Ms. Deb Sez
Merry Christmas Everyone!
What a wonderful time of year this is. I love it. Don't you?
I'm remembering the night I put a bell in my stocking so I could catch Santa, but he was a sly old bird. I never did catch him.
What a thrill it was to wake up to big presents under the Christmas tree. One year I got Santa brought me a bicycle. There it sat under the Christmas tree, with a big bow on it. I totally flipped.
Wouldn't it be nice if every day could be Christmas? But then, I suppose we would get tired of it.
These are the fun things of childhood, but they have nothing at all to do with the real meaning of Christmas.
This is the birthday of the King, Jesus Christ. And whether or not you believe in Him, historians do. They even changed our calendars to coordinate with his death.
Try, for one minute, to imagine a teenage girl, a virgin, no less - giving birth to a baby in a barn. Joseph, her fiance, was probably busy making a bed of straw for Mary to lay on, and cleaning out a feeding trough so they could use it as a bassinet.
Somewhere along the way, he found cloth that was used to wrap corpses and he used it to cover the baby Jesus in. This was the "swaddling clothes" that was actually a prophecy of the death he would suffer - for you, and for me.
It would be great if we could be perfect, or even if we could just keep the ten commandments, but we can't even do that. Thus, the need for a Savior.
He came to do for us what we could not do for ourselves He came to pay our sin debt. All He asks in return is that we devote our lives to Him and turn from our chosen path. It doesn't seem much to ask, but we have the free will to choose. Give up control of our lives and serve Him, or not serve Him.
Which one do you choose?
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CHRISTMAS GIFT
LIST
It's time to make your wish list, and it's a great opportunity to ask for something that will assist you in your writing efforts. Ask for:
*A writing course at CWI !!
* Money (or a gift certificate) to use toward a writing course!
* The Writer's Market Magazine -
This is the best marketing resource I have ever found.
It's easy to understand and easy to use; it offers a variety of support tools, it names the proper contact person, and points you to the right market to sell your work. Ask for the online edition because it is updated monthly, whereas the book is updated yearly.
* A ream of paper to print your creations
* Printer ink
* Books you would like to read and study
* A gift certificate from a bookstore
* Business cards
* Personalized stationary
* A writing journal
* The Chicago Manual of Style - which will answer all of your English questions
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Ask Darla
DEAR DARLA
I read my story to someone and they said my characters are flat. What is a flat character? Pansy
Dear Pansy
A flat character is one without depth - unreal - otherwise known as a two-dimensional character.
Developing characters is a major part of story writing. If you don't get that right, the entire story will be flat.
Fill out a list of 50 details for both your protagonist (hero) and antagonist (villain). You should know everything from a physical description, likes, dislikes, sports enjoyed, and hobbies to past history and future desires.
And lastly, browse magazines and catalogs until you find a picture that reminds you of your characters. Cut the pictures out and tape them up where you will see them the first thing in the morning and the last thing at night. If you do this, I promise your characters will be real to you and your readers.
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NOTICE
Due to circumstances beyond our control, The Writer's Choice Newsletter automatically distributed in the wrong format. Please bear with us while we seek to remedy this problem. Thank you for your understanding and patience.
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Choosing The Right
Writing Course
Writing is a quickly learned skill for those who have a strong desire. Most students are ready to sell their work in one or two years. But take it from one who has tried all the shortcuts and found there were none - you will save yourself time and grief if you will begin at the beginning.
The writing course you should choose depends not on what talents and experience you have. Mostly, it depends on your writing foundation. More than likely, you already have some foundation, but it will have holes in it. That is to say, you will know some things, and not others. In such a case, determine your lowest point and begin there.
Do you like to write stories? Then Short Story writing is the class for you. However, it is also an intermediate class. You should know the rules of English, have good sentence structure, and practice the basic rules of writing before you attempt this course.
If you like to write children’s stories, you will love Writing for Children. Also an intermediate class, this course is as hard as writing for adults. Be prepared with proper English, and the basic rules of writing.
If you are an advanced student, Wordsmithing is what you want. There you will learn writing skills that no other course teaches. This class will teach you to recognize assonance, consonance, asyndeton, and many more little known techniques so that you can apply it to
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WRITING COURSES ON $ALE UNTIL
JANUARY 1, 2009,
ONLY $185 FOR ANY
EIGHT-WK. MENTORED WRITING CLASS. NO EXTRA FEES. ONLY 15 STUDENTS PER CLASS. RESERVE YOUR PLACE NOW!
http://www.creativewritinginstitute.com___________________________________
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your own writing. This is the class that will put your writing over the top
If you wonder if you need a certain class to advance to a higher level of learning, the chances are, you DO. Do not try to skip classes. You need all the rules of writing in order to succeed. Skipping ahead usually means having to return to a lower class at a later time to pick up what you missed.
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LET'S DO THE TWIST!
Wikipedia defines a twisted ending as an unexpected conclusion or climax to a work of fiction, which may contain a surprising irony, or cause the audience to review the story from a different perspective by revealing new information about the characters or plot. A twist ending is the conclusive form of plot twists. This literary device is also referred to as a surprise ending.
The secret to a twisted ending is finding the point where you can veer off to an alternative resolution.
Let's suppose a man has murdered a woman and her husband is out to catch the killer. Let us further suppose that the husband finally catches the murderer, and just when hubby is about to kill him, the police arrive on the scene and take the man into custody.
While the husband wishes with all his might to see the murderer die, we can make a twisted ending out of this.
Suppose the murderer goes to trial and his plea is to be put to death. But instead of executing him, the judge feels he would suffer more by going to prison without chance of parole.
The husband is happy that the killer is miserable instead of dead. The reader is satisfied, too. Everyone is happy. Well, everyone but the killer, and he doesn't get a vote.
And btw, never write a story that doesn't give the reader a good ending.
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