The Mortgage Loans Market Blog

What is a plot?

The dictionary definition of the word ‘plot’ relating to a story is:

“The plan or main story of a literary work” [Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary]

So the plot then, is the planned storyline.

Some writers fly by the seat of their pants, not knowing where they are going or how they will get there, whereas, other writers would never dream of writing a story or a novel without some initial planning.

If you were about to take a journey to a strange place, wouldn’t you think it would be wise to plan how you would get there, rather than leaving things to chance? Here, I’m going to share my secrets with you of how to develop a kick-ass plot!

Do’s and Don’ts of plotting a novel:

* Do think about your characters. Aim to find out as much as you can about them beforehand. Character drives plot.

* Don’t rush in without any forward planning, that is a sure fire way to give up at the first hurdle!

* Do ensure that you know and fully understand your characters’ motivations.

* Don’t rely on coincidences; you will be cheating the reader!

* Do ask yourself, what is the theme of my story/novel? By understanding what the theme is, you are more likely to understand the motivation of your characters.

* Don’t write any ‘next step scenes’ that do not advance the storyline, end in a hook to the next scene, do not move the characters closer to their goals, do not contain reasonable motivation or deepen characterization.

* Do think about creating character charts, back stories for main characters, a story board with ‘pictures’ of your characters and settings.

Ask yourself the following questions:

1.What do I want my novel to say? [Theme]

2.Which character is best able to say what needs to be said? [Characterization]

3. How can this message be conveyed to the reader? [Storyline]

4. Where is the action going to take place? [Setting]

Here’s an example:

The theme of my story could be about ‘Loss’. The character best to tell this story is the heroine who has lost both her parents in a car accident. The message can be conveyed to the reader via her dialogue and internal thoughts. She fears loss so much that she is unable to get close to the hero.

You will be able to build on this by asking yourself the following:

Who? Why? What? Where? When? How?

Who – Hero: Blake Carter, Heroine: Stephanie Dale

Why – They meet through work, he is the pilot, and she is an air hostess.

What – There is conflict between them when she finds out he is the man who humiliated her at a recent staff meeting.

Where – The action takes place on board the airplane and in Britain and Australia.

When – The time span is during the summer through to Christmas.

How – Although there is conflict, somehow they are drawn to one another.

Think of your romance plotline as the hero’s and heroine’s journey. The Hero’s Journey has been used in storytelling for hundreds of years. Both characters need to get from A to B. Place a few obstacles in their path for them to overcome during their journey. Make it an adventure. Then, just when all seems lost [the black moment], there needs to be a sacrifice made by the person who has the most to lose. Finally, they are triumphant, a victory is won.

Think about your plot. What are the bare bones of your story? Think about the paragraph above…how can you send your hero and heroine on a journey together?

Word count should be somewhere between 500 and 1000 words.

N.B: This will be a synopsis or summary of your story written in the present tense.

* The above article was extracted from Lynette’s e-book, CRAFTING THE ROMANCE STORY IN A NUTSHELL, [PDF format]. To purchase book click here:
http://www.ebookad.com/eb.php3?ebookid=20996

About the Author

Lynette Rees is from South Wales and has had many articles published online and in print publications. Her previous publications include: Writers’ Forum, Vibrant Life, Writing for Dollars and Write Success. Her debut novel, ‘It Happened One Summer’ is due for release at Wings Press Inc., in May 2006. See author’s website here:
http://silverlady00.tripod.com/

E-courses are excellent sales tools and a great way to get your knowledge out there. It is very simple to create your course and either sell, or give it away as a “give-before-you-get” sales technique. If your course is designed to be a freebie, you’ll want to give a portion of good information; but don’t tell them everything or they’ll have no reason to make a purchase. If you are selling your course, make sure to jam pack it with everything you know, that way your customer will feel like they are getting a lot for their money (depending on how much you really know.)

E-courses are simple to create because there is no need for fancy formatting, heading tags or conversions. E-courses are made in the same fashion as E-zines; by using plain text. For a sample of my 7 Day Mini Course, send an email to: minicourse@aweber.com. You will receive the first portion of the course in just a few minutes, and then for the next 7 days you will get an email with a new section attached. *AOL USERS BEWARE: The only complaints I have ever received about the course not being delivered were from AOL members.

Here’s a quick check list for creating your course:

• Pick your topic of expertise.

• Divide your material into specific sections. These topics will be your lessons. I advise starting out with a day-by-day course rather than splitting your material into weeks.

• Write an introduction to the course and a list describing upcoming lessons.

• If this is a free course: make sure to weave subtle hints throughout about all of the information that they are not receiving to give them incentive to purchase something (anything!)

• Once you have written your course, set up an account with a sequential auto-responder company. Every company will have different instructions for set up, but basically you will be cutting and pasting and they will deliver the e-mails/lessons at the appropriate time.

• Promote and advertise your course on your website, and send out a notice to your distribution list: let people know about it any way you can.

About the Author

Tom Antion provides entertaining speeches and educational seminars. Tom is the author of the best selling presentation skills book “Wake ‘Em Up Business Presentations” and “Click: The Ultimate Guide to Electronic Marketing.” It is important to Tom that his knowledge be not only absorbed, but enjoyed. Tom has addressed more than 87 different industries and is thoroughly committed to his client’s needs.

Let me not to twilight of tears;

Of where I’ll nap on bed of mourn.

To live I be then all it bears,

‘Til life will cease and soul may burn.

Too long I’ve live in decent heart;

Of untruth nor loathsome, none clouds.

Spoils not my pleasures on loves part,

And enmity retires not shrouds.

‘Tis none but happiness I meet

In this but of tempted world

I’ll not yield, yet still I keepeth

So tough my life in love did whirled.

List the false to ruin my brain,

Mock to then for me not in pain.

About the Author: sonnet yan!!!!

Source: www.isnare.com

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As far as email marketing is concerned, it is essential that your data collection must be actionable and of quality. The data should include the important characteristics of customers that will help your understanding about their behavioral trends and buying patterns. By this process, you are able to build a good relationship with them. It seemed like nine out of every ten men women teens and seniors were being led right to the places that pay the least. Find out more about Sample Membership Surveys and Controversial Myspace Survey. You should look for reputed firms and take market feedback before joining.

It’s a simple two step process to finding the best paid survey sites to join online while cutting out the worthless places that have penny paying surveys. More about Sample Membership Surveys and Controversial Myspace Survey at our website. They should also be different from the ones for the financial institution where you keep the money you got paid taking surveys! Once you are registered the site will start scanning its database for compatible surveys based on your demographic. Get all the info on Sample Membership Surveys from our homepage. This is really cool because you usually get to keep the items. Get paid survey network list absolutely FREE from our website! Absolutely no charge for joining the industry’s TOP 7 paying survey networks.

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“Beautiful Dreamer” was written by Stephen Foster just before his death in 1864 at age 37. The song became one of his most famous and most popular. However, as with the approximately 200 other songs that Foster wrote during his brief lifetime, he did not receive the recognition or financial reward that he deserved.

Stephen Foster was America’s first great songwriter, yet he died with 38 cents in a leather poke and a scrap of paper on which he had written a bit of song lyric, “dear friends and gentle hearts.”

Stephen Collins Foster was born near Pittsburgh on July 4, 1826, the same day that both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died. Foster died in 1864 when he suffered a fall at home while weak from fever. The fall cut open his head and he died in New York’s Bellevue Hospital shortly thereafter. Foster had been suffering from alcoholism for years prior to his accidental death.

Young Stephen was able to play tunes on the guitar at age two, and at age ten he performed popular comic songs with local boys. By age 18 he wrote blackface minstrel songs which were the popular folk music of the day. At age 21 he composed the minstrel song, “Oh! Susanna,” which became a hit, resung, repeated, and whistled across the country. In fact it became the unofficial anthem of the California Gold Rush two years later.

Music publication was in its infancy in those days and music recording didn’t even exist. Stephen Foster did not receive royalties or fees for the many publications or arrangements of “Oh! Susanna” over the next few years. Indeed, he gave away the rights to the song and never received a penny for it.

Over the next ten years Foster wrote many songs, including “The Swanee River (Old Folks at Home),” “Camptown Races,” “Jeannie With the Light Brown Hair,” “Old Black Joe,” “Nelly Bly,” “Old Dog Tray,” and “My Old Kentucky Home.” Stephen Foster earned a little money by selling his songs outright, some for as little as one dollar. It’s been said that his songwriting earned him about $20,000 during the 15 or so years of his songwriting career.

In 1935 Florida adopted “The Swanee River” as the official state song, though Stephen Foster never visited Florida nor saw the river. He chose “Swanee” because the two syllables fit the music he had written. Foster sold E.P.Christy of the “Christy Minstrels,” a blackface minstrel show troupe, the authorship rights to “The Swanee River,” a regrettable decision.

The song became a popular international folk tune and has been credited with starting the tourist industry in Florida. Beginning in the 1880’s millions of people traveled to Florida to view the famous northern Florida river.

In 1928 Kentucky adopted “My Old Kentucky Home” as their official state song. In 1986 Kentucky changed the second line of the song, “‘Tis summer, the darkies are gay;” to “‘Tis summer, the people are gay;” for obvious reasons.

Because of the popularity of “My Old Kentucky Home” and “The Swanee River,” many people have the impression that Stephen Foster was a southern gentleman. However, he visited the South on only one occasion, a steamboat trip to New Orleans in 1852.

Stephen Foster spent his life mostly in Pennsylvania and New York. His father, William Foster Sr., spent many years in politics, working for President Harrison and winning election to two terms as mayor of Allegheny, Pa.

Prior to the Civil War Stephen Foster helped James Buchanan become President by becoming the musical director of the Buchanan Glee Club and by writing musical pieces for the campaign effort.

During the Civil War Stephen Foster wrote about 70 songs, mostly patriotic war songs which sold poorly. During the war Foster’s alcoholism deteriorated his health until his poverty-stricken death in 1864.

Two months after his death, Stephen Foster’s “Beautiful Dreamer” was published in New York.

Beautiful Dreamer by Stephen Foster

Beautiful dreamer, wake unto me,
Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee;
Sounds of the rude world heard in the day,
Lull’d by the moonlight have all pass’d away!

Beautiful dreamer, queen of my song,
List while I woo thee with soft melody;
Gone are the cares of life’s busy throng, –
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!

Beautiful dreamer, out on the sea
Mermaids are chaunting the wild lorelie;
Over the streamlet vapors are borne,
Waiting to fade at the bright coming morn.

Beautiful dreamer, beam on my heart,
E’en as the morn on the streamlet and sea;
Then will all clouds of sorrow depart, –
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!

About the author:

Garry Gamber is a public school teacher and entrepreneur. He writes articles about real estate, health and nutrition, and internet dating services. He is the owner of http://www.Anchorage-Homes.comand http://www.TheDatingAdvisor.com

Being single in the universe where you observe couples in every bar and disco can be a horrible feeling. I personally know of 4 without a girlfriend friends who go on dates each day and each day they are depressed because they are still not with a girl. In the wonderful city of London there are a massive number of fierce working girls, these magnificent escorts are the perfect offering to present to yourself if you are without a partner. If you love gorgeous girls you should try Lucy Bond for london escorts, http://www.lucybond.com/book-london-escort.php.

Escorts in London are phenomenal and delightful and have a high education making them excellent companions as well as astonishing lovers. The working girls in London are regularly more expensive than anyplace else like Manchester, the reason for this is the call girls tend to be of a higher class.

Call girls have been made famous with the tv show Secret Diary with the elegant Billie Piper. In the tv show the escort is made out to be glamorous and rich and always looking dainty. Secret Diary is a top rated series in the United Kingdom and many males have seen it and have now booked a call girl. This has helped to fuel the rise in single males feeling much happier and excited about the choice of women a single lad has in London.

Magnesium has been used in manufacturing notebook computer frames, video cameras, digital cameras, PDAs and other consumer electronics products because of its high strength to weight ratio. When magnesium is alloyed with aluminum, the resultant material is very light and strong, and easily machinable.

The main concern in machining magnesium alloy is the danger of fire ignition when dry cutting. Fire may occur when the melting point of the alloy (400-600 degrees Celsius) is exceeded during machining. The small chips and fine dust generated during cutting are also highly flammable and pose a serious fire risk if not properly handled.

There are several points to note when machining magnesium:

Firstly, use a lower cutting speed when compared to cutting aluminum. The workpiece temperature goes up with an increase in cutting speed and also smaller undeformed chip thickness. In other words, the slower the machining speed and the larger the chips, the lower the workpiece temperature will be. Due to this reason, some companies have modified woodworking tools for machining magnesium so as to achieve larger chips and lower fire hazard.The cutting tools used should have relief and clearance angles that are sufficiently large to prevent unnecessary cutting tool-workpiece friction, thus lowering the heat generated during the cutting process.

Second, keep the machining center clean. Cleaning the machining centers regularly and storing the magnesium chips correctly are important aspects of machining magnesium. Keep a container of cast iron chips near by when machining magnesium, If fire occurs, smother the fire with the cast iron chips.

Thirdly, if coolants are necessary for high speed machining, do not use water-based lubricants. Instead use a light mineral oil, or a water-soluble cutting fluid such as Castrol Hysol MG specially formulated for machining magnesium. Some companies in Japan use semi-dry machining via a misting system.

The fourth point is to monitor the workpiece temperature during machining. Experiments were carried out using thermocouples mounted into the workpiece to monitor the workpiece temperature during machine. Dry cutting of magnesium alloy thin walls was achieved using cutting speed of 440m/min for roughing and 628m/min for fine finishing.

Despite the fire hazards, as competition from overseas low-cost production bases intensifies, and magnesium becomes increasingly used in electronics products, most machining job shops could very well find machining of magnesium a niche worth pursuing.

Author Ken Yap is a director of Suwa Precision Engineering Pte Ltd in Singapore and represents precision component manufacturers from Suwa, also called “The Oriental Switzerland” in Japan due to its Swiss resemblance for rich watch-making industry, its mountainous terrain and its precision component making industry. For more information on precision manufacturing, visit his homepage at http://www.suwaprecision.com.

Kelly Pryor joins Durham, North Carolina based Datacraft Solutions (www.datacraftsolutions.com). Pryor noted, “Joining one of the fastest growing technology organizations in North America is a tremendous opportunity. In the short time since joining the company, staff and revenues have more than doubled. It is my goal to contribute to the winning Datacraft Solutions formula.”

Pryor has extensive Marcom experience and will coordinate the marketing, public relations, and advertising outreach efforts of the leading digital kanban organization. Ms. Pryor will also serve as a key media liaison for the intelligent supply chain organization and coordinate all phases of marketing collateral, website content, and marketing vendor coordinator.

Key Benefits of Digital Kanban include:

* Further Reduce Inventory: Detailed reporting and increased visibility make resizing and elimination of excess buffers easy and accurate.

* Further Reduce Stock Outages: All members of the supply chain can proactively address upcoming changes without having to wait until the outages occur. * Dramatically Increase Buyer/Planner Capacity: Remove the burden of creating, transmitting and managing routine replenishment communications, freeing Buyers/Planners to handle critical exceptions and continuously improve supplier relationships.

* Simplify Management: Easy to use and maintain, requiring very little maintenance to keep inventory turns friction-free, and making real-time data easily accessible.

* Coordinate All Users: Operations Managers, Buyer/Planners, Material handlers, Water Spiders – all have the visibility needed to get the job done.

* Utilize Industry-Standard Barcodes: Automate the replenishment process with a single action, generating the necessary signals, notifications and alerts throughout the supply chain.

* Integrate With Database & MRP/ERP Systems: Integrate with existing databases like Oracle, SQL, and Sybase and with MRP/ERP applications like SAP, JD Edwards and Peoplesoft.

* Streamline Implementation: ASP model provides global visibility into the plant floor from anywhere in the world, with nothing to install and no software to maintain.

President, Matthew Marotta is delighted to have Pryor as part of the team, “As Datacraft Solutions continues to grow the ability to ensure consistent and responsible communication will be central to Ms. Pryor’s role on our fast growing team.” Datacraft Solutions has experienced a 100% staff growth rate in just the past three months. The firm is currently positioned as the leader in a stand-alone Digital Kanban model and is capturing a significant percentage of marketshare.

Datacraft Solutions www.datacraftsolutions.com Kelly Pryor 800-819-5326

One of the most annoying things is to find out about a great new store and not to be able to find out anything about it. Sure you’ve heard by word of mouth that it carries items you like, but no one really knows much else. As a potential customer you are expecting creative web design with products that you want to buy.

In the Inland Empire, and more specifically Redlands, there are a flurry of little shops that seem to come and go in the downtown district. It’s interesting to see the tactics that they use or refuse. Shops like Misofly for example started placing ads immediately and made their presence online with a landing page and a myspace account. They started building a community of faithful shoppers, interacting with them online, and more importantly followed up with them. Now they have two locations and a steady following.

Then we branch off into Riverside web design and see that it is pushing the effort further along to with more in-depth advertising. So if you’re looking for more than a landing page you might as well make the effort to win over your customers. They are looking for you as much as you are looking for new buyers.

The internet opens up a whole new world of fundraising opportunities available to you and your organization. Most people are not aware of the resources available to them on the internet and how the internet can help them raise the funds they need for their organization. When utilizing the World Wide Web your group has many different options at their fingertips which can mean great profits for your group.
Below are a few different ways you can utilize the internet to help with your fundraiser:
1. You can contact a company of your choosing online and approach them about sharing proceeds with your group. Explain to them why you need the funds, how much you are hoping to raise and then discuss ways you can work together. They may be willing to send you some brochures, catalogs or flyers. Or you can make up your own flyers that include their name and say when you shop at “Store B” they will donate a percentage of all sales to your group. You can also include more than one company, but you would want to make sure they aren’t in direct competition with one another.

2. You can have a website built that explains your fundraiser in detail. You can include how they can help, why you need the money and how much money you are hoping to raise. After the website is in place, you can then direct people to it. The great thing about this option is now you can send your relatives and friends that live in a different state to your website so they can participate in your fundraiser. And just imagine how many other students will have friends and family from all over that can now participate in your fundraiser. Make up some flyers and start passing them out all over town, every where you go; this too will help make more people aware of your fundraiser. Be sure that there is a clear way for those out of town to order from or support the fundraiser on your website. You can also use a fundraising thermometer to visually track your progress on the site.

3. You can utilize an affiliate program to allow your group to shop online while providing you with a piece of the pie. A common affiliate program you can use is Amazon. They offer a lot of books, so you can push the educational angle of shopping with them and in addition, they offer about as many products as you would find in a local mall – making it easy for anyone to shop for normal everyday items with them. This also allows friends and family members who don’t live locally to be able to support your school by making purchases online. You can become a detailed affiliate and build a site specifically for the affiliate program, or just place one link on your site for people to enter the affiliate site on and make a purchase.

Before deciding to do an Internet fundraiser for your school or group, you may want to get approval from the organization you plan to fundraise for before starting any such projects or advertising your fundraiser online.

About the author:

Michelle Pearson is a former fundraising coordinator who now spends her free time as a freelance writer for Fundraising Know How Magazine – a site dedicated to fundraising coordinators and helping them earn more for their organization. The site offers tips on cookie dough fundraising, school fundraisers, a free fundraising thermometer and more.