You can not please everyone. Who you are writing for?

You can not please everyone. Who you are writing for?

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The key to successful writing is to understand who you are writing for.

If you are interested in writing, it’s not enough for you to have a vivid imagination and time to put words to paper.

You can start by letting your ideas pool and then create a storyline that you can work with. But, in order to successfully do this, you need to consider who you are writing for.

There’s a big difference between the style of the Harry Potter series and the Da Vinci Code. The difference isn’t in the writer or even defined by the genre, it’s in who the target audience is.

Understanding who will be reading your novel ensures you create a story that they will enjoy reading. This approach ensures you are aware of the most appropriate writing style to keep your reader engaged.

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Character Archetypes Series: #4 Ally

Character Archetypes Series: #4 Ally

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In the fourth article of Character Archetypes Series, we talk about Ally.

Our Hero has just crossed the First Threshold and has definitively abandoned the Ordinary World. He is now in the company of the Mentor, a fundamental character he met in the first stages of his Journey. He is, in fact, who pushes him to embark on this path.

However, this is not the only important character that the Hero meets. By approaching the first challenges that the character of the Ally is introduced.

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Character Archetypes Series: #3 Mentor

Character Archetypes Series: #3 Mentor

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In the third article of Character Archetypes Series, we talk about Mentor.

To do this, let us resume our Hero’s Journey.

Our Hero, whom we talked about extensively in the previous article, has now just passed the third phase also called “Refusal of the Call”. Being faced with a difficult situation, he initially refuses to understand or undertake the physical journey.

It is precisely at this moment, in this fourth phase called “the Meeting with the Mentor” that he meets one of the most important characters for him and for the journey itself: the Mentor.

The Mentor acts as a compass for the Hero, advises him and guides him through the narrative.

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Character Archetypes Series: #2 Hero

Character Archetypes Series: #2 Hero

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In this article of Character Archetypes Series, we talk about Hero.

The Hero is the first of the Characters Archetypes.

Joseph Campbell in his work The Hero with a Thousand Faces talks about it in depth. Campbell’s studies also directly involved Christopher Vogler, a consultant for the Disney screenplays, who in the late 90s wrote a book taking cues from Campbell’s archetypes and his Hero’s Journey also called Monomyth, developing a useful book for the analysis of films and written stories.

So, we see in so many narratives, literary and cinematographic, that the protagonist leaves his “comfort zone” to go to another place to face challenges and inner demons that will lead him to change forever, and then return to his own world, with a different awareness of himself.

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Character Archetypes Series: #1 What is an archetype?

Character Archetypes Series: #1 What is an archetype?

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An archetype, by definition, is the first example of something.

Carl Gustav Jung talked a lot about archetypes in the field of analytic psychology. He defined archetypes as the unconscious content of a group that replicates certain behaviors according to particular constants.

From these studies, Joseph Campbell, an American scholar of comparative mythology and history of religions, started to define the archetypes of a narrative, a canvas that guided every narration, albeit with different elements, protagonists, plot and historical periods.

His studies led to the publication in 1949 of the essay “The hero of a thousand faces“.

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The life of your characters before the story’s beginning

The life of your characters before the story’s beginning

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“When Martina first noticed Paolo walking down the pavement, she couldn’t believe her eyes. Never in her imagination, she thought about meeting Paolo in such an ordinary circumstance.”

Let’s say it is the beginning of a story. What is Martina going to do next? Aren’t Martina’s past encounters with Paolo would shape her behaviors today?

It surely would because the way all of us humans live the day is the result of our way of being and of our experiences right up to that point.

That’s why backstory is so important for your characters, for them to be humans.

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The amazing success of the “Pay What you Want” model

The amazing success of the “Pay What you Want” model

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A friend of a friend, a successful salesman at a big company, one of those with Rolex and a tie, told me that bibisco’s business model doesn’t make sense.

“It’s okay to give away a trial of the product for free“, he said, “but the free version (bibisco Community Edition) you give away is a complete product, with no time limits of use and even without advertising!“

“And what about the paid version (bibisco Supporters Edition)? You distribute it with the Pay What You Want model: but who will give more than the minimum required?“

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