There are people who can find just about anything on the internet just short of hacking into top government websites.  Then, there are those people who can’t find anything at all.  Google can only get you so far.  Then, you have to learn a few tricks to get you the rest of the way.

Speaking of Google, it really is a good way to search for just about anything.  When you type in a few keywords, rather relevant sites come up in the search.  Some search engines will only show you the sites that pay the most money.  But, Google does a good job at creating analytics and sending out digital spiders to crawl all over websites.  With all of their science put together, you can’t help but get some really relevant websites in a search.

I have a few favorite sites that I know off the top of my head, and for writing they come in handy all the time.  Merriam-Webster has an online dictionary where you can verify your definitions.  But, it also has a pretty good thesaurus.  EBSCOhost is a research database that has literally millions of articles from newspapers, magazines and encyclopedias all over the globe.  But, you need to be a subscriber.  The backdoor for many of us comes from having a library card and accessing a public information network like Sailor, Maryland’s Public Information Network.

Of course, Wikipedia is a great resource that I find myself using more and more.  In fact, the other day when I was writing about the 2007 Writer’s Strike, I actually looked in the Wikipedia to make sure I had my facts straight.  The Wikipedia is anyone’s domain.  If you know something, you can add it to the Wikipedia.  But, there are editors who are on top of things too.  They keep it as factual as they possibly can.

I have not even come close to scratching the surface on the great resources the internet holds.  But, I hope you get what I’m saying.  You can definitely tell a good resource from a bad one.  And when you are looking at information that is fishy, you don’t have to disregard it.  Just Google it and look at about ten other sites to see if they support that information or refute it.  Then, that leads us to another issue altogether.

Some topics are so debatable that you merely have to take a side.  After you do your research, you’ll hear facts from all sides and you’ll be just as confused as when you went into it.  So, just make up your mind.  Even though nothing says you have to choose a side, it doesn’t bode well in something you’re writing that you don’t have a side.  You might be able to pull it off, but it’s not likely.

The internet literally has everything.  If you don’t feel like getting up and finding the phonebook, Yellow Pages are right there.  If you don’t know how much that old foreign coin is worth, Foreign Exchange sites exist all over the net.  But my favorite site is the Internet Movie Database where I can literally find anything out about a movie or an actress.  I love looking up the answers to trivial questions.

I have literally hundreds of websites I can visit if I have a question I need answered.  When I have visitors and they ask a question, I have no problem grabbing my laptop and looking for the answer.  I love watching my friends’ expressions as I find information at the drop of a dime.  Yes, there are still people who really don’t know how resourceful the internet is.

When I’m writing, I like to know that my information is correct.  It’s really not very credible to say something that is inaccurate when you are trying to make a point.  If you had just spent a few extra minutes looking something up, you would have been able to make your point more effectively.

That’s what research is all about.  And the internet makes it so much easier than it use to be.  I used to have to go to the university library or make phone calls to certain resources.  Now, I have it right at my fingertips.  It’s best to learn your way around the internet.  When you’re writing, it’s right there.  It’s in the browser right next to your document.  Have fun with it!

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Plenty of ideas floating around in the air, how in the world are we expected to reach up and grab any?  It’s not really that difficult.  But, you have to be focused.  You have to be in tune.  But, be in tune with what?

There is a conscience that seems to subtly drift from thought to thought until finally we are faced with an issue.  Tap into what people are discussing.  When they mention their concerns, offer your opinion or expertise.  Write a blog, article, a screenplay or even a book to put your thoughts into the mix.  It’s fun and it’s community.

I often get my thoughts from some of the most adverse places.  I could watch an episode of The People’s Court and get an idea about a screenplay.  Possibly, the idea fits other ideas I’ve had and I’m ready to put them together.  For me, at times it’s that easy.

In fact, I’ll give you an example.  Looking back at The People’s Court, that guy that stands outside the courtroom — I’m only kidding — Curt Chaplin always seems to want to stir things up even when the plaintiff and the defendant are fine with the outcome.  His remarks seem to intend to incite people to voice their opinion when they were trying to be nice about everything. 

“So, what do you think about your mother taking you to court over rent?”

“Ah, it’s my mother.  I love her.  I’m happy with the outcome.”

“But, she’s your mother and she wanted you to pay her rent.  What do you think about that?”

“It’s ok.  It’s not a problem.  Not for me anyway.”

“So, what do you think about your son refusing to pay rent?”

“He’s my son and I love him.  I always will.”

“But, he was mooching off of you.  He’s twenty eight.  He should be out on his own, don’t you think?”

“Any time my son needs me, I’ll help him.  That’s the way I am.”

So while I’m thinking about Curt Chaplin in the hallway trying to get people to put on the boxing gloves, I watch an episode of Monk where Monk beats up Santa Claus and the media has a heyday with it.  It turns out that this particular Santa Claus is trying to rob a museum of a thirty million dollar jewel they have in custody.  So, the Monk is right while the media is making him out to look like the bad guy.  They just want their story.

So, the theme that is running through my mind from both of these shows is that sometimes….SOMETIMES…journalists are more interested in creating a story than just telling the one that actually exists.  It’s a story that has been told before.  But now, I have my own angle on it.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do with that yet.  But, that’s what I’m talking about.

Stay focused and let your brain grasp the thoughts.  You’ll never run out of things to write.  And keep in mind that writing is supposed to be fun.  So, have it!

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See how I did that? Drew you right into my conversation didn’t I? That’s one way you begin a conversation with your intended audience.

No, I’m not giving away confidential secrets of the government. I’m not about ready to divulge the ancient secrets of a sacred society that lives among us as quiet and beneficial members. I don’t want to let you know the meaning of life just yet. It is merely a suggestion for the way you communicate a message to your intended audience. But nonetheless, I drew you into my conversation when I wrapped up Part I of Beginning a Conversation with Your Intended Audience published December 5, 2007.

When you read that blog entry published earlier, you instantly thought, “Shucks, I have to wait to get the beat.” You may not have said it quite that way, but I’m paraphrasing your thoughts for you. Yes, you resumed with the rest of your day. You haven’t been sitting still waiting patiently for Part II. It didn’t ruin your day or anything like that at all. But, it did make you curious.

You returned today to get the secret. And even though I told you that I have no secret to tell you, it still subconsciously nagged at you because it aroused your curiosity. If there’s no secret, then you want to know what is it that you haven’t learned yet or may have forgotten a long time ago. And if you haven’t been paying attention, you missed it once again.

When you stir up someone’s curiosity, you draw them into your conversation. You know something your readers don’t. Even if they do know what you are about to tell them, you know the answer to the question and the answer is nagging at them. That implies that you raised a question.

Raising a question is definitely a great way to begin a conversation. But, and this brings you back to a very important point I made in Part I, you have to know your intended audience. You have to be able to strike a chord with them. You have to raise a concern that would get them interested in what you have to say.

If your intended audience is an artist, then raise a question that would really get the attention of artists. But, keep it real! An artist will not join the conversation if you raise a question about something base and unchallenging. Some questions just don’t stir enough interest. But if you can tap into the heartbeat of the artist community, you can turn a question into a group activity.

In order to really raise a good question, stir up some controversy. The artistic world is full of controversy, so that’s a bit easy. But if you want to communicate a message in a rather non-controversial field, you have to create the controversy for yourself. So, are you making things up for yourself? Not really.

What you are doing is looking at the issues, finding an angle and giving your readers something to really chew on so that they get your message entirely. In fact, this is so easy that I don’t think there is a field in which someone wants to write that they can’t find some controversial topic.

Let’s give this theory a try! Let me give you some examples to start. In the field of carpentry, is there a best hammer? Could that issue raise some controversy? In the field of bubble gum, is there any that won’t rot your teeth? Could that issue raise some controversy?

Task: Find the most boring or non-controversial topic and explore any angle that can raise controversy. In other words, you are trying to find a field that has no controversy whatsoever. I’m sure someone if not I will come up with a controversial topic in any field.

Method: Blog comments.

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Try to begin a conversation with your intended audience. This isn’t a trick. It’s a way of thinking. When you write, you are intending to communicate a message to someone. But, some writers either forget that basic premise or they just never knew it in the first place.

A beginning writer or one who will never be any good forgets about the audience. Sometimes, they don’t even have an intended message. When writing’s sole purpose is to communicate a message to a certain audience, it astounds me that those two things can slip from a writer’s mind while… “writing.” But, it happens.

A great writer or one who intends to get better at it will actually consider audience and message first. Yes, the message is obviously most important. But, considering the audience offers the guidelines you will need in order to write effectively. The intended audience can be teenagers, women, minorities, the middle class, the rich or any other category you can imagine.

If you read any magazine, you will easily figure out who the intended audience is supposed to be. Without trying to offend anyone, here are a few examples. People is basically for homebodies who like gossip, Time is for the socially aware in about the mid-age range, YM is obviously for young girls (it is right in the name) and Cosmopolitan is for women. Notice how I mentioned who the intended audience is “supposed” to be? Anyone can read Cosmo, but it’s going to be written for the female population.

When you write, think of yourself as someone who is pulling an audience to you and attempting to tell them something very important. Yes, there are writers who write only for the purpose of hearing themselves talk basically. But, think of yourself as an authority on something. You are an authority on the message you intend to communicate.

No, that doesn’t make you the smartest person in the world. Being the “authority” doesn’t have to be some burdensome, all-empowering position. You have a message and that in itself is enough to give you some authority. You have some insight on a topic. You know how to do something. Your message could be as simple as how to bake a pie, but you are the expert at the moment and your purpose is to inform your readers your best practices in baking a pie.

What brings your writing to life is if you can engage your audience and this is where you begin a conversation with your readers. This isn’t a trick, I said it before. But, it is important. It’s a set of techniques. It’s not a secret or it’s not intended to be a secret, but the fact is that many writers don’t know how to engage an audience and draw them into your conversation.

Now that I have your attention…now that I have you expecting to learn a secret…this is to be continued…

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The debate goes on over how many stories actually exist. It is said that contemporary writers can only produce spins on the basic story types. In other words, no matter how ingenious a writer is, even a great writer can only write a reproduction of a story contrived years ago.

Boy Meets Girl

Good versus Evil

The Good Ol’ Comedy

The debate actually gets a little more in depth, but that’s the gist. Some writers feel certain that we’ve exhausted every angle of the Boy Meets Girl story type. Any story that comes out now is only a spin-off of a story already told.

Sometimes, writers are correct. I mean, how many different ways can you tell Cinderella? And they keep coming. The trend these days is to make the story more real. I grew up on a cartoon version that interested me very little since I was into GI Joe and the Superheroes. But, recent stories of Cinderella have told a less magical, more realistic type of story that makes the audience think that the story could actually be true.

This trend has taken place with such stories as Snow White, Beauty and the Beast and The Wizard of Oz. Writers attempt to make the story come to life with realistic characters and a realistic story line. It’s the absolute reversal of years ago when the audience was hungry for fairy tales to escape the daily life.

Good versus Evil is also a concept the writers can’t seem to get away from at all. But, Good versus Evil is always welcome in every story. In fact, most audiences are geared to spot the conflict from the beginning. The story really can’t work without a Good versus Evil scenario.

But, writers are trying. They look at an archetype of a story structure and try to play with it. The anti-romance is a byproduct of this type of thinking. If romance is a beautiful story where boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy stalks girl until she gives into his advances, girl gets whisked away on horseback into the sunset, then the anti-romance would offer us a complete reversal. It would read more like boy meets girl and she breaks his will to live, he attempts suicide hundreds of times until finally he is placed into an insane asylum where he is drugged heavily every day and all he can think about is the girl who by now has met someone and fallen in love, had several children and is abundantly happy, which makes boy ever more dark and depressed.

Knowing that archetypal structures exist in literature, the challenge then becomes a journey of discovering the absolute different story. But, what would it take to accomplish such a thing? It’s not as easy as you think.

And I mean think about it! Romeo and Juliet has been done. It’s not always in the form of Romeo meets Juliet, they fall in love in their secret meetings, Juliet pretends to commit suicide causing Romeo to commit suicide which causes Juliet to commit suicide and Verona returns to normal. No, Romeo and Juliet often comes in the form of Tony and Maria in the streets of New York City.

How many different ways can the hero save the damsel in distress? How many different ways can a feud erupt between warring peoples? And, how many different ways can we tell the story about Cinderella?

The true questions dive a bit deeper. Can a writer contrive a story that is absolutely unique? Would it mean that all of the former story telling techniques would have to be abandoned? Would such a story even be interesting to us?

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