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How To Story Edit Like A Pro - Novlr

Have you finished your first draft but are unsure what to do next? Learn how to story edit to get your draft to the next stage.

Story Edit Like A Pro!

If you begin a story edit with these questions to evaluate your characters, plot, and setting, you’ll be amazed at how this will help you improve your story!

Evaluating Characters

We’re going to look at characters first. 

The cast of characters is the list of characters in your story. These characters act and react. They create emotion. They show motivation. Without any of this, you don’t have a story. That’s a tall order for your characters. So how do you make sure you’re getting the most out of them?

Who appears in each scene?

Having a list of your characters per scene gives a specific method for evaluating how you’re using the characters and shows you when you need to revise a scene.

It’s time to revise a scene if:

There are too many characters in a scene. Is every character required to achieve the purpose of the scene?

An introduced character lacks detail or has too much detail.

There are names that are too similar and might confuse the reader.

What are their goals?

A character goal is what a character wants. She should want it so badly that your readers feel her need in their guts. And failing to achieve the goal will be devastating.

What gets in the way of their goals?

Characters will drive the tension in your story, and tension is what keeps a reader reading. Putting obstacles in the way of achieving the goal will raise the tension.

Evaluating Plot

Plot is what happens in the story. It’s what your story is about. Here are three questions to help you evaluate each scene and how they relate to the plot.

What is the purpose of each scene?

There must always be a reason any given scene exists in your story. That’s what we mean by its purpose. A scene without a purpose will distract the reader from the main story. It may even bore the reader.

Is there an entry hook opening each scene?

Whatever you read at the beginning of the scene that keeps you reading is the scene entry hook. Every scene must have one by the end of the first three paragraphs or so.

Is there an exit hook at the end of each scene?

Whatever you read at the end of the scene that keeps you turning the page to the next scene is the exit hook. Every scene must have an exit hook. This includes a secret revealed, a cliffhanger, a clue, or a story twist.

Evaluating Settings

Finally, while you perform a story edit, examine your settings. Settings are key to keeping your reader engaged, so don’t ignore them. 

Is the location you chose the best place for emotional impact?

Each scene must take place somewhere, and each location has the potential to ramp up emotion. Often a writer doesn’t think hard enough about where a scene takes place and doesn’t end up using locations effectively. Does the location elicit emotion in the reader or the characters? If not, choose a different location.

Are there objects relevant to the plot or characterization in each scene?

Watch a film without props or a backdrop, and you’d probably get confused or bored. You’d just be watching actors on an empty stage, which would make it hard to believe the reality they’re trying to portray.

Readers are much more engaged in a story if they can imagine the setting that stirs their emotions. 

Are some of the 5 senses used in every scene?

Sensory details keep the “stage” and characters interesting. Without them, both the setting and the characters will seem flat.  Using the POV character’s senses to describe the action will bring your reader closer to the character. So ensure the senses used show characterization or move the plot forward.

Everything is About Finances!

I still remember when I was at my friend’s house and used to poke around by grabbing the paper to read the news, and show off myself by saying “my stocks in the market are doing pretty good”. Nothing to laugh about it, except that the only thing of value was my own bicycle that I used as a mean of transportation to go from home to everywhere else, and my own persona if a body could be counted as gold since my family was “poor” in the terms and conditions of that little kid from “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”.

Years passed by, and we do not know what the future holds for us, and one day at school I am supposed to write a blog for my Entertainment Business Finance about the things that I learned in class. Believe me I learned a lot, and now the real world.

Stock market? Google stocks or Wal-Mart stocks? Which one do I go for? It depends. Stocks in the market behave divergently depending on the sector, and even within the sector a share might be of high value, depending on the company performance such as its efficiency, liquidity, profitability, and stability. We should look at the ratios when we compare Google vs Wal-Mart: Return of Investment (ROI, which is related to the efficiency of the investment for the company) for Google 14.15; Wal-Mart 14.31; Return on Equity (ROE, how much profit a company makes with money from shareholders) for Google 15.55 and Wal-Mart 23.30.

  Negotiations? Big deal in business finance when making a contract with an artist. 120 millions deal for Madonna in which she is getting 90 % of the concert sales, and also 50% of licensing money? In the top of that, LIve Nation is releasing $17.5 million to the artist in advance, plus another $50 to 60 million dollars when she delivers the music for some CD’s.!!!?????

What!!??? Are you crazy? She is going to steal even the clothes that I am wearing on! There should be a point where the artist knows when enough is enough! Do not worry my son- it seems to me that the CEO, Mr Rapino from Live Nation is telling me- everything is about finances! “We got the Madonna 2014 tour at 2008 prices… We project that Madonna will gross over $1 billion in this 10 years. She's working to generate the $1 billion, not the $100 million schedule that we're going to pay her over time. That's just the appetizer.” Everything is about finances; the money that you spend in the present time will grow in the future because “time is money”. It is like buying a house at $100,000 at the present time, and within 15 years that same house will value $140,000.00 because of the rate of inflation, interest, and time value of money. You see? I take off my hat for Mr. Rapino. Nice move, and above all, a whole concept about finances and time value of money.

Decisions in business? How would you know if an opportunity for business is good at the present time, and will be good in the future, taking into consideration the different rates associated for that loan?

R: By analyzing the profit that will be made in the future minus the cost at the present time. Formula? NPV= PVB-PVC

How would you know if an investment of $100,000 would return, at what rate, and within what time? Payback= C/ATB

I could go on, and on presenting a lot of variables and formulas that show us how taking business decisions is about critical thinking and finances.

  As I said before, and I repeat it again: everything in business is about time, rate, money and finances, specially finances which is the key to analyze proposals to get the best deal that should be represented in profit, profit, and profit.

What did I learn from this course? Finances, is the most important key to make business profitable

    REFERENCES

  http://www.reuters.com/search?blob=google

http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WMT.N

https://assethub.online.fullsail.edu/assethub/Disc-LiveNation_f423bde6-646a-4a15-8a27-0cca269e8a6d.pdf

https://assethub.online.fullsail.edu/assethub/Disc-livenationCEOinterview_bafe6c0b-19ef-465e-8dd6-56fa1eab2982.pdf

A World Intellectual Property Day Quiz

Do you know what you need to know in order to preserve and maintain your intellectual property?

Haz lo que te apasiona.

Pinta cuadros de belleza en lugares solitarios

Rehúsate a seguir pintando lo mismo

Estableciendo lo mismo,

Porque lo mismo, aburre.

No da sentido!.

Rehúsate a seguir recorriendo las misma calles todos los días

Bajo los mismos impulsos, bajo las mismas emociones y 

Abrete a la vida! 

Cambia los parámetros,

 cambia los colores, 

cambia las lluvias del corazón por carcajadas de colores, 

pero no dejes que tu canto sea el canto de otros en su pesar, y en su penar.

Que la vida es Maddona, Britney Spears o Nicki Minaj, 

que la vida es Ariana Grande, o SuperArchireColobombo

What the fuck! 

La vida es lo que yo la quiera hacer

en mi libertad

con mis propias palabras

Con mis propios gustos

Con mis propias manos

Con mis propias tonalidades

De pintor a creador.

Y da besos a la vida

Por la oportunidad de pintar 

Como te place!

Como te nace!

Porque puedo

Porque soy!

Porque es mi santísima voluntad de hacerlo!

Y para muestra...

Mil botones!

Instagram: iliketoseeeverythinginneon

“In mechanical arts, the craftsman uses his skill to produce something useful, but his sole merit lies in skill. In the fine arts the student uses skill to produce something beautiful. He is free to choose what that something shall be, and the layman claims that he may and must judge the artist chiefly by the value in beauty of the thing done. Artistic skill contributes to beauty, or it would not be skill; but beauty is the result of many elements, and the nobler the art the lower is the rank which skill takes among them.“

– Attributed to Fleeming Jenkin, in John Munro’s Heroes of the Telegraph.

Professor Henry Charles Fleeming Jenkin represents both the craftsman and the artist of the early nineteenth century. This renaissance man of Edinburgh was born on 25 March 1833. His prolific career as an electrical engineer and professor glitters with a variety of accomplishments. He is known as the engineer of the telpher, or aerial tramway. In addition to engineering, he crossed over into the business and academic work; his writing topics extended into over 35 British patents, and over 40 published papers.

Fleeming Jenkin won medals during his professional career from the Royal Society of Edinburgh for his graphical method to calculate strains in bridges; yet he also drew portraits, wrote about artistry, and contributed to commentary on popular literature in his time.

Electricity and magnetism formed one of Fleeming Jenkin’s major passions; he participated in the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, and determined a convenient unit and standard of electrical resistance with a committee.

Image: Aerial tramway in La Grave (France) by NielsB. CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Madonna - Material Girl (Official Video) [HD].... Bueno el personaje principal se mueve entre dos personalidades que reflejan sus características, porque se mueve entre dos culturas: la americana y la mexicana, por el carácter latino del personaje.

Entonces fisicamente el personaje principal se mira como Maddona con toda su belleza y su personalidad atractiva, y en su mexicanidad tiene indicios de “La Dona”.

Entonces estos seres que algún día caen en las peripecias de la vida juntos, tendrán que sortear esas personalidades.

Donde quedara finalmente el corazón de la mujer?... Esa es la pregunta!

Se ira por lo material o si misma? en cuyo caso termina sola porque se las juega sola aprovechando su belleza; o bien, con alguien mas, que no le satisface, pero le cumple la expectativa financiera. Jugada clásica ya conocida.

O se ira por la concepción de gremio, de familia, de juntos, por lo cual baja sus expectativas y sus egos para crear fortuna entre dos, consensada, hablada y donde los dos ganan con sus propios acuerdos. 

Es una jugada clásica con una mirada clásica? 

O una jugada sensacional, fuera de serie, con tambien una jugada fuera de serie?

 Porque tambien el personaje principal masculino, tiene sus cartas debajo de la mano, y solo espera ver cual es la jugada de su contraparte a la que quiere y adora, pero no deja ver su secreto, que esta relacionado en mucho con las aspiraciones de la contraparte femenina.

Por el otro lado, el personaje masculino viene de una cultura del esfuerzo, y sembrar una familia basada en el poder del dinero por belleza, no le suena algo interesante. En todo lo que aqui sucede existe algo que la protagonista no podía decir: Ella lo quería y lo quería empujar para adelante, y esa era su manera de querer, empujando a ser lo mejor de si mismo. 

Entonces el personaje masculino no canta mal las rancheras. El no se deja apabullar y tiene sus autoestimas en el lugar correcto. 

Como podría contener a una muchacha con un ego y una autoestima muy alta, y hacerlos funcionar juntos dentro de una relación de amor y respeto?

 Se habia ella pasado las lineas, cuando su propósito era empujar al hombre que quería?

Esas son las interrogantes de la historia

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Albert Einstein, a German-born theoretical physicist, on the essence of genius (via oupacademic)