How to Create Stories that Sizzle – Writing
How to Create Stories that Sizzle
Caterina Christakos
How to Start Your Story with a Bang
The purpose of creating a story is to create a world that will draw the reader away from their own. In order to do this one must create suspense, drama and mystery. Your reader must absolutely need to get from page to page, to find out what happens.
There are several simple techniques to get your story going and draw the reader in. Here are just a few:
1 Start in the middle of a problem.
Ex. A lover
Bob Hope Stories – Travel
Bob Hope Stories
Stephen Schochet
Once when he was a little boy in England, Leslie Hope He later renamed himself Bob after a race car driver he idolized wanted to pick an apple off a tree. Symbolic of his career, he didnt want just any apple but the highest one possible. He lost his balance, fell and permanently changed the shape of his nose.
His big break in Hollywood was getting the part Jack Benny turned down in the Paramount film "The Big Broadcast Of 1938". The director Mitchell Leisen could not stand the star of the film, the ornery WC Fields, who would run off the movie set and come back too soused to do the required scenes, flub his lines and scream for his lawyer. Liesen found Hope much more cooperative, although he was a nervous ham in front of the camera. Desperate to be a more traditional leading man like Fred Macmurray, Hope begged Paramount to pay for a nose job but they refused. It was in this film he got to sing "Thanks For The Memories" which along with his ski nose became Hopes trademarks.
For his radio show when Hope found out that Jack Benny hired two writers for $1,000 a week, he in turn hired ten writers for $100 a week each and hated paying. At times he would gather the staff at the bottom of a stairwell and toss their paychecks down as paper airplanes. Other times Hope would interrupt his scribes intimacy with their wives by calling their houses very late at night to go over new material. For their part, the writers created the Hope movie character, egomaniacal, womanizing and cowardly, all but the last trait were true.
Hopes relationship with Bing Crosby was love-hate. In one of their early road movies Paramount Studios filmed two endings in which each of the boys ended up with Dorothy Lamour, to see which result audiences preferred. They overwhelmingly chose Bing which annoyed Hope, who got his costar back by constantly reminding him that he wore a toupee. In one scene both had to lie on the same bed together innocently, they were resting and Bing refused to take his hat off. No amount of coaxing from Paramount executives could get Crosby to change his mind, he did not want to hear Bobs toupee barbs. Hope later said the greatest acting performance he ever gave was smiling when Bing won his academy award for Going My Way 1944.
His frequent leading lady, Lucille Ball, was an even match for Hope in the ambition department. She lobbied the comedian to hire her little-known band leader husband Desi Arnaz for his radio show. She later regretted it when Desi slept with every showgirl who applied for a job, with rumors flying about Hope ending up with his second choices. Delores Hope was as long suffering as Lucy was. One time she was among a crowd waiting backstage for him after a live show. A reporter asked her,"Are you connected to Bob Hope in some way Miss" "No, Im just his wife."
In the late 30s, Hope made fun of veterans on his radio show. Performing at army bases was a way to bring up ratings. Then came World War II with Hope and a number of other stars recruited by the government for a war bond selling, victory caravan tour. Unlike many of the pampered celebrities who complained about the cramped quarters on their shared train, the ex-vaudevillian Hope was exhilarated by the travel. It was no problem for him to go overseas to entertain the troops.
At first Hope found Americas homesick young fighting men to be the easiest audience he ever faced. Jokes that would die in the states would get uproarious laughter from the troops. In the beginning Hope stayed out of combat areas, but then he reasoned that those in actual battles needed him the most. Hope became addicted to the to the danger of flying in planes that might get shot down or performing in places that had recently been attacked. But he was greatly moved by the injuries he saw in hospital wards, and quietly help set up several of the soldiers he met in their own businesses after the war ended. Later he could not understand the Vietnam situation, getting in trouble when he repeatedly suggested we should bomb the enemy into submission. Hopes love for the troops stayed constant, even in Nam when they booed him.
Hope got along great with all the Presidents he met, whether he agreed with them or not. He once said that Roosevelt laughed so hard at his jokes he almost voted democratic. He loved telling the story about a marine in World War II who was disappointed that he had not killed a Japanese soldier. At the edge of a jungle he tried to smoke them out, by shouting," To hell with Hirohito!" It worked, a Japanese soldier came out and shouted," To hell with Roosevelt!" But the marine lowered his weapon," Darn it, I cant shoot a fellow Republican."
About The Author
Stephen Schochet is the author and narrator of the audiobooks Fascinating Walt Disney and Tales Of Hollywood. The Saint Louis Post Dispatch says," these two elaborate productions are exceptionally entertaining." Hear realaudio samples of these great, unique gifts at www.hollywoodstories.com.
Funniest Pond Stories – Part 1, May 2004 – Home
Funniest Pond Stories - Part 1, May 2004
Brett Fogle
Get ready for some gut-wrenching, laugh out loud hilarious pond stories from all over the world...
Continued from May Issue of PondStuff!
We had some hilarious, truly gut wrenching, laugh out-loud stories sent in by some of you. Here were going to highlight some of the funniest stories for you to read.
We had entries from all over the place Inluding one all the way from THAILAND! The competition was fierce, and to be honest - I had a really hard time deciding on one funniest story, but heres a brief rundown of our entries: cats, dogs, and bunnies all taking the Nestea plunge right into the water, a hungry KOI nibbling in dangerous territory, a missing flip flop, an electrifying experience for grandma, fun for the whole family, fish frape, and flying fish to boot!
First, lets start with this very funny story about Smokey - who apparently thinks he can walk on water. This was sent in by Mike Lachance from Maryland:
Funny Pond Story #1
"I wish I had a photo to share of this very true story but any ponder with cats has likely had the same experience at some time or another. Several years ago, when I was enjoying the second season of my first pond I have now built four as Ive moved around, one of our cats, "Smokey", who was a natural hunter in her prime, saw a mockingbird alight on a lilly pad to get a drink of water. Well, old "Smokester" slowly crept out from under some day lillies and made a spectacular jump with all four paws majestically carrying her like a flying squirrel, right for that intruding bird.
It is not as though she had not already had a couple of encounters with the water but that day the feathered treat must have been too much for her to pass up. Well, both my wife and I were there to see her make a wonderful belly flop into the pond.
Of course, the bird was out of the way in plenty of time and I swear that that cat walked on her toes the five feet it took her to get out of the water! And of course, after removing herself from the water, in a very nonchalant manner, proceeded to lift each leg, shake off the water and as much as say "I meant to do that, you know".
Smokey often spent time at the pond later, using her tail to attract the fish she would put it in the water and swish it around and the fish would come up to explore it. She never did catch one. She also loved to sit at the waterfall and enjoy the water moving past her. So that is my funny pond story.
=== Funny Pond Story #2
"Dear all at McArthur,
My funniest pond story is about my late aunt, who introduced me to the joy of backyard ponds. Donna had a large koi pond in her backyard that she devoted endless amounts of love and attention to. As happens with most ponds, spring brought some uninvited guests...in this case frogs. One evening Donna was working on the pond, checking the cantankerous pump and filter system, and using her net to skim out leaves and what not that had blown in.
My 80+ plus year old grandmother was supervising the work and offering her expert opinion on how to proceed. They were amazed at the number of frogs that had taken up residence, and not too happy about it. Donna noticed a frog swimming at the far side of the pond that she wanted to get out...something was not quite right about the way he was swimming, and she pointed him out to Grandma. "Mom, look at that frog swimming on his back!" Grandma was a bit skeptical...frogs doing the back stroke were a phenomenon that she was unfamiliar with.
She advised that this misfit should be removed immediately. Dont want to give the other little froggies strange ideas. Donna made several attempts at scooping the miscreant up with her net, but he was just out of reach. Only one thing left to do. Roll up your shorts and wade in after him. The answer to Mr. Frogs strange swimming technique became painfully obvious as soon as Donna reached his immediate vacinity....a faulty under water light had shorted and electrocuted him! Donna didnt need her electric rollers for a few days after that!"
Enecia Sabroff
Funny Pond Story #3
"Hello----My husband recently bought a beagle puppy, at this time he was 8 weeks old. My husband also bought two almost, semi-tame rabbits to help train the puppy to track rabbits. At this time I only had one pond that was preformed 550 gallons, my husband put one of the rabbits out to platy with the puppy, the rabbit was teasing the puppy, running a little ways then jumping over his head, then the rabbit decided he didnt want to play anymore so he started to run from Bear the puppy, and he dove into the pond. We were thinking that Bear would go around the pond to the other side and continue chasing the bunny, but Bear just dove right in, he was so little though that he had to be rescued from the small backyard pond. My husbands only response was "hes going to be a good rabbit dog!" Well, thanks for listening to my story. Sincerely, Roberta Collins Toledo, Ohio
Funny Pond Story #4
"A story to share...
Two years ago I started with the crazy idea of building a small pond with koi fishes. After a lot of working I finally built it, and decorated it with all sort of plants. One day... mi female cat
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