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We have come a long way from the time when only professionals could replicate CDs and DVDs. With the advent of blank media and the technology to duplicate it or burn it, almost anyone can now make their own CD. The ability to place digital media on a disc has changed how we both use and view this type of media today. It has taken only a few years for CDs to take over the spot once exclusively held by cassettes. Video and music cassettes are becoming dinosaurs before our very eyes. In time, our children may even view them like we used to view vinyl records and 8-tracks!

But where do you find CD and DVD replication and packaging services? Any large city worth it’s salt will have these types of duplication services. It is also very easy to find companies on the Internet that do this kind of business, and in fact, specialize in it. The world of CD and DVD duplication is wide open with many options for businesses and individuals.

For companies that simply need many CDs or DVDs replicated, there is a thriving market for duplication towers that don’t need a PC to be operated. They are the perfect choice for a business that needs to copy a lot of media without all the fuss and expense. Any good computer or large electronics store should have this type of hardware, and if not, should be able to point you in the right direction.

If you are in the music or video business and want to replicate your CD or DVD for sale to the public, some very good companies that oversee the entire process, from replication to artworks and graphics on the CD to creative packaging options are common. They specialize in helping those in the entertainment industry. They provide the technology needed for this service. Instead of burning the CD or DVD, they use a more permanent “glass press” method. They also have the creativeness to make the CD a custom design with mass appeal. They also help with the packaging so that it stands out from the rest.

Perhaps the advent of all these businesses that replicate and package CDs and DVDs mean that just about anyone can now produce their work and have it copied for friends and family or on a much larger scale. This is a great way for independent musicians and others to have an outlet for their work so that it will be heard and seen. It can have a professional look that will impress people to give it a listen or look-see. For people who are serious about their career in the entertainment business, this could not be better, and the good news is that you don’t have to look far to find a company that will do the job right.

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Here we have 18 methods you can use straightaway to encourage audience participation when speaking in public.

Audience Polling.

Easily done to get a quick poll of the audience. “Hands up in the room all those that have…” or “Those people that think they inclined to do this, could you please stand up” or “if you like that idea…cheer now”

Moving amongst audience.

With a roving microphone you can occasionally move into your audience just like Jerry Springer or Opra Winfrey. Careful though because you’ll have your back to some people and lose eye contact, but it does break up the routine.

Tell stories.

These involve your audience’s imagination, sense of humour and allows them to connect your world with theirs. This is subtle involvement

Humour.

Use humour where appropriate. Just having your audience laugh or chuckle involves them and gets those endorphins working which inject motivation and energy into them.

Jobs for the boys or girls.

Ask those keen ones to help with your handouts, be the timekeeper, be the fetcher and carrier with, say, the roving microphone. Doesn’t involve everyone but gets some people moving around enjoying their role.

Ask questions of the audience.

Easy to do in smaller groups, when training, for example. But in a group of 50 or more this can be tricky as peer pressure may ensure you get a loud silence thrown back at you. Rhetorical questions are best earlier on. Also you could use this with humour. After a period of silence you could say….”that was a rhetorical question by the way.”

Put people’s names in your speech.

Do a little research beforehand to find out who’s who in the organisation. Who doesn’t mind being mentioned and use their names.

Use audience questionnaires.

Have your handout buddies distribute a short questionnaire connected to the subject and ask people to complete these. Keep them short and self explanatory, at least with the instructions on what to do printed on the sheet. The last thing you want is people asking questions about how to fill it in.

Partner Pledge.

Quick and simple and ensures people start to take action following your input. Ask them to turn to a partner and make a pledge to them on what you’re going to do when you leave today. Afterwards you could ask for one or two volunteers to say to the whole group what they’re going to do.

Group discussion.

An old favourite in training circles and has it’s place in speaking as well. Set up a topic to be discussed which needs personal thoughts and ideas and then ask everyone to turn to their partner to discuss the topic for, say, 5 minutes. Alternatively ask two people sitting next to each other to join in with the two people in front of them, who could turn their chairs around.

Questions from the audience.

Usually taken at the end of the presentation and that’s fine as long as people know. You could take questions periodically, say, every 30 minutes. Or you could ask for them at any time and this is usually OK for smaller groups. But the worse scenario is that no one wants to ask a question. Faced with this prospect you could dish out index cards to everyone and get them to write questions anonymously. Ask them to pass the completed cards around the audience and ask people to read these out. Since the question doesn’t belong to them, you’ll get lots of people volunteering. A great idea I saw the other day, with a young audience, was phone text messaging. The speaker asked everyone to text a question to her mobile number. Sure enough within a few minutes the speaker was able to read out the questions she was receiving and answer them.

Use audience photos.

Need permission for this but incorporate audience pictures in your PowerPoint presentation.

Forum Theatre.

This is great fun and allows audience members to get involved in a role play without actually role playing. Let me give you one example of how this works and there’s plenty more. You need some actors on the stage or some very outgoing and enthusiastic audience members. Set up a situation, for example a sales scenario, and tell the actors, secretly, to do it badly. Run the acting for a few minutes and then ask the audience what they’re doing badly and how they could do it differently. Ask the audience to give their ideas straight to the actors who then act out this way or using their words, or whatever was suggested.

Flipcharts around the room.

Here you want some input from the audience in the form of ideas or suggestions linked to a subject. Have flipchart easels placed around the room beforehand and write on each chart the subject you want ideas on or the question to answer. Next put audience members into teams and ask them to physically walk over to a flipchart. Shout go and ask them to write down their ideas. After 2 minutes ask them to move onto the next chart and do the same thing. After about 10 minutes you should have lots of ideas or input to use how you wish.

Energisers.

Activities that put energy into the group. There are thousands out there, some risky some not, but they all serve the purpose of re-energising the audience in some way. The best ones are where the actual energiser is connected to the subject in some way otherwise some people think they’re wasting their time.

Quizzes.

Highly energetic and can be run in countless ways. Teams, individuals it doesn’t matter. The point is that you’ve prepared some questions on the topic and you’re going to run a quiz of some description to teach further information or test to see what people have learnt in a fun manner. Easy when you have smaller groups but large groups will work too.

Volunteers on the stage.

Does what it says on the tin. Let me give you an example to get you thinking about this. A speaker asked for 12 volunteers from the audience to come onto the stage and act out a particular character. The characters were all the challenging types of delegate you can get on training courses – the joker, the griper, the dinosaur etc. We had great fun acting out scenarios that were pre arranged by the speaker.

Bistro Exercises.

My final suggestion for you and the most effective. As an example, I arranged the room so that we had bistro tables which contained about a dozen people each. I then organised a series of games, activities, exercises that each table would do amongst themselves facilitated by me.

For example we asked alternate tables to act out body language movements and the adjoining table had to guess what the body language meant. We had tables solving puzzles and riddles to learn more about the subject. We set various syndicate exercises for each table. Each exercise had the instructions on handouts or on PowerPoint slides so that the instructions were clear.

Paul is an international speaker, trainer, author and coach based in the UK. He specialises in rapport selling and rapport sales management and can ignite his audiences large or small. Rapport selling gets more results.
Get your Ebook Presentation Excellence at http://www.archertraining.co.uk and sign up to our regular EZine of sales and management tips.

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Microsoft Word 2003 has probably one of the most powerful drawing and illustration utilities around short of other full-fledged drawing programs like Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia Freehand.

The miracles start when you display the DRAW toolbar by selecting View > Toolbars > Drawing from the main menu.

The AUTOSHAPES drop-down list alone can go a long way towards creating your “masterpiece” illustrations because it’s got so many options, all configurable through other buttons on the same toolbar. BY selecting a drawing object and piling up different effects from other buttons, you can create an almost infinite variety of shapes and drawings, embedded right inside your text document.

AUTOSHAPES offers the following options: Lines, Connectors, Basic Shapes, Block Arrows, Flow Chart, Stars and Banners, Callouts, More Autoshapes (which opens up the Clip Art collection in a neat sidebar).

Here is how you can pile up different effects to obtain very pleasing and complicated illustrations:

Let’s assume you have selected an Block Arrow shape from Autoshapes.

MS Word will insert a canvas for you. Now your cursor has become the arrow tool and is ready for you to draw an arrow. Click and drag your mouse to draw the arrow automatically. As you can see, this arrow has no color. Let’s make it RED.

Select the arrow by clicking on it. Then select the color RED on your BUCKET tool. Click the bucket and your arrow is now RED.

Let’s also say you’d like to have a 3-D arrow. That;s very easy too. Click and select your arrow again and then click the 3D Style button at the far right of the DRAW toolbar. You’ll be presented a great many 3D effect choices. Click one and zap! You now have a RED and 3-D arrow!

You can easily multiply the number of effects and all the crazy possibilities by experimenting with the DRAW toolbar arrows. You’ll soon be addicted to this very powerful but very well-integrated smooth drawing utility and use it often.

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I think it would be safe to say that all small business owners want more clients. One way to generate a steady stream of new clients for your small business is with the small business marketing article. Writing articles and publishing them on the internet has several benefits that will help to generate more exposure, credibility, and ultimately more clients for the small business owner.

By writing original industry specific small business marketing articles a company or individual can position themselves as experts in their particular field. This is very attractive to potential customers as people like to deal with those they perceive to be knowledgeable and competent. Writing and publishing small business marketing articles places you in that position.

Another way that these types of articles help develop a steady stream of new clients is that when submitted to article directories they help to increase your exposure in the search engines and in turn will deliver even more targeted traffic to your business website. As people read your article they will share it with others or even publish the article on their website which creates a viral effect as your article spreads throughout the internet.

These are some of the major advantages of the small business marketing article. If you are the owner of a small business you should definitely consider implementing this strategy into your marketing mix. All it takes is a little time and effort and you receive the long term benefit of the article being available online working for you virtually forever.

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Can an online article website see trends in society? Sure, as people write what they are thinking about and writers are generally on the front of trends as we know. This fact was recently discussed on an online article submission website.

And well Indeed I tend to agree with this summation in that it appears the online article submission sites are the first to see trends in the changes in writing, communication, internet and society.

I believe this is because such sites dissects the viewer, reader, writer and industry or hobby sector and many of the top online article submission sites have also improved a lot in that all the so-called “Get Rich Quick” stuff is getting drown out by reality based content.

It seems to set the bar a little higher and the author’s works are getting better actually, as is my writing, which I never thought to be very good actually, having got a D+ in journalism in Junior High School? Go figure? That was the worst grade I ever got in school and kind of set me back a notch in ego in those early years I tell ya!

Sociology in the present period could indeed learn a lot from the online article submission site’s data on the Internet, as it seems like a mini-online over view of a wide cross section of activities, which explain who we are in the current society. Consider all this in 2006.

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Everyone would think writing as a job or hobby is stressful. This is one of the reasons why we have only a very small quantity of authors compared to business and other social and administrative sectors. But everything and your aspiration is not that hard to attain! This article will inform you the foundations to be an author.

1. Curious with everything: Curiosity is the first and foremost step to make you an author. Do you think you are curious? If not, you should development the sentiment of eternal information thirst. If you think you do not have this sentiment, start to development it at this moment.

You will never be an author if you have no or do not devote to start “curiosity sentiment” at this moment, because information; in other words, knowledge, makes you want to know more: curiosity invents another curiosity, and as you development this sensation more and more, even God cannot stop you from becoming “an author.”

However, being an information container is not enough, you must inquire your self; why information? Why this is the result and not that? Does this only occur in my country? Why should this information be appealing to me and others? And finally it is you, the prospective author, to invent more curiosities in your own ways.

2. Always want to express: Well, the above statements inform as well as develop your “curiosity sentiment” and by this, you become what I call an extensively informed person. Why be informed? There is no point to be informed without doing the consequence of this “being informed”. The second step to be an author is to express these information to the public, the larger the better.

The job of the author is to reveal his/her internal secrets to anyone. Think of the ways to reveal the secrets you think important to the world as much as possible; furthermore, try to make those secret easy to understand for even the socially deprived citizens.

3. Be a genuine critic: Develop the “criticism stereotype.” Author always has the sense of criticism; however, this criticism must be genuine, which mean single-mindedly for the good of the many. Do not just try to make criticism for public image or self-benefit; this would be dangerous in losing public attention.

4. You are always better: Be always of the opinion that “you are always better”. One of the secretes to be an author is “self-confidence.” Develop this self-esteemed nature by thinking that your expression will add more betters to the former better: best of the best and.

5. Be accustomed to criticism: be ready and always conscious that you will have either constructive or destructive criticisms. This is simple for author, because our life is about reading and sharing each other.

Your very first startup steps to be an author is to be informed from this article, whether you should believe it or not and expressing your criticism after all. Remember! Author’s life is just about curiosity and followed by sharing.

Lay Vicheka is a translator for the most celebrated translation agency in the Kingdom of Cambodia, Pyramid Translation Co.Ltd.. He is now hoding other two professions: freelance writer for Search Newspaper; focusing on social issues and students’ issues and Media Liaison Officer for Asia’s first free on-line IELTS consultation website. Lay Vicheka is the expert author for ezine and prolific article contributor to other websites around the world such as articlecity, 365articles, spiderden, talesofasia, etc (Just google him). He is also a volunteer Cambodian-newspapers columnist (Rasmey Kampuchea and Kampuchea Thmey). Lay Vicheka has great experience in law and politics, as he used to be legal and English-language assistant to a Cambodian member of parliament, migration experience (home-based business) and in writing. He is also member of a New York-based research company. Posting address: 221H Street 93, Tuol Sangke quarter, Russey Keo district, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Tel: 855 11 268 445, vichekalay@yahoo.com

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Globalization affects writers too. In 2005, you’ll find yourself competing with writers from all over the world for space in newspapers, magazines, on the bookshelves – and online, of course. You can, and must, fight back.

You need to get creative. You need to write more, and sell more.

Here are five EASY ways to do that:

=> 1. Multiply the ways you use your material

When you get an assignment and begin your research, think “multiple use” from the outset.

For example, let’s say you have an assignment from a fitness magazine to write about the glycemic index. Sit down and make a list of possible other uses for your research. If you’re writing for a magazine targeted to women, you could rework the material for men’s markets, parenting magazines, even animal magazines. You could write small filler pieces of less than 100 words for “front of book” sections in other magazines.

Don’t stop there. Do a Web search for other markets. Think of: magazines and newspapers in countries other than your own, Web sites, and large companies which may be interested in using your information to inform their consumers.

There are always a million ways you can get more mileage out of your material. Start thinking creatively now.

=> 2. Get multiple assignments from a single source

When an editor has given you an assignment, send that editor more proposals. It’s always easier to sell something to a current customer than it is to a new customer. Send your current customers (editors) one proposal a month. The more often they see your name crossing their desk, the more they’re inclined to give you an assignment they’ve developed in-house.

=> 3. Sit down and writeresearch later

Write first, research later. This sounds counter-intuitive, but it helps you to write more and sell more. It’s easy to get caught in the quagmire of research. You can collect so much material that you lose all enthusiasm for the projectthe more you collect, the more overwhelmed you feel.

For example, let’s say you’re writing a novel. Your hero is a cop. You don’t need to know that much about his day-to-day working life to write the first draft. You don’t need to know specifics of weapons used, or any of a hundred other things. Focus on the characters and the story. Do some research as you go, but aim to do the bulk of your research after you’ve written the first draft.

Here’s how: when you get to a spot in the ms where you need specific info, put: “XX Research”. You can add a comment about the kind of research: primary, or secondary, and where you’ll get the material. Or just put the old printers’ mark: “TK” meaning “to come”.

If you’re writing a magazine article about a topic you know nothing about, create an outline before you begin to research. Your outline can be as simple as: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. Then write your article as you do the research. Hint: with this technique, you’ll write more than you need, so be ruthless when you edit.

=> 4. Write about what you’re living

What’s happening in your life right now? Whatever it is, use it. You must use it right now, because chances are that you won’t be able to use it later. Time moves on, you become a different person.

Here’s how this works. Let’s say you’re a new parentbingo! You have a mass of markets you can write for. You also have a lot of first-person, real-life information which is coming into your life without you having to do anything much at all.

Maybe you’ve started back at school as a mature age student, or you’re taking a course in something new to you. Before you stroll into the door for the first seminar, start lining up markets you could approach with stories about your new field.

You must make use of this “found” information now, when you’re in the midst of living it. If you don’t, you’re missing a great opportunity. You will also find that as this period of your life passes, you won’t be able to write about it. A couple of years ago I was asked to contribute to a parenting manual. OK, I thought, not a problem, I’ve had children. Sadly, it turned out to be a major problem. My children are adults. I found it horribly difficult to put myself into the mindset of the parents of young children.

Write about what you’re living NOW.

=> 5. Write about what you love

What intrigues you? What do you do in your spare time? Do you garden, knit, breed Great Danes? Whatever you do as a hobby can be a money-maker for you. There’s nothing so esoteric that there’s not a market out there.

The benefit of writing about your passions is that you can write easily about it. You have the basic knowledge. You know what concerns other people have. Write about them.

Remember that you don’t need to be an expert. Once you’re an expert, it’s hard to write for beginners. Write about what you love, and watch your sales multiply.

Get started right now, writing more, and selling more. It’s truly easy. You’ll find that when you use these five tools each day, they will become part of you, and your writing career will take off.

Turn words into money! Subscribe to copywriter and author Angela
Booth’s new free ezine, Write For Cash.
Discover how to turn your own words, or someone else’s into money. The
new Web boom is upon us, so content has never been more important, or
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When we are presenting, and especially when we are new to speaking, we often speed ahead — afraid of leaving blank spaces. Successful sales people know the power of silence. As presenters, if we learn to use silence and pauses to our advantage, we will not only reach our listeners more effectively, they will also understand and remember our messages more readily.

Begin with silence. It takes “guts” to stand in front of an audience after being introduced without saying something immediately, but this can prove to be one of the strongest ways to get their attention and to create rapport. Lee Glickstein, a well known speaking coach and speaker, suggests that we start our presentations by standing quietly, making eye contact with audience members, letting them make contact with us, and then once everyone is waiting with anticipation, start with a dynamic story. You will be amazed at the level of attention this produces.

Pause to develop a relationship between you and your listeners. During a pause, the speaker is more like a listener. This is a time when both are listening and the speaker can take note of the audience’s quality of listening. We might realize that as the presenter we need to change course and tell a story or possibly ask for questions. If, however, we don’t take a moment to evaluate reactions and interest, we might just forge ahead without maintaining the audience’s attention.

Pause with purpose. There are many times throughout a presentation a pause can add emphasis and/or give the listener a chance to ponder, or even laugh. When we have just made an important point, a startling or unusual statement, or a call for action, participants need a moment to take notes, think about what we just said, or catch up. I have also heard speakers who make a humorous statement and then don’t let the audience members have time to “get it” and laugh. People need time to laugh. And laughter is important because it bonds the audience and speaker.

Transition with pauses. As a speaker with content, you have many different points to make. Nevertheless, if you jump too quickly from one point to another, you will leave your listeners behind or confused. When this happens, they will oftentimes “tune out” and you have lost them for the rest of your presentation. A well-placed pause will help you and listeners prepare for the next portion of your presentation. I suggest picking transitional sentences as carefully, and then taking a moment of silence for the ideas in these sentences to take hold before you launch into the new point.

Pause for a show of confidence. The confident pause is an earmark of the accomplished speaker. The courage to stop the flow of words is an act of trust in the power of your presence, your nonverbal communication, and your relationship to your listeners.

Chris King is a professional speaker, storyteller, writer, website creator / designer, free agent, and fitness instructor. Sign up for her eclectic E-newsletter, Portfolio Potpourri, at http://www.PowerfulPresentations.net You will find her information-packed E-book How to Leave Your Audiences Begging for MORE! at http://www.OutrageouslyPowerfulPresenter.com and her business website at http://www.CreativeKeys.biz

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Oops! I broke my own rules and did not follow a checklist on my last public speaking engagement. It was two minutes until start time and I realized there was no flipchart in the room. Oh oh!. Better think fast. I was not using an overhead projector either, so I could not simply write on a blank transparency. Now one and 1/2 minutes left . . . . I thought, “Never let ‘em see you sweat.” So, I went into the hall way to sweat. I saw a flipchart in use by the Air Force folks who were in the next room. I borrowed one piece of flipchart paper and went back into my room. Now one minute left. I put the paper on the floor still not knowing what I would do with it. So I hit the stage and begin the program. 30 minutes in it was the moment of truth. I had a spare marker in my prop box. Ok so far. I had masking tape too. . . . but the way the room was set there was no place to put the piece of paper that would allow both sides of the room to see it.

I guess it was time to have some fun. I asked for three volunteers to BE my flipchart. I qualified the request to include one person with a black shirt (incase the marker leaked through the paper). This got a good laugh. I had the person with the black shirt turn their back to the audience. The other two helpers held the flipchart paper against blackshirt’s back. We had a blast! The three volunteers were laughing. The audience was laughing. Ad-libs were flying. The blackshirt person was getting tickled with the point of the marker. And I still got the point across that I had planned all along. OK I’ll admit I messed up by not checking for the flipchart before speaking. However, if you are willing and able to stay flexible in the face of the inevitable challenges you will face as a fun public speaker, adversity can turn positive very quickly.

Copyright © 1998 – 2005 Advanced Public Speaking Institute

Tom Antion provides entertaining speeches and educational seminars. He is the ultimate entrepreneur, having owned many businesses BEFORE graduating college. Tom is the author of the best selling presentation skills book “Wake ‘em Up Business Presentations” and “Click: The Ultimate Guide to Electronic Marketing.” It is important to Tom that his knowledge be not only absorbed, but enjoyed. This is why he delivers his speeches laced with great humor and hysterical jokes. Tom has addressed more than 87 different industries and is thoroughly committed to his clients’ needs. http://www.antion.com

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The Hero’s Journey is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon – understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters.

The Hero’s Journey:

Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.

Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.

Interpreted metaphorically, laterally and symbolically, allows an infinite number of varied stories to be created.

The Hero’s Journey is also a study of repeating patterns in successful stories and screenplays. It is compelling that screenwriters have a higher probability of producing quality work when they mirror the recurring patterns found in successful screenplays.

Elizabethtown (2005)

Following is a deconstruction of Elizabethtown (2005):

Fade In: starts strong (communicates salient information immediately): shoes recalled.

Introduce Hero (Drew Baylor) in his Ordinary World, which he is unwelcome in. Tangible representation of the Ordinary World (Ellen).

Foreshadow of the Journey: we meet Drew’s family around the table.

Back-story of Hero: Drew in the World of the Shoe.

Supernatural Aid pushes hero out of his Ordinary World (meeting with Phil).

Development of Inner Challenge: Drew’s suicide attempt in his apartment; what to do now that he is a failure.

Call to Adventure by the Herald (his sister): Drew’s Dad is dead.

Preparing to cross into the First Threshold with allies (sister and mother): in the airport.

First Threshold and meeting the Romantic Challenge: Drew meets Claire in the aircraft.

Allies encourage the journey: Claire draws a map.

References to the inner and outer challenge: Drew references that he was fired; Claire realises Drew’s father is dead.

Back-story of the Outer Challenge: Drew when he was young and with his father. Reminder of the Inner Challenge: that he is a failure / lost $1b.

Magical gift: Claire gives Drew his wings, the directions and her number.

Physical Separation: exit 60-B.

Resistance to the Transformation: difficulty getting to Elizabethtown.

A New World: entering Elizabethtown.

Meeting the Mentor (Jesse, his cousin).

Mentor shows the hero around the World of the Transformation and the Creatures within: Jesse introduces Drew to everyone.

Polarization: they want a burial and Drew is thinking about cremation; he’s from “California.”

Meeting the Creatures of this World: the congregation.

Trial [passive]: Meeting his father lying in a coffin; lessons: “if you move around a little bit, you’ll see different aspects.” The word is “whimsical.”

Trial [passive]: Meeting the relatives and familiarising himself with the family.

Trial [proactive]; Drew saves Samson in the car.
Celebration at the passing of the trials: Drew is congratulated in the house.

Mentor’s challenge: Jesse admonished by his father; “you can’t be buddies with your own son.”

References to the Outer Challenge; Mentor’s back-story and capabilities: Lynard Skynard sequence.

Foreshadow of the break from the Old Self and preparing to Seize of the Sword: Drew calls everyone, including Claire.

Pulled Backwards to the Old Self and Forwards to the New Self: Heather, Ellen and Claire all on the phone simultaneously.

Break from the Old Self: Ellen says Goodbye.
Journey to the Sword: Drew and Claire on the phone.

Seizing the Sword: Drew wrests the Champagne from Chuck.

Rebirth through Death: Claire offers to “let Drew go.”

Reward: Claire and Drew meet by the Roadside.

Allies confront limitations: Hollie takes tap, comedy, cooking lessons etc. Claire doesn’t go to Hawaii.

Warnings about the Atonement: Hollie warns Drew about Bill Banyon.

Preparing for the Atonement: Buying the cremation vase.

Second Thoughts: Claire and Drew think about being just friends.

Atonement with the Father:: Drew confronts his uncle et al and makes a decision about the cremation.

Reference to the mentor’s challenge: Jesse is ignored and admonished.

Apotheosis: Rusty’s Learning to Listen video. Mentor’s challenge overcome: “thank you for taking an interest in Jesse.”

Ultimate Boon: “feels good doesn’t it. I can see Mitch now, so proud, in that blue suit.”

Refusal: Drew tries to stop the cremation.

Magic Flight: Drew prepares to leave.

Rescue from Without: Drew meets Claire and sleeps with her.

Crossing the Return Threshold; confronting and overcoming the
Inner Challenge: Drew chases Claire and tells her about his failure. She doesn’t care. References to the Outer and Romantic Challenges.

Master of the Two Worlds: Hollie wins over both sides of the family with her tap and comedy. Convergence aided by Mentor (Jesse’s tribute).

Tangible representation of the New Order: the burial to appease the Kentucky family.

Freedom to Live. Drew goes on the road trip with his father’s ashes [the trip they always meant to go on] and comes to terms with his death (conquest of the Outer Challenge). Finally seizes Claire (conquest of the Romantic Challenge).

Learn more about the Hero’s Journey…

The Complete 188 stage Hero’s Journey and FREE 17 stage sample and other story structure templates can be found at http://managing-creativity.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop

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You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author’s name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. His specialities include Knowledge Management and Creativity and Innovation Management. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached at http://managing-creativity.com/

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