Does this Headline "Grab" Your Attention?Written by David McKenzie
If you are reading this first sentence then answer is yes. You see, objective of headline is to get reader to keep reading. Whether it’s an article, a sales letter, an ezine ad or just subject heading in an email, objective of headline is to get reader to read more than just headline. To read next ‘bit’. So what makes this headline an attention grabber? Let’s look at 4 points within this headline that makes it “grab” readers attention. 1. Ask a Question If you ask a question in your headline then reader is inclined to want to answer question themselves. The reader is intrigued. This prompts reader to read on. Asking a question is one of best ways to ‘grab’ attention. 2. Use Inverted Commas Use inverted commas around a single word as I have done, or around a group of words or whole headline. The inverted commas themselves actually highlight something that reader can latch on to. If you had 10 headlines and 1 had inverted commas around it, then it’s more likely it would be most read headline. There is another benefit to using inverted commas around whole headline. It often means that in an alphabetical list of headlines you will be near top. This is because inverted commas come before letter “A”. 3. Capitalize First Letter of Each Major Word in Headline
| | Character DevelopmentWritten by Jeff Colburn
How much character development you do really depends on your writing style. Personally, I do little or no character development. My characters, to varying degrees, are living full-blown in my mind. I may make a few quick notes, but not much more than that. However, most of my writing is in short story and novelette areas. I have not worked on a novel, and all of my books have been nonfiction. If I were to write a "War and Peace" beastie, then I'm sure I would do at least a minor outline on all of my characters.But why do a character development? To add depth and life to your characters. Most writers flesh out their characters to varying degrees before starting their story. Especially in a novel, this can prevent you from needing to go back and rewrite scenes because a character did something that, earlier in story, he would never do. Or to make sure characters are dissimilar. There's nothing more boring than having two or more characters with similar habits, attitudes or ways of speaking. One writer I met, Elizabeth George ("Playing For The Ashes") goes into great detail for her novels. She creates a map of area where story is taking place, takes photographs of area, or an area like one she envisions, and has pages of information on each character. How they look, dress, comb their hair, their family tree, schools attended, etc. Elizabeth writes long novels, and says, "Why say in one hundred words what you can say in one thousand?" So with long, detailed novels like this, an indepth development of each character would be necessary. When doing a character development, you will want to know as much about main characters as you know about your family or best friend. As with your story, you should use all of your senses when describing your characters. Following are some of things you should know about your characters.
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