How to Use Action Writing in Your Story

How to Use Action Writing in Your StoryHow to Use Action Writing in Your StoryAction writing has been around since the beginning of fiction writingsimplybecause people (whatever their age or their income) want to be entertained. Action writing is like going to the moviesallyou have to do is sit back, eat your popcorn and let someone else do the work for you. And, in this case, work-motion. This means that the writing should speed up along with your characters. Action writing doesnt call for long descriptions of setting or character. Everything you write should pertain to the action. Example of Action Writing John LeCarre is the master of action writing. Lets binnensee how Le Carre handles the final action scene in The Spy Who Came in From the Cold Leamus was blinded, he turned his head away, wrenching wildly at Lizs arm. Now she was swinging free he thought she had slipped and he called frantically, still drawing her upwards. He could see nothing only a mad confusion of color da ncing in his eyes. Then came the hysterical wail of sirens, orders frantically shouted. Half kneeling astride the wall he grasped both her arms in his, and began dragging her to him inch by inch, himself on the verge of falling. Notice how Le Carr allows us to see both what Alec is doing and what he sees. parte of what builds the tension of the scene is the fact that he adheres to Alecs point of view. It also makes it easier to describe if youre telling the story from third person limited. This way you dont have to worry about describing everything thats happening in a scene only your protagonists slice of it. How to Write a Snappy Opening Heres a template for grabbing the reader right from the get-go When introducing acharacter, dont start by describing what he looks like. Instead, make sure the character is doing something from the very moment you introduce him.Open with dialogue. An engaging line of dialogue is a perfect way to launch your writing.Start with a bang Dont blow up a car but make something happen.Dont fret the opening. If you cant come up with a killer opening, let it go. As the piece unfolds the opening will become apparent. Careers in Action Writing We cant all be John Le Carre or Stephen King but we can study their work (i.e., read their novels) to perfect our craft and then, once weve done our homework, look for jobs that make use of action writing. Surprisingly there are many avenues you can pursue. If you dont have the skill set or interest to be a novelist or screenwriter then consider a career as a blogger, a magazine writer, or a marketing communications writer in the corporate world. Even politicians need help with their Twitter, Facebook andother social media feedsbecause much of what they deutsche post ag is a call to action.

This is why people believe crazy office gossip at work

This is why people believe crazy office gossip at workThis is why people believe crazy office gossip at workAlmost every office has one conspiracy theorist, infecting the workspace with gossip and wild claims. For some of these gossipers, the more outlandish the rumor, the more they believe it as fact. Science now has an answer as to why this may be.A new study in theEuropean Journal of Social Psychologyfound that a need to be special and unique drives people to believe conspiracy theories. Researchers recruited more than 200 U.S. participants through AmazonsMechanical Turk website to participate in three studies on the subject. Participants were asked how much they believed in statements like, Most people do not see how much our lives are determined by plots hatched in secret. Those that strongly agreed that we live in a shadow world of predetermined choices and duplicitous actors were considered conspiracy theorists.Study The more unique you want to be, the more likely you are a co nspiracy theoristWhat researchers found is that participants who self-reported as wanting to be special were also more likely to entertain irrational conspiracy theories not grounded in facts. In fact, to highlight this, the researchers created a final experiment with an entirely made-up conspiracy theory. They got 108 participants to read a fake article that said some people believed smoke detectors were causing severe side effects on peoples health due to the hypersound they emitted. To be clear, there is no such thing as dangerous hypersound in smoke detectors, but the conspiracy theorists in the experiment bought it.Conspiracy theorists believe in conspiracies more if majority opinion doesnt believe in themThe article included a fake poll to see if conspiracy theorists could be swayed by majority opinion. Half of group read that the smoke detector conspiracy was believed by 81% of Germans, while the other half read that the conspiracy was doubted by 81% of Germans. The conspirac y theorists in the study were more likely to believe this wacky study if they read that it was a minority opinion. The conspiracy theorists in the experiment were also the saatkorn ones identifying a high need for uniqueness in their surveys.This further proves the researchers point that a need to be special may be a motivating factor driving conspiracy theorists. Conspiracy theories dont want to believe a claim thats gone mainstream. That would make them one doubter amongst many and take away their special skeptic identity.This effectively shields their worldview from invalidation as the less the public and powerful agents agree with a certain theory, the more convincing they believe it to be, the study states.Once a smoke detector truther, always a smoke detector trutherThese findings have ironic implications for officials and bosses who use numbers and statistics to try to convince conspiracy theorists. The more you say that a theory is incorrect, the more likely a conspiracy the orist will doubt you.Just look at what happened to participants in the fake smoke detector study. Worryingly, 25% of participants who identified as conspiracy theorists continued to believe in this smoke detector conspiracy even after researchers debriefed them and told them the study and polls were fake. Once a smoke detector truther, always a smoke detector truther.Wanting to believe in outlandish rumors certainly helps youstand out from a crowd - but it wont get you the kind of attention you necessarily want.Being a conspiracy theorist who wont listen to data and fact will come at a professional cost to jobs, promotions, and relationships.

C-Suite talk with The Muses Kathryn Minshew

C-Suite talk with The Muses Kathryn MinshewC-Suite talk with The Muses Kathryn MinshewThe Muses Founder and CEO talks to Ladders about career transitions and becoming an entrepreneur. Prior to founding PYP Media and The Muse, you worked in both private and public sectors. Did you find any of these transitions particularly challenging?Compared to the public sector, the private sector tends to be a lot more bottom-line-driven and, in my experience, that translated to a lot more rigorous analysis of costs, expected profits, and the like. Not to say this is absent from the public sector, but in the private sector, it takes on a different importance. Theres plenty the two have in commonunderstanding costs, navigating complex relationships between various partners, working out dealsbut the goal of a government isnt to build a great product or service and sell it in the same way that it is for a company.What advice would you give someone looking to make a switch to the private sector to en sure a more seamless transition?My best advice is to stay open-minded. Any time you make a major career switchfrom the public to the private sector, between industries, even from a large company to a small onetheres going to be a lot of change to get used to. But, theres also going to be a lot that you learned at your previous position thats going to set you up to make an impact in your new career.What led you to create The Daily Muse? Ive felt for a long time that there welches a disconnect between what we tell kids You can be anything you want to be Find work you love and the tools we provide adults to actually discover and realize those dreams. Personally, I went through a period of deep introspection over what I wanted to do with my life and the result of that was TheMuse.com.One of my goals has always been to illuminate the different options on the table. Kids grow up knowing they can be a doctor, a lawyer, and a scientist, but there are thousands of other choices, and I dont t hink we provide enough information about the rest. I wanted to build a place where an outsider could see inside the offices of Facebook, Gucci, or thousands of other companies, and listen to videos of their employees talking about what its like to work there. Its extremely gratifying to see that playing out on The Muse and The Daily Muse (our communitys publication), though I think we have a lot more up aheadWhat is the most important thing a professional should consider before starting her own geschftlicher umgang? Youve got to start with a deep understanding of yourself, of how ready you are to be pushed outside of your comfort zone. Starting two companies has been the most beautiful, passionate, challenging and painful experience of my life. I had to watch everything Id built the first time get wiped away in a matter of days, and then start all over again from square one.As an addendum, I always remind people to make sure theyre protected legally when starting out sign contracts for any partnerships, dont spend money on a business without proper documentation, etc. I see so many people work on businesses without formalizing their partnership or ownership arrangement, and it often ends in a very bad place. My own situation with my first company can testify to that. As hard as it can be to pay a lawyer in those early days, make sure you get your business properly set up. If anyone working with you drags their feet on doing so, it may be a red flag.The Daily Muse does a great job of showcasing different employers and shedding light on their cultures. How important do you believe cultural fit is for the candidate and prospective employer?Cultural fit is absolutely critical Id venture to say its one of the top three things a potential employee should be looking for. Outside of your relationship with your spouse or partner, your relationship with your company with your colleagues, boss and surroundings is one of the most impactful in your day-to-day life, so make sure its working for, and notlage against, you. I also want to add that cultural fit is a very personal thing. A company can be a great cultural fit for some and a terrible cultural fit for others, so dont let the opinions of others override your gut. Even if your coworkers cant stop talking about what an amazing company youre at, if its not a cultural fit for you, thats OK. Just accept it, do your best, and choose better next time.How would you describe the culture at The Daily Muse?We want to be a company where everyone on the team feels valued and pushed to grow. Weve divided up the world in terms of who does what, but were always looking for ways to give our employees a chance to get their hands dirty with something new, or pick up a new skill theyre looking to develop. We want everyone on the team to be constantly growing.We also want our team to be happy, and for this to be a job they can see themselves staying at. Being a startup, theres a lot of work to be doneand I mea n a lotbut were big on being flexible, which means everything from flexible hours to getting input from our team members about how they want to see their role grow. I think thats the only way to build a company where people feel not only like everyones invested in the product, but also invested in them individually in their careers.Finally, were big on transparency we have an all-hands meeting every other week where anyone can ask anything, and we strive to create a culture where were as open and honest as possible.Whats the best piece of career or job-search advice you ever received? When I was in high school, I remember going to our schools career day and hearing numerous people talk about how they got where they were. During the course of their speeches, I noticed every one of them had a common vignette in their career-path stories At some point, they were given an assignment, a project, or a role where they didnt know what to do, and they decided to wing it, and it became a spr ingboard for an important step in their career.If I look back on my own career, the same has been true for me. There have been so many times Ive found myself looking at an assignment or hurdle where I didnt quite know what to do as a business analyst at McKinsey, during my first week on a job in Rwanda, when I started my own company, when I had to price an unbuilt product, etc. In each one of those situations, Ive examined the situation critically, reached out to mentors or experts I knew, and forged ahead to figure it out. Now, when I come across something that I just dont know how to doand believe me, theres still plentyI have the confidence that I can handle it. I dont always know how, but I know that if we, as a company, are going to blaze our own trail, then there isnt going to be a path ahead for us to follow, so I might as well get used to it.Thanks KathrynKathryn Minshew is the Founder and CEO of The Muse, a career website dedicated to long-term professional development. Kat hryn has appeared on CNN and Bloomberg, spoken at MIT and Harvard, and contributes on career issues to the Wall Street Journal, INC, and the Harvard Business Review. She was recently named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in Media for the second year in a row, as well as Inc.s 15 Women to Watch in Tech. Say hi to her on Twitter KMin