If we are honest with you, how could I possibly be smart enough or wise enough to give you and me one of THE BIG SECRETS IN LIFE?

How can anyone know what THE SECRET is?

Yet, let’s take a shot at it. First, may I be bold enough to say that almost nobody under seventy knows what THE SECRET is. Fortunately, I am over seventy!!!

All kidding aside, what is the SECRET BETWEEN SUCCESS AND FAILURE?

Let us start with a premise: You have to look at the character of a person to evaluate whether they know A SECRET OF LIFE OR NOT. Are they:

• developed beings, integrated and whole?
• do they exploit others by lying to them or selling them a job?
• do they prove they are successful by leading integrated lives?
• to they practice what they preach and have positive results?
• in their own sphere of influence with those they know to they make a positive contribution to their lives?
• do those who claim to have THE SECRET also deal effectively with the NEGATIVES of life, THE GREAT TESTOR?

You can make your own list. These are the guidelines I have used in my life developing myself and interacting with other people of note.

Shall we add one more? Let’s!!!

ARE THE PEOPLE WHO PROCLAIM THE SECRET MAKING A LOT OF MONEY OFF OF OTHER PEOPLE BY PROCLAIMING THEIR SECRET? Are they using money and prosperity as a chief measure to you that their secret works?

Here’s the flaw in such reasoning.

A true to reality life principle works because it is effective. Does your Proclaimed Secret make lot’s of money for the few or for the many who buy your hype and your product? Being successful for the few is just by chance out of the many. A few make it and many don’t. It’s just like the guru phenom. The guru makes it and buys Rolls Royce’s. The followers remain poor and inadequate sinners while the guru or pope is seen as glorious and realized. The One and The Many again. Don’t think that because a few look successful that the many will also who also practice THE SECRET.

THE SECRET IS EFFECTIVENESS IN LIFE!

Did you know that? It’s my secret. When I was in school and university I could almost always get the highest grades when I wanted to and studied hard enough. It was fun. It made me feel important. It gave me a sense of ego, that I am different and better than the rest of them.

For some strange and evil reason school systems foster this approach by giving better grades to the few over the many. They foster competition and egocentricity. It took me awhile to realize that getting the best grades was a false measure of life. School and the educational system is not the real world. The academics who run that system are in retreat from the real world, unless an occasional professor gets out there and invents useful things and services that working people truly need to better their lives.

If you can be EFFECTIVE in life in various ways then you put your mouth where your words are. Do your words fall on shallow ground, like the educational system of artificial rewards and punishments? Or do your words fall on fertile ground of hard work, commitment to excellence and positive results for the whole team and not just its leaders?

This is a general essay about the quality of life and how to live its real issues and solve them positively. Now we take the focus to writing as a serious endeavor.

WRITING THE NOVEL OR SCREEN PLAY AND SUCCEEDING AT IT

We can give you no magic formula here but we can take a strong position in the right direction that has worked for us.

THE SECRET IS EFFECTIVENESS IN LIFE AND IN WRITING

We don’t care so much what you have to do to get there, but you should do almost all your actions to problem-solve effectively.

YOU MUST PROBLEM-SOLVE REAL PROBLEMS AND CREATE PRODUCTS AND VALUES OF EXCELLENCE TO PROVE EFFECTIVENESS IN LIFE.

THE SECRET IS EFFECTIVENESS.

Effectiveness is when what happens consistently is what we intend to happen. When the scientists produced the first atomic bomb they were not sure from their physics knowledge what would actually happen. Would the chain reaction of splitting atoms form a reaction in all matter and almost instantly destroy the world? Or would the bomb explosion be localized to only the radioactive materials in the bomb itself. The bomb worked and now physics as a valid body of truth is confirmed forever. It is not just theoretical but practical. The scientists produced what they intended to produce.

In any field, ask how can you become effective and solve at least some of the problems in that field?

In writing the novel it is the same situation as in physics. Can we produce the bomb? Can we create something that can almost instantly kill millions of people and end life on earth as we know it? Shall we try to prove that humanity can indeed do this? No, because the proving would kill the scientists as well. No one wants such pragmatic knowledge at such a great price!!!

Can we then in a lesser field prove what makes for a successful novel?

Do the successful novelists know what makes for their success in writing novels that sell?

Does Danielle Steele know consciously what sells her novels? Has she told anyone? What is her great secret of effectiveness, for she is the most successful living author on earth with over 500 million of her books sold. Yes, I read that as a fact somewhere, and I believe it, having analyzed one of her books.

Not only does Danielle Steele write exciting books but she has THE SECRET. It is not what current New Age Sales People try to tell you THE SECRET IS, which seems to be, THINK POSITIVE AND YOU WILL DRAW POSITIVE ENERGY TO YOU.

The secret for the successful novelist is:

CRAFT: CRAFT! CRAFT! CRAFT!

Not talent alone. Not writing good sentences. Not having a great writer’s imagination only. Not being a celebrity and that is what sells your books. Not having media publicity and so that makes you a best-seller writer.

CRAFT SELLS BOOKS.

CRAFT IS THE SECRET OF EFFECTIVENESS IN THE NOVEL WRITING BUSINESS.

That’s how we see it from this end. I have a university masters in English Literature, and another one in Psychology, but neither university taught me how to write novels. They taught me how to analyze novels. They taught me how to analyze people, not how to construct great characters.

Yet now the world is different in the new century. There are a lot of writing craft courses and books out there. We have utilized a lot of the best in making our huge collection of over 2000 writing tools and helps. We did it to learn how to write effective novels ourselves. We pass on to you, also a writer, the same writing craft tools and prompts that we are using ourselves to improve and make dramatically effective our own novels and other things we do like articles and podcasts.

CRAFT KNOWLEDGE USE IS THE SECRET OF EFFECTIVENESS IN WRITING A SUCCESSFUL NOVEL.

Don’t believe me. You want to just sit down and write, like one editor at the Writer’s Digest Forum maintains? Well, go ahead, do it your way. You will do it your way, anyway. But if you want to become effective as a writer and stand half a chance at success, you will learn your craft from beginning to end.

Be sure and study well the fifty leading writing craft books that I have. Be sure and take some creative writing courses to see how little the instructors know about writing. Read and analyze all the great novels you want to, and still fail to understand how to write an effective novel. Mine the blogs on creative writing and drown in the ideas of failure express there by so many people.

No, yes, if you want success, make sure your writing at its final stage is effective writing. If it does not demand to be read by readers then it is not effective writing and it will never be read because you DON’T HAVE A GOOD STORY, and YOU DO NOT USE EFFECTIVE CRAFT KNOWLEDGE TO TELL YOUR STORY.

I have 100,000 words of my novel. I have 350,000 books sold in eight languages. I have one a best seller, The Dream Cards, at 110,000 copies sold in eight languages around the world. This is no bragging. This is reality testing. I am trying to write well because I love writing and because I want to be successful in real terms at it.

My latest research? It is my podcasts which got 63,000 listeners in the first year. During that same time the podcasts that got me the most listeners was the Prologue to my Jesus Novel at around 4000 listeners. A number of other podcasts are almost up there with this number, such as my Loving Laurie podcast.

Yet the top one is The Prologue To The Jesus Novel. I put it there to get response, to test the market. I put this podcast out in two parts to get public response from strangers. Could I gage the interest in the subject matter, and would people actually listen in large numbers?

This is the testing of EFFECTIVENESS.

EFFECTIVENESS FOR A WRITER IS GREAT STORY WEDDED TO GREAT CRAFT IN WRITING IT.

We stand behind our comprehensive collection of writing craft tools. We were astounded that only one writing craft book had a large collection of writing tools and the others didn’t. We were astounded that our writing course instructors did not give us writing tools but simply readings from novels and memoirs to comment on, and also made banal comments on our own work. Ho-Hum!

If you want EFFECTIVENESS in life, learn the necessary craft that goes with your field. If you want to be a successful lover, don’t just go for experiences. Go for quality. Go for excellence. Learn from the best teachers who know their love craft. Learn! Problem-Solve! Create Excellence.

To do this you have to be effective in life, do you not?

We wish you all the success possible to you in life!

In part one of how to make your creative writing more stylish, I looked at a number of ways to a children’s author could make their writing fresher. In Part two I look at more ways to make your writing, especially for children’s books, more enjoyable to read.

Stuffy words create a resistance in the reader. Avoid the use of grandiose words in your creative writing – ‘use’ is preferable to ‘utilize’. If you are writing a children’s book, you can be sure that if a child has to consult a dictionary too often, they will soon lose interest in your book.

Avoid using excessive words. After you’ve written a scene, go back over it and ruthlessly chop out words that do not add anything to the action. Think carefully if what you’ve written really enhances your story or detracts from it.

Know who your readers are and the words in everyday life. Be careful of using jargon not appropriate for your readers. When writing for children, know the language of your readers. Expressions can quickly lose fashion, and expressions that were in vogue when you were young are quite likely ‘out’ now. Words can date your writing e.g. authoress, air hostess are now author and flight attendant. If you use cool words to be right up to date, you risk dating your work so that in ten years time it sounds old-fashioned. If we were to read the word groovy in a book today, we would know that it comes from the 1960s era.

On the other hand, children quickly spot a fraud. If you do not feel comfortable using the jargon of the day, then do not! It is no use throwing in the expression ‘fully sick’ if the rest of your writing does not have the same tone.

Beware of dangling clauses.

For example: After eating all over America, that restaurant is my favorite.

In this example it reads as if the restaurant has been eating all over America. In every scene there should only be one witness. Beware of head hopping. It makes for very untidy writing to have more than one person per scene giving their observations.

For example: James wondered if Martha would really eat the strange fruit. He watched as she picked it off the branch and as she studied it intently. She took a big bite. Purple juices ran down her chin. James was astonished to see that her face was changing shape.

In the above example we see the scene through the eyes of James.

The use of active voice makes your work more dramatic. Active voice has more authority than passive voice because the verb becomes stronger.

Example of Passive – I was hit on the head by a giant pod.

Example of Active – A giant pod hit me on the head.

The use of onomatopoeia in children’s books is always well received. Children love words like sizzle, boom, bang and splatter – hence the success of the cartoon series Batman and Robin.

The above ideas are just some of the ways you can spice up your creative writing. However remember, in children’s books less is always more.

My words matter so why would I send them out all over the globe to people I only know via a few emails? How can I trust them and what if they hate my writing? If they say I stink do I have to quit?

By the time my critique group sees my writing I will have searched for misspelled words, missing commas, and replaced most the “ly” words. When it matters most I will have anguished over finding just the right word. The pages will have been read out loud more than once. I may find myself surprised by a passage or two that sound like keepers. My characters voices will sound distinct and strong.

So why subject myself to criticism?

Once I’ve sent the pages to the group, I’ll be waiting. I’ll check my emails more often than I should just in case someone had time right away. I’ll check again in a little while and pour myself another cup of coffee. I’ll pray that I can take whatever is offered. I’ll pray they are given wise and discerning insights. And, yes, I’ll check my email again.

So why put myself through this?

When I’m not part of a critique group, something vital is missing in my writing life. Here are three that impact me most:

-I lose confidence in the work because I’m aware I may not have caught all the unintentional errors -I lack the input of writers who are my first readers and have the ability to see what’s missing or what should be missing -I long for the genuine encouragement of writers who know writing

So what makes a good critique relationship?

Motives matter on both the side of the critique giver and the receiver.

The Giver:

An excellent critique comes from a person motivated to encourage – which means to “infuse with courage.” Writers are pendulum people. Even when I think I’ve offered some good writing for a critique, I immediately wonder how much my partners will find wrong with it. What I was sure about just a few seconds before I hit the send button has dissolved into doubt.

The other side of that same critique is the offering of “suggestions” to consider in improving your work. Some writers think they have to take every single suggestion offered to them by their writing partners. They end up changing the voice of the writing and losing their own vision. I’ve heard it said you take 3% of the total suggestions and no more. While the person/s critiquing your work will put in a bit of time offering these suggestions, you are not obligated to take them. An excellent writing partner knows this and is not so invested in your work that it somehow becomes his/hers.

An excellent critique contains a vital balance between praise and suggestions. Genuine applause is not flattery but it is enthusiastic. It’s important that your critique partners are excited about your talent and your project. If a critique leaves out positive comments and insightful suggestions, the balance is broken. A returned manuscript full of only suggestions shows a critique partner unwilling to see the good in someone else’s work. Only nice comments leave the writer out in the cold when the goal is to make the writing the best it can be. One without the other is unbalanced and damaging and can cause a writer to lose hope.

The Receiver:

An excellent receiver is motivated by a desire to write better and publish only the best. If authors want to publish independently, you will want to be part of changing the tide of critics out there who cancel the value of books because they are published by the author. These writers (I’m one) must seek a higher standard of writing than ever before. When a writer is seeking traditional publishing the editorial standards are stricter than ever. You are expected to submit only your best.

This writer is also gracious. I’ve seldom agreed 100% with all the critiques I received. I went in with the anticipation I’d be able to glean a morsel or two from each critique partner’s suggestions. I confess, when a compliment was offered, I savored those kind words slowly. Even if I couldn’t use the suggestions, I was thankful for them. Sometimes they led me to a new idea or clarified something I was unsure of.

An excellent receiver is willing to share his/her vision for the work up front. This writer is able to inspire his/her writing partners with his/her purpose and passion. I don’t think you have to share the whole story line in detail. You probably don’t know it. You can however reveal your own reason for pouring yourself into this project.

An excellent receiver is not defensive of the work. There may be times you will want to clarify a misconception, but this writer realizes there is nothing to defend. They’ve asked for input and are able to sift through what is offered taking and leaving as needed. This person understands that it requires time for another writer to get a true glimpse of someone else’s talent or adopt a passion for a new project.

An excellent receiver is also an excellent giver. The two are conjoined at a brain and heart level. Together they are a power source no writer should be without.

Much of the time, writing demands solitude. Most often, non-writers think what we do is cool and are pretty sure they could do it too but listening to us talk about our work? Not usually. Reader take-away, plot, character development, and word counts are not part of their world.

A group of writers banding together becomes more than a place to improve the writing and get a pat on the back now and then. These writers find getting emails from their critique partners, is like Thanksgiving dinner with family who love and respect each other. The members don’t all agree, but they love time together…time spent talking about what they do, why they do it, how they do it, and when they succeed or fail. They know their writing partners will keep their confidences, share their pain, help ease their suffering, and celebrate their victories.

A critique community, with right motives, quickly transforms into a safe place to try out and try on new projects.

So, that’s why we hit the send button.

On today’s internet, content is king. Accessible content will entice visitors to visit and spend time on your web site, increasing the chances of a purchase or sponsor visit. Additionally, every major search engine is capable of scanning your web site’s content and determining just how unique and relevant it truly is. Based on their findings, search engines will reward better content with higher rankings in their search results. For these reasons, it is absolutely essential that you spend time and effort crafting valuable content for your web site if you’d like to hold the attention of the traffic you receive.

Note: These guidelines are backed by numerous web accessibility studies that were performed to determine exactly how users interact with internet content! See the last section for details.

Follow these simple, proven tips to improve the readability of your content.

Many times, terms that may be familiar to you as a professional will not be easily understood by an inexperienced reader. Make it as easy as possible for users to find the information they need. If you’d like to include a jargon term, you can put it in parenthesis. Sometimes a dictionary or glossary can help users understand jargon, but including these features is not an excuse to overuse jargon in your content. If your content includes abbreviations or acronyms, make sure that they can be easily understood by the common user.

If your typical reader recognizes certain words or phrases that are commonly seen or heard, make sure to use them in your content. These types of phrases are what readers look for, and what they will commonly use as keywords in their web searches. You can collect relevant words and phrases by performing open-ended surveys and by reviewing common search terms associated with your site and related sites.Use proper case.

The attention span of the typical internet user is much shorter than you would expect. To make sure the reader gets all the way through your content, reduce the number of words per sentence and the number of sentences per paragraph. As a general rule, sentences should contain no more than 20 words and paragraphs no more than six sentences.

The first sentence of every paragraph should briefly introduce that paragraph’s theme, including the scope of what will be covered. This is very important as users tend to scan the first sentence of each paragraph when looking for specific information. Using descriptive topic sentences will allow you to better organize your content and make it more accessible to the user.All of these guidelines are backed by studies which observed the behavior of users who were interacting with and reading web content. Here is a list of the studies this information is supported by:

Morkes and Nielson: 1997

Spyridakis: 2000

Bailey, Noyani, and Hall: 2000

Ahlstrom and Longo: 2001

Tullis: 2001

Koyani and Lafond: 2001

Lynch and Horton: 2002

Nielsen and Tahir: 2002