Point 1:

College prepares a person for a career in a particular field. If you want a career in Journalism, Go to College. There you will learn all the in’s and outs of building a career of your choice.

Point 2:

High School is giving you the necessary things needed to make your way through life, the basics. From high school a person makes the jump into adulthood with a chosen profession. If you choose a trade, go to a trade school for further education in that field.

The answer to the question is. No! I know personally of people who are high school educated and make excellent authors. Some have learned the old way, trial and error. While that will get you to the point of being published, does it mean that this is the only way? Is it necessary to spent thousand of dollars for a schooling that will teach you how to write and get published? No! With eaglefeather writing club, a 30 week course will cost a paltry 300$, spread out over 7 months. From the start off the idea-to the finished, published book in hand.

Think of the thrill of having your story in book form, with your name on it. Then think of getting the ongoing royalty payments as it climbs the charts. Think of the pride of knowing you are a published author.

Eaglefeather writing club is like minded person who have published their works. During the month of December, you may join the Silver level and get a free upgrade to Gold, for life.

Do it now before you forget.

To me this is the fun part of all we will learn, not to sound arrogant but this part is where we can feel like gods. I mean, as authors we create life, death, places and times. In some cases, we even create worlds if you’re writing sci-fi. The most important part about this section, the writing is relaxing and clearing your mind. Now vision how you want the reader to see the story. You want the reader to feel it’s them in the story as if they were seeing things through their eyes. Or you want the reader to feel as if they are there hearing it from someone else. Either way it is all in how you choose your words.

For example:

I stood in the doorway of the old Victorian house. I looked around at the beautiful bright polished wood trim and the highly polished wood floor. To my left, decorated with lace curtains and big fluffy cushioned couches and chairs, was the parlor. On my right, hand carved stone laced the front of a fireplace. Chair’s surrounded an oval-shaped coffee table centered in front of the fireplace. In front of me leading to the second floor, curved, as it looped up, was the most beautiful staircase I ever saw. When I stepped forward to the first step the hard soles of my boots clunked on the wood floor. I stopped at the bottom, hesitant to climb the stairs. Suddenly, before my eyes, the stairs started melting, molding into one solid mass, each stair pouring into the other, in a puddle of goo. At my feet the oozing puddle formed a mound and rose to my height. Suddenly, two hands grew out of the molting mass attached to dripping arms of wood and paint. The hands clasped around my throat, squeezing out all of my air. Losing conciseness from lack of air, I didn’t notice the house now was old. Broken wood, chipped paint, and big holes in the walls surrounded me.

Now by changing some words and a little on how we describe things we can give the impression the reader is seeing it through someone else.

For example:

Greg stood in the doorway of the old Victorian house. He looked around at the beautiful bright polished wood trim and the highly polished wood floor. To his left decorated with lace curtains and big fluffy cushioned couches and chairs, was the parlor. On his right, hand carved stone laced the front of a fireplace. Chair’s, surrounded an oval-shaped coffee table centered in front of the fireplace. In front of Greg leading to the second floor, curving as it looped up, was the most beautiful staircase he has ever seen. When Greg stepped forward to the first step, the hard soles of his boots clunked on the wood floor. He stopped at the bottom, hesitant to climb the stairs. Suddenly before his eyes, the stairs started melting, molding into one solid mass, each stair pouring into the other in a puddle of goo. At Greg’s feet the oozing puddle formed a mound and rose to his height. Suddenly, two hands grew out of the molting mass attached to two dripping arms of wood and paint. The hands clasped around his throat squeezing off his air. Losing conciseness from lack of air, Greg didn’t notice the house now was old. Broken wood, chipped paint, and big holes in the walls surrounded Him.

When writing you want to put the reader there, but don’t bore them, painting a picture without being too, or over descriptive. An author needs to stimulate the reader let their brain work a bit.

For example:

The yellow rope around Greg’s neck, tied to a heavily barked oak tree branch left dark purplish blue bruises.

Here in this sentence we got our point across Greg is hanging from a tree. Two things with this, to descriptive, we know what color rope is so let that be filled in by the reader and trust me the brain will automatically add on. Second, without saying it we know Greg’s unfortunate situation. So let’s see if it works better like this.

The rope around Greg’s neck, tied to an oak tree branch left large bruises.

See the same image just letting the reader fill in the details.

Summing it all up: all I’m saying here is in whatever voice you write in, whatever way you write, keep this in your mind, “Write it as if you are the reader.” If you remember that no matter if you successful or unsuccessful you will have written a master piece. Remember my motto:

“I write to entertain the world one page at a time.”

Ok, back on track, so far to this point we should still be adding to our outline if you’re using one. We should know what type book we are writing and for what age group and have an idea to write about. We also should have our word processor configured to manuscript settings.

Every story has three parts no matter what you write. Part one, or beginning, introduces to the subject of the story. Part two, brings us to the reason why we wrote the book. And of cores the third part is the conclusion.

Ok, let’s look at the example at the beginning of this lesson and say it’s our story we are writing.

Right off I gave you the main character and the subject the house, then I give the problem or the reason of the story the house has unnatural forces in it. From here to the end will be the solution. Same works for non-fiction, let’s say we are writing about the hazards of cigarettes,

The majority of lung cancer victims in the world are due to cigarette smoke.

Here again I gave you a problem and a subject right at the beginning, so we can roll on with other cigarette causing problems, until we get to our goal, which should be a solution. So here is an equation; Solution=conclusion. In this case we might talk about all the quit aids and support groups.

The other important thing is try not to use real big fancy words unless your non-fiction requires it. If the reader has to stop to look up a word it will break the flow and their concentration.

What we need to touch on now, is writing as if the story is taking place now, again it’s in the way you word things. Like in the opening sentence of the first example in this lesson

I stood in the doorway of the old Victorian house.

That  gives the reader of the story the sense that it is happening now. Let’s change it to already happened.

I was standing in the doorway of the old Victorian house.

With the change of words it gives the feel of it already happened

Lesson overview:

Decide what voice your writing in (how you want the reader to see the story)

Have the subject, (beginning), the problem, (middle), the solution, (conclusion), solution=conclusion.

Use descriptive words. But not too descriptive,

Don’t use large, big words (unless necessary)

Write as if the story were happening now

Thank you, see you for lesson four.

Many have asked them self that very question. It seems that they sit and look at the keyboard as if it were an enemy. To answer that question we must ask ourselves a few questions.

What are my passions.

Do you like gardening? Perhaps you are fluent at a foreign language. Are you artistic? Athletic? Have you successfully overcome major obstacles? Cancer, drugs, smoking, drinking. See were we are going with this? Every one on this planet has a passion or skill that can be of help to another. Your experience, skill, passions, are of a unique quality that it can be shared with others.

Do you love story telling?

This is my favorite. I am a story teller. When the children were small, I read to them stories. My Aunt read to me when I was a young lad and fired my imagination. I invented stories to tell my grandchildren and now have published them as a result of my granddaughter wanting to read them. Now she can read them to her children. Fiction, Children’s Books, Science Ficton, Biographies, they are all in the realm off writing.

Write a blog

Ever think of keeping a blog on your life? Many are the friends and family who would love to keep in touch this way. How about blogging about your career challenges. What you are facing is quite likely being dealt with by others also. Writng a blog may also earn you a few dollars. A blog can be monetized.

Summary

The point is, that you can write about anything you feel qualified to.  Sit down and ask your self the questions poised in the above of this article.

YOU CAN DO IT!

Yes, we have lost our minds. If you join as Silver, now till Jan. 1st of 2011, we will give you a free upgrade to Gold, for the life of your membership.

We know that we have a great club, so, we are offering this deal to get you in the front door. Tell your friends and share. Start a little group of your own and write, write, write.

Dave Brinton

Getting the idea is the easiest and most important part of writing a successful novel. Now let me say this. Just because you think the idea is bad or not good don’t mean it is, let’s take Stephen King and his novel, “Carrie.” He must have thought it was a bad idea for after writing it, he threw it in the trash for his wife to find it, read it, and take it to someone to have it published. Therefore, starting from his wife, to the publisher, to the readers, everyone thought it was a great idea. So any idea, no matter what it is, could be the next best seller. I think it is all in the presentation of the idea. Which we will discuss in lesson five and further detailed in lesson six. But for now, let’s get back to the idea.

I have known from my own experience that ideas can come at any time, anywhere, anyhow. I’ve also readthat other authors say the same thing. Several have been quoted saying ideas just run through them sometimes so fast it is hard to keep track. I have also had ideas rush through me at the most inconvenient or unusual times and places. One way, I have found in the past to keep track of the ideas that come to me was to get a miniature tape recorder that I could carry in my pocket and dictate into it the ideas that came to me.

Today, with technology there is so many devices, besides the miniature tape recorder. For example, they have portable notepads, which you can just type into instead of talking. But in some cases, you can’t do that either. If you are driving, typing would be out of the question.

It happened to me. I was driving on the freeway when the idea for my next novel or short story. I’m not sure why it came to me. Using my Bluetooth and my cell phone, just as I’m doing on my home computer, I was able to dictate into my cell phone. Whichever device you use it will be a great asset when you are able to actually sit down and start putting the idea on paper.

 To determine your next step, depending on your idea, research, would be your next step. If you’re writing a fiction novel, then your next step would be designing a profile of characters and places. Now again it is totally up to you and how you feel about writing a profile. Me, again using my experience, I could have an idea with all the characters, places and times already mapped out for me. So all’s I have to do is just write the story. For example, my novel, “Frequency’s”, the characters in the story, in my head, was already put together. All I had to do is fill in the blanks. What I mean is, one of my short stories, “Man’s Best Friend”, the idea came to me while I was asleep, dreaming. Again, all the characters were already mapped out in my head, so all I had to do is write the story. Now I am not saying writing a profile is not important. I’m just saying, sometimes it doesn’t seem necessary. For example writing a profile for a nonfiction story would be beneficial to keep track of all your research, and with a fiction novel it will help you keep track of your characters. Very Important!

At this point, you should have decided on what type of novel you want to write, nonfiction or fiction. You should also ask yourself what age group you want to write for, do you want to write for small children, young adults or adults. Now you must ask yourself, what category do you want to write for? Do you want to write Horror, Science Fiction, Drama, Romance, Action, orThrillers? Your idea might have your answer. For examples, if your idea is about Witches, Warlocks and Wizards, it could fall under Fantasy or Horror. The next question that getting the idea brings up is, does your story need illustrations? We are about to unleash the power of the idea. One simple idea will answer these questions automatically. The idea will also answer what style you write in. For example, if your idea is about something in the past, you will write in the past tense. And of coures if your idea is about something in the now, you would write in the present. See just how much power the idea holds. I think it even holds more power than the title.

Let me point out, this getting the idea could be as frustrating as writer’s block. Another topic, we will discuss in later lesson. Right now let us say you have decided what type of writer you wanted to be. But you have not had an idea for a good story. Sometimes trying too hard, could cause you to actually mentally block out any good ideas. So take a break put it out of your mind it might take a day or two. Start an outline, at the top of the page, put, outline, skip a few spaces and type characters, skip a few more spaces and title it, places, skip a few more spaces and title it, time and events. Another good way to start coming up with good ideas or start the idea juices flowing is to start what I call the dislike like page, this is where I write down things I like and dislike, believe it or not finding things that you like causes idea. Or vice versa, things that you do like could inspire great ideas. For example, say you like flowers. It could inspire the idea of a tiny little civilization living on this flower almost like the Dr. Seuss story “Horton Hears a Who”. Let’s say you like racing, which could inspire a whole story about your favorite race driver,or racetrack.

Ok now lets do a overview:

Beginning to writing

A) The idea: a subject you intend to write your book about( idea should be recorded or written down even if its just a sentence)

B) What type book are you going to write: fiction/ nonfiction

C) What age group will read your book: children, young adult, adult

D) Will the book be a thriller, fantasy, horror, science fiction, religion

E) Research: if nonfiction(your research should be to prove your work true)if fiction( research is just to make the story feel real)

F) Profile: recorded or written list of characters, places, time and events(this will be add to and grow as the book becomes finished)

G) Illustrations (if needed)

This concludes lesson one, you should have everything in the beginning to writing steps A threw G together before continuing on to lesson two; Getting started.

Why Do I Want a Copyright?
Copyright protection could preserve your financial rights to your creative work. An author has copyright protection for their written material whether they want it or not in the United States. However, some additional benefits come with voluntary registration of the copyright. Registration provides a public record of the copyright and a certificate of registration. Also, registration is necessary if an original author finds the need to recover damages from someone who used their written work without permission. A person who violates the copyright law does not have to profit from copied material to have damaged the original author.

What are the Copyright Laws?
In the United States, the copyright laws are contained in Section 17 of the Federal legal code. It contains 13 Chapters and several amendments. Section 17 is based on Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution that states “The Congress shall have Power … To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries”. The laws have been updated over the years to include electronic formats in addition to written material. In short, these laws state that no one is allowed to plagiarize your material under penalty of law. Copyright does expire. Depending on when the written material was created and the conditions under which it was created, the copyright expiration period may vary from 28 to 120 years.

What are My Rights as an Author?
As an author, you retain the copyright to your original written work unless you transfer the copyright to another party. Generally, you must transfer the copyright to a publisher before they will publish your material. The holder of the copyright has the right to decide how the written material will be used including pricing, distribution, updates, access, and use restrictions. An author can choose to retain some rights when they transfer a copyright to a publisher. Otherwise, they may find that they can’t legally use their own words on their website or in course packs.

Should I Use a Copyright Symbol?
While your written material is protected by copyright laws regardless of symbol usage, the best practice is to use the copyright symbol on all original written material. In some jurisdictions, your ability to collect damages may be limited if the copyright symbol is not used.