Story Edit Like A Pro!

Todos piensan en cambiar el mundo, pero nadie piensa en cambiarse a sí mismo.

Leo Tolstoy (via elcielosobremi)

Writing Tips

Story Endings

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Importance of the Ending

↣ readers invested their time into your publication ; make it worth it!

↣ the conclusion turns readers into fans

↣ endings should be memorable & satisfying ; this will make the readers want to indulge in more of your work

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Choosing Your Ending

↣ know your genre ; different genres can get away with different endings

↣ a thriller novel ending unexpectedly or ambiguously would be more satisfying to readers than a romance novel ending that way ; and vise vera, a romance novel ending emotionally and with happily ever after would be more satisfying than a thriller ending that way

↣ make it unpredictable but fair ; readers should feel like they could have seen it coming

↣ find a happy medium between what your readers want and what is unexpected

↣ be careful with unresolved or ambiguous endings ; regardless of the ending, the readers need to feel satisfied or they won’t come back

↣ be careful with expanded endings ; most editors frown upon relying on epilogues to reach a satisfying resolution

↣ have your ending in mind from the beginning ; this isn’t always plausible, but it’s very helpful — you’ll end up having hints to the resolution you may not even realize, & readers want that

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Types of Endings

⤷ ambiguous

→ an ending open to interpretation ; allows readers to come to their own conclusions

⤷ dialogue

→ ending with a quote from one of the characters

⤷ emotional

→ leaving the readers feeling some intense emotion ; negative, positive, or bittersweet

⤷ expanded

→ expands past the events of the narrative to resolve aspects that may not be explained in the main chapters ; usually takes form of an epilogue with a time skip

⤷ happily ever after

→ type of resolved ending where everything works out in the end

⤷ humorous

→ ends with a joke or in an ironic way

⤷ lesson learned

→ ends with clear, profound character development

⤷ reflection

→ ends with characters looking back on their choices, achievements, and experiences

⤷ resolved

→ leaves reader with no questions or loose ends ; all aspects have been clearly & satisfyingly resolved

⤷ tied

→ brings the story full-circle so it ends where it began

⤷ unexpected

→ a twist the readers did not see coming but also makes sense

⤷ unresolved

→ leaves readers with unanswered questions ; usually to lead into the next book

The future of communication. (via Expletive Inserted)

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.

“Jot, Bin, Pants”: An Outline Method to Get Your Writing Back on Track

One of the biggest struggles of being a writer is often feeling like you’re not good enough, no matter how much you’re writing. Today, writer Cassandra Lee Yieng shares an outlining method that’s helped her move past feelings of doubt and create the stories that she wants to write:

Much has been said about conquering the blank page, be it called writer’s block or imposter syndrome. We’re often inundated with brusque advice like “write an outline”, “fake it till you make it”, and “just write” (Reminds me of that Pirates of the Caribbean scene). It’s easy to presume that the people offering that advice have a tough exterior, and nobody likes being intimidated. To counter that, I’d like to shed light on my writing journey, and how I helped get myself out of a writing funk.

My university major was math, but one of my most devastating writing experiences was a Huffington Post piece on the math of snooker. A simple error—an oversight of a miscalculation—stopped my other submitted posts from being published. I could no longer reach the broad readership I once enjoyed, and I stopped blogging for at least a year.

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Five Mystery and Suspense Tools to Drive Your NaNoWriMo Novel Forward

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Today, Sisters in Crime—a community platform for mystery, thriller, and crime writers—shares some tips for writing suspenseful storylines (even for non-mystery novels!). Sisters in Crime is a NaNoWriMo 2020 sponsor.

In the crime fiction genre—including suspense novels, mysteries, and thrillers—there’s nothing better than the reader review that says “I stayed up all night to get to the end.” The propellant writers construct to push readers through to the final page is known as “narrative drive,” something our genre relies on to get readers hooked and turning pages. But it’s not only genre fiction that needs to suspend readers’ attention for the length of a story. Any story needs to catch fire in the reader’s mind to be successful.

And anyone writing 50K in 30 days needs a few ideas for generating tension in their story—without slowing down. As you #NaNoPrep this year, consider these five tools from Sisters in Crime, the international, inclusive organization for writers and readers of crime fiction, mysteries, thrillers, and suspense.

What’s in the mystery and suspense writer’s tool box for you?

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Cómo presentaríamos este canto en un programa musical?...

La naturaleza humana está siempre envuelta en el amor. Su existencia o su carencia, su llenura o su vacío, su normalidad o complejidad, su egoísmo o apertura, su querer ser o no ser dependiendo del sentimiento que os llene, y cómo el ser humano expresará este sentimiento en líricas que revelan contenidos de amor o ilusiones... Ana Gabriel... Simplemente Amigos.

Blog 1: Business Story Telling

How inspiring is to watch “Bring the Learning Revolution” delivered by Sir Ken Robinson on Ted.com. One of the key elements in this article is to “revolutionize” our learning experiences by recognizing that every single human being is different. Nowadays in a web world, with all these new technologies blasting our experiences the word “different” has a real meaning, because it means that there is something out there with enough power, with abundant potential of his or her own, something unique that might enlighten our vision, our perspectives about our own conceptions.

As the author stated “Many people go to their whole life having no sense of what talents may be or if they have any to speak of”. In that respect, the problem is how life is conceived “they endure it rather than enjoying it”, says Sir Robinson.

  The speaker really caught my attention when he stated that “education dislocate many people from the natural talents, and human resources are like natural resources’.  In that sense, the author makes an interesting point at comparing human beings with natural resources that are hard to find. From his point of view, we need to return to the agricultural model instead of the industrial model that produces linearity, comfortability and batching people. In contrast, agricultural model is about harvesting what we sow, and human nature follows the same rule. Even though he recognizes that “human flourishing is not a mechanical process, it is an organic process, and you can not predict the outcome of human development”.

Moreover “all you can do like a farmer is to create the conditions on the soil, they will flourish”.

  In that sense, the author suggest that leaders in education, media and corporate must change metaphors in which an educational system, in an industrial model, produces a line of people in certain area of expertise. It is about revolution in education, it is about creating a movement where people develop their own solutions. “Once we reform education and transform it, it is about customizing to your own circumstances and personalize education to people that is actually teaching”.

  This particular speech, from Sir Ken Robinson, reminded me about Full Sail University. In every class, every single instructor has highlighted the importance of doing what we really like. Doing what we really like is about exciting our spirits, feeding our energy, feeding our passion to create a meaningful company, program, movie, song or adventure that really makes a difference in this world, because we are passionate about it.  It is about passion for a dream, it is about putting your heart, your mind, your talent to work in something that is meaningful to us. As Sir Robertson concluded “doing that is the answer to the future,” and indeed, we will create a relevant career behind us for the passion that is behind our spirit.

  For those of you who want to watch this topic, you can find it at: http://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html

Siempre me ha gustado Maná, quizá sea la versatilidad de los sonidos al combinarse con las acústicas, lo cual producen un ritmo original fuera de clichés musicales. Un buen programa musical empezaría con ellos, a la par de trabajar entrevistas de por medio