Articles
On the whole, the articles listed on this page relate to writing and storytelling.
In the first part, I created a list of articles I wrote that focus on writing a novel. Thereafter, I’ve created an alphabetical list of articles written by others. They have been collected over many years.
You are welcome to consider any of the articles listed below for publication in your website/blog/newsletter. Permission is granted to reprint for free with the resource box and byline intact (this information is placed at the bottom of each article).
To view the articles, just click on the article you would like to view and you will be taken to the appropriate page.
I am aware the list is long. So, please don’t get overwhelmed and close this page. Do take some time to view it. Scroll down the list (all entries have been placed in alphabetical order) and I’m sure you’ll find something of interest.
Sunday, 16 June 2013 04:28
What's in a Name? Giving Birth to Your Characters
Written by Aneeta Sundararaj
What’s in a Name? Giving Birth to Your Characters So you’ve got your plot outlined, a title lined up and the research is done. You’re ready to start writing your novel. But wait. Now comes the fun part: creating names for your characters. One of the best things about being a writer—besides the innate ability to create imaginary worlds—is giving birth to a character and then bestowing a name upon him or her. True, you didn’t carry the character in your womb for nine months (especially if you’re male). But he or she could’ve been in your head for nine…
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What Is Your Point? What is your point? What do you do if you don’t know? Why does it matter? It is important for every writer to know their point because the writer is in charge of the reader’s experience. If the writer doesn’t know the point then the reader surely won’t. That means at best, a writer without a point will soon be a writer without a reader. At worst, a writer without a point can end up with a confused and perhaps even angry reader. Making the point of your article or essay clear and apparent is how…
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What Is The Easter In Your Business? Easter day is coming, Sunday March 27, and Christians worldwide are warming up to celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, a great sacrifice for humanity. What about you and your business? Is there anything the market can celebrate about any great sacrifice you have made for yours employees, customers, partners, colleagues, friends, regulators and other stakeholders? Or are you there in business waiting for others to make sacrifices, and then you storm as an opportunist and reap from the pains of others? Many of us are like that. We…
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What Is Business Sense? What is the principal thing you need to succeed in your business today? Money. Sure, you need it, but it is not the main ingredient for success. People .Of course they are necessary, but having them may not guarantee success. Excellent products or services. Well, this is a must to succeed. But you may have them and still not succeed. Promotions, visibility, marketing. These factors lubricate your business activities for success. So what is the principal thing? Take this from the book of Proverbs. Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore get wisdom. And in your getting,…
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What Is Your Real Worth? Think about this. If it is possible to quote you as a person on any Stock Exchange, what would be your real worth? Have you ever, in your wildest imagination thought that one day, it might just be possible to quote professional men and women, on the Stock Exchange? Never, you say. You in fact think it is just a figment of my imagination. I agree with you. Getting personally quoted on any Stock Exchange might just be imagination today. But it can be real tomorrow. Many things we see, live and work with today…
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What is book design, and why do I need it? You’ve spent weeks, months – maybe a year – writing your book, and you’re now ready to release it to the world. Wait. Is your book professionally designed? Huh? Apart from the mechanical book design structure, i.e. Cover, Copyright page, Foreword, etc., are the things like paragraph length, sentence length, white space, etc., done right? Presuming that you want to be taken seriously as an author, and you want your book to be taken seriously, professional book design can make the difference between success and failure. Book design can be…
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What Have You Learned Lately? The other day I attended a half day program where seven presenters — all with high level positions in the IT (Information Technology) field — gave us their “take” on career opportunities. Even though each focused on their own area of expertise and how they had reached their positions, each of the seven stressed that the two most important qualities considered when hiring and promoting were interpersonal skills and continual learning. Of course, you say, with technology moving and changing so quickly, keeping up with learning is a given. But I say to you, that…
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Stories Are for Adults Too! Very often when I tell someone I am a storyteller, they will say, “Oh, how nice. Do you tell stories to children in the schools and at the libraries?” Well, yes, I do tell stories to children of all ages, but I also tell stories to adults. And, in my opinion, adults need and want the stories even more than the children. In this article, I am going to address why we, as storytellers, tell to adults. I will be including some quotes and ideas from many other storytellers and story lovers. Whether they admit…
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Wednesday, 29 May 2013 22:57
What Do I Mean By Storytelling and Storyteller Ethics?
Written by Aneeta Sundararaj
What Do I Mean By Storytelling and Storyteller Ethics? Original source: http://www.creativekeys.net/StorytellingPower/article1047.html Both weekly and monthly, I receive a huge number of publications that deal with business and technology. Ever since the whole Enron scandal became news, these magazines have and are featuring more and more articles dealing with ethics, honesty and trust. In every profession and career, attention to ethics, integrity, honesty and trust are paramount to ultimate success. Whether we are full-time professional storytellers or tell stories part-time professionally (for a fee), I suggest that there are ethics and principles that we, as tellers, should embrace and follow.…
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What Do Editors Want? At a recent SCBWI conference in Denver, Melanie Cecka, Senior Editor for Viking Children’s Books, tried to answer that perennial question, “What are editors looking for?” Her answer–and this is a real kicker–is that because publishers are cutting back on the size of their lists, editors are looking for reasons not to publish your book. Does this mean that editors are planning to hate every manuscript that crosses their desks? Certainly not. Every time an editor opens an unsolicited submission she’s hoping she’ll find a new, undiscovered talent. But because the volume of books being published…
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What Audience’s Want From a Storyteller When asked about the personal characteristics that best describe the “perfect storyteller”, audiences say they want a storyteller who is: Enthusiastic. Show your audience that you are happy to be there. Dynamic. Wow your audience with your own sense of style and delivery. Sincere. Be believable through your words and actions. Confident. Know your stories. Know your audience. Know the theme (if any). Know your strengths and use them. That’s the formula for confidence. Passionate. How many boring storytellers convinced you to be excited about their stories? Articulate. It’s not how many words you…
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What Can I Add? After brainstorming a great new idea for a nonfiction book, one of the most important questions to ask yourself is “What can I add to this topic?” To find out, you must check Amazon.com or take a trip to a couple of bookstores to find out what’s already been published about your subject. Agent Djana Pearson Morris says, “Take a serious look at the competition– if someone’s already done it well, or if there’s a glut of books on the subject, this may not be a book that will be able to stand out in the…
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Wave or Waive: Do You Know Which One to Use? It is no surprise that the English language (at least, as spoken by we Americans) is crammed full of words that turn our brains to mush when it comes to figuring out which word spelling to use, how to spell them, or just when exactly to use them. Our school systems have long since abandoned the “readin’, writin’, and ‘rithmetic” days when kids were given vocabulary lists and made to memorize spellings and learn definitions (“Class, there will be a quiz on Friday”…). And now that most people simply say…
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Using Quotations: When You Need Permission First of all, here’s my disclaimer. I’m not a lawyer. The following is based on my own research and, as you’ll see, every situation is different. That’s why the use of quotes can be confusing. I do hope, however, that this can help you to make better decisions when preparing your own manuscripts or other creative projects. Quotes are wonderful little things. They can convey a world of meaning in just a few words. And they’re everywhere: books, greeting cards, on the home pages of websites, in daily emails. But just because they’re everywhere…
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Latest Posts
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Sakshi
Written by Aneeta SundararajI have been in a state of ‘emotional unwell-being’ for seven years. There, I’ve said it. Why? Well, after my father died, I believed that if I reached out with love to ‘good friends’, counsellors, suitors, and relatives, there could be pockets of joy to offset my grief and loneliness,…
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The Creative Industry Needs to Look at Things Differently Post Budget 2022
Written by Aneeta SundararajOn 29 October 2021, the Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz tabled Budget 2022 in the Malaysian parliament. RM50 million has been allocated for the arts and culture industry. This comes after a year and a half after the entire industry came to an absolute standstill. With…
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‘The Covid Positives’ – life lessons learnt from the pandemic by Phanindra Ivatury
Written by Aneeta SundararajAfter a long drawn battle with the biggest catastrophe in our living memory, global humanity is finally getting to see some quintessential ray of light at the end of the treacherous tunnel in the form of COVID-19 vaccines, currently being rolled out to all parts of the globe. A ‘COVID-19…
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Chaos of Whole Books
Written by Aneeta SundararajIs it possible to read several books at once? Aneeta Sundararaj finds out.When I was a child, my cousin used to boast that he could read four storybooks at a time. As an adult, when he invested in an e-Reader, he continued to boast that he could…
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Writing for You? Or for Me?
Written by Aneeta SundararajWriting for You? Or for Me? ‘You must always write with your reader in mind.’ This was one of the first pieces of advice that I received when I began my writing career. Honestly, I found this extremely hard to do because more often than not, I couldn’t picture my…