NEWS BLOG (2)

Creating a Narrative Arc
by May Rogers

SOTC is one great place to be in. I feel heart and passion in every pages. I read all posts and I noticed we have been neglecting the following standout pages:

- Gustatory Travelers (a compilation of food stories from places we visit)
- Couch Potatoes @ Work (stories about how our work spaces, work experiences)
- Travelogue (a compilation of travel stories both abroad and local -SOTC's ultimate goal)
- Quintessential Days (a compilation of holiday stories, what happens in your location)
- Book Talk (a series of book reviews, book choices, what you read)
- Friday Night Musings (stories of Friday night dates)

How to update/post an entry in standout pages: Go to EDIT and scroll down to add new posts just like editing. Make sure to SAVE.

Suggested new standout page:
Beauty Regimen (share beauty items you cant live without)

***********

Remember "Narrative Arc"
This refers to an arc in our stories pertaining to the beginning, the middle, the end.(summary from a writer's digest article)

In a nutshell -
Beginning: where we introduce characters, the conflict and the setting.
Middle: where we develop the conflict or the gist of the story
End: where we resolve the conflict and where the gist gets justified.

For reporting facts and NEWS:
Rule of Thumb -
1. Use the inverted pyramid (all facts can be digested at the opening paragraph)
2. May's Rule: The 5W (what, where, when, why, what else) and 2H (how, how do I relate) 
3. Provide links and proper credits due to sources.

-MR

The Big Time

"Ever Thine, Ever Mine, Ever Ours." (Mr.Big, Sex and the City 2008)

The front door lock clicked. Lying feverish under the comforter, I struggled to open my eyes and switch my "leftie" fetal sleeping position to the side where I could see the doorway properly. It was probably mid-afternoon...(I could tell by the persistent grumbling of my tummy). And in the middle of the afternoon quietness in our flat, I heard several careful and quiet steps at the doorway. These sounded ordinary, but the timing? Rather curious.

My Mr.Big had just arrived. 

"Hold tight..."

Always the quiet and calm one, I am the "chirpy noise" of his existence. As he carefully approached to check my temperature, I gently touched his hand and let him know I was awake. Immediately, he dotingly reached to me and said sorry for leaving me by myself in the morning. I insisted that he did so anyway because I said he had to and I was attempting to look like a tough kid. He smiled. Just like what fathers look like when their kids say funny things. He would always say he felt like a father to me. And he is to me actually. When he holds my hand on the street and how he looks at me from afar, there's this eternal sense of protection beaming from him. 

Not yet thirty, Mr.Big soars mightily ahead of his peers. And they cheer him on..as he has never treated anyone unfairly. This is despite the fact that the finance world is a dog-eat-dog universe, where everyone is hungry and is always ready to pounce on the faint-hearted. He makes business decisions shrewdly but acts on compassion constantly. It's not surprising that his dream is not to get filthy rich and afford everything (because he said, "Who doesn't want to?"). Instead, he dreams of having more than enough to build a charity for talented but out of luck kids. I believe, this one-- he has already started to realize. 

As he was trying to cool down the tea he had prepared for me as soon as he arrived, I looked intently at this man in dark gray pin-striped suit with his tie still neatly clinging on his neck as if it was just 8:30 in the morning. Questions started popping in my head, "How big can this person be someday?, "Is it the extent to which he demonstrates his love and dedication the reason why I feel so tiny? Do good things last?

Note: As of this writing, my Mr.Big has lion-heartedly left the post he had worked so hard for since business school. He is his own boss now...working even harder and getting even kinder. Angels do exist :)