Essay Online

Wow this is a truly hard questions; to start with what gives me the inspiration. I have to say it’s the characters themselves that inspire me. It depends on who they are what’s happening in their life, one heroine may have had tender feelings for the hero for a long time and impending doom could set it in motion or maybe she will never see him again. It all depends on what’s happening to the hero and heroine. Since it is the characters that determine why and how the scene takes place it is also up to them on what will become of it.

I have found inspiration in music, depending on what I am writing at the time, if it’s Celtic and this the music I listened when writing Fay’s Wish, well I have a collection of Celtic music. With La Roe’s it was Creed. It truly depends on the story itself. As far as what I am trying to capture, it has and always will be the beauty of the act of making love and the emotions surrounding it. The caresses, the sweet words, the tender care before and after, it is Love itself I try to portray.

I can say my husband and the love I feel for him, has inspired me a lot. I would not be where I am today without him.

I have said many times before that when I connect with my character I feel as though I am telling their story and as such it is what they need that inspires me the most.

As some of you may know I write in 1 P.O.V. mainly and my focus is always in the heroines point of view, what makes her tick, essentially what truly inspires her. I have noticed when it comes to writing romances that many of todays heroines have as much gusto as the modern day woman making her mark in the world.

Anyone who writes knows this scenario at one time or another: You have something to say, great ideas to express. So, you go to the page only to find your mind has gone as blank as the sheet or screen before you. Paralyzed, you write not a word. Somewhere in the synapses of your imagination, you know there lives a fully formed novel, or story, or play, or even one single poem, but you cannot magnify it enough to see the individual words. So you leave it for another day…until your vision is clearer, until inspiration strikes and reveals all 350 pages of text, all 36 lines of poetry. Until the writer’s block is gone.

Sometimes inspiration does strike from out of the blue, and words pour down like rain. Ideas synthesize, fingers fly and Voila! You’ve created a masterpiece…or at least a pretty good piece of work.

But such strikes of inspiration are not, for most of us, the norm. Writing takes commitment, and good writing takes practice.

Still, what about writer’s block?

Even when your diligent with your practice, even when you show up day after day, you’re not immune from block, from finding yourself without two words that make any sense. What then?

First, shift your perspective on what writer’s block is. It’s easy to panic, to believe it means you’ll never write again, that you have no real talent or that you have nothing worthwhile to say. But none of these is near the truth.

Writer’s block is not the lack of skill or worthiness as a writer…it is, instead, a signifier revealing one of two things:

• There is a truth you are not yet ready to tell

• There is something more that needs to be learned or experienced before the ideas can be fully crystallized

When you write you cannot help but come up against and touch upon your own inner sore spots and the edges of your comfort zones. To write deeply you must delve inside of and push against these, stretching, questioning and seeing more and more clearly. The truths you tell yourself are the markers that guide you through. When you come to a place you are not yet ready to go, to words you are not yet ready to say or to something that is not yet in focus…you get stuck. Willingness to face the wall, to approach it with patience, compassion, trust and honesty, is the way through it. There is no way around it. Your blocks are gifts that push you to grow, to break through the hard places to reach fertile ground.

Let me share an example to explain. When I was writing my novel, I found myself going in circles around a primary relationship in the story…one between the main character and her mentor/teacher. I would talk about the teacher, but I couldn’t dive into the center of her role in the novel, most specifically I couldn’t find ANY words to put in her mouth. As long as she didn’t speak, I was okay. But that was a problem. There came a point when I could no longer keep her mute. She had to speak. But every time I tried, I ended up sitting in front of the screen, hands poised and my insides twisting in frustration.

Finally, I decided to get up and move. I went for a walk, and as my limbs fell into rhythm my mind fell into the story. The dialogue played out in my head. Away from the computer, I could have a conversation with the characters; I could get inside them and hear what they wanted to say.

On that walk it occurred to me that I had been unable to claim the voice of the mentor before then because I had not been able to claim her within my own being. Whenever the story demanded she speak, I would feel the panic of putting on paper what was being shared as wisdom. Who was I to say such things? Who was I to be the voice of wisdom? But just realizing what was “blocking” me, what I needed to learn, freed me. And along the way I opened doorways to my own growth.

When feeling “blocked” take a walk. Let your body move and your mind ease and flow. Ask yourself what you might fear in the work you are doing…what truth you are not yet ready to claim or tell. And know that we cannot always control the readiness of things. Time teaches us and directs our understanding, and our understanding directs the depth and breadth of our writing. Be patient with yourself. And keep writing.

Graduation is one of the best periods in life, when everything seems so simple and possible. But once you have stepped into the big world with all the difficulties, there are a few important decisions to make. One of them includes your future plans, career in particular. Now there is something that requires weeks to think this over. To make the right choice one has to be informed about all the twist and spins in the job market and be prepared to fight one’s way to the top. It may seem highly improbable, but the demographical factor plays an important role in this situation. We observed a great internet developing boom recently and the rush continues. Young men and women choose professions related to computing. The possible reason for this is the gossip that internet business is a very profitable one and will prosper in the future. It is indeed a profitable business, but some of the companies appeared to be bankrupt; they overestimated their possibilities. Nevertheless there are some moments that are very easy to explain. For instance the demand for specialists in healthcare is a result of the ageing of the American nation.

Economy foundation drifts from goods production to services production since late fifties. United States is just a country among others that also experiences these drifts. The statistics of the Department of labor of the US shows that most demanded fields are education and healthcare. As it was already mentioned, healthcare specialists are needed because of the aging of the nation and ecological problems. But how can one explain simultaneous rise in the educational service if the population is ageing? There is a definite social factor in this. The role of women in the society has changed greatly. Now women make careers and take active part in life of the society. Therefore there is great demand for childcare specialists that are able to work in kindergartens while mothers work. The other reason is the development of “white collar” caste that grows yearly. Young men and women want to make careers in managing and marketing, but not engineering or industrial work.

The raise of business and professional service is also observed. These are the fastest growing sectors of the economy. There is also a rising demand for specialists in these areas, but the offer is also rising. It takes stamina and straightforwardness to acquire a good place in these sectors. Some agencies are overloaded with clients that would like to work in these spheres. How do they manage to satisfy their clients? They do not assist in actual employment process, but help establishing excellent resumes with outline, cover letters, portfolios and references. This helps people to get the best places with practically no effort.

Congratulations! You’ve spotted a great short story competition and decided to enter. You’ve had a go at a few short stories in the past and you’ve been wanting to tackle a novel for ages, but the idea was way too daunting so you’ve just shoved that to the bottom of your life’s “To Do” list. A short story is a much better idea, isn’t it? It’s just like writing a novel only shorter. Right?

Not exactly!

It’s been said that it’s not that a short story is long, it’s that it takes a long time to make it short. The idea that a short story is just a mini novel is an idea that will mean certain death to the success of your short story, before you’ve even written the first sentence.

There is an art, and a process to writing a short story, just like there’s an art and a process to writing a novel, a non-fiction book or an essay. Success is a matter of knowing the basic principles, and then applying these to write the best short story you’re capable of.

The question is, do you have the stamina to make your story short?

That question is easily answered by walking step by step through the writing process.

1. Planning

No matter what you are writing, you need to have a plan. Would you attempt to build a house without plans? Or would you set sail on the high seas without a map and compass? Writing stories is exactly the same. Set out without a plan and you will undoubtedly become lost in a forest of your own words.

Some simple questions to ask yourself at this early stage include:

* Who is your main character and what is their predicament?

* What do they want? How can they get out of their predicament?

* Who or what is stopping them getting what they want?

* How can you apply pressure to your character to force them into making tough choices in pursuit of their goal?

* What will your character learn over the course of the story?

Beginning by answering these few questions will help you know who your character is, what they want, and how they are going to go about getting it.

2. Writing

Once you have a plan for your story you are ready to write it. When you are writing, you are just writing. You are not editing and you are not planning, You are writing. This specifically means that you don’t stop to wonder if “this way sounds better than that way”. When you are writing you are capturing the essence of the action in your story. You are writing a draft, not a finished product. At this stage don’t even think about your word limit. Just write the entire story as you have planned it. We’ll take care of the word limit in the editing and rewriting stages.

The writing stage is similar to mining a diamond. When a diamond is mined it is a chunk of rock, with a few glittering pieces to show it is actually a diamond. You don’t mine a beautifully cut and polished diamond from the side of a mountain, do you? No, you have an amazing piece of raw material, which you then take to a jeweler who will cut and polish it to show its beauty to its greatest advantage. In the writing process, the jeweler is the editor.

3. Rewriting

Once you have completed the first draft, the very best thing you can do is walk away. It can be difficult to get any distance from your own work, but it is virtually impossible if you try to plan, write, rewrite and edit your story in one sitting. If possible don’t look at it again for at least another day. This allows your story time to rest and “breathe”, and when you return to it you will see it in a fresh light.

When you are ready, re-read it straight through once without stopping, and without making any changes or marks in the margins. Once you’ve finished the first read, ask yourself one question: did I write the story that I set out to write? If the answer is no, don’t panic. It’s amazing how the real story you are meant to write comes out in the writing. At this stage your main focus is to ensure that the intention of the story equals the result. In other words, the story has to make sense, and must flow from beginning to end, with all questions raised at the beginning being answered by the end. It is quite common to do comprehensive rewrites of the first few scenes, as the story you really wanted to write didn’t surface until after you’d really got cracking. That’s ok. Just go back and rewrite any scenes you need to, to make the story flow from beginning to end.

Some other important questions to ask at this stage are:

* Are there any great leaps in time or place? It is generally best to keep these leaps to a minimum in a short story.

* How many characters do you have? It’s never a great idea to have more than three major characters at the most, and I’ve read great short stories where there is only one. Save the huge cast for your novel.

* Does the story continually move forward? It’s very easy to have two or maybe even three scenes showing the same thing about your character. A scene is a unit of change &ndash if a scene doesn’t move the story forward, it needs to be cut or rewritten.

So rewriting is re-seeing and re-sculpting. The main purpose of this stage of the process is to make sure the story makes sense. There is a logic to story, and if there are any great leaps in time or place, you may need to add some small linking phrases. Once you are happy that the story flows in sequence you are ready to move to the final phase: editing.

4. Editing

You now need to step entirely out of your creative right brain and into your logical and analytical left brain, to refine and polish your story.

Firstly, look at your word count. Are you way over, way under, or pretty close to the mark? Never submit a story that is over the word limit. Respect the requirements of the competition and keep within the word limit.

Now read your story again, this time with your red marker in hand and a critical eye on the page. Some questions you need to ask at this stage are:

* When does the action begin? This is where your story begins. It’s tempting to “set the scene” and “show character” but the reality is, you don’t need to. The story always begins where the action begins. If there is anything that needs to be explained you haven’t written your action properly.

* Is all the action on the “spine” of the story? Edit out any superfluous material. Again, save it for your novel.

* Show don’t tell. This means, don’t tell us about someone, show us their character by putting them into difficult situations and let us discern their character by the choices they make.

* Edit out all explanation. As a general rule, ask yourself, “is it an image?” If it’s not it’s probably explanation and needs to be cut.

* Is there a “solution” to the story? Does the story deliver what it promised?

* Now is the time to ask, “is this the best way to say this?” If not, write it again, and say it better.

You may find yourself rewriting, editing, rewriting, editing over and over. This is completely normal! Most good short story authors do at least 15 drafts of their short stories before they are happy with the result.

So, you’ve made it through the process and you’re ready to send your story off to the competition. Make sure you double space it, that the font size is big enough to read easily and that you’ve put enough postage on the envelope!

And good luck!

You are welcome to publish this article in its entirety, electronically, or in print free of charge, as long as you include my full signature file for ezines and my website address in hyperlink for other sites. Please send a courtesy link of email where you publish.:

bestsellercirclezinester.com,

writelink3yahoo.com.

Thank you.

WHAT DOES YOUR CHARACTER HAVE TO LOSE?

If your story has nothing big to lose, it’s not worth reading. I did say “Big.” I’m not talking about a nice pair of earrings, a car, designer dress, or even your home. I’m talking about something that matters greatly to more than your main character. It’s bigger than her, him, or it. It takes hold and drives your story to the end.

This crucial thing is bigger than a personal love spat, or even a trip to the hospital. It takes over a life, a family, a city, the community, or an entire nation. In popular women’s novels, that thing is not the community, city, or nation; it’s your character’s personal desire. Did she get the man? The career? The family she wanted? It’s all about the protagonist’s unrequited desire. It might not seem big at all, except that the heroine’s creator has infused her with such unrelenting intensity that the reader feels her desire just as strongly as murder, the city, the country, the family she wanted.

That particular element in your novel is called STAKES. It’s believed that a threat to LIFE is the highest stake. Bestseller-kind-of books have high stakes of some kind. STAKES simply means the biggest thing you have to lose&ndashthe fortune, friend, life, city, a country, a world, a dream.

If you don’t believe me, let’s explore a few bestseller-kind-of-books that have stood the test of time and see what really drives them and how it plays out.

The Godfather&ndashwhat does he have to lose? Justice in America. Godfather wanted justice so badly that he had to take getting it into his own hands. He just couldn’t afford not to have justice when his father was murdered by the mob in Italy, and his mother was shot in front of his face while she begged for her son’s life. He was never going back to that kind of injustice. He was shipped off to American, and here he faced another kind of injustice. So he turned to crime, while wanting his son to become a legal senator. The search for justice drove the story all the way through a multi-million dollar best selling book and three movies. The don lost his life but the stakes were so high that they transferred to his youngest son, Michael. He had to kill five mafia heads to become semi-laundered when he moved to Vegas.

GONE WITH THE WIND: Scarlett’s love was at stake. Many people think it was Tara, the plantation. But no, it was love. This was no ordinary love. The writer knew the normal kind of love would have fallen flat on its face “Well if you don’t love me back, forget you. I can have any man I want. See?” She said, looping her arm in one of the Tarlton boy’s arm.

No, this was an obsessive love that burned with the heat of determination and passion. It was Ashley Wilkes or nobody. This strong, bold, uncompromising love drove the story because her love was at stake. It could be lost or consummated at any moment and the reader didn’t want to miss it&ndashall the way to the end. That’s why we followed. If Ashley had given her the time of day, there’s no way I would have read 700 pages about the Civil War. But with Scarlett’s thirst for true love, her raging fire for consummation, it absorbed the culture, the complexities of war, and life on a plantation that no one wanted to see and all of the reader’s tiredness. Love was at stake and it drove that story for years and years.

THE MAYOR’S WIFE WORE SAPPHIRES&ndasha search for respect drove the story. Indigo did everything possible in this world to grab some respect for herself, her family, and her city. If she could sneak her husband into congress, she could obtain it. The story opens with her trying to make that happen. When her plan falls through, she schemes every possible means of making that predominately African-American city a Camelot&ndasha place so incredible that the residents would be trained to manufacture and market their wares, and people from all over the world would come and buy from them. Indigo had knock-off clothes tailored for all of her parties, and hung with the “right” crowd to gain that elusive respect. She fought off the International drug cartel to save the city from its ugliness and ruin. All for respect. She lost lovers and friends, but the need for respect still drove that story all the way to the White House and back.

What is at stake in your novel? It can be physical or emotional. Write it down now.

Matt Matcherson is a writer musician and humorist. Sometimes he even writes funny music. His site MatchTales brings dating stories, site reviews and free dating support forums to the web.

One of my first “Big Dates” was a Cotillion dance in 8th grade…or was it seventh? Cotillion was an attempt by a local “grande dame” to nurture refined manners in a group of young teens along with ballroom dancing instruction. I think it was a truly nerve wracking experience for most of us! Once a week we would walk a couple blocks from the middle school to the K of C Hall located on the 3rd floor of a downtown building. A virtual skyscraper in our town! Guys wanting a little money would hang about by the door and help the instructor out of her car …open the door. These kind of brownie points paid a couple bucks cash! If you were really good you would carry some of her stuff up the 3 flights of worn wooden stairs. It was one of those buildings that are mystifyingly old…the major mystery to me being that they haven’t burned down!

We would then partner up and learn the rhumba, the foxtrot, the bossa nova, jitterbug, waltz etc. Every so often we would switch partners and during the session you would dance with each of the 50 girls a couple times. All very open stance and supervised…but still at that age, and for a nerdy guy still in his Clark Kent frames it was something of a thrill.

Jenny (names have been changed to protect the sweet and innocent) was a cute little girl from my neighborhood. She lived about 4 blocks away so I only saw her when I was walking home. Her family had a tree between the sidewalk and street with a trunk that was curved from years of kids passing by and jumping up to hang from it…at least I think I wasn’t the only one! Many days Jenny would be waiting by that tree till I passed by and smile nervously saying “Hi”. I too would say “Hi”. Sometimes I even said it first! But always continuing on my way. God only knows what disasters would have occured if I had stopped to talk any further! But this was earthshaking stuff making my head spin on the rest of my walk home.

Well this brazen flirting continued and the pitch of her “Hi’s” became higher and happier. When it was time to invite someone to the dance I found the number in the phone book and spent an hour or so making myself nervous. One of Jenny’s 300 sisters answered the phone and I heard much yelling for her and thumping up and down stairs…I nearly hung up in fear! This was much worse than when the german shephard down the street was chomping on my leg as I rode past on my bike!

I don’t remember the conversation with Jenny…I may have blacked out. But I know it was successful because weeks later I found myself at her house in a suit in this predicament with an enourmous corsage and no clue of how to pin it to her dress. Thankfully her mother came to the rescue. Her mom still laughs about that when she see’s me.

After that awkward scene things got better. We sat with friends and ate, all joking around. Jenny and I actually remembered the different dances and impressed the leader of the orchestra a little. Music, friends and dancing with a childhood crush. There was nothing more to it than that. Really when compared to some of my more recent dates, it is perfect in comparison.

Bum marketing is so called because even a bum can make money using this method. You need no outlay and can start with nothing. Absolutely zilch!

I had absolutely zilch because I had maxed out 7 credit cards. I used to laugh when I read about others doing that with just two, but I did it myself &ndash in spades! My only word to you would be very careful how you use PPC programs like Adwords because I wasn’t. But that’s another story.

I discovered bum marketing because if there is one thing I am good at, it is writing. Bum marketing involves finding a profitable niche, or one that could be profitable. It has to be something with a reasonable large following, and a reasonable number of topics attached to it. Like fly fishing or quilting, or something similar. Something that is followed by people you would expect to have money. You don’t want people flinching at paying $97 for a product related to their hobby or interest.

You then have to find some decent keywords. For bum marketing it doesn’t matter too much if there is competition for them, but not too general. Not ‘quilting’ but perhaps ‘hand quilting machines’ or ‘deep throat quilters’. Then get a website set up. You can get a cheap functional site for under $5 a month and then set up a website. A sales page for a product and a few pages with some content. If you can get it, register a domain name that is the same as, or relates to, one of the keywords you have chosen.

Write a few articles on the topic of your website, and use one for each of the web pages. Bum marketing is all about article writing. You should have one web page for each keyword you are using relating to your website. Find a few products to sell. If you have your own then great, but if not sell affiliate products.

Then write a few more articles and submit them to article directories. Each directory will allow you what is known as an ‘Author’s Resource Box’ in which you can say a little about yourself and provide a URL for people to click on for more information. The URL should lead to a page that relates to the topic of the article, and should ideally be a text link with the keyword or phrase that is the title of your web page. The text link should be hyperlinked to the page; what is termed an ‘active’ link’.

If the directory does not specifically provide a Resource Box, you can add that information after your article. It has to be included and will go with your article whenever it is copied and used. The article will not only bring you traffic, but also valuable links back to your web pages.

It is important that you continue to write and keep pumping out new articles. I like to write two every week and send them off to the top 25 directories. That’s all I have to do because most of the top 25 provide material to other directories, and before you know it your articles are all over the internet. That’s bum marketing.

As I said, even a bum with no money can do it. I know, because I was that bum at one time. I am no longer!

Stuart Nachbar has created a curious novel in The Sex Ed Chronicles. Using a backdrop of 1980 New Jersey, we are introduced to the murky world of school politics. He has selected the contentious subject of compulsory Sex Education, however the subject could equally have been Religion or Evolution. All are subjects that have strong backers and equally strong detractors.

Schools and School Boards may not be the media favorites that the House or Senate may be. But make no mistake, the issues are as hotly contested, and the tactics used by the protagonists just as dirty as the big league politicians, maybe even dirtier, because of the lack of media attention.

The main character is rookie journalist Greg Mandell, just out of college, and working for not much money as a reporter for The Ocean Republic, a small New Jersey newspaper. The author uses Greg in an interesting way, he is by no means the hero, he is the conduit through which the story flows. The style of writing is innovative, the story unfolds in small nibbles each one prefixed with a title and tagline, much in the fashion of newspaper stories.

The action takes place between January and June in 1980. The New Jersey School Board decide to explore whether or not to include Sex Ed as part of its regular curriculum. Some schools have already adopted the subject and some have not. To resolve the issue a series of public forums are planned so that the matter can be decided. There is a quiet certainty that although there will be a few grumbles the majority will be in favor of teaching Sex Ed.

Rookie Greg Mandell is given the task of covering the Sex Ed story, an assignment that he really does not want to do. He quickly discovers that few wish to talk openly about the subject.

What looks at first sight to be a boring and mundane assignment quickly erupts into a firestorm of controversy when a supposed parent-backed group called PAST get involved. Led by the bombastic and bigoted rich widow Carolyn Lattimore, PAST are firmly committed to abolishing Sex Ed in schools, and to achieve their goal set out to establish their members on the various school boards.

Caught in the middle of the fray is a young history teacher, Andi Gilardi, who becomes the centerpiece of PAST’s diatribe after she permits some students to post a Sex Ed test in the school newspaper.

Greg finds himself torn between openly supporting Ms. Gilardi and jeopardizing his job, or supporting PAST who are large advertisers with the newspaper.

The Sex Ed Chronicles is a very thought-provoking work, the author has done a very fine job of writing about the political process, and the fashion in which political skirmishes take place. Like a chess game, mating your opponent’s King is easy once you have picked off the Pawns!

Great read, and if I was an English teacher this would be a book that would I would love to evolve a class around. The potential for gaining real world understanding from within the pages of this novel are huge.

Shuffling along the sidewalk with no place to go neither time to be of a concern, I was trying to think of what to do today. Making my way slowly down this avenue of congress of this capital city I already had a free meal at the eleven o’clock serving. As I strolled under the tall buildings casting shadows across the workers of commerce scurrying their way between the doors of the high structures I remembered what day of the week it was. Today was the day I could give plasma; I could spend the rest of the afternoon at the plasma center. Then I could look forward for an evening restaurant hot meal plus some change leftover for some tailor made cigarettes. A night at the mission could top it off for some comfortable sleep and a change of clothes tomorrow morning for my apparel was getting a bit dusty from a three day wear. My latest sleeping quarters under the Fourth street Bridge the past few nights left me a bit on the musty side. I had purpose for the day.

The street was usually busy this midday hour and today no different, I had to dodge between the suits of trade wear, trying to keep on the outside of the crowd. By the street’s end the crowd mostly had thinned ducking into other doors and I stopped at the crosswalk to wait for the light. Now it was either east or a west direction, directly across the street stood the gates of the capitol building. I had to head west a few blocks before turning north for seventeen more blocks to get to the plasma center. I started to get hungry thinking of a restaurant meal; the soup line after a few days kind of shrinks the stomach. A couple of puffed up looking fellows decked out in expensive attire also were paused awaiting the light. They took no note of my presence, after all I was just a street person and they were likely legislators coming from the high dollar restaurant on the corner heading back to business as usual. Something kind of clicked.

“Excuse me,” I said, “You know over half this capital town work for the state or federal or county or city and none of these positions hardly make any money of their own. All they do is drain the average workers paycheck, so possibly, do you think that maybe it’s time to downsize a bit like the corporates and be responsive to the actual needs of the working class which are actually most of your constituents?”

They ignored any sound coming from my person.

“Or perhaps,” I continued a little louder, “You can save some money by being more efficient in operations. Like general program funding, you could handle each case individually and wise up to the fraud that costs more than actual need.”

They shifted in movement, I could see a bit of uneasiness as they lingered.

“Maybe,” I gestured a bit sarcastically, “Rethink and cut half of these government workers that achieve no practical purpose except to spread favors. Also all of those many building projects just for your own wants, like those millions spent on that gym that only you and your staff gets to use freely and you know I wish I had your kind of free medical when I was working. Then there are those high price bids and contractors overcharging for every little piece, do you think you could put a check on kickbacks and corruption and save money by being practical as if this was your money you throw around? Oh, yeah, the new prescription laws you’re about to overcharge the elderly under that blanket of the drug companies, do you think you can simplify and make some rates as needed that might actually really care for the elderly instead?” I was kind of loud on that one.

The light changed and they bolted for the other side, they moved so fast I had to run to keep up with them.

“How about this!” I was kind of yelling now, frothing a bit, getting a little excited, “I use to have a job and you took more than a third out for your taxes, can you even imagine the burden that put on me? Plus all the sales tax, gas tax, property tax, service fees; I was probably paying way over half of what I made just to appease your appetite! You know what I mean?”

They had made it through the gates of the fence surrounding the capital, kicking up pebbles from the driveway as they ran toward the massive doors of the building. I ceased and stood my ground at the entrance, somehow survival kicking in and halting my process.

“You know when you do try to save money,” I screamed after them, “You cut off from the bottom instead of the top! Now just working folks are out of luck!”

They were running out of range and I was getting hoarse. Then I noticed a golf cart at a fast crawl speeding its way toward me, filled with a couple of security personnel. I fled the scene, thinking once past the border of this walled fortress they would cease the chase. I still had time to make it to the center and give plasma.

Life is full of amazing discoveries. All my life I firmly believed that talent is a strictly innate quality. If you do not have the inborn aptitude for singing, neither conservatoire, nor endless practical singing classes will make you a remarkable singer. It turned out I had been on the wrong path. Modern discoveries have shown that talent does not depend on innate qualities. Moreover the social environment appeared to be crucial in forming personal endowments. So, is not it great? Then all of us can turn into geniuses if we put our effort into it. I would like to be so enthusiastic about it. But of course there are many restrictions here. First of all, the basis of talent is formed up to three years. During this period child’s brain cells are best at developing new connections (by 3 years 90 % of the brain structure has been already formed). This age is very important: the toddlers are developing intellectually and most of their personal traits are also formed during this time. The main aim of the education and upbringing at this age is to develop fundamental psychological functions- memory, attention, imagination, logical thinking. Many modern psychological tests for one-year-old include social aspects. Besides the well known IQ they reflect the child’s emotional quotient &ndash EQ. Without it even the high IQ is not a guarantee of future success. The only chance to improve EQ - teach the child to communicate with other people.

Scientists affirm that talent formation stops at the age of thirteen. Up to this moment parents have to work wonders. Their first priority should be to stimulate their children to develop themselves without pushing them too hard.Wunderkinds do not follow general standards. Their talent is like a comet: flashes and fades away in no time. The world is amazed with 6-year old students of universities, young musicians performing in the most reputable opera halls, young geniuses calculating complicated mathematic figures. However, it is often the case that their emotional development is often retarded. The reason is fast intellectual development. Their unique abilities account for hypertrophied development of the specific memory. Such overcharge inhibits the development of the feelings. There is a great variety of definitions to the word” talent”, some are rather contradictory and argumentative. Probably it is next to impossible to define such a complex phenomenon. Talent integrates experience, skills and knowledge, an aspiration to change the world for better and contribute to universe progress.

Such desire does not appear occasionally. It lives within the person awaiting its time. Sometimes the appropriate time never comes. Routine problems, bustle and busy life rhythm take too much energy. Talent won’t show itself if the person is exhausted. Such state may last for years. Then we just prefer to justify ourselves and say that the talent has been lost. Don’t you think that we always have a chance of reviving it?