The LuxMob Info Tags

Every storyteller begins a story with a particular issue to deal with: what to reveal, when, and how, to set a story into motion. The trap is that to be obscure is to have a dramatically weak opening; an obscure opening risks failing to offer a reason to enter or stay in a story’s world. Worse, it can communicate the storyteller is unclear about what a story is about, or how to express that in an engaging way. To be too obvious about a story’s purpose also undermines an opening. It can come across as a kind of lecture about the purpose of the story; unfortunately, nothing is set into motion until the lecture is over. The idea is to be dramatically suggestive in a way that draws an audience into a story’s world and continues to offer reasons to say. This often means embedding a story’s dramatic ideas inside action.

An example of what this process looks like when done well is the opening of Chinatown. Jake Gittes is introduced as being detached from a man’s reaction to pictures of his wife having sex in the woods with another man. This introduces the core issue for this story, Jake trying to be moral in an amoral world through detachment. This sets up the outcome of this story’s plot, the tragedy that ensures when Jake tries to maintain his moral code through detachment and someone is killed.

The core story idea of this story is carefully embedded in the action of this opening scene.

To help writers make a distinction between being dramatically suggestive, obvious (also called ‘on the nose’ in screenwriting), and obscure, I have them start an opening scene by plainly stating its dramatic purpose, then how that purpose is suggested in the action of the scene. Then, how they could write the scene in a way that completely obscures what the scene is about. Lastly, how they could take what is obvious and make it dramatically suggestive. Not stated directly, but clearly infusing the action. Embedded in the action.

I’ve found that once writers are guided away from this initial tendency toward obscurity to avoid being obvious, they can put more passion, more feeling, more sense of purpose in opening scenes with the same number of words. It liberates them to write to a point, instead of away from the dramatic point of a scene.

Examples of a deeper story issue being embedded in character actions and plot events in a story’s opening scenes can be found in any well-told film story. One of my personal film favorites, Toto le Hero, begins with an old man being shot, then his voice over that mocks the police investigating the crime. His taunts speak to the issue of identity and reality, and set in motion a powerful story about one man’s quest to gain an identity he felt was taken from him as a child.

The Limey, a great film directed by Steven Soderberg, begins with a black screen and a man speaking urgently, “Tell me, tell me about Jenny.” This sets in motion a father’s journey to discovery the cause of his daughter’s death. Ultimately, he discovers his role in that death. A haunting film that suggests the main character’s mental fragmentation via how the action of scenes are staged. Dialogue from one scene overplays the action of a different scene in a way that heightens the effect of the overall scene. It’s a kind of filmmaking that requires the storyteller understand the different levels of each scene, and how combining elements can create a deeper understanding for the audience about a character.

To help writers understand this process of embedding story ideas in action, I take them on a journey that begins with watching films that are quite transparent.

Sleepless in Seattle begins with a man in grief over the death of his wife, who, when told he’ll meet someone new and fall in love, replies forcefully that he’ll never fall in love again. This sets in motion a story about his recovering from grief and regaining the ability to love again.

One Fine Day begins with a single mother obviously struggling to pay the bills and deal with a young son who wants a father. Beginning the story with one lousy, lousy night sets in motion this story about why she could use one fine day that includes a loving, generous man. But she meets George Clooney instead, and he seems to be anything but what she needs or wants in her life. Ultimately, through sharing an increasingly disasterous day, they find true love together. This is a nicely told story that goes over familiar ground while evoking a journey of feelings for a receptive audience–those who enjoy romantic films.

In the movie Pitch Black, characters crash onto a planet where it seems the sun never sets. They are forced to find water and escape the heat. The very environment of the planet attacks them. Then, when the three suns set and darkness sets it, the dark unleashes ravenous, nightmarish creatures who attack with no mercy. The story puts its characters and its audience into a world where what’s out there in the dark is just as fearsome as we might imagine. This is a story built around a very basic idea, fear of the night, fear of an unending day with no night.

Die Hard is about a man trying to reconcile with the wife he loves, and how defeating the terrorists who threaten her life both shows him how much he truly loves her and helps him find a way to reconcile with her. Through risking his life to save her, she comes to appreciate the depth of his love for her.

Lethal Weapon is about a man who’s died inside who comes back to life. Mel Gibson’s character is introduced with a gun barrel in his mouth as he contemplates suicide because of his loss of his wife, and ends with him at his wife’s graveside, his character ready to let go and move forward in life.

Both Die Hard and Lethal Weapon also have a high quota of explosions, general mayhem, and heroes vanquishing evil bad guys. They also have something deeper embedded in that action. Ideas about grief, loss, and renewal. The most painful scripts I read are action scripts that are just an on-going series of mayhem. Characters die by the dozens and no one in the story cares. Unfortunately, if no one in a script cares about a character’s death, why should I? Or any reader?

This isn’t a suggestion that an action film read like an art film. I teach that action films provides the emotional/physical thrills of a roller coaster ride. An art film asks, why do people enjoy roller coaster rides? Both types of stories are enjoyable when well-told.

An art film can be action-oriented and expressive. A Room with a View opens with two narrow minded, repressed women fussing about finding themselves in a room without a promised view. They quickly meet two expressive men who have a room with a view, who offer to trade. This sets in motion a story about how everything in life can change depending on the inner view one has of events. It is a quickly-paced, engaging story.

I’ve been told that suggesting someone begin a story with action that speaks to the human condition sounds pretentious. The deeper issue for me is to show the great divide that separates a storyteller from a struggling writer. On one side, the storyteller uses words that are lively, vibrant, that resonate because they DO speak to story ideas that resonate with an audience. On the other side, struggling writers who go in circles trying to find some way to make a passive description of things create the effect of a story.

Because there’s such a premium on an economy of words with screenwriting, understanding how to easily and naturally embed story ideas into action is part of the foundation of writing well-told stories as screenplays.

Bill Johnson is author of A Story is a Promise and a popular workshop leader at writing conferences around the US. He explores principles of storytelling through the reviews of popular books, movies and plays at his web site, http://www.storyispromise.com

I Was Googled

It was just yesterday that an old friend of mine got in touch
with me by Googling my first and last name. He found all sorts
of articles, which mentioned my name, including my own website
as #1.

Googling Your Name is Money in Your Pocket

This reminded me of a client I had who was nowhere to be seen
when you Googled their name. This was a huge problem since they
were 100% referral and many people searched for their company
name on the Internet to find their website. It took two months
for them to start showing up, but when they did, it was a HUGE
money maker for them. Potential customers who had been referred
were finally able to find them.

With the pursuit of optimizing a site for certain keywords, so
many companies forget to optimize for their own company name.

The Proof is in the Puddin’

A recent study by Nielsen//Netratings suggest that when web
users know the name of a website, they prefer to type in a
domain name in the “search box” of Google or Yahoo, rather than
typing a domain name into the browser bar.

What does this tell you? Well, it says that if someone has heard
of your company, they’re either going to type in your website
name or your domain name into the search box and your website
better be ready and waiting at the top of the search
engines.

Do YOU show up when your name or company name is
Googled?

Here’s How You Do It

To search engine optimize (SEO) your company name on your
website, here are some tips. (This isn’t an exhaustive list of
all that you can do, but it’s enough to get you started.)

** Choose one page on your website to optimize for your
company name. It might be your Home page, Contact Us page or
About Us page. I recommend your About Us page - it seems that
it’s easier and better to talk about you on that page than any
other page. Conversely, the Home page should be all about them
(What’s In It For Me?) - not about you.

** Add your company name to the ALT tags where possible.
ALT tags are the tags that are connected to the images of
your website. Search engines don’t index images, so any text on
your site that is in the form of an image won’t get indexed. The
search engines read the text and the keywords in the ALT tags
instead.

** Add your company name to your Meta Tags: namely, Meta
titles, Meta description and Meta keywords. A recent study
showed that only 34% of Web site owners knew enough to include a
simple keyword Meta tag on their website. Therefore, if you add
a keyword and properly optimize the rest of your page, you’ll be
doing more than 66% of website owners. Of the 34% of owners who
DO add Meta data, so many forget to add their company name to
the titles, description and keywords! They only remember to add
keywords related to their products/services. If YOU remember to
do this, think how much further ahead you’ll be…

** Add your company name as a keyword to your chosen page’s
body and work it into the content at least 3-4 times. Try to
place it one time nearer to the top of the page body. Repeat
your company name at the start and end of your paragraphs and
near the end of the body. That way, search engines won’t make
any mistake about the content since your company name is used
repetitively and throughout the content.

** Where possible, include your company name within your
hyperlinks. For example on the Home page, you could include
the words “Contact XYZ Company” within the hyperlink copy
instead of just “Contact Us”.

** Finally be patient. With these steps and ONLY these
steps, I helped one company go from not showing up on Google at
all, to #1 in Google for their company name.

Whenever I ask people this question, “what do you really want in your life?” They will usually give me answers as follows. “I want to have more success in my life.” “I want to have more money.” “I want to have a better relationship.” Then I ask them “What will success give you?” “What will money give you?” “What will a good relationship give you?” They will always come down to one answer” Feeling Good!” Yes, “Feeling Good is the Ultimate Needs of any human being.” Nothing is important than feeling good. Therefore, the quality of your life comes down to one thing–your ability to feel good. Did I say that? Yes, feeling good is an ability. It is like your muscle, the more you use, the stronger it will become. You either use it or lose it. Unfortunately, majority of the people today have forgotte how to use this powerful ability. Today I will give you some powerful techniques, as long as you use them, they will awaken your ability of feeling good. The quality of your life will increase dramatically, you will have tremendous amount of energy, live a life of total fulfillment” These techniques are so simple that you couldn’t believe it. I only ask you to keep a ten-day commitment, use them for ten days, see how your life will change. After ten days, you decide keep them or not. I bet you will get addicted to it. Ok Let’s Begin.

Technique No 1: Flip Switch Although we know the importance of feeling good, most of time in daily life we forget about it. We are so busy at dealing with the “important matters” we meet everyday, and we forget the more important matter ” Feeling good, live a stress free life”. At the moment we realize it, we are already in a deep state of negativity. The Solution is to do a “Flip Switch” throughout the day. What is Flip Switch? Flip Switch is a technique that you hold in mind a positive image, a moment of past that you feel really good, or just an imagined event that makes you feel good. Hold it for a few seconds. At the moment you do your Flip Switch, it will cancel out all the previous negative emotions. The key is to do it often. Don’t wait until your negative emotions get big, and dominant you thoughts. Kill the monster when it is little. Do this exercise throughout the day, you will see the changes in your life simultaneously. I can’t stress more how powerful this exercise is, try it out yourself. Some people find it is hard to hold a image, my answer to them is just pretend you see. The importance is not how clearly you see, but how strong you feel. (The idea of Flip Switch comes from Dr Robert Anthony, to get more detailed instruction and other powerful techniques, check out his programs here)

Technique No 2: Capture Magic Moments We don’t remember all things happen in our lives, but we remember some moments. Unfortunately, most people only remember the unhappy moments, and forget those happy moments. These unhappy memories only make them unhappy, and they don’t even notice. The purpose of this technique is to help you consciously memories those magical happy moment so that they will make you happier. It is very simple, keep a magical journal, every night before you go to bed, and recall all the good things happened in your day. Note down things you enjoyed, things you learned, and most importantly things you have achieved. Every week, record down top achievements during the week; and every month, record down top achievements during the month. You will be amazed by how many things you have achieved, and wander why you did not notice them before. Take your 10 day challenge; you will love the positive changes in your life. Till you find your ability of feeling good increases, you will really live with your true purpose. I will unveil another three more powerful ways to manage your emotions next week. Stay Tuned!

Technique No 3: Be grateful to everything Do you know what the most powerful emotional state that people have is? Yes, that is gratitude. When you are in the state of gratitude, you are in line with source energy of the universe. You will get to see things clearly. Any obstacles have become an opportunity to you. People feel depressed, or unhappy, most of the time is because that they focus too much attention onto the problems they have, and forget that they have many wonderful things happening in their lives. Be grateful to the love you received from your family, your friends, and your colleges. Thank them in some way. Treat them a meal, buy them a gift, or just give them a word of greeting, or just give them a prayer in your heart. Be grateful to yourself, to your body. Say thanks to your feet for supporting you for so long time, say thanks to your eyes for letting you see the beauty of this world, say thank to your ears for giving you the beautiful sounds of the universe. Say thank you to every part of your body. Thank the universe for all the blessings it gives you, and all the blessing you are receiving. Be grateful for everything you have now, and you shall receive much more.

Technique No 4: The secret of giving What you give you shall receive! You can see many evidences that show you this is absolutely true. The most wealthy men on this planet are always the people who give most. The more they give, the more they receive. Bill Gates is the richest man on earth, because he gives the most. No any other person in the history had ever given as much money to the world as Bill Gates did. You must give the very thing that you want to receive. If you want money, you must give money. If you want love, you must give love. The best way to stay happy and feel loved is to make other people feel happy and loved. Give love to everyone you meet, a simple greeting or a word of compliment will go a long way. At the very moment you show your love to other people, the universal law has already guaranteed you will receive back, and it will give you back in the most amazing way. A point to note is that you must give out unconditionally; don’t expect return from the person you give to, the universe will orchestrate all the details. Give love, and you will receive love!

Song Chengxiang is the editor of The Ultimate Secrets Newsletter. To receive the full Article and get 5 other FREE ebooks instantly at http://www.theultimatesecrets.com/Special.htm

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Nokia, as everybody knows, is now 1 of the planet’s most large makers of cell phones and this is compared with other leading competitors for instance, Samsung & Motorola (as well as others). Nokia assemble sets for each and every dominant market sector and back in ‘07 Nokia was voted the most valuable global brand. Their goods fall into four various sectors - mobile phones, multimedia, networks & enterprise solutions.

The mobile device revolution headed by Nokia would seem to be inexorable. The heavyset bricks found in the nineties for example, the Nokia 2110 that was almost 236 grams have nowdays been swapped with light-weight, and slim phones for example, the Nokia 6282 that comes in at a mere 115 grams or what about the Nokia 7380 that weighs primarily 80 g. All the phones have the very latest in communications jiggery pokery coupled with a solid fashion sense.

Deciding on a telephone was in the past a simple business still, when you think about the products possible to each of us today, it becomes somewhat harder. Consumers can buy their mobile devices with the thought of various extras, - might it be a statement of fashion an object which makes people look spiffing - or could it be only for the advantages that the telephones presently offer, for example, e-mail & WAP, etc.

More technologies are also consolidating in Nokia phones to allow the customer the possibility to communicate with more than simply speech. Nokia telephones which include cameras are also becoming commonplace as is the facility to make video and transmit them to friends and buddies through multimedia messaging. You should additionally see full color video on every one of their handsets and in excess of 1/2 are available with the opportunity to show WAP info (URLs designed just for the smaller screens on your mobile devices). Also obtainable is telephones which have radios & MP3 facilities only for listening to your favourite music. The cost of their phones range from nil up to a few hundred pounds, it mostly depends about what one wish for.

Nokia, as was mentioned, continues to be the the globe’s top builder of cell phones, even though some think that Nokia’s top rank might be threatened especially by Sony Erickson. Even so, Nokia are backed by the advantage of decades of experience in mobile phone fabrication & has incredible loyalty from its mainstream consumers along with with their reputation just for reliability & user friendliness. Find out about the latest mobile phones.

As new technologies become even more vital in today’s cell phones, the space between Nokia and all of its competitors will become extra obvious.