Getting Around That Block by Anita Lanning

A high-pitched sound only I can hear rousts me from my reverie. It's my person! I rush to her side. Whatever is wrong?

She sits hunched in her chair, face in hands. The box in front of her, usually bright and covered with tiny blips she calls "words" is dark, reflecting her visage of despair.

I look up anxiously. She lowers her hand, strokes my ear, murmurs, "Good dog."

Suddenly she drops to her knees, wrapping her arms around me.

"Oh, Duffers," she sobs. "This is terrible. Writer's block!" Her sobs grow louder. "What am I to do?" she wails. "I need inspiration!"

I lick her face to comfort her. Her sobs subside. She stands, wiping away the tears, saying the words I long to hear. "Duffs, we might as well go for our walkie. Nothin' happening here."

At last! Time for our walk around the block! As she retrieves my leash, she suddenly gasps.

"That's it!" she exclaims. I sense doom. "The connection between scenes. The leash. The leash in the closet!"

My ears droop. Her dreaded block has been cracked. The inspiration she needed has arrived.

And it's my leash.

Great, I think. Just great. With a sigh, I lie down near her chair where I can only wait and wonder when my walk around the block will happen.

I suspect it will be awhile, now that she's gotten around that block of hers.

The one she calls "writer's."

Anita Lanning has a husband, two daughters and two grandsons. She enjoys family activities, reading, and of course writing. She's a member of a local writers group.

Dialogue - Making Your Characters Come Alive!

Characters in a good novel really carry the story along more than any other concept in writing. A problem I too often see in my clients' writing is stale dialogue; the kind that sounds like every character is the same person.

Have you ever listened to people while at a party or in a crowd at the store? People speak in this country with many wonderful dialects. Learning to incorporate different ways of speaking will cause your characters to jump off the page appearing to be actual people. This is very important. Your readers must be able to identify and relate to those characters that drive your story.

How to do this is not complicated. When you are fleshing out your characters, do so with a notebook. Take your time and brainstorm about what kind of person each character is from appearance, career, education, family influence, idiosyncrasies, nationality, etc. By researching and developing your characters, you will come to know them like best friends. These fictional characters will actually lead you as you write.

For example - Your antagonist is an uneducated young man, rough, with a mental disorder. Which dialogue should you use to bring this character to life?

"I won't do it, no matter how you try to convince me. In fact, you are causing me great turmoil." Michael sat down, crossed his legs and sighed.

Or -

"Hell no I ain't gonna do dat! No way, man. What, you's think I'm a freakin' idiot? You really on my nerves, man. Hey man, I gotta a gun that'll fit in yer fat mouth real good, if you's don't shut up." Michael paced back and forth, mumbling to himself, picking something off his shirt that wasn't there.

The first example isn't true to the Michael character at all. He sounds like any other person on the street, giving you no clues to his real personality. However, the second example tells you a few things about him; the manner in which he speaks shows that he is uneducated, angry, and rude. His actions tell the reader that he is seeing things that aren't there, showing - not telling - that he has a problem with reality. In just a few sentences of dialogue, you have given the reader valuable information about Michael that would take an entire page to tell in narrative form.

Affective dialogue will move your story along much faster than writing paragraphs of description that could end up stalling your story. Dialogue is active writing that will put your readers in touch with your characters unlike any other story dynamic. Being true to your characters, and how they relate to the rest of the story, will be the most important writing dynamic of your book.

Copyright 2005, Jillanne Kimble

Jillanne Kimble, Acquisitions Manager
Kimble Mckay Literary Arts Group: http://w ww.kimblemckay.netfirms.com

There are many websites that will host your articles onthe Internet. Some small, some large, some with guidelines, some without, some support streams of topics, some have a limited focus, some charge a fee and some are free.

With so many places to post your articles how can you maximize distribution with the least amount of effort? You can do so by being selective. Post your articles only on sites that support your topic, have integrity, and have a win/win approach. Since no two websites are alike. Here are a few features to watch for when considering your articles for submission:

1. Search capabilities. When you are at the website is there a search feature visitors can use to find a certain topic? If the page or pages list articles one after the other down a long page readers will not get past the first 20 names. Actually they will not even read that many. Web viewers do not have the patience to scroll through rows of titles trying to find the right subject.

2. How user friendly is the website? If the article section is buried inside a website and you have difficulty figuring out how to submit your article you will want to consider submitting your articles to this site.

3. What is the purpose of the website? Is that purpose supportive of your article, topic, and purpose or detrimental? Is it a sales page just trying to drive up search engine optimization under false pretenses? don't be fooled there are many of them out there. Is the host of the website apparent or nonexistent? Can you find a phone number or location-- city, state or country?

4. Submission guidelines. Some websites stipulate a word count, minimum, maximum or range. If your article doesn't meet their word count stipulations your article will normally not get published. Take them seriously and take the time to read them. More importantly find a system to track these. I have a rating system I use with 1 being the perfect submission site on up to 15 being an absolutely no. I keep track of the no website sites so that when I'm looking for new sites I know which ones I have already reviewed.

Since website owners change, just as we do as we learn and grow with our skills, guidelines change occasionally as well. I recommend reviewing the guidelines either every three months or at least ever six. Some sites have gotten sneaky and post good guidelines and then change to "we have the copyright now" sites when you are least expecting it.

There are also a few sneaky submission sites that are counting on you not reading their guidelines. These sites stipulate in their guidelines that upon submission the author gives up their copyright on the article. Some are blatantly labeled while others are hidden inside obscure legalize.

Some sites stipulate that you give them permission to use your material in anything they print or publish. This means that they can accumulate articles on a certain subject, and this is their usual intention, put them together in an ebook and sell the ebook. While some of you will not mind this and consider it viral marketing there are some dangers in this. And this author knows because this has occurred to her materials before she became wise to the secret purpose.

5. Statistics. There are very few websites that provide reader statistics. I love the websites that tell me how many people read the article. I want to know if a particular topic is well read. Many sites prefer not to post reader statistics. I suspect it is because writers would see that there is a very low count and submitting their articles. Voting on the article is a nice feature, however, it is not really a vital statistic counter. Maybe 1 out of 10 to 15 views will someone take the time to vote. If the voting feature is remotely positioned viewers never know of its existence. Even if this feature is position well on the page -- above the article to let readers know its there and immediately below the article -- readers will rarely vote unless the article was awful.

Article hosting and posting is a joint venture -- view it as such -- and you will maximize your time and effort.

Copyright 2005, Catherine Franz.

Catherine Franz, writer, speaker, marketing master, specializes in info product development. More at: http: //www.MarketingStrategiesToGo.com and http://www. AbundanceCenter.com Including articles and ezines.

Word Power III - The Copywriters' Bible

Word Power III is the ultimate sales writer's thesaurus. With Word Power III, you'll be able to write headlines like a pro. You'll never again be lost for the right phrase or word. And your copy will sparkle.

Word Power III is a toolkit designed specifically for copywriters. It gives you the professional secrets, the short-cuts, the know-how - the lot! It gives you ready-made headlines, taglines, link-lines, calls-to- action and payoffs that you can adopt or adapt. You'll also find a dedicated thesaurus, plus dissertations on the secrets of writing hard-selling copy for ads, for brochures, for websites and for direct mail.

Word Power III is written by Patrick Quinn, an award- winning copywriter who has 40 years' experience of the advertising business - both as a staff writer and a freelance. Pat has published 24 books and has written thousands of press, radio, television and direct mail campaigns for companies worldwide. He really does know what he is talking about!

CoolStuff4Writers will be adding Word Power III to the site this month. We'll also feature an interview with Patrick Quinn in the near future. To download a free chapter of this amazing book and see for yourself how it will benefit you, go to: http:// www.wordpower3.com/index.html





Today's-Woman.net

Today's-Woman.net is a supportive online community for men and women over 18. With 684 members, this is a community that is made up of those looking to be published, hobby writers, published authors & publishers themselves.

Their goal is to help writers succeed in the writing industry by offering a useful selection of services including author interviews, regular columns, interactive forums, and a place for writers to share their work for critique by their peers.

Today's-Woman.net has so much to offer that I can't list everything here! The website address is: http://www.todays-woman.net

Contact and Interviews: Rose DesRochers, Today's Woman CEO & Founder
You can contact Rose at:admin@todays-woman.net





Writers On The Rise Channel Your Inner Fireworks...

Writers On The Rise Provides Inspiration, Insight & Ideas for Emerging Writers

Christina Katz, a freelance writer and writing instructor with over 100 published articles, would like to announce the launching of the Writers On The Rise web site.

http://www. writersontherise.com/ is the new home for a monthly E-zine of the same name. WOTR is designed to spark writers' creativity, authenticity and sense of satisfaction. Both emerging and established writers will enjoy interviews, articles, tips and photos from bright and shining authors, as well as how-I-did-it- style articles from writers who are soaring to new heights.

This is a great site, so be sure to check it out!





Tell Tale Press, Inc.

This site caught my attention one day while I was surfing the net. It's quite unique and I have to share it with you. They have this really cool contest that I find challenging, different and fun. Below are the details. You barely have time for the first biannual deadline of July 10, 2005, but you have plenty of time to meet the next one of January 10, 2006.

"The short, snappy stories are just the beginning..." - The Dartmouth

WHAT? Cruise aboard the Trampy Steamer, get beautified at Vanity Villa, relax at the Lethargy Lodge... Check out the mini-stories at telltalepress.net. Write your own short story (up to 2,000 words) based upon our fictional characters or places & submit it to our FREE WRITING CONTEST. Winners receive a $400 prize package, including a $200 U.S. Savings Bond, and get published online.

WHEN? The first biannual deadline is July 10, 2005.

WHERE? Log onto http://www.telltal epress.net

WHO? Tell Tale Press, maker of all-occasion greeting cards, is NOT LOOKING for already written stories but original material inspired by our whimsical characters & settings. Wright Sharply, Proprietor





We hope you find these links useful and fun. We'll be listing the above sites' links and many more on the CoolStuff4Writers site as well. Sean is the techie. He's so busy working, fixing things around the house (ha-ha) and redesigning our site, that if we're a bit slow with adding the new content and links, we apologize. If you know of any sites that we should mention, please email them to us.

We want to share your writing celebrations! If you have any news you want to share...First Sales, Subsequent Sales, Contracts, Contests, Awards or anything pertaining to your writing you would like to share with us, please send me an e-mail and we'll post it in the newsletter.

We love to hear from you and want to know what type of articles you would like to see on the site, so please send us an e-mail.

E-mail: sandy@coo lstuff4writers.com

Thank you for your support!