CLARENDON HOUSE PUBLICATIONS

So you want to be an entrepreneur?   Or someone who owns and runs a successful business?   ‘Entrepreneur’ could be defined as a ‘business creator’.   Every successful entrepreneur or businessperson begins with their existing position, and that position is one of seven potential starting points:   1. You are trapped in a job from which you would like to escape, with a vague notion of what you would like to do but no clear idea of how to get away or how to put together any kind

We’ve talked in earlier articles about the spectrum which lies behind story-telling - how a core vacuum or great threat or imminent disaster lies at the heart of any successful tale, ready to swallow up those who get too close, and how, coming out from that core, there are bands as represented by various characters and events, until, right on the edge of things, lie (in the majority of stories) freedom and wisdom. The arc of any truly great story is towards its core: some sto

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