10 Easy-to-Follow Short Story Writing Tips

For those who have never tried it, many think that writing a short story is easier than writing a novel. After all, it’s short, right? Only a few thousand words, not sixty or seventy thousand words like in novels. However, the low word count is what makes writing short stories difficult, especially in fiction where you need to introduce the setting, the plot, and the characters quickly, without the luxury of having the time to lay out complicated backstories. Fortunately, many authors have struggled trying to write short stories. Over time and through experience, they have developed some guidance on how to do it. Here are 10 easy-to-follow tips for writing short stories: 1. The Right Title As with any writer trying to get published, it’s not enough to be a good writer. You also have to get the attention of a publisher or agent who will be interested. That’s why an eye-catching, intriguing title is so important. Avoid one or two-word titles, which may seem like you’re taking the easy way out. 2. Keep a Short Story Short This sounds obvious, but writers tend to go on and on, striving for better scene descriptions or character development. Most short story contests have word limits, but many publications don’t. Experience shows that less than about 3,500 words is best. 3. Think Ahead Given the limited word count, make sure and have some basic information worked out before writing. This allows you to write your fiction tightly and focused. Damon Knight, in his book Creating Short Fiction: The Classic Guide to Writing Short Fiction, recommends that at least four of these five questions be fleshed out before writing: (a) who’s the story about; (b) why are the characters doing what they’re doing; (c) what’s the story about; (d) where’s the story set; and (e) when does it take place? 4. Settings Settings should be lightly developed. No windy paragraphs and pages without end developing the setting, like James Michener does in his fantastic historical fiction. Michener has over a hundred thousand words to work with, and you don’t. 5. Get to It Readers and publisher like stories begin en media res (starting in the middle of the action, rather than from the beginning). This technique words particularly well with short stories, allowing you to parse in the other needed setting information and background as the story continues. 6. Point of View Try to stick to one character’s point of view. If you need more, try not to use more than one in a given scene. Shifting points of view slow down the reader and distract the reader from the story; in short fiction all the reader’s attention is needed due to the sparse scene setting and fast pace. 7. Deep Character Development Short stories simply don’t allow time for thorough character development. There’s no time for peeking into a character’s complex thoughts and complicated motives. 8. Action Since there’s little time for character development, characters are defined by action. Actions can replace words to provide more information about characters. Similarly, dialogue is also a great tool to show more about characters. 9. Active Language Action is important, so use active language to describe it. Avoid the wordy passive phrase, and there’s no time for adverbs ending in â€Å"ly†. For example, a character should â€Å"stalk† someone rather than â€Å"follow slowly†; or â€Å"shout† rather than â€Å"yell angrily†. 10. Finish Strong In short stories, there’s little room for contemplating what has happened or why it has happened. End your short story with a bang. Save the best for last with a dramatic ending that lingers in the reader’s mind.

A Brave New World by Aldoux Huxley - 548 Words

Imagine that by taking one magic pill, you could be at the top of your world. With one pill, you could find complete happiness and unmatched physical fulfillment. In his novel, Brave New World, Aldous Huxley uses the drug Soma, to give the characters all of the benefits of fulfillment, both physically and spiritually, yet ironically, as the drug plays out its role, the â€Å"fulfillment† leaves its consumer empty. The drug, Soma, is used almost a comically large amount, as the characters take a gramme anytime they feel like an uncomfortable situation is approaching. In Chapter 3, Henry Foster forcefully pressures Bernard Marx into taking Soma, â€Å"All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects† (Huxley 54). Preceding this, it was agreed by a few of the characters that Marx was looking glum. It was being explained to him how this perfect drug was engineered and it was described as euphoric, narcotic, and pleasantly hallucinant. â€Å"Take a holiday from reality whenever you like, and come back without so much as a headache or a mythology† (Huxley 54). Soma gives you the joy that you would experience through Christianity, or possibly by being drunk, though it only lasts while you are high. Once they come down from the effects of drug, they don’t have any of the symptoms of a hangover, but they return back to the sad, controlled lifestyle that makes t hem want to take Soma in the first place. If the characters are not on Soma, they are just as brainless, if not more

GUCCI brand history free essay sample

1881 Guccio Gucci was born to a family of a straw-hat maker in Florence, Italy. As a teenager he was an immigrant in London. At the end of the 19th ad the beginning of the 20th centuries London attracted a lot of creative and progressive people because it was one of the biggest megacities with urban infrastucture, industrialization and population over one million. Gucci was impressed with the luxurious luggage he saw urbane guests bring with them. 1921 Guccio establishes his own store , that sells fine leather goods of high quality. This decision was supported by the following factors: distinguished materials and skilled artisans and favourable geographical location of Florence (historically, a lot of wealthy aristocratic families dwelled around Florence). Counting on the interest of the nobility in horse-ridding, Gucci started making his products with themes of horse ammunition, and the snaffle became the most recognized symbol of the incipient brand. Benito Mussolini, who came to power, assured: the new government will provide complete freedom of private enterprise and abandon intervention in the private sector [1] and it became a pushing point for private business. 1933 Aldo Gucci, now working for his father, designs the first incarnation of the iconic double-G Gucci logo, inspired by his father’s initials and shape of stirrups. At that time a design school Bauhaus, which combined the principles of modernism and functionalism, influenced many spheres of life. It was a starting point for commercial art and Cucci brand development. 1935 Italian dictator Mussolini orders the invasion of Ethiopia, leading the League of Nations to impose an international trade embargo on his country. Gucci was forced to branch out into other items: shoes, wallets, and belts. Leather supplies are short, so he begins making bags out of a specially woven Tuscan canapa, with a leather trim and printed with the double-G logo. To this day, the diamond-print Canapa bag remains one of the most instantly recognizable Gucci products. 1945 Gucci business survived during times of Word War II due to their inventive and foreseeing policy. At the end of World War II, Gucci’s folding Suiter bags (canapa sacks with a built-in clothes hanger) become popular with the British military officers occupying Rome. 1947 Gucci produces its first iconic bamboo-handled bag. After World War II , countries the world over were rationing resources. That was especially true in Europe, where artisans at Gucci were being pressured to find materials that weren’t subject to restriction to use in their designs. Bamboo cane could still be imported from Japan, and Gucci craftsman developed a patented method to heat and bend the bamboo in such a way that it would retain its shape once cooled and affixed to a handbag. 1949 After war international trade connections are increasing and Gucci represents its brand on European trade fairs. While on a trip to a London trade fair, he meets a Scottish tanner who will provide the brindled pigskin that will become another Gucci trademark. â€Å"The first spotted pigskin was actually a mistake,† fashion journalist Sara Gay Forden will later write.[2] 1952 Legions of wealthy American consumers were eager to spend their new income on status sybols. Gucci’s fine Florentine workmanship and equestrian details offered a taste of the exotic to the women who might only recently have traveled abroad for the first time. Aldo Gucci travels to New York with his brothers, they set up Guci Shops Inc., and open the first American store. The company enters the globalization process. 1953 Guccis founder Guccio Gucci dies and the company is split into three parts among his sons. Despite the conflict, this separation leads to brands further development. 1954 As Rome enters the Dolce Vita era of postwar prosperity (and the jet set descend on the city), Gucci builds a reputation as a favorite of European society. While starring in Roberto Rossellini’s Viaggio in Italia (Journey to Italy), out this year, a young Ingrid Bergman can be seen carrying a bamboo-handled Gucci umbrella and bag. This can be considered one of the first cases of  «product placement » for Gucci. The Gucci house crest becomes a registered trademark. 1960  «La dolce vita  » by Federico Fellini, was hailed as one of the most widely seen and acclaimed European movies of the 1960s.It was nominated for four Academy Awards. This event attracted more public attention to Italian fashion 1962 The New York Times declares Gucci’s bamboo-handled bag as the  «new fashion status symbol »[3]. 1966 Pop culture of 60s finds reflection in Gucci designs. With the help of painter Vittorio Accornero, Rodolfo designs Gucci’s famous Flora silk print scarf for Princess Grace of Monaco, collaborating features of Hippie culture with the demands of upper-class clients. 1967 Aldos son, Paolo designs Gucci’s first ready-to-wear looks in conjunction with a new line of suitcases. 1968 The original Gucci loafer was updated by a destinctive snuffle-bit ornament,and were beeing sold at $35. The shoes became an affordable status symbol, particularly among young female professionals. It was successful marketing step for wide spreading of Guccis trend in public. 1969 Gucci presents its first full ready-to-wear-collection at Rome’s Alta Moda fashion week. 1970 Disco culture gains popularity and affects public lifestyle. Disco clubs and parties dictate their new fashion rules.Gucci expands its ready-to-wear collection to eveningwear. Some fabrics—such as the glittering brown velvet of one minidress—have Gs worked right into them. 1975 Gucci No. 1, the brand’s first scent, debuts- another marketing step to populiarize the the brand. 1985 Due to reduction of brand prestige, the company aim to streamline the production, which is now burdened with a dizzying number of products and licensing agreements. â€Å"We’ve gone from 10,000 handbags a year to something like 700,000.†[4] 1988 The Gucci family sells its estimated 48.7 percent share in Guccio Gucci SpA to Bahrain-based investment bank Investcorp. Maurizio, who retains his 50 percent share, stays on as chairman and primary shareholder. 1990 Tom Ford appeared in the Gucci house, designing menswear, as well as shoes and handbags. 1994 Tom Ford is named a creative director. 1995 Pop culture of 90s tends to bring sexusal and vain images to clothing. Tom Ford has an amazing premonition of lifestyle changings and creates his fall/winter 1995 collection which wins raves from critics for its cool, sexed-up take on 1960s mod—an aesthetic that harks back to Gucci’s salad days. Madonna was weraing one of the Fords silk blouses and velvet hip-huggers MTV Music Awards.Someone asked Madonna on camera what she was wearing and she said:  «Gucci, Gucci, Gucci »[5]. It was a turning point in the Gucci history, the brand became successful after the years of oblivion thanks to Toms talent. 1996 Bernard Arnault’s luxury conglomerate, LVMH, makes a bid to take over Gucci Group. Ford forms a strategic alliance with French holding company Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR). 2003 PPR buys a controlling stake in Gucci Group. 2004 Ford shows his final collection for Gucci. A reviewer calls it  «a fabulous farewell  » [6], PPR announces that men’s and women’s collections will now be designed by a team of three former design assistants—Alessandra Facchinetti for womenswear, John Ray for menswear, and Frida Giannini for accessories. Gucci stores in the United States break their own one-day sales record, pulling in nearly $4 million in a single day. 2005 Weeks after her second show, Alessandra Facchinetti, who stayed close to the Ford look, resigns. Partly as reward for the success of her line of floral accessories done up in the Flora motif Gucci had designed for Princess Grace in the 1960s, Frida Giannini promoted to creative director for women’s ready-to-wear. September: Giannini shows her first collection in Milan. Her feminine silhouettes and colorful prints strike a noticeable contrast to Ford’s sleek, monochrome aesthetic. 2006 Gianni adds another title, creative director of menswear. 2009 The Jackie bag relaunched yet again, this time as the New Jackie. 2011 Gucci opens its own museum inside Florence’s Palazzo della Mercanzia, only steps from the Galleria dell’Accademia, which houses Michelangelo’s David.

Negative Body Image free essay sample

A study showed that women experience an average of 13 negative thoughts about their body each day, while 97% of women admit to having at least one â€Å"I hate my body† moment each day (raderprograms). Teens today are faced with many pressures: how they dress, who their friends are, who they are going to date, and most importantly, what they look like. In today’s society, body image is more than just the mental picture a person has of what their body looks like. For many, body image is also a reflection of how they feel about themselves and their lives. People with a negative body image believe that if they do not look right, other things, such as their personality, intelligence, social skills, or capabilities, also are not right. They think that if they fix their bodies, all their other problems will disappear. This can result in unhealthy weight management practices and an unhealthy relationship with food. We will write a custom essay sample on Negative Body Image or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page People excessively diet and exercise out of fear of gaining weight. The media today portrays stick thin women with beautiful faces and size 0 bodies, but the truth is, the majority of runway models meet the Body Mass Index (BMI) criteria to be considered anorexic (raderprograms). When influenced by role models like these, teenagers start to feel inferior if they do not look the same. In turn, when put under the pressure of women in the media, teenagers will most likely develop a negative body image, eating or mood disorder, or other unhealthy addictions if they feel their bodies do not â€Å"measure up† to those of women portrayed. Negative body image is a serious issue that can be greatly influenced by today’s media. Body image refers to a person’s feelings about how attractive their body is. Celebrities like Kate Moss are 30+% under their ideal body weight, along with this, adolescent girls are more afraid of gaining weight than getting cancer, losing their parents, or nuclear war (raderprograms). Research has shown that media exposure to unattainable physical perfection is detrimental to people, especially women, and that the detrimental effects are currently more the rule than the exception (An Intervention for the Negative Influence on Body Esteem 405-418). Negative body image affects all aspects (physical, mental, social, and spiritual) of the body negatively and cause problems like depression, anxiety and social anxiety. Roughly half of the women in the U. S. wear size 14 or larger though most standard clothing retailers only cater to size 14 and smaller (raderprograms). Having a negative body image can be detrimental to a person’s self-esteem; they will always scrutinize themselves in mirrors and be envious to other’s bodies, whether it is celebrities, friends or even complete strangers. Many people with a negative body image will start to diet to control their weight and get it to where they want it to be. At any given time, one in every three women and one in any four men are on a diet (raderprograms). People diet to be thinner and more attractive, to look like people they see in the media. A People magazine survey showed that 80% of female takers felt that women in movies and television programs made them feel insecure about their bodies (raderprograms). The media is very negative towards people who are not as small as models and (most) actresses. The average U. S. model weighs 117 lbs and is 5’11†, while the average U. S. woman weighs 140 lbs and is 5’4† (raderprograms). The media also is a very strong advocate of dieting and especially diet pills. While dieting can be done healthily, some teenagers abuse dieting; 73% of teenage girls who abuse diet pills and 79% of teenage girls who self-purge (the act of forcibly making themselves vomit or abusing laxatives to not absorb calories) frequently read women’s fitness and health magazines (raderprograms). People who diet have an increased amount of depression due to body image and not getting the results they expect. Thirty-five percent of â€Å"occasional dieters† progress into pathological dieting (disordered eating) and as many as 25% advance to full blown eating disorders (raderprograms). Medical researchers believe that 80 percent of all eating disorders started with a diet (The Causes of Negative Body Image). Media causes teens to feel insecure and have low self-esteem. It is one of the leading causes of Eating Disorders in the United States. Eating Disorders affect 10+ million females and 1+ million males (raderprograms). Many teens suffer from eating disorders and it majorly affects a person’s life. â€Å"When you have an eating disorder at a young age, you can’t shake it easily. I’ve suffered with anorexia and bulimia since I was 12 years old, along with severe depression and anxiety disorders. It was largely influenced by the media and the pressure to be thin. You’re always pre-occupied with the voices telling you not to eat this, or not to eat that because you want to be thin, right? It’s always there and it’s hard. You know what you’re doing is wrong, but man does it feel so right. † (Billstein). For females between the ages 15-24 who suffer from anorexia, the mortality rate associated with the illness is twelve times higher than he death rate of ALL other causes of death (raderprograms). When a person develops an eating disorder they may also become addicted to exercise along with restricting calories. Exercise addiction is maladaptive, causing more harm than benefits. People become addicted to exercise in order to be thinner. This is usually paired with an eating disorder or negative body image. A person will exe rcise and burn off every calorie that they have consumed during the day and run their calorie count into the negatives so they do not absorb any calories at all. â€Å"I feel in control of my body when I exercise. I can see exactly how many calories I have burnt out of my body; being able to burn the small amount of calories that I have managed to eat just feels good. † (Billstein). About 10% of gym users have exercise addiction. Another disorder that ties in with eating disorders is Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). BDD is â€Å"imagined ugliness†, where a person picks apart everything about themselves until their self-esteem is very low, making them susceptible to mood disorders. It is the gateway drug to eating disorders and negative body image, depression, anxiety and other altered mood disorders. 0% of people diagnosed with eating disorders also suffer from BDD. â€Å"When I look at myself in the mirror, I don’t see what other people see. I see a girl with a large forehead, big thighs, a fat stomach and beady little eyes. I hate my body so much that what I see is totally transformed and disgusting. I don’t want to look like this, that’s why I resorted to o ther things that I could control: eating and how much. † (Billstein). When a person has depression, anxiety, eating disorders or other altered mood disorders they may become addicted to unhealthy activities. An unhealthy addiction that many people, teenagers primarily, form is self-harm. It has many names: self-injury, self-injurious behavior, self-abuse, self-cutting, and repetitive self-harm syndrome. It is most often called self-mutilation. Regardless of what name a person uses, it is the intentional destruction or alteration of one’s own body tissue without conscious suicidal intent (How Negative Body Image Affects the Body and Mind). Self-harm consists of any bodily injury whether it be cutting, burning, scratching, picking or preventing the healing of wounds. Individuals self-harm to release pain. Some people say they self-mutilate because they are emotionally numb and it helps them feel something. When cutting, the person feels in control of the pain, while on the inside, they cannot control mental pain from disorders or depression. Those who cut feel a relief afterwards but it gets more intense of an addiction the longer it goes. They experience strong cravings to harm themselves and withdrawals when in recovery. â€Å"I cut because I can control it. I’m not saying that it’s a good thing, but I’m in recovery and I have relapsed. It takes control of your mind; you’re in a sad state when you take that blade to your skin. You have the scars forever to remember the times you’ve been through, but they show strength not weakness. They’re battle scars and they show that you’ve conquered, not been defeated, you’re still alive and here, and that’s beautiful. † (Billstein). 90% of self-injury individuals begin harming themselves during their teen years or younger. (Cutting: Self Injury Facts amp; Statistics). Only 4% of women in the world truly think they are beautiful (raderprograms). There are some positive body image influences in the media including Dove skincare. They have the ‘Real Beauty’ campaign showing moderate to plus size models in a positive atmosphere. There is a drastic difference between Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ campaign (Figure 1) and Victoria’s Secret’s new ‘Love My Body’ campaign (Figure 2). Some forms of media are only positive to a certain weight group (i. e: ‘Love My Body’ campaign). Women should not be ashamed of their bodies, they should embrace them and show off their best features. â€Å"You’re going to be in this body for the rest of your life, so you might as well learn to like it† (Billstein). Figure 1 (Rana). Figure 2 (McDonell-Parry). Overall, negative body image is a very dangerous issue to have because it can lead to destructive behaviors like eating disorders, low self-esteem, mood disorders, exercise addiction and other unsafe body disorders. When teenagers are put under the pressure of women in the media, they are at a higher risk of developing a negative body image, eating or mood disorders and other unsafe addictions if their bodies are not as slim.

Memory Leak Notification in Delphi on Program Exit

Memory Leak Notification in Delphi on Program Exit All Delphi versions since Delphi 2006 have an updated memory manager that is faster and more feature rich. One of the nicest features of the new memory manager allows applications to register (and unregister) expected memory leaks, and optionally report unexpected memory leaks on program shutdown. When creating WIN32 applications with Delphi it is imperative to make sure that you free all the objects (memory) you create dynamically. A memory (or resource) leak occurs when the program loses the ability to free the memory it consumes. Report Memory Leaks on Shutdown Memory leak detecting and reporting are set to false by default. To enable it, you need to set the global variable ReportMemoryLeaksOnShutdown to TRUE. When the application is closed, if there are unexpected memory leaks the application will display the Unexpected Memory Leak dialog box. The best place for the ReportMemoryLeaksOnShutdown would be in the programs source code (dpr) file. begin   Ã‚  ReportMemoryLeaksOnShutdown : DebugHook 0;   Ã‚  //source by Delphi   Ã‚  Application.Initialize;   Ã‚  Application.MainFormOnTaskbar : True;   Ã‚  Application.CreateForm(TMainForm, MainForm) ;   Ã‚  Application.Run; end. Note: a global variable DebugHook is used above to make sure memory leaks are displayed when the application is run in debug mode - when you fit F9 from the Delphi IDE. Test Drive: Memory Leak Detection Having ReportMemoryLeaksOnShutdown set to TRUE, add the following code in the main forms OnCreate event handler. var   Ã‚  sl : TStringList; begin   Ã‚  sl : TStringList.Create;   Ã‚  sl.Add(Memory leak!) ; end; Run the application in debug mode, exit the application - you should see the memory leak dialog box. Note: If you are looking for a tool to catch your Delphi application errors such as memory corruption, memory leaks, memory allocation errors, variable initialization errors, variable definition conflicts, pointer errors ... take a look at madExcept and EurekaLog Delphi Tips Navigator Date Time SQL Queries: Formatting Date Time Values for Access SQL in DelphiForce TListViews Edit Mode using a Keyboard Shortcut

Price Rigidity in Internet Retailing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Price Rigidity in Internet Retailing - Essay Example However, the internet version presents two fundamental ways of understanding price rigidity and the nature of price adjustment .First; it provides a unique technological context for the micro-level study of price-setting behavior and strategies. Second, these technologies are pointed out as major forces in market transformation hence different from initial doings. As a result of the above authors’ concerns, three main research questions arise; The listed research question explicitly address the aim of this article that focuses on reviewing and synthesizing what we know about price rigidity in non-electronic background as well as to discover the extent to which it explains dynamism of price setting as observed in Internet retailing research frame work. Moreover, this paper states research framework as a tool that provides a means to evaluate the observed empirical evidence for price-change behavior in Internet retailing in a manner that emphasizes theory. The authors express their theoretical views and argue that rigid prices occur when prices do not adequately change in response to underlying cost and demand shocks (Anderson, 1994). It identifies Cost of Price Adjustment, Market Structure, Asymmetric, and Information, Demand-Based as the only 4 theories to explain the happenings. These theories are based on underlying assumptions that prices are under the control of and administered by firms, and not subject to the laws of supply and demand and that firm’s pricing practices and consumer behavior are the key determinants. In that regard, they propose a research framework to examine different theories on price rigidity that will be observed in Internet retailing environments at the different levels of analysis covering the firm, the consumer, and the market. The article describes various analyses done. These analyses include; firm-specific level that focuses on Internet retailers strategic pricing capability that enhances organizational

BUSINESS ETHICS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

BUSINESS ETHICS - Essay Example Ethics, after all, encompass wider perspectives of human concerns ultimately affecting business organizations. Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell (2009, 6) define business ethics as â€Å"the principles and standards that guide behavior in the world of business†. As businesses comprise a greater majority of the world’s human activities, the importance of studying ethics come as a necessity rather than a matter of natural occurrence. Businessmen interact with diverse stakeholders in capacities ranging from employees, creditors, customers, directors, stockholders, government entities, and the community, as a whole. In this regard, they are obliged to abide by a set of standards which guide their actions and decisions in order to protect the stakeholders’ interests which they serve. Accordingly, each professional endeavor is governed by a code of ethics which encompass principles and values of integrity, objectivity, competence, respect and protection of legal and personal rights, confidentiality, nondiscrimination, promotion of wellness, refusal to participate in illegal and unethical acts, following scientific and ethical research procedures and compliance with state and federal laws, among others. Studying business ethics would assist individuals, as part of the organization, to discern their personal values that affect or influence the performance of their required responsibilities. By learning theoretical ethical concepts and their applications in business, individuals are made aware of the need to recognize relationships between legal and ethical decisions. Business ethics discusses the concepts on leadership and management where managerial responsibilities for the conduct of subordinates need to conform to ethical codes for guidance and compliance. The study of ethics give direction to promote the ethical behavior expected of stakeholders in the business setting. It