Blog Challenge: Blog Post Ideas

Today I participated in my first Blog Challenge!  The challenge was posted on Professional Content Creation at http://professionalcontentcreation.com/blogging-challenge-blog-post-ideas#comment-6671

The idea of this challenge is to take five of your blog ideas and create five more post ideas out of each one.  So, I sat down and focused on my blogs that have had the highest traffic so far. Here is what I came up with.  How many can you come up with?

A few things Starving Writers shouldn’t pay for. . .	Sell a screenplay in a year	Muses:  Stephen King and Paul Reuben	Tease me, Stan Lee. . .	Beginning a television spec script
Economize on a writer’s budget	Getting your ideas focused:  brainstorming your screenplay	Muses:  William Shakespeare and Alan Rickman	Bringing Comic books heros to life	Writing a television spec script
Utilizing the internet to save postage and money	Writing the screenplay	Muses:  Michael Crichton and Stephen Speilberg	Why comic book and fantasy heros are so popular today	Revising a spec script
Social Media to reach a larger audience when on a shoe-string budget	Research for screenplay writers	Muses: Elie Wiesel and Roberto Benigni	Using your favorite comic book hero (or villain) as inspiration for your protagonist (or antagonist)	Selling a spec script
Promoting your book with no money	Creating characters who make an entrance on screen	Muses: Your family history	Creating a world	Collaborations on spec scripts
How to budget for a new novel	Producing your own screenplay from a writer’s perspective	Muses: Your own life story	Keeping to Science in Sci-fi	Producing your own television pilot- an easy guide for writers

Now the hard part will be to decide which idea to write first!  If you have a request, please post it.  I’d love to know what people want to learn about more.

And please check out my book Luke Aloysius:  Bloodline at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GD9X8B

Tease Me, Stan Lee. . .

            http://moviepilot.com/posts/2014/11/02/loki-and-heimdall-to-appear-in-the-avengers-age-of-ultron-2400462?lt_source=external,manual

            I’m 13 again.

I was just having a conversation with my 10-year old cousin, Little Chris.  We have a special bond.  We have entire conversations based on Marvel Comics.  He’s a big Captain America fan, I like Loki.  We both think Stan Lee is awesome.  Little Chris tends to forget that Marvel Agents of Shield is on television, so each week I text him to remind him just as the show is about to start.  When I see him next, we talk about all the mysteries in the Marvel movies and television shows. I try to have these conversations with adults, but they just think I’m nuts. (I probably am . . .)           

            Our newest conversation is discussing the possibilities of the upcoming Avengers:  Age Of Ultron film.  I recently read that Loki and Heimdall are making an appearance in Age of Ultron.  Little Chris was as excited about this as I was.  We discussed what this scene would entail.  Does Heimdall discover that Loki has taken Odin’s place on the throne of Asgar?  If so, is Heimdall now in trouble with Loki?  Do they fight again?  Does Loki make Heimdall disappear in the same way his father has vanished?  Hmmm .. . . questions, questions, questions. . .

            And yet, knowing Marvel comics, we probably couldn’t predict what this scene would be about.

            This brings me to today’s topic:  Teasers.  There are all kinds of teasers in writing.  In television, a teaser is the first 30 seconds or so of a television show before they cut to the opening credits and commercial.  The teaser’s job is to hook people in so they don’t change the channel.  You leave them with burning questions so that they will stay tuned in.

            Another version of the teaser is foreshadowing.  Foreshadowing are hints of what’s to come in a novel.  In my opinion, there are two kinds of foreshadowing:  Subtle and In Your Face.  Subtle foreshadowing is in extremely well-written stories where something is mentioned, seemingly in passing, and it isn’t until the big reveal that you realized how important that detail was.  J.K. Rowling is a master at Subtle foreshadowing.  She would mention people or things in Book 1 of the Harry Potter series that didn’t become important until the seventh and final book.  For example, when Harry’s Aunt Petunia states that Lily was always hanging out with “that boy,” you automatically think “that boy” was James, Harry’s father.  It isn’t until the seventh book that you realize “that boy” was Severus Snape, unveiling a crucial piece of information that finally unravels the entire mystery regarding Snape’s relationship with Harry and Harry’s family.

            In Your Face foreshadowing is when you know that something is important, but you may not be sure how it is important.  For example, a dead woman is missing a shoe.  You know that dang shoe will show itself before the end of the story.  Where is it?  Who has it?  And why?  This is a device commonly used in murder and detective stories. 

            Marvel Comics films have end-teasers and short films which are In Your Face.  We know these characters and situations are important to the entire Marvel Universe, but we’re not exactly sure why.  And the Marvel fans can’t get enough of surmising the connections.  Every little detail is a clue that is argued in chat rooms across the Internet.  It’s brilliant marketing.

            The idea that you should take away from all this is to drop hints in your writing.  Foreshadow the story to come, give your readers Subtle and In Your Face clues.  And, absolutely, if you are writing a series of stories, plant teasers for what’s to come.  Think of the book series and film series you loved.  What was it that kept you coming back for more?  Guaranteed part of it was that new questions opened at the end of the novel demanded to be answered in the next.  As they say in show business, “Always leave your audience asking for more…”
Please check out my new novel  Luke Aloysius:  Bloodline on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GD9X8BE