Originality And Creativity Combined With A Great Set Of Colors, In Addition To A Wonderful Team Of Dancers,

Coca Cola has been very successful  at transmitting the same message over and over again to create a brand of its own. A brand that tells a story: There is always happiness, there are dreams, there is love, there is hope, peace, kindness, laughter, generosity, and magic scenes. A positive message is inside all the stories. 

Writing Tips

Scene Checklist

Does your scene include everything it should?

「 note: this is for the editing stage; remember, first draft is for the writer & editing is for the reader; get it down before worrying about these things unless it is just for practice 」

✧

ACTIONS

↦ are the actions necessary?

↦ are the verbs as descriptive as possible?

↦ do the actions match the character? why did the character take those actions?

↦ are the actions clear?

DIALOGUE

↦ what is the purpose for each statement?

↦ does each statement move the story forward?

↦ are the dialogue tags as descriptive as possible?

↦ does the dialogue match the character? why did the character say those things?

EMOTIONS

↦ are each character’s emotions clearly stated or implied?

↦ are the character’s emotions justifiable?

↦ how does the character’s emotions affect their actions?

LANGUAGE

↦ are you showing or telling?

↦ does the scene have clarity & coherence?

↦ does the scene have the desired tone, mood, & voice?

PURPOSE

↦ is this scene necessary? (if removed, would the story still make sense?)

↦ are there stakes at risk in this scene? is there tension?

↦ has something changed from the beginning to the end of the scene?

↦ possible purposes: advance the plot? reveal character goal? increase tension? develop character? reveal conflict? react to conflict? explain backstory? foreshadow? build world? reinforce theme, tone, or mood?

SETTING

↦ will your reader clearly know the setting throughout the scene?

↦ room? house? city? state? country? planet? galaxy?

↦ time of day? season of year? weather?

↦ chronologically within story?

STRUCTURE

↦ is there a distinct beginning, middle, and end?

↦ is the chronological order of events clear?

↦ does the scene smoothly transition from one to another?

✧

DWIGHT SWAIN’S SCENE VS SEQUEL

↦ Swain believed scenes should repeat these sequences in order to keep the interest of the reader piqued

↦ Swain says “a scene is a unit of conflict lived through by character and reader” & “a sequel is a unit of transition that links two scenes”

↦ scene: goal, conflict, disaster

⟿ goal: character’s decision to do something for a purpose

⟿ conflict: something opposing the character’s ability to achieve goal

⟿ disaster: a disruption or turning point to keep the readers hooked

↦ sequel: reaction, dilemma, decision

⟿ reaction: character’s emotional/analytical reaction to the disaster

⟿ dilemma: what should the character do now

⟿ decision: what does the character do now

↦ does your scene have one of these three-part patterns?

DWIGHT SWAIN’S MRU

↦ MRU: motivation-reaction units

↦ these are for alternating sentences or paragraphs

↦ motivation: objective thing your character externally senses (what happens?)

↦ reaction: subjective response your character internally has (how does your character react? feeling, reflex, action, dialogue?)

↦ this is very difficult to follow, especially without practice, but it is a way to guarantee your reader’s interest & attention

How to Write Bad Dialog

Writing bad dialog is almost an art form unto itself.

Recently I read a couple of stories where it felt as if the author was struggling to come up with bad dialog. So I thought I should give a few tips on how to do it properly.

The easiest way to write wretched dialog is to use dialog for the wrong things. In other words, when a scene calls for description, narration, transitions, introspection, characterization, or other things—simply do it all with dialog.

Bad Dialog in Place of Description

Let me give you an example. Our character, Joe, has just reached into the pocket of a dead man that he found washed up on a Florida beach. Now, the natural way to handle the scene would be to show the readers what Joe pulls from the dead man’s pocket. But instead you can do it in dialog, in this case, with another character, Ron:

Ron: Hey, what did you just find in that dead man’s pocket? Joe: Why, it looks like . . . gold pieces of eight, dated 1702!

Can you see how well that works? I mean, if you pulled a piece of ancient gold from a dead man’s pocket, you’d probably take a bit of time wondering what it was, studying it, and turning it over in your hand. But you can handle it faster if you simply have a character blurt a perfectly accurate description. So if you want to win awards for bad dialog, keep putting your descriptions into dialog!

Bad Dialog in Place of Transitions

Here’s how to write a terrible transition. We have just had two men meet, and one asked to meet in private. Let’s have Joe and Ron again.

Joe: Well, here we are in the Redwood National Forest. Sure is a foggy day, what with the wind coming in off the Pacific. What did you want to talk about, Ron, that made you drag me all the way out here, three miles into the trees? You afraid that our offices are being bugged or something?

In this case, the average author might start the scene with the two walking deep into a forest in the early dawn, smelling the fog off the sea, freezing from the cold. Personally, if I were Joe, I’d be a bit nervous, and I’d be wondering if Ron planned to murder me, but maybe that’s just me.

Bad Dialog in Place of Introspection

One of my favorite misuses of dialog is the spoken dialog that should be internal. For example, let’s say that Joe goes to the funeral of Ron’s mother. He walks into the foyer and is approaching the deceased, with people both ahead and behind him. He sees the old crone in her casket, dressed nicely, and then whispers to himself, “I never did like the old bag, but she looks pretty hot today. . . .”

Now, most folks would think that Joe would have to be literally insane to say something like that in public. But as a master of bad dialog, you just might get away with it. After all, I think that by now you’ve established that Joe has diarrhea of the mouth and never can shut up, so maybe readers won’t notice that you’re trying to tell your story through dialog alone.

Bad Dialog in Place of Characterization

Then of course, you can always characterize people by having one character talk about another. For example, Joe might tell Ron, “You know, my daughter Kary is so introverted, I can’t understand why she would want to become President of the United States.”

“She is introverted,” Ron says, “but you know, she also wants to save the country from fracking, and I don’t think that she can come up with any other way to do it.”

That one always works.

Just remember, if you want to become a master of ridiculously bad dialog, the first rule is to use dialog for everything—for descriptions, for internal thoughts, for narrating your scenes, for transitions and deep characterization. Wretched dialog has a million uses!

I’m pretty sure he’s not gonna show. Yet here you sit. I’ll give him ten more minutes. If there’s someplace else you have to be… Not tonight, Watson. Not tonight.

→ Elementary - 1x09 You Do It To Yourself

Contracts in the Entertainment Business

Contracts in the world of entertainment are important because they involve different aspects of the relationship between artist and manager. The contract stipulates the extent to which the manager will commit to the artist. There are agreements that could only include organizing tours for the artist. There are others contracts that might include planning the professional career of the artist involving not only the creation of the artistic image but also organizing every performance, recording, and interviews.

A contract that defines a superficial relationship between artist and manager might only include planning tours. This type of contract might not be beneficial for the artist in terms of professional growth and image development in the entertainment industry. The amount of time the manager spends on the development of the artist’s career is dedicated to plan live performances and get the money. According to Howard, a manager who establishes this type of relationship with the artist might not know much about business development.

There is another type of contract in which the manager is committed to bring out most of the artist’s capabilities. The contract includes an elaborated plan, detailed organization, a meticulous design, and precise control of the professional career of the artist. The manager is also responsible for finding the financial funds that might be needed it to reach the summit of success.

According to Paul Allen the functions of a manager should include: 1. All the phases of artist’s career in the entertainment industry 2. The appropriate music and show designed for live performances. 3. Publicity, public relations, employment, and advertising. 4. Image and related matters. 5. Booking and talent agencies that work on behalf of the artist. 6. The selection of other key team members such as attorneys, business managers, accountants, publicists, and a Webmaster.

In addition to the functions outlined before by Allen, George Howard suggests that the manager should go beyond signing a contract with the artist by providing a business development scheme. The manager should not see the artist as an investment that could pay off in cash after settling a recording deal. According to Howard management is “about leveraging the brand equity to create direct revenue streams, as well as strategic partnerships where you, again, create visibility (thus increasing brand equity) and revenue.”  He also mentioned that “most of the managers are not prepared to do business development.”

  REFERENCES

  Allen, Paul. (2007). Artist Management for the Music Business

Howard, George. (2011). Artist Manager Must Understand Their Role is Now Business Development. Retrieved from http://blog.tunecore.com/2011/02/artist-managers-must-understand-their-role-is-now-business-development.html

“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.

LoveSucks: totally true!

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.” 

Keep reading