Gandhi's First Act of Civil Disobedience Sparks Vision

"Where there is no vision, the people perish." (Proverbs 29:18)

A young Gandhi courtesy https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi.

Mahatma Ghandi was raised by a middle class family in India.  He suffered from low self-esteem as a child. One day, he was riding on a train in South Africa.  The porter told him that because of his dark skin, he would have to move to a freight car.  Ghandi refused and was ejected from the train. (http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/gandhis-first-act-of-civil-disobedience).  From that day on he had a purpose:  to help others overcome discrimination.  His self-esteem blossomed and he went on to be one of the most beloved leaders of the 20th Century (http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/two-ways-to-unlock-your-potential).  

Dorothea Lange grew up in a poor family.  Her father deserted the family when she was 12.  A bout with polio left her one leg permanently damaged.  Embarrassed, she just wanted to disappear.  During the Great Depression, she picked up a camera, and started photographing the homeless, the jobless, the hungry:  she had found her purpose.  In 1940, her photograph collection was displayed at the Modern Museum of Art.  The following year she received a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship.  Her most famous photograph, Migrant Mother, opened the eyes of the public and government to the plight of Americans during the Great Depression.  As a result the government sent 100,000 pounds of food to the camp where the "migrant mother" was living (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx36c7wAY0Y).

Dorothy Lange doing what she loved best courtesy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Lange.

Unlock your potential.  Discover your vision or purpose.  It will change your life.

Note:  Read Brian Tracy's Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life:  How to Unlock Your Full Potential for Success and Achievement (https://www.amazon.ca/Change-Your-Thinking-Life-Achievement/dp/0471735388).

How Setting is Crucial to Your Story

Setting is the time, place and social background of your story.  Setting helps set the mood or atmosphere of the story.  It can also influence characters' behaviour, affect dialogue, foreshadow events, invoke emotion and reflect society, according to The Writing Place (https://thewritingplace.wordpress.com/2010/04/13/story-elements-importance-of-the-setting/).

As a writer, you can show setting by:

1.  Dialogue

A teenager from Chicago speaks differently than one from rural Kentucky.  Someone who orders a caramel mocchiato might be of a more sophisticated social class than someone who orders an orange soda.

2.  Weather

A hurricane might suggest that you are in New Orleans whereas a blizzard might suggest you are in New England.  Fragrant flowers infers springtime whereas swirling leaves infers fall.

3.  Foreshadowing

A dark, gloomy house foreshadows danger.  Flickering candles foreshadows romance or a religious ceremony.

4.  Behaviour

A story set during 9/11 would be a good place for heroic behaviour.

5.  Society

If our protagonist lives in Victorian era London, the customs are quite different than current day New York City.

6.  Emotion

Victorian era London, its streets filled with wide eyed orphans with rumbling tummies, evokes more emotion than present day London.

Darcy Pattison suggest turning the familiar into the unfamiliar.  For example, Where the Wild Things Are starts in the protagonist's bedroom but ends up in a jungle.  King Bidgood's in the Bathtub transforms a nightly bath into a wild adventure.  You can do the reverse as well.  Turn something unfamiliar into something familiar as Brinton Turkle does in her story about a Quaker family called Rachel and Obadiah.

No matter what setting you choose, make sure you have a working knowledge of the locale and time period.  If not, do thorough research before you start writing.  Here are some picture books and chapter books whose authors have done an excellent job of setting the scene:

Picture Books

1.  Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Judi Barrett)

2.  The Lorax (Dr. Seuss)

3.  Thundercake (Patricia Polacco)

4.  Ghost's Hour, Spook's Hour (Eve Bunting)

5.  The Hockey Sweater (Roch Carrier)

6.  One Splendid Tree (Marilyn Helmer)

Chapter Books

1.  Summer of the Gypsy Moths (Sara Pennypacker)

2.  To the Mountaintop:  My Journey Through The Civil Rights Movement (Charlayne Hunter-Gault)

3.  The Impossible Rescue:  The True Story of an Amazing Arctic Adventure (Martin W. Sandler)

4.  Crow (Barbara Wright)

5.  The One and Only Ivan (Katherin Applegate)

6.  Making Bombs for Hitler (Marsha Skrypuch)

https://www.papermasters.com/setting.html

Writing Feature Articles: Laying the Groundwork

"Too many students mistake reporting for a journalistic version of a police dragnet.  They pull in everything they can find and then try to figure out what the story is.  Such an approach results in stories riddled with holes and lacking any dominant focus." 

(http://journalistsresource.org/syllabi/syllabus-feature-writing#)

Before you set out to write an article, you have to lay the groundwork.  First, make sure you have the right angle.  Zero in on the story.  Bring the lens in tight.  Don't write about the playground.  Write about the two boys who are jockeying for a spot on the jungle gym.  Don't write about the battle. Write about the soldier who has returned from Afghanistan with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Don't write about the tornado.  Write about the pastor whose church building is as flat as a pancake.  

Second, do your homework.  Read up on what has already been written about the subject.  Find out what areas have not yet been touched upon.  Identify sources for the story.  Who are the authorities who can give you their expert opinion?  Who are the "street level" people who have lived the experience?

Third, establish a strong theme.  According to Larry Brooks in Story Engineering a powerful theme can get your story published (see (http://www.amazon.ca/Story-Engineering-Larry-Brooks/dp/1582979987).  The same is true in the newspaper and magazine world.  Make sure your article's theme is clear and concise.  "Writers who fill stories with exhaustive documentation but fail to establish a clear story line file copy that reads like a government report."  Your aim as a writer is to both inform and entertain your readers. 

William Blundell, in The Art and Craft of Feature Writing (http://www.amazon.ca/The-Art-Craft-Feature-Writing/dp/0452261589), recommends that you write a theme statement before you conduct your research and reporting.  "Entering the reporting process without one is like running through brambles instead of along a clearly marked path."  A theme statement allows you to write with purpose.

Here are some useful questions recommended at journalistsresource.org to help you lay the groundwork for your article:

1.  Is the story's scope too broad?

2.  Do I have time to report and write a story of the scale I'm proposing?

3.  Am I getting down to street level in my reporting?

4.  Can I establish an element of surprise or anticipation at the outset of the story that isn't answered until the end?

5.  Does something happen in the story?  Does something change?  According to Jon Franklin in Writing For Story:  Craft Secrets of Dramatic Non Fiction (http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Story-Dramatic-Nonfiction-Reference/dp/0452272955):  "A story consists of a sequence of actions that occur when a sympathetic character encounters a complicating situation that he confronts and solves."

6.  Does the story's contemporary context or past make it more interesting to tell?

http://www.wikihow.com/Develop-a-Theme-when-Writing

Consistency is Key to Blogging Success

"Decide to be consistent and then do it.  There will always be fires to put out."  (Garret Moon)

People buy products from businesses they know, like and trust.  The same is true of a blog.  Readers read blogs that they know, like and trust (http://todaymade.com/blog/writing-a-great-blog/).

One way to build your audience's trust is through consistency.  According to Robert B. Cialdini, author of Influence:  The Psychology of Persuasion, inconsistent people are seen as "fickle, unstable, uncertain and scatterbrained" whereas consistent people are seen as "assured, trustworthy and sound" (http://www.amazon.ca/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Robert-Cialdini/dp/006124189X ).  Build your credibility by blogging consistently.

Be consistent in purpose.  Why did you start your blog?  Be true to your original motivation.  If you are all over the map, blogging about everything under the sun, you won't develop a loyal following. Consistency helps you stick to your purpose (http://www.annettapowell.com/consistency-blog-success/).

Be consistent in layout.  Don't keep changing your theme, colours and font.  If you want to develop a following, readers need to be able to recognize your site.  They will be more comfortable with the familiar.

Be consistent in posting.  Garret Moon recommends that if you own a personal blog, you should post about three times a week; if you own a business blog, post five to seven times a week, especially in a competitive field (http://todaymade.com/blog/writing-a-great-blog/).  There are some blogs which only post once a week that are very successful. However, the more you post, chances are the more page views you get.  

Remember that practice makes perfect.  The more you post, the more proficient your writing will become.  Google loves sites with frequent and fresh content.  It's not just your readers who follow you, but also the robots working for Google (and Yahoo).  If you run a business blog and would like to become a niche leader, you have no choice but to post regularly and frequently (https://wineryconsulting.wordpress.com/2008/07/21/are-you-a-niche-leader/) .  Garret Moon says that consistency can help you become a subject matter expert.  That doesn't mean that you know more than anyone else on the subject -- far from it.  But it does mean that you know more than the average Joe.    

Furthermore, frequent posting can lead to more writing.  You can use your blog as a jumping off spot for an e-book, a book or a podcast.  In 2002, Julie Powell blogged about testing all of the recipes in Julia Child's cookbook.  The blog developped a huge following, led to a book deal, Julie & Julia:  365 Days, 524 recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, and a movie
(http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13747.Julie_and_Julia).

http://langwitches.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/consistency1.jpg

What is the Magic Number for a Blog Post?

When I first started blogging, I was told that 500 words was the ideal length for a post, just enough substance for the reader to bite his teeth into but not so long that he doesn't read until the end. However, recently I have heard that longer posts are the way to go.  How long, then, is the ideal blog post?

Is there a minimum length for a post?  Bloggers recommend that posts be at least 250 words in length to optimize your search engine results.  On the other hand, if a post exceed 1000 words, some bloggers recommend that it be broken up into a series of posts.

Most bloggers seem to agree that the each post should be written succinctly.  Headings help break up the text and make the post more scannable for the reader.  Short paragraphs are preferable to longer ones.

Blogger Neil Patel outlines several factors which affect the length of a post.  They are:

1.  Substance:  What does your topic require?  If it is fun and lighthearted many a short post is best.  However, if it is a serious subject, or a controversial one, it likely requires more substance.

2.  Style:  What is your writing style ex. short and brief versus long and conversational?

3.  Frequency:  If you post rarely, chances are each post will be lengthy and well thought out.  If you most every day, your posts are likely to be shorter.

4.  Format:  Do you use subheadings and short paragraphs?  These techniques help break up a long post.

5.  Purpose:  If you run a business blog, you might be pitching a product.  If your blog is personal, you might be telling a story or trying to spark a conversation.

6.  Audience:  What are the needs, interest, passions or problems of your audience?

7.  Medium:  Do you include infographics, videos or podcasts?  If so, your word count is less relevant.

To read more, visit http://www.quicksprout.com/2014/03/31/how-long-should-each-blog-post-be-a-data-driven-answer/.

According to Neil Patel, long blog posts perform better than short ones on all levels.  There are over 200 factors which determine how your content ranks in SERP (Search Engines Results Page).  The more content you have, the better chance you will achieve a top position in Google search results. Therefore, more readers will see your post.  According to one blogger, the ideal length for a blog post is 1600 words -- the magic number (https://blog.bufferapp.com/optimal-length-social-media).

blogspot.com

P.S.  In case you're wondering, this post is only 400 words.  

Chasing Butterflies vs. Digging for Gold

"Realize what you really want.  It stops you from chasing butterflies and puts you to work digging gold."  (William Moulton Marsden)





whicdn.com

In his book Goals:  How To Get Everything You Want -- Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible, author Brian Tracy references a study conducted on a group of Harvard MBA graduates in 1979.  One group upon graduation did not have any specific goals (84%).  The second group had goals, but did not write them down (13%).  The third group wrote down their goals (3%). Ten years later, a follow up study was conducted.  It turned out that the second group, who had goals, was making twice the amount of money of the first group, who was goalless.  The third group, however, who had written down their goals, was making ten times the money of the first two groups!

Brian Tracy says there are seven keys to goal setting:

1.  Goals must be clear, specific and detailed.  Vague statements like:  "I'm going to be a happier person" will not be beneficial to you.  Goals must be written down.  The act of writing it down helps transform what might seem like a pipe dream into a realistic goal.

2.  Goals must be measurable and objective.  A third party should be able to evaluate them.

3.  "Attaching a deadline to each goal is like ending a statement with an exclamation mark!" says Brian Tracy.  A deadline keeps you dedicated to the task at hand.  Goals can be set at one week, one month, six months, one year or five years.  Daily goal setting is also recommended.

4.  Goals should be challenging.  They must take you a bit out of your comfort zone.  At the same time, they should be attainable (50% probability rate).

5.  Goals must be in harmony with your values and with your other goals.  For example, building a successful business and playing golf every afternoon do not go hand in hand.

6.  Goals should be balanced among the many aspects of your life:  career, family, finances, health, spiritual life, community involvement.  A well rounded person is a more happy and fulfilled person.

7.  You must have a major purpose for your life.  You must have one goal that strives towards this purpose.  As you move towards the one major goal, you will likely find yourself achieving the smaller ones as well.

It's up to you how you want to organize your goals, whether in list form or as a chart.  You can write them on a calendar or on multi-coloured notepad paper.  You can save them on your cell phone or IPod or tuck them away in a secret drawer.  I would recommend that you keep them somewhere that is easily accessible and visible to you.  If they are handwritten, use pencil just in case you need to made changes or additions.   Brian Tracy suggests that you revisit your goals frequently to see how you are progressing.

For more information, read:

1.  Motivation and Goals:  How to Set and Achieve Goals and Inspire Others by Jim Cairo (1998) at http://www.amazon.com/Motivation-Goal-Setting-Jim-Cairo/dp/1564143643.

2.  Goal Setting and Self Directed Behavior Change by David A. Kolb and Richard E. Boyatzis (2011) at http://www.amazon.ca/Goal-Setting-Self-Directed-Behavior-Change/dp/1178802795.

www.blogofmanly.com