Genre Worksheet 1: Fill & Download for Free

I learned from a USA Today Best-selling author. He did a blog about three years ago on the need to outline the plot.Simply put, I use Excel. Across the top of the page, I put my characters. A description, why they are in the story, etc.—That would be my A B C columnsDown the left side of the page, I put my action points. The beauty of using a spreadsheet is it forces you to think through the plot, find your weaknesses, or areas that don’t make sense. The real advantage for me is I can cut and paste—easy to move a storyline that is out of whack.From there I start writing. Down the balance of the page, I start the A column with Chapter 1, 2, etc. Again, I can do the same as above, and I can drop the chapter synopsis to another place if it’s out of whack or difficult to follow at this point.I also use the highlight function to fill a block with red or orange for ACTION, that keeps my action/adventure/contemporary romance moving along at top pace depending on the genre.There is no right or wrong way. I need the plotting, but of course, I always get surprises. I have a series of novellas coming out starting tomorrow with a **prequel Code Raven** (https://goo.gl/2i6Z4N)** **then the series continues with XPOSED, ABDUCTED, ULTIMATUM, DISPLACED and REBORN. As you can see to write a series you’ve got to keep your characters and your plots well documented. Also, even with each of these stories, an odd event, definitely not on the Excel worksheet, will pop up! So that’s why I write.Be organized in whatever way you like, but remember, your characters and your story will have a mind of their own. Your job is to let that story flow through you and out into the world where it will fly!If you listen to Stephen King on YouTube vids, he will tell you that wha hsn’t written a notebook plot, every

Where to start?At a young age we are introduced to schooling. We are little, perhaps 5 or 4 and we are dropped off at the front door crying for our moms. 7 years later it’s our first day of middle school! We blow off our parents like they are embarrassing. This isn’t the first point I will be making, but I will get back to it.Their Creativity Is Lost: Thanks to schools, I feel that many many teens are lost when it comes to creativity. A project has been going around a middle school. The children are asked to change a famous logo. Half of them choose Nike. The other Adidas. The Nike lovers choose to change the color of the logo, while the Adidas fans chose to change the font. Teens have no sense of creativity. Another example: In a computer science class 8th graders are asked to create a lamp using a 3D printing program. They are not allowed to other sources except from the ones they have seen. The vast majority of the class designs a metal stick with a round lamp shade. So many children have no creativity! So many. Schooling, I personally think, has a big role in this. Schools do not engage in our imaginations. They do not encourage creativity like they should. Social media also plays a role.Their Brains are Focused on the Internet and Social Media: It’s a wonderful thing it really is, but it causes so many problems. For example: obesity, stupidity, but it can advance many people’s education, but it is not used for that. The Internet is no doubt, a staple in almost every American’s lives. It help kids and teens learn, but it also lets them look at anything they want, play games for hours, and scroll through Instagram pictures. This also concerns me because I feel like teens are so engrossed in the media and internet that we would go into withdrawals without it, that is the worrisome thing.Obesity: This is something that has been going around forever. However, when you look around at schools so many kids are overweight. We have many things to blame for this like unhealthy eating and inactiveness. Schools do not help kids stay active when they are teens. Recess has disappeared, some only having PE every other day. This can cause many problems like:Self-Image/Confidence: There was recently a commercial done where women were forced to enter through two doors, the one labeled beautiful and the one labeled average. The results are shocking. Many girls and boys do not view themselves as enough. Peer pressuring and the like. They are held up to standards or compare themselves to others and they don’t feel pretty or don’t have the guts to talk to a crowd because they do not believe they can. Hundreds to thousands of teens will say, “I am ugly.” They are too afraid of what people think about them.Independence: My friend at school always asks me “Kay, what are we doing? Kay how did you get there? Kay I don’t understand! Kay, help me I do not know what to do.” Our teacher in that class demonstrates things everyday. It’s the simple things she struggles with. I was on a site that lets people draw. I was using a certain tool clearly labeled “Webbing Tool” and she saw this, but still misunderstood. Sometimes we are given worksheets that give us direct instructions, pretty hard to miss when it says “Click on Wages”. She has a hard time doing things without my help, no she is not slow, no she is not mentally disabled. Another example is when my friends are to afraid to walk to the lunch line by themselves. Or when they are to afraid to walk to a class by themselves. A part of this, I feel, is that schools tell us what to do, how to do it, and why to do it. Teens never have the chance to do things themselves. The lack of confidence and independence mystifies and saddens my mind and heart.Suicide/Depression: As you all know, this is something very dangerous that has been going on forever. Recently there has been a boom in this area. Many teens think that they are worthless which goes back to the whole confidence and self image point. It breaks my heart that someone would ever consider this and if you are please call: 1–800–273–8255, for help.Expectations: This applies in many areas. When all three of them pile onto each other life gets to stressful.School: Their teachers expect them to reach a certain grade or remember all this information. It is difficult for many kids to try and remember this.Sports: Their team is expecting them to have certain skills or not screw up. They are supposed to live up to a certain weight for wrestling or the like.Parents: Their parents have expected to much out of them. Some want to please their parents so hard that this just makes life stressful.Universal: The length. The height. I have to be this, I have to be that, etc. Teens aren’t the only ones guilty of this.Influences:The music they listen to. Mostly pop, though not all songs in this genre are wrong or send the wrong message I feel that this is a very corruptive one. It’s about hate, killing themselves, loving for the wrong reasons, heartbreak, drugs, alcohol, and sex. The music we listen to daily exposes teens to things way to fast. Maybe not exposing, but certainly displaying a message. They are being told that certain things are ok in the songs that they listen to.The shows they watch. Wether it be porn or youtube teens minds are consumed by the stereotypes in TV shows and think that life follows just how reality shows do, they don’t.Their parent have a major influence on them too. Cursing parents=cursing kids, enough said.Their friends. Stoned friends=you’ll be stoned eventually.Bullying: Today, a bullied kid was pushed into one of his bullies on the stairs. The bully turns around, the kid says sorry. The bully then turns around and punches him. This, this right here, this is what causes kids to kill themselves. If one doesn’t live up to social standards they are bullied because they do not belong. But they do. They are called names, “Gay boy, fag, idiot, whore, fatty, nerd. Ugly, 4 eyes, pale boy, and racial slurs (sorry, if this offends anyone, but people still name-call).” This makes teens think they are worthless.The Future: Some kids are worried about colleges and what they are going to do with their lives. Everyone’s graduating, everyone knows what they are doing with their lives. It can put a mental block in a teen’s mind.Sex: How do I put this. Rumors also play into this. Many are already doing the deed, but exploring their bodies is important. Some become parents. Some don’t do anything but everyone is saying they are. Teens are introduced to dirty terms at young ages and then 8 years later they are doing what they thought was disgusting one time ago. I word this poorly, but what I am trying to say is that too many teens are messing around. I get being in a relationship and that sex is a part of that. However, at their age is it really needed? Of course knowing about that and exploring with it is normal and healthy, but I feel that some take it to far. I also feel that many are pressured or dumped due to the idea of sex, rejecting sex, or from thinking that sex in a relationship as a 13 year old is normal.Alcohol/Drugs: To many young lives are being destroyed because of using substances at to much of a young age. Of course there are school sessions and talks with kids about how they should not do drugs, but they don’t have any effect. So many lives are ruined or in the process of it because of these things and it’s not just teens.Respect/Manners: So many kids are not respectful. So many are not thankful. So many take their parents for advantage. They do not know table manners or how to properly apologize. It’s heartbreaking because chivalry is lost.There are so many things I didn’t cover. These are only the things that have popped into my brain this past hour. There is much more that needs to be addressed.

This overlaps with Marc Bodnick's answer, but I think the simplest, most effective things to do are as follows:Read good writing -- constantly. You will absorb the rules of grammar by osmosis. The writing can be in any format or genre, but it must be good. If you want to read periodicals, start with The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Economist. Avoid local newspapers. Strangely, Us magazine exhibits an admirable fidelity to proper grammar, but there isn't enough actual writing in there to help you learn. Most literary fiction will have excellent grammar in it, and narrative nonfiction writers like Michael Lewis will also help you learn the rules.Eliminate "red-flag" grammatical mistakes (those that broadcast to your audience that you don't have a handle on basic grammar). Examples might include comma splices (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma_splice), confusion over they're/their/there and you're/your, improper usage of the reflexive pronoun "myself" (see http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/myself-grammar.aspx), and improper usage of less/fewer (http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/less-versus-fewer.aspx) and/or number/amount (http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000215.htm). The Purdue Online Writing Lab offers good overviews of many of these rules, as well as worksheets: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/.Take your game to the next level. Learn more about how grammar and style work together. Read The Elements of Style and master a few subtler grammatical techniques, which will stimulate in you a sense of wonder at the possibilities for conveying nuance and provide motivation for your continued grammatical improvement. Artful use of semicolons and colons is a worthwhile initial goal.