CLARENDON HOUSE PUBLICATIONS

How does one get to a position of power as a writer (or in relationships or Life as a matter of fact)?   As has been covered in earlier articles, there are seven distinct phases through which a person moves on the way to success in anything. One starts by being unaware of an urge which is nevertheless powerfully present, so much so that, unless it is acknowledged, it might reach explosive proportions. One may seek to distract oneself from it with various activities; some neve

If you understand the basic theory of how stories really work, it’s possible to approach the putting together of a story in a quite mechanical way. These steps give you the skeleton of the story: the ‘flesh’ of plot and character will follow rather easily if this framework is in place.   1. Recognise (or postulate) a core vacuum.   What does this mean? It means that a very good starting place for a story is coming up with a menace, a huge threat, a hole or gap or peril which

In studying the fundamentals about fiction and how it operates, sometimes someone challenges one of the principles by trying to find an exception to it.   Occasionally, it is suggested that these universal laws that govern story-telling don’t apply to this or that example. And it’s true that, in any attempt to communicate maxims so profound, it seems that some special kinds of examples are left out. But this needs a closer look.   If we accept that at their heart most stories

In successful stories, there is a balance between Idea and Image, Reason and Imagination, Theme and Archetypes (or the symbolic representations of themes), Meaning and Form, Purpose and Shape, the Masculine and the Feminine.   In good stories, this balance is threatened by the antagonist. The threat represented by this character creates a core vacuum  which causes motion or action. This is called the Plot. It’s not often discussed in this way, but a plot in a story is a mecha

Every writer or potential writer is somewhere on a spectrum of writing.   The first level is an insatiable craving to write. This may run so deep that you are not even aware of it consciously, but it will be affecting you somehow. Your head will feel as though it is about to burst, but you may not be sure why. You may seek to distract yourself from this imminent explosion by plunging into various activities, but one day it will dawn on you that that fundamental urge which you

As you will have realised, if you have a product or service which is downloadable through the internet, you will find it easier to fill the customer’s major vacuums (needs) quicker and more completely.   Any time added into the process of bringing the customer and the product or service together is working against the entire purpose of your business.   If you run a pizza delivery service, of course, the customer and the pizza have to meet to achieve your business goal - but e

Whenever a business is not functioning well in terms of production, delivery, sales or profits, at the bottom of its difficulties will often be found a lack of basic data about the vacuum power of customer needs and its potential  as well as plenty of assumptions about producing things, servicing customers or marketing and selling which are undermining the success of the business.   It’s these assumptions which result in an inability to think with the basics of that business

At every point of your business, on every web page, in every store, on every visit, you need to have mechanisms for getting what customers wanted, how they wanted it and whether or not you provided it.   This can be in the form of questionnaires, feedback forms, post-service interviews, testimonials, surveys and so on.   If you immediately think, upon mention of the word 'survey', of people out on the streets with clipboards, or of potentially painful and time consuming effor

Ideas underpin any piece of fiction. They make the difference between the book that doesn’t get sold and the bestseller; they also make the difference between the bestseller that a couple of years later you find on the second-hand bookshelf, and the bestseller which is read again and again and made into box-office-shattering films.   Get the ideas right, and the rest will come much easier.   But what ideas? Do you just dream up some clever ideas and then hope for the best? No