2011. 

The director’s task is to recreate life, its movement, its contradictions, its dynamic and conflicts. It is his duty to reveal every iota of the truth he has seen, even if not everyone finds that truth acceptable. Of course an artist can lose his way, but even his mistakes are interesting provided they are sincere. For they represent the reality of his inner life, of the peregrinations and struggle into which the external world has thrown him.

Andrei Tarkovsky

ioputa

How to Make Your Writing Space Perfect for You

Haven’t done your spring cleaning yet! No worries, May is a great time to start reorganizing your writing space, and maybe, it’s even time to make a change. Read this amazing article about making your writing space work for you by Bernadette Benda!

A good writing space is essential. You’ll probably spend a lot of time there, and if you’re not spending a lot of time there, you’re spending deeply focused time. It needs to be special, inspirational, and fit all your writing needs. 

Here are four steps to help you get there. 

Step 1: Dream

Go on Pinterest. Instagram. Scroll through all the deliriously wonderful writing spaces. Go wild and collect all the impossible dream rooms. Then, pinpoint the elements of those dream rooms that you like the most and see what can be incorporated into your own. Maybe you can’t turn your bedroom into a loft in NYC, but maybe you can add more plants and posters. Maybe you can’t paint your living room yellow, but maybe you can incorporate yellow accessories.  

Dream big, then break it down into the practical. 

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Positivity Here

NEGOTIATION AND DEAL MAKING

Negotiation and Deal Making is a wonderful and useful course that helps you to deal with businessman, entrepreneurs and negotiators. In order to put in perspective the “great deal” about the course, we need to compare the past (without any course) and the present (with the course) in my personal experience as negotiator. I still remember when I founded an Expo in Mexico, and most of 30 businesses got together around my business because they found a mutual benefit. I should say they did get a more beneficial interest than me, except for the fact that I was on the spotlight, which brought me a lot of social presence that I used it in the future. However, to gather those businesses together meant to give away concessions against my own interests.

I negotiated with no goal in mind except than putting them together at all costs. I did not know anything about role-playing, deal-structuring skills, critiquing role playing scenarios, negotiation skills development, and self-awareness (except bringing those business together at all costs). With the knowledge of this course, everything would have changed, and mutual benefits would have existed for both parties in the negotiation process.

 Nowadays, the expectations for the future in business negotiations look very promising with this course taken. Someday the student will become a businessman with knowledge on how to deal with people in different environment and scenarios. The road to success is filled with little bumps along the road as Fisher, Ury and Patton (2011) stated in his book Getting to Say Yes “This may require experimentation and a period of adjustment that is not so comfortable” but they highlighted that the negotiation power would be amplified if you believe in you.

 How does the negotiation start in real world? Human beings and their emotions are the main topic in Negotiation and Deal Making. Even though we are rational, there are always emotions involved in any negotiation process that could get the deal in hold, go forward or in an impasse. It would be endless to talk about all of the different kinds of emotions, but Fisher and Shapiro (2005) in his book “Beyond Reason” express that we have five core concerns: Appreciation, Affiliation, Autonomy, Status and Role.  These emotions and their knowledge will play an important role in business negotiation. The outcome of the deal will be successful depending on what perspective we apply towards those feelings: if we recognize, deny, block, or forget those emotions. If we want a successful deal, we need to be proactive and acknowledge all these emotions with our negotiators if we want a successful negotiation.

Do not forget our BATNA that is the most important piece of equipment. Our Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement is the key in case we do not have a beneficial agreement, and we should consider the other negotiator and his BATNA to be more successful.

 What have I learned from this course? I have learned to valuate the other people’s interest because there is a lot of information in them that we can use towards the negotiation process. When there is an obstacle, I try to scrutinize what kind of emotion and where in those 5 categories might fall, or as the author stated, “use the core concern as both a lens and a lever”. Also, I try to acknowledge what is the driving force in that individual whom we are negotiating with. Additionally, I will always review the kind of communication we have with our negotiator (good o bad terms), our communication process (do we listen to each other?), our interests (do we have mutual interest?), our options (What options do we have?), our commitments (what commitments we both can agree with), and finally our BATNA (His BATNA and mine).  It is only then when we could say we are prepared to face the challenge to get a deal done.

       REFERENCES

  Roger, Fisher,, Shapiro, Daniel. (2005). Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate. Penguin Books, VitalBook file.

  Roger, Fisher,, Ury, L.. (2011). Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. Penguin Books, VitalBook file.

5 Quotes on Editing That Will Always Be Relevant

During January of our “Now What?” Months, we’re here to give you some inspiration and resources as you dive into those daunting edits on your novel. While we usually share lots of advice with you from contemporary authors, sometimes it’s nice to take a look back through history and realize that editing problems have always been the same:

1. James Baldwin

“Rewriting [is] very painful. You know it’s finished when you can’t do anything more to it, though it’s never exactly the way you want it… The hardest thing in the world is simplicity. And the most fearful thing, too. You have to strip yourself of all your disguises, some of which you didn’t know you had. You want to write a sentence as clean as a bone. That is the goal.” 

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Platicas de Cafe

Querida Amiga: Cuanto gusto me causo su presencia del dia de ayer. Encuentro siempre que las bondades del ser humano son mayores cuando hacen acto de presencia, y en ellos muestran su aprecio y bienaventuranza a quien los recibe. Cuantas cosas no compartimos bajo las terrulias de cafe y pan, que no fueron de licor y vino, para no exaltar nuestras emociones en impetus juveniles que comprometen mas alla de la amistad, y agradezco la prudencia y sapiencia suya, al escoger cafe y pan sobre el licor y el vino. El cafe tiene ese sabor rico, que despierta en una manana venteada, y oye el susurrar del viento mientras una buena lectura de Ana Karenina se sostiene en las manos. Y dentro de esos momentos agradables, aun recuerdo cuando tuvo a bien aproximarse, y en una parte de sus discursos dijo estar cansada de decir una y otra vez lo que no entienden otras personas. Parecia estar angustiada por lo que otros no comprendian de usted, y en mi afan de querer ayudar, si es que me lo permite, me quede pensando y realice que usted no necesita entender a las personas; solo aceptarlas como son. No hay mucho que deba agregar a este comentario por cuanto aceptar es querer a la persona como es, por cuanto no se trata de nulificar a uno para justificar al otro, y menospreciar al uno en exaltacion al otro, por cuanto hay un respeto envuelto en ambas personalidades. Espero fervientemente que estas escasas lineas le puedan servir para clarificar ideas, y admito, que es mi deseo poder ayudarle con las interrogantes que de repente encontramos en este mundo, atribulado por las interrogantes que no encontramos. Sin mas por el momento, quedo de usted.

The Coca Cola logo or vending machine was shown only 10 seconds out of 1:31 minutes, in all these scenes from real life commercial. 

That is all it takes, a brief moment, when a brand is positioned. The logic and magic, strategy and creativity are together to build a brand. Why we do not let the Coca Cola Logo stays in right hand corner along the 1:31? The reason is  the magic side, the creativity side, the story behind is what matters to associate it with the brand. That is all it takes to position the name brand into the public.

 When enough individuals arrive at the same gut feeling, a company can be said to have a brand. In other words, a brand .Is not what YOU say it is. It’s what THEY say it is.

 Neumeier, Marty. The Brand Gap. MBS Direct.

How to Write Characters With Romantic Chemistry

Writing great chemistry can be challenging. If you’re not super inspired, sometimes the connection between your characters feels like it’s missing something.

Here are a few steps you can consider when you want to write some steamy romantic chemistry and can’t figure out what’s blocking your creativity.

1. Give the Love a Name

Tropes have a bad reputation, but they can be excellent tools when you’re planning or daydreaming about a story. Giving the romance a name also assigns a purpose, which takes care of half the hard plotting work.

You can always read about love tropes to get inspired and think about which might apply to the characters or plot points you have in mind, like:

Friends to lovers

Enemies to lovers

First love

The love triangle

Stuck together

Forbidden love

Multiple chance love

Fake lovers turned soulmates

There are tooooons of other tropes in the link above, but you get the idea. Name the love you’re writing about and it will feel more concrete in your brain.

2. Develop Your Characters

You should always spend time developing your characters individually, but it’s easy to skip this part. You might jump into writing the story because you have a scene idea. Then the romance feels flat.

The good news is you can always go back and make your characters more real. Give them each their own Word or Google doc and use character templates or questions to develop them. 

You should remember to do this for every character involved in the relationship as well. Sometimes love happens between two people who live nearby and other times it happens by:

Being in a throuple

Being in a polyamorous relationship

Being the only one in love (the other person never finds out or doesn’t feel it back, ever)

There are so many other ways to experience love too. Don’t leave out anyone involved in the developing relationship or writing your story will feel like driving a car with only three inflated tires.

3. Give the Conversations Stakes

Whenever your characters get to talk, what’s at risk? This doesn’t have to always be something life changing or scary. Sometimes it might be one character risking how the other perceives them by revealing an interest or new fact about themselves.

What’s developing in each conversation? What’s being said through their body language? Are they learning if they share the same sense of humor or value the same foundational beliefs? Real-life conversations don’t always have a point, but they do in romantic stories. 

4. Remember Body Language

Body language begins long before things get sexy between your characers (if they ever do). It’s their fingertips touching under the table, the missed glance at the bus stop, the casual shoulder bump while walking down the street.

It’s flushed cheeks, a jealous heart skipping a beat, being tongue tied because one character can’t admit their feelings yet.

If a scene or conversation feels lacking, analyze what your characters are saying through their body language. It could be the thing your scene is missing.

5. Add a Few Flaws

No love story is perfect, but that doesn’t mean your characters have to experience earth shattering pain either.

Make one laugh so hard that they snort and feel embarrassed so the other can say how much they love that person’s laugh. Make miscommunication happen so they can make up or take a break. 

People grow through their flaws and mistakes. Relationships get stronger or weaker when they learn things that are different about them or that they don’t like about each other. 

6. Create Intellectual Moments

When you’re getting to know someone, you bond over the things you’re both interested in. That’s also a key part of falling in love. Have your characters fall in intellectual love by sharing those activities, talking about their favorite subjects, or raving over their passions. They could even teach each other through this moment, which could make them fall harder in love.

7. Put Them in Public Moments

You learn a lot about someone when they’re around friends, acquaintances, and strangers. The chemistry between your characters may fall flat if they’re only ever around each other.

Write scenes so they’re around more people and get to learn who they are in public. They’ll learn crucial factors like the other person’s ambition, shyness, humor, confidence, and if they’re a social butterfly or wallflower.

Will those moments make your characters be proud to stand next to each other or will it reveal something that makes them second guess everything?

8. Use Your Senses

And of course, you can never forget to use sensory details when describing the physical reaction of chemistry. Whether they’re sharing a glance or jumping into bed, the reader feels the intensity of the moment through their five senses—taste, touch, sight, sound, and smell. 

Characters also don’t have to have all five senses to be the protagonist or love interest in a romantic story. The number isn’t important—it’s how you use the ways your character interacts with the world. 

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Anyone can write great romantic chemistry by structuring their love story with essential elements like these. Read more romance books or short stories too! You’ll learn as you read and write future relationships more effortlessly.