Harsh mistress

The Hero's Journey (also known as the Monomyth) is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. It is upon this structure that situations are superimposed. This is why stories such as Alien (1979), Gladiator (2000), Godfather (1972), American Beauty (1999), Annie Hall (1977) and many others (all deconstructed at www.clickok.co.uk/index4.html) appear to be different but are all constructed, almost sequence by sequence, in the same way.

The following blockbusters have all been structured around the Hero's Journey template: Titanic, 1997 - grossed over $600,000,000; Star Wars, 1977 - grossed over $460,000,000; Shrek 2, 2004 - grossed over $436,000,000; ET, 1982 - grossed over $434,000,000; Spiderman, 2002 - grossed over $432,000,000. So how come you don't know it inside out?

For a number of very valid reasons, if you want to write (and sell) successful stories, whether they're Hollywood blockbusters, Indie successes, novels or other story forms, you need to master the Hero's Journey in a very detailed way...

THE ROAD OF TRIALS SHOULD BE CALLED THE ROAD OF TRANSFORMATIONS

The Road of Trials should be known as the Road of Transformations. That is the purpose of the Trials - to incrementally transform the Hero from an Old Self to a New Self; to dissolve away the Old Self. This is a deeper transformation than that which occurs during the First Threshold.

This is a huge and often favourite part of many stories and is achieved using distinct and focused techniques and processes - knowing the patterns that this stage can follow makes writing successful stories a whole lot easier. Patterns include:

Pulling away from the Old Self. In An Officer and a Gentleman (1983), Zach accepts Paula as his girlfriend - he's never had a girl before.

Demonstrating suitability to the New World and the New Self. In City Slickers (1991), Mitch is at home around the campfire and takes on Curly - someone whom he's afraid of.

Demonstrating deep Transformation. In The Godfather (1972), Michael decides to marry Apollonia - a Sicilian marriage was something he would not have considered previously.

FORWARD

The 188 stage Hero's Journey (Monomyth) is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. In fact, ALL of the hundreds of Hollywood movies we have deconstructed (see URL below) are based on this 188+ stage template.

Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters. This is the template you must master if you are to succeed in the craft.

[The terminology is most often metaphoric and applies to all successful stories and screenplays, from The Godfather (1972) to Brokeback Mountain (2006) to Annie Hall (1977) to Lord of the Rings (2003) to Drugstore Cowboy (1989) to Thelma and Louise (1991) to Apocaplyse Now (1979)].

THERE IS ONLY ONE STORY

THE 188 STAGE HERO'S JOURNEY:

a) Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.

b) Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.

c) Gives you a tangible process for building and releasing dissonance (establishing and achieving catharses, of which there are usually four).

d) Tells you what to write. For example, at a certain stage of the story, the focus should be on the Call to Adventure and the micro elements within.

ABRIDGED TIPS, EXCERPTS AND EXAMPLES:

(simply go to www.clickok.co.uk for full details)

*****Resisting the Belly of the Whale*****

Resisting the Belly of the Whale is often a norm, even for willing heroes. In Brokeback Mountain (2005), after sex, Ennis rides out alone, without saying anything.

*****Blood and Transmogrification*****

The progression of the Transmogrification - the physical change - is often symbolised by the appearance of blood. In Straw Dogs (1971), David shoots the bird...the bloood seeps out and onto his clothes.

College Essay Each one of you who is reading this essay might be planning either for near future or after some years to join a big and standard college like Harvard or Yale. To think and aim high is very good, but only aims will not get you any where. To get admission into your dream college you need some pretty effective techniques to impress the admission committee and convince them that you are the ideal candidate for their college or university.

One of the main and important requisites for admission into your college of dreams is a college essay. In this article, we are going to tell you how to write a college essay that will guarantee admission into your dream college. Remember, your college essay for admission does not have to be just great! It has to be incredible and unbelievable to convince the admission committee that you are the person they have been looking for!

Some of the important features that your college essay must consist of:

• It has to be out of this world as no ordinary essay will do
• It has to be gripping. You cannot afford a boring essay
• It has to win over the admission officer. It cannot be a mediocre essay

• When writing your college essay, stick to what you know. It is better to write about what you are familiar with rather than writing just for the sake for writing and filling up the paper. This will not only bore the admission officer but also put him off.
• Direct your essay towards a wide audience. Don't think that your admission officer is old and out of date and will not be able to understand what you are saying. Your admission officer can be of any age.
• While writing a college essay, show your humorous side as well. Admission officers also possess a sense of humor and it will make your essay easy to read and understand.
• Always be honest when writing a college essay about yourself. You do not have to make stories or write half truths and lies to impress your admission officer. As said 'honesty is the best policy', lying once may cause you further problems in your admission.
• Use your own words and simple language to express yourself. Using big and sophisticated words will not get you any where. In some cases, you may lose the hang of what you want to say and your essay may only become a jargon of big and elaborate words which do not make any sense to the reader.
• Make sure you use the correct grammar. If you do not possess good grammar skills, ask some one with good grammar to edit or read your work before sending it with the application.
• The greatness of your essay does not count until and unless it is read. To make your essay more clear and readable, either type or write your essay in a neat and comprehendible manner.
• Write the essay following a format. Start with an introduction and end with a conclusion. In between, write whatever you think is necessary and will help you in securing the admission. In writing your college essay, more than the number of words, the quality of the words is important. Make sure that you cover all the important aspects on which you were asked to write.
• Have someone else to read your essay. This will give you a second perspective on your essay and they may be able to point out some mistakes, make corrections and advise you on some points.

• What do you plan to do after acquiring your degree?
• Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
• How will admission in our college help you in your career?

Practical Experience In some colleges, practical and field experiences count a lot. Departments such as psychology or social work require clinical and practical experience. So if you have any such experience, mention it in detail so that it becomes easy for the admission committee to decide in your favor. List your experiences and explain how you dealt with them.

Personal Bio-data In your college essay, also mention about yourself and your life. The admission officer will want to know about your opinions, your past personal experiences of school life which count and which are going to help you in your further studies.

Personal experience and You should also mention your personal experiences and opinions in your college essay. It may include your life and school details. You may also need to mention how you came upon the decision to seek admission in that particular college. It may include your approach to life, how you come across this philosophy and how do you see yourself.

Academic rewards In your college essay, also mention your academic achievements and rewards. This will cast a good impression on the admission officer and the rewards won will make a significant impact. All the colleges want the best students in their faculty. Your rewards and achievements will affect their decision to admit you in the college.

Before you start actually writing, make a list of these points and go step by step when writing. This will add coherence to your essay as well as make it more readable.

Following these above mentioned tips does not guarantee admission to your dream college. On the other hand, it may make all the difference needed to convince the admission officer of your capabilities and secure you an admission. It may make your college essay the one that they one looking for and thus, make your life!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Derek Gendron has been tutoring students of all ages for more than 5 years. He has helped students achieve higher grades and win their degrees by providing assistance with their essays, research papers, theses, and dissertations. In January 2007, he has started selling his service on the internet.

If you are struggling with your academic assignment then click any of the following links to find what he has to offer:

Custom Essay,Thesis Writing,Dissertation Help,Research Paper Help,Term Paper Help

Press release are a great way to let the entire internet world about something big that just happened or something big that is about to happen. Maybe your organization has just won a major award for something. Or maybe you are about to launch a new product. Press releases get indexed by the search engines and help you to achieve your number one goal and that is to drive traffic to your site or sites. Personally I use press releases just before I am about to start another large article series. Many of my series are 10 to twenty articles long.

Why Should You Write Them

Writing press releases can be very beneficial to your business in so many ways. Many editors will look at your press release. If they feel it is going to get people interested then they will publish it into their ezines. By doing that you are ensuring yourself free traffic. It is also another link to your website and most of us know what that means. The more positive links you have to your site the more times the search engines are going to pick it up thus moving it higher in the rankings. Finally I would like to think you are running an honest no scam business. By issuing press releases you can keep your business fresh. Your loyal customers will see the growth and remain loyal while knew customers will realize that this is possibly something they should be looking at.

How Should I Write Them.

Well practise does make perfect. The more you write the better you will get at it. The most important thing you have to remember is that a press release is not meant to be an advertisement. If you want to put it out that way chances are it will get rejected and even if it does get released publishers won't be interested because they are looking for content that will provide value for their readers. You're not writing a book. You want to keep your releases to one page and two at a maximum. Don't wreck your credibility with the publishers and readers. Just be honest. You can use some hype but don't lie or embellish. You also want to be straight forward and to the point. A press release isn't the place to pretty up your story. Write it in a way that everyone can understand. You have to remember your going to have everyone from teenage dropouts to doctors reading your press release. I don't care what you are selling you need to make your press release go out to everyone. If it is directed towards a certain audience it's going to look too much like an advertisement.

For me press releases have become a great source of traffic. Especially when I am about to start a new article series. Anyone who has read my prior series usually watch for the next one to come out and with the right keywords anyone looking for something in particular might come along my release thus possibly adding another customer.

Dale Mazurek

Psychological research shows a mere three things are crucial to human happiness, and one of them is love.*

Gods and goddesses of love, passion, fertility, and even marital fidelity appear in the earliest historic writings, and many of the stories that have endured best feature male and female heroes' passionate love affairs. Famous examples include Chrétien de Troyes' tale of Queen Guenevere's love affair with Lancelot (c. 1170); Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1597); and Charles Perrault's Sleeping Beauty (1697).

This basic human need for romantic, sexual, and marital connections is reflected in Carl Jung's anima/animus archetype. In essence, Jung believed there is a psychological construct in males (the anima) that creates a strong draw to the feminine as it's embodied in real women, and a matching construct in females (the animus) that draws them to men. One of the best visual metaphors for the concept is the yin-yang; each of the contrasting halves, one of which refers (in part) to the female and the other to the male, is embedded with a disc of the opposite sex's color.

Losing and Finding One's "Other Half"

"Chemistry," as we now call it, has long been thought of as the need for and recognition of your "other half," and as Jung saw it, this recognition was prompted by the anima or animus. Plato's Symposium, written in 360 BC, provides an explanation for how the need initially developed.

"The original human nature was not like the present, but different. The primeval man was round, his back and sides forming a circle; and he had four hands and four feet, one head with two faces, looking opposite. He could walk upright as men now do, backwards or forwards as he pleased, and he could also roll over and over at a great pace, turning on his four hands and four feet, eight in all, like tumblers going over and over with their legs in the air; this was when he wanted to run fast... [The sexes were not two as they are now, but originally three in number; there was man (made of 2 male parts), woman (made of 2 female parts), and the union of the two (one male and one female part). But the primeval humans] made an attack upon the gods [and Zeus said]: "Methinks I have a plan which will humble their pride and improve their manners; men shall continue to exist, but I will cut them in two. [Apollo] gave a turn to the face and pulled the skin from the sides all over that which in our language is called the belly, which he fastened in a knot (the same which is called the navel).

"After the division the two parts of man, each desiring his other half, came together, and throwing their arms about one another, entwined in mutual embraces, longing to grow into one. Each of us when separated is always looking for his other half.And when one meets with his other half, the actual half of himself, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy, and would not be out of the other's sight, as I may say, even for a moment: these are the people who pass their whole lives together. And the reason is that human nature was originally one and we were a whole, and the desire and pursuit of the whole is called love."

What all of this means is that, just like in real life, your characters should be attracted to their love interests for a reason. The potential love interest's traits and behavior must resonate with your hero because they somehow make him or her more whole.

Many writers create love interests that reflect their own ideas of the "perfect" man or woman; the danger is that sometimes we're actually creating love interests for ourselves rather than for our characters. We may assume that everyone would be attracted to the same things we are, and that little explanation is needed to justify why our heroes and heroines would fall for each other. But if your hero or heroine is so universally appealing, 1) Why hasn't s/he been snatched up yet and 2) Why has s/he fallen for this love interest? If the answer to 1 is that s/he's been waiting for the "right one" to come along, 2 is even more important. Also remember that in real life, the people we're most drawn to aren't always the ones who are best for us--sometimes we're so focused on a bad choice that we don't even see Mr. or Ms. Soulmate when s/he wanders by. Scarlett O'Hara's obsession with Ashley is doomed to failure because he can never be what she needs.

And of course, sometimes the people we're most drawn to won't have us, because while they could meet our needs, we don't or can't meet theirs. In the film Gladiator, Commodus is drawn to his sister Lucilla because she represents the purity and kindness he lacks, but he is too flawed for her to truly love in return, even as a brother.

The Anima, the Animus, and the Double

Because Jung didn't address gay and lesbian relationships in the way that the Plato did, the anima/animus archetype is difficult to apply to gay/lesbian relationships. Some modern theorists argue that an archetype they call the Double is responsible for committed same-sex partnerships.

The Double draws us into all relationships with individuals of the same sex, which can range from platonic friendships to love relationships. In other words, the Double helps us find our best same-sex friends as well as love our brothers and fathers (if we're male) and our sisters and mothers (if we're female). Meanwhile, the anima (for men) and the animus (for women) help us find our opposite-sex mates. For those people who were metaphorically cut apart from a same-sex other half, the Double takes over this responsibility as well.

Three Influences on the Anima/Animus

Both the anima and animus are influenced by three things: biology, sociocultural environment, and personal experience.

Biology

Reams of paper have been used to argue which sex is superior to the other, but research demonstrates that men and women are actually equal in terms of their psychological and cognitive (thinking, intelligence) skills--except for one thing. Men significantly outperform women on spatial ability ( i.e. they conceptualize distance, speed, spin, direction, and area better than women, which is believed to have developed because men needed to be able to hit exactly what they aimed at when they threw spears at prey).

From an evolutionary perspective, the differences men and women do have developed because they faced different adaptive problems. The principle of natural selection says that any genetically-influenced characteristic or behavior that contributes to the survival of oneself and one's offspring will eventually become more common in the general population.

For example, imagine all of the dangers our ancestors faced: predators, disease, famine, and long cold winters, just to name a few. Now let's pretend that there are four types of men in this ancient world: men who are fast, men who are strong, men who are smart, and men who have none of these characteristics. When faced with a natural predator like a bear, the fast men may be able to outrun it, the strong men may be able to fight it off, the smart men may be able to outwit it, and the men with none of these characteristics probably don't have a prayer.

Since the men who are fast, smart, or strong live longer, they have more years to produce offspring; they also are better able to hunt down and kill deer, buffalo, and other animals that provide food and furs. Men who then took these food and furs to their wives and children were more likely to have families that survived cold winters, thereby insuring that the man's genetic material stayed in the gene pool. Men who had two or more of the above characteristics (fast, smart, or strong) were more likely to become renowned warriors who led tribes and were therefore able not only to protect, feed, and warm their families, but who also received additional resources and protection from the warriors who served under them.

Now think about the women in this same tribe. The women were often unable to hunt or fight off predators alone, so they needed men to protect them and bring them resources to aid survival. (Imagine a woman who's 8 months pregnant chasing down a deer or fighting off a cougar and you'll see what I mean--feminism works much better in a world that equalizes physical differences.) If these women were attracted to men who had neither strength nor speed nor intelligence, they were more likely to be left unprotected and without food and warmth; therefore, they and their children were more likely to die prematurely. Likewise, women who were uninterested in caring for their offspring were likely to lose those children, thereby removing their own genetic material from the gene pool. (With our modern perspective, we tend to want to imagine these women and children getting assistance from the rest of the tribe, but when food was so scarce survival was in question, each family would have had to put its own needs first.)

Because men's hunting and fighting ability was so important, men convert energy to muscle more easily than women, experience faster healing of wounds and bruises, have fewer nerve endings in their skin (which makes their bodies less sensitive to touch and pain), and have excellent spatial skills (ability to think in three dimensions) that helped them shoot arrows and throw spears. Since they could never be absolutely sure that the children their partners carried were theirs, jealousy made them protect their wives from other men's sexual access. Because only young, healthy women can have babies, men who were attracted to these kinds of women were more likely to pass on their genetic material than men who were attracted infertile diseased women!

Women convert energy into stored fat, which is necessary to carry healthy offspring (women who are very thin often lose the ability to have children; some scientists believe that industrialized nations have higher infertility rates because women strive to keep their body fat and weight so low). They also have a stronger resistance to infection, have more acute senses of vision, hearing, smell, and taste so they can take better care of their children and find dangers like rotten food.

Women are better at reading body language and emotional expressions, which helped them figure out which men were truthful about being committed (this is actually why women analyze their relationships to death and men don't). They also have stronger verbal skills, which helped them get along in the community with other women, and better verbalize the need for help or medicinal remedies. Women also tend to be attracted to strong, masculine men who are of high status and have plenty of resources. This is why young, attractive women often end up with rich older men.

These differences have been encoded into our genes at the physical level, but Jung lived decades before David Buss' extensive research into this kind of evolutionary psychology. What that means is that Jung probably would have believed the idealized "masculine" or "feminine" was imprinted on the "psychic DNA" of the collective unconscious rather than the literal, physical DNA of our bodies.

Rather than seeing that as negation of the anima/animus archetype, we have to remember that the archetypes are psychological echoes of different parts of human nature, many of which are influenced by biology. The persona (putting on a "face" others will like) is underlain by a social instinct that led our ancestors to develop "packs" to fight off predators; the shadow is underlain by aggressive and often sexual instincts; and the anima and animus are psychic manifestations of biological attraction and mating instincts.

Sociocultural Environment

Different cultures value different things. Growing up, we're indoctrinated into our culture by learning that, for example, N is for Nurse (who's female), D is for Doctor (who's male), and T is for teacher (who's female). And just try finding an advertisement that has a little boy using a toy vacuum or a little girl in a room with footballs on her sheets.

Some people argue that gender is a social construction--that is, the greatest differences between men and women exist because we act like they're there. Myths, fairy tales, religion, art, and all of the other cultural images to which we're exposed help us build our understanding of what is male and what is female.

For example, Cinderella, the Virgin Mary, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Katherine Hepburn, and Angelina Jolie all teach us different things about what it means to be feminine. Likewise, King Arthur, James Dean, Steve McQueen, Al Pacino, and Adam Sandler all teach us different things about what it means to be masculine.

Individual Experience

Both anima and animus are affected by the relationships we saw between our primary caregivers (traditionally the mother and father), and the interactions we have with the same and opposite sex. As we grow, each of us forms a kind of blueprint of how the world works. We incorporate things like our parents' relationships and values, and their beliefs about relationships and sex.

These caregivers serve as doorways to the masculine and feminine in the collective unconscious. We come to understand what it means to be masculine (information contained in the animus) through our male caregivers and what it means to be feminine (information stored in the anima) through the feminine qualities embodied by our female caregivers.

Notes

* The other two are a/ satisfying work and b/ personality, most notably the qualities of high self-esteem, extraversion, and optimism.

----
TEASER for ANIMA/ANIMUS PART II: When we write, we often focus on watching our characters fall in love without thinking about what happens after the "happily ever after." Given the 50% divorce rate in the United States, a lot of us like to leave our characters in a blissful state and pretend they'll never face the struggles we do in our real-life partnerships. But research shows that there are a few very specific behaviors that will make or break a marriage; by focusing on these things alone, researchers can predict whether a marriage will last with 96% accuracy!

A blog gives you a way to communicate instantly, across the world, with words, audio, images and video... blogging is a writer's nirvana. Did you know that according to Technorati, a leading blog tracking site, over 175,000 new blogs are created every single day?

If you're not yet a part of this amazing 21st century renaissance, you should be. As a writer, you're a communicator, and blogs are the most powerful way to boost your writing career.

Let's look at three blogging tips to boost your writing career.

One: Got A Project? Create A Blog - Get Editors To Contact You

When it comes to their careers, many writers are still in the days of the goose quill. They're traditionalists. They believe that the "right" way to send a query letter to a magazine or a publisher is via snail mail, or perhaps via email, IF the magazine or publishing house says it's OK.

It's not surprising that most professional writers earn less than $5000 a year.

Since your snail mail letter will be instantly buried under a mass of paper on an editor's desk, and spam filters will block your email, consider a blog to attract editors to contact you.

Two: Create A Resume Blog - Get Known

Who are you? You know your own name, and so do a select circle of other writers and editors with whom you've worked. Blogs are dynamic media. Your blog can act as a constantly-updated resume. Combine blogging with activity on various social networks like MySpace, and suddenly thousands of people know you, and what you can do.

Your resume blog is a shortcut to a high-powered writing career.

Three: Create A Network Blog And Become Part Of The In-Group

As a writer, you need a network. The easiest way to build an ever-growing network is to blog about writing. As you blog your writing tips, you'll make friends with other writers and will become part of their network. Suddenly you're part of an "in" group of publishing professionals.

It's hard work writing alone - build your writing network, and watch your career take off.

So there you have it - three blogging tips to boost your writing career. A blog is a powerful tool, and you can create many blogs to promote your career and improve your writer's income. Create a blog today.

FORWARD

The 188 stage Hero's Journey (Monomyth) is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. In fact, ALL of the hundreds of Hollywood movies we have deconstructed (see URL below) are based on this 188+ stage template.

Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters. This is the template you must master if you are to succeed in the craft.

[The terminology is most often metaphoric and applies to all successful stories and screenplays, from The Godfather (1972) to Brokeback Mountain (2006) to Annie Hall (1977) to Lord of the Rings (2003) to Drugstore Cowboy (1989) to Thelma and Louise (1991) to Apocaplyse Now (1979)].

THERE IS ONLY ONE STORY

THE 188 STAGE HERO'S JOURNEY:

a) Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.

b) Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.

c) Gives you a tangible process for building and releasing dissonance (establishing and achieving catharses, of which there are usually four).

d) Tells you what to write. For example, at a certain stage of the story, the focus should be on the Call to Adventure and the micro elements within.

ABRIDGED TIPS, EXCERPTS AND EXAMPLES:

(simply go to www.clickok.co.uk for full details)

*****World of the Oracle*****

Wolves Clothing. The Hero et al often disguise themselves to pass obstacles.

New Creatures. The Oracle is surrounded by creatures that are unique to his or her World and gifts. In The Matrix (1999), the Oracle is surrounded by others with special abilities.

Warnings. Some of these New Creatures may be hostile. They signify warning - no Ordinary Man gets to meet the Oracle. The Hero is warned that, if he is an Ordinary Man, some terrible curse will befall him (or her). Often the Hero will be turned to stone or some lower creature or similar.