore, information about secondary characters should be kept to a minimum. It’s not his story - it’s the main character’s story and the spotlight must, most times, be kept on the main character.

Take the above example for instance. It’s no relevance to the story how the psychiatrist started his career or where he received his diploma - what’s important, is what he has to say about the main character, his patient.

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Introduce your main character straight away, as close to the beginning of the story that’s possible. Enable your readers to form a bond and that will keep them hooked.

Is your main character established at the start of your story?

About the author:

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Besides his passion for writing, Nick Vernon runs an online gift site where you will find gift information, articles and readers funny stories. Visit http://www.we-recommend.com

Realizing the Potential of Your Writing Output

Achieving publication for your extra income ideas is removed from the improbable dream category and becomes instead a calculated certainty when you follow the strategies contained in my ‘Writing for Profit’ tutorial. That’s the beauty of niche non-fiction: it lends itself to formula writing techniques where commercial nuances are seamlessly interwoven into practical expression without disturbing the flow of the creative dynamic. You do it all the time without perhaps realizing it; you do it automatically when you compose a letter, a thesis, a report and such like. Why not then convert your innate skills into a vehicle to make money writing by developing extra income ideas that become in time residual income streams.

As reported elsewhere I did not set out to write a niche non-fiction bestseller: it just happened fortuitously because subconsciously I had somehow managed to string all the essential ingredients together in the correct order in my first work. You won’t have to trust to luck though. Intrigued by the runaway success of the initial title and the two that followed in the break-though to bestseller status I set about deconstructing each in turn to determine what I had done right and where I had gone astray on occasion. The results not only provided me with benchmarks for revising future editions but also made available the raw material for my creative writing course ‘Writing for Profit’. Combining my own findings with those of other successful non-fiction authors provides you in turn with a series of tried and tested strategies to ensure flawless progression of your own extra income ideas into residual income streams.

And residuals are what writing for profit is all about. ‘Starting Your Own Business’ first saw the light of day back in 1994, doubles in turnover every year, and (according to my publisher) should still be around in another ten years time. ‘Starting an Internet Business at Home’ falls into much the category in that sales consistently increase year on year. Both of these titles have something in common: they were designed to last because they are both injected with the essential ingredient to guarantee multiple editions and consequently, bestseller status: longevity.

You will learn in ‘Writing for Profit’ how to inject your own work with longevity and how that will galvanize commissioning editors into offering you a contract for publication. To provide you with an example of the power of this little-known ingredient: I have written 50 full length works of niche non-fiction of which 37 have been accepted and published.

You’d settle for two out of three as a batting average wouldn’t you?

Footnote: Do not leave your rejections to gather dust in a desk drawer. Put them to work. I downsized the 13 that failed to cut the mustard into mini-volumes and 7 of these went on to be accepted and published as ‘Thrifty Books’ titles…

About the Author

Jim Green is a bestselling author with a string of niche non-fiction titles to his credit including ‘Starting Your Own Business’ (How To Books ISBN 1-85703-859-2) and ‘Starting an Internet Business at Home’ (Kogan Page ISBN 0-7494-3484-8). His tutorial is available at
http://www.writing-for-profit.com

Duet Acting Scripts - Write Your Own!

Duet acting scripts are difficult to find on the Internet. If
you’ve done any poking around at all in search of one, you
already know this. But there is an alternative. More important,
it’s an alternative that will not only help hone your acting
skills, but also aid you in understanding your characters even
better.

The solution?

Write your own duet acting scripts.

I know. I know. Writing’s scary. But this doesn’t need to be a
painful process or even a particularly difficult one. In fact,
it can and should contribute to your inventory of acting skills
by forcing you to become more in touch with and more observant
of the world of characters already all around you. Especially
those who might otherwise go unnoticed.

And that’s the key to writing your own duet acting scripts:
observation. The better you are at observing, the easier the
writing is going to be.

Ready to get started?

The easiest, most direct path to writing your own scripts is to
start a swipe file. If you aren’t familiar with a swipe file,
this is a term that’s often used in marketing and copywriting
circles. A good copywriter will save ads, brochures, and mailers
that he comes across so he can learn from them and refer back to
them when he’s developing his own ad campaigns. Now, he doesn’t
just copy this material and present it as his own. He simply
draws upon it for inspiration and guidance.

This is what you should be doing, too. You won’t be looking at
ads, of course, but you will be carefully observing the
interactions of the people around you and recording your
observations.

For example, you’re in the checkout lane at the store, picking
up a few groceries, and the checker is chatting with the bagger.
They’re talking about the date the checker went on the night
before and how it was a dud. That’s a duet script.

For example, you take your dog into the veterinary office for
his annual series of shots and there are two other dog owners in
the waiting room. One has a dog with a broken leg that’s
healing. The other has a puppy that’s tugging on the chain, full
of energy, wanting to play with the healing dog. Gradually, you
see the tension growing between the two dog owners until it
suddenly spills over into a conversation about responsible dog
ownership. That’s a duet script.

For example, you’re at the local bookstore, reading a mystery
and enjoying a cup of coffee, when a woman comes through the
door, admonishing her elderly mother about the fact that she
doesn’t get out enough. That’s a duet.

These are everyday occurences. They happen all around you. But
you know what makes them worth your attention? They reveal
character. Each and every one reveals character. And that’s what
a good duet script should do.

It won’t take you long before you’ll have a fairly weighty file
of these situations, trust me. Most of the writing is already
done for you. The words that are exchanged in these situations
are honest words. They cut into the heart of each person. And
they’re all right there for the taking.

Now, there’s a very simple technique you can use to take a
single situation and turn it into multiple duet acting scripts.
You change the characters. Instead of the mother and daughter
coming through the door, it’s a mother and son. Instead of the
daughter concerned about her mother not getting out, have the
mother concerned about her daughter. Try a bitter daughter. Try
a meek daughter. Try a guilty daughter. Try a blind daughter.
The potential for unique characters is endless. You already have
the foundation in hand. All you need is to explore the
possibilities.

Writing a duet acting script doesn’t have to be overwhelming.
Using the techniques we’ve touched upon here, you’ll not only
build a great library of scripts, you’ll expand your
understanding, empathy and awareness of character.

It’s worth the extra effort. Try it. You’ll see.