Creating Interesting Fictional Characters

 Visual elements of your character also have the potential to imply deeper story elements. If he has a scar, the audience will immediately want to know how he got it, and the events that led up to the scar are now back-story that influences what your character is currently doing. The same can be said for dyed hair, outlandish clothing, or good luck charms.

Categories to Know

• Character Name
• Hair Color
• Eye Color
• Weight
• Height
• Build
• Age
• Clothing

• Occupation
• Residence
• Religion
• Ethnic Background
• Personal Goal
• Quirks

• Likes/Dislikes
• Family
• Educational Background
• Personality Type
• Brief Life History

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Basic Script Terminology & Formatting Tips

 

• SR = Stage Right
• SL = Stage Left
• SC = StageCenter
• Enter = Character enters the scene
• Exit = Character exits the scene
• Beat = A pause in dialogue e.g. “after a beat, Frank continued his lecture”
• Lights fade/rise = Change of scene or focus in a scene
• Fade to black = End of the play or end of a scene
• Int. = Interior, scene taking place indoors
• Ext. = Exterior, scene taking place outdoors
• Offstage = Something is happening where audiences can’t see it such as sounds or dialogue from unseen characters.
• Aside = Character breaks from speaking with other characters to voice thoughts about the current situation or to address the audience directly.

Formatting Tips

• All descriptions and character names should be aligned with each other in the center. However, they shouldn’t be ‘centered’. In a lot of writing programs when you use the center justification option it aligns the middle of the word with the center of the page. You want your names and descriptions to be left-justified, but they need to start in the center. For the names you can just hit the tab key six times, but if you want a paragraph to do it properly you can highlight the entire section then go up to the ‘increase indent’ button in Microsoft word (It’s usually located to the right of the bullet buttons) then just click the button enough times to align it to the middle. I’m sure there’s a fancy way to do this that will auto-align everything but the more you mess around with the settings in Microsoft word the more likely you are to get a wacky result. So I stick with my method, even though it does mean you’ll have to indent everything individually.

• Names are always in capital letters.
• Descriptions are always separated by parenthesis and are always in the third person present tense.
• The title of the play and the author’s name should be listed on a cover page.
• The title, author, setting description and character list can all be centered using the center justification tool (unlike description and Character names in the body of the play).
• Only dialogue is left aligned and never indented

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CONCEPT OF NEWS EDITING

 In a news organization, editing plays a pivotal role. A news item or a news story, as it is called, is written by hurried reporters. and is rough-edged .  In the editing  process, the unwanted matter gets weeded out. Only the newsworthy stories are finally selected. These are checked for grammar, syntax, facts, figures, and sense, and also clarified for betterment, and are condensed for economy of space.

Editing is a process of selecting, preparing, writing, proof reading and publishing in the print media to disseminate the information to their target readers. The editing process goes through many channels from writing to correction, correction to consideration, consideration to modification and modification to production. The editing process starts with the reporter or author’s original writing and ends with the editor’s idea, creation and publication. 

News editing is tailoring news items or a news story to the required shape and size, using the right kind of expressions and symbols. A copy is edited to highlight the "news sense" in a story, and to bring uniformity of language and style in an issue of a newspaper.  Editing  defines as ‘preparing for publication (especially in a newspaper or other periodical); doing the work of planning and directing the publication of a newspaper, magazine, encyclopedia etc; preparing a cinema film, tape recording by putting together parts in a suitable sequence.

Prominent American theorist and Editor-at-large of American monthly magazine ‘ Norman Podhoretz says ‘editing is to improve an essentially well-written piece or to turn a clumsily written one into,  a beautifully shaped effective .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jdBhzBcA9M

 The information can be for publication or for broadcasting. It can be the content of a book, a magazine, a newspaper in case of print media. And in case of electronic media, it can be the content of radio, television, cinema or a website.’.’

 As veteran journalist Dasu krishnamoorty https://www.thehansindia.com/featured/sunday-hans/author-dasu-krishnamoorthys-second-book-the-seaside-bride-is-a-delightful-read-593418puts it, ‘Editing is a whole concept around which a message is conceived, perceived, designed and communicated.’ It is a chain of activities that starts with the assigning of beats to the reporters and culminates in the final publication of the newspaper.

 News editing is all about building bridges with mass audiences by eliminating blocks in that process. Editing makes the copy suitable for publication.

Desk Management 

In the print media industry, there are various editorial departments working together to publish a newspaper. The newsroom is headed by an editor or a chief editor followed by editor and then sub –editor and editorial assistant. The designation varies according to the choice of the organization. He plans and directs the day's news operations. He is supported by a team consisting of the news editors, chief sub-editors (chief sub), senior sub-editors and sdb-editors (sub). 

The editorial position is headed by chief editor 

The news desk usually operates in three shifts: morning, afternoon and night (till late in the evening, even up to 2.30 a.m.). In between, there are two link shifts-morning and evening-which are headed by the news editors and or chief subs. They are also called 'slot' men.

 Ideally, in a newspaper, it is the news editor who plans and directs page making, while the chief sub helps and implements it.

The exercise of editing, especially in print media, can broadly be divided into four stages:  

• ·         Conceptualisation and planning
• ·         Visualisation
• Planning and Visualization of news Writing a news story involves a series of tasks both reporting and writing. Here are few things to be remembered while writing for newspapers: 

1. (a) Find something interesting to write about; 
2. (b) File the report and quote its sources;
3.  (c) Be objective and fair;
4.  (d) Draft a lead that will draw attention of your readers; 
5. (e) Formulate the lead; develop the structure for the rest of the story; 
6. (f) Conduct interviews;
7.  (g) Choose the best quotes to use in your story;
8.  (h) Follow up the story to reach upto the conclusion. 

• Apart from above plan a good news editor can visualize more ideas to structure his story. There are multiple ways to establish a good news story. But creative story writers go through step by step with newer. Newser is the theme on which the whole story is based on. First and foremost step is to think about the headlines and then cover the story with multiples examples like in hard news the title can be
• ·         Dummy Preparation
• ·          Handling of copy

Of the four stages, the most exhaustive stage is the fourth stage, i.e., handling of copy. It involves the following:

1. Selection of news items

                Therefore, the first activity, i.e., selection, is basically a gatekeeping process. It involves sifting through the entire incoming news items, i.e., the copy and sorting out the newsworthy stories in accordance with the newspaper’s editorial policy.

 2. Cutting and pruning

 3. Removal of mistakes

A fact checking is a very important ingredient of good editing especially in news field and information world. A single error can damage not only the reputation of a newspaper but also the credential of an editor. In newspapers, many factual errors are prevented as the editor works as “Gatekeeper.” To ensure this the following can be kept in mind: A good editor verifies the news credibility at least from two sources. Whether it is original sources or websites. Editor can either ask the writer for his source of material or enquire from somebody to know the truth of story

4. Rewriting when necessary

The second, third, and fourth stages together form what is popularly known as copy editing. It includes cutting the news, tailoring and shaping them for publication. It also includes checking for inadequacies in grammar, syntax, facts and figures and, of course, news sense. It is also the job of the copy editor to cross-check facts. If required, corrections are made and at times the story is even rewritten.

5. Finally, the news report is topped with a suitable headline

STYLEBOOK

In a publication house, copies are filed by different reporters with not similar writing skills. Therefore, an important function of copy editing is to bring uniformity of language and style in conformity with the stylebook, so that readers get a uniform reading experience.

Generally, every newspaper organization has its own style book. Stylebook is a manual or a kind of guideline that provides the usage of words, punctuation and typography to prepare a news story for publication. While style sheet is the form that defines the layout and design of a document when writing for a newspaper. A style sheet consists of page size, font, margin and word format to develop the story. Style sheet are useful for any print media organization because you can use the same style sheet for any documents which is going to be published.

Style-Sheet:

 In print media, organization style sheet has an important role to play for the editors, authors and proof readers etc. to maintain uniformity and consistency within a single manuscript across the news paper. 

This is called as style sheet. Traditionally, a copy editor for any news organization creates a stylesheet as he/ she edits and passes the same style-sheet onto other professionals working on it to check. 

A style sheet is usually a word document file defining the layout, design and presentation. 

The style sheet specifies the parameter, page size, font and its margin. It is very important for any news paper to maintain a uniform and a consistent style for the whole document.

 AP style mistakes.

 The first Associated Press Stylebook came out in 1953. It was 60 stapled pages, and grandly called itself the “most definitive and inclusive work ever undertaken by a group of newspapers,” according to the 2009 edition foreword. The Stylebook today is a collection of rules—part dictionary, part encyclopedia and part textbook. Though the book has undergone several revisions, it remains committed to its original mission: “to provide a uniform presentation of the printed word, to make a story written anywhere understandable everywhere” (Stylebook foreword). 

The book contains an abundance of material and may appear insurmountable to memorize. It is. To help get you started in learning the multitude of style rules, below are 10 style rules media editors use often. This is generally true throughout the world of media: public relations, advertising, online media, magazines and newspapers generally rely on AP style. (Note: AP style is not the same as APA style, the academic style most students learn in social science courses. That style is a product of the American Psychological Association.) 

1. Never abbreviate the following words: days of the week; the months of March, April, May, June and July; the states of Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah; percent (and it is always one word, not two); company or corporation; department; assistant; associate; association; attorney, government; building; department and geographical locations of alley, road, drive, circle, terrace and highway.

 2. Spell out single-digit numbers (zero to nine), and use numerals for numbers 10 and above. However, note the exceptions. Always use numerals for ages (3 years old); weights and heights (9 pounds, 7 ounces; 8 feet high); dimensions (2-by-4; 5 inches); dollars and cents ($6; 6 cents); speeds (5 mph); scores (6-10); votes (3 votes); percentages and ratios (4 percent; 2-1 ratio) and temperatures (4 degrees). 

Commas should be used after every three digits of a long number, such as 29,875.

 But when you reach millions, billions, and trillions, rely on the easier-to-read word, with a decimal:

OBJECTIVES OF EDITING:

1. Striving for focus and accuracy:

 Accuracy is one of the chief corners of the editing stage. News reports have the professional and ethical responsibility to include in their research and writing process the checking of facts, which includes the correct spelling and pronunciation of names, the factual details of a story, and any basis upon which conclusions are drawn. Multiple checks for accuracy are the norm.

  2. Fact Checking:

3. Maintaining Objectivity:

4. Staying on Track:

source http://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/57121/1/Unit%2010.pdf

https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~rcollins/313editing/editingacrossmedia12-11.pdf

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Aesthetics is broader in scope than the philosophy of art, which comprises one of its branches. At a very basic level aesthetics involves the knowledgeable appreciation of art, an enquiry toward art for purposes of examination, refinement, and elaboration.

Conceptual art is art for which the idea (or concept) behind the work is more important than the finished art object. Conceptual art referred to as , an art in which the concepts or ideas involved in the work take dominance over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. . In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work or  an artist uses a conceptual form of art.

 

 

The term ‘concept art’ had been used by Henry Flynt of the Fluxus group  in the early 1960s. This term first used by the American critic Lucy Lippard in the form of a book, 'Six Years  in 1973'. The movement that emerged in the mid 1960s and continued until the mid 1970s was international, happening more or less simultaneously across Europe, North America and South America .

 

 

Artists associated with the movement attempted to bypass the increasingly commercialized art world by stressing thought processes and methods of production as the value of the work.

CONCEPTUAL ART

Few artistic movements have attracted so much controversy and debate as conceptual art. By its nature, conceptual art has a tendency to provoke intense and perhaps even extreme reactions in its audiences.

 

While some people find

1.     conceptual art very refreshing and relevant, many others consider it shocking, distasteful, and

2.     conspicuously lacking in craftsmanship.

3.     Some even simply deny that it is art at all.

4.     Conceptual art, it seems, is something that we either love or hate.

 

ART  AS IDEA

The most fundamentally revisionary feature of conceptual art is the way in which it proclaims itself to be an art of the mind rather than the senses: it rejects traditional artistic media because it locates the artwork at the level of ideas rather than that of objects.

Because creative process tends to be given more weight than physical material, and because art should be about intellectual inquiry and reflection rather than beauty and aesthetic pleasure (as traditionally conceived.

 

For conceptual art, ‘the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work’ (LeWitt 1967, 166). Art is ‘de-materialized’, and in this sense held to be prior to its materialization in any given object.

 

The claim that the conceptual artwork is to be identified with an idea that may be seen to underlie it has far-reaching ramification. It not only affects the ontology (Ontology is the branch of philosophy that studies concepts such as existence, being, becoming, and reality. ) of the conceptual artwork but also profoundly alters the role of the artist by casting her in the role of thinker rather than object-maker.

 

 

SEMANTIC REPRESENTATION

For all these reasons, the kind of representation employed in conceptual artworks is best described in terms of the transmission of ideas. In conceptual art, the representation at work can generally be seen as semantic rather than illustrative.

 

That is to say, it sets out to have and convey a specific meaning rather than to depict a scene, person or event. Even in cases where a work makes use of illustrative representation, conceptual art is still putting that representation to a distinctively semantic use, in the sense of there being an intention to represent something one cannot see with the naked eye. Accordingly, the conceptual artist’s task is to contemplate and formulate this meaning – to be a ‘meaning-maker’.

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TELEVISION AND RADIO NEWS WRITING TECHNIQUES

 The term broadcast writing will be used interchangeably for television and radio news writing throughout this publication.The process of writing an effective television and radio news story first.

Writing for the Eye and Ear

Writing for radio and television is different from writing for print for several reasons.

First, In for radio and television present news information less space and time . Therefore, It is essential to prioritize and summarize the information carefully in radio and television. 

Second , In print writings for eyes but in Television the story must read well to your eye and  listeners cannot reread sentences when a listener hears the story it has to read well to “the ear.”

Also for a radio news story, must paint word pictures with the words, images just through your verbal descriptions.

news writing in  Television and radio.

·         The writing style should be conversational. Write the way as talk.

·         Each sentence should be brief and contain only one idea. Do not always talk in long sentences. Shorter sentences are better in broadcast news writing. Each sentence should focus on one particular idea.

·         Be simple and direct.  too much of  information mislead the  audience and they are tend to avoid to grasp. Choose words that are familiar to everyone.

·         Read the story out loud. 

 Television and Radio News Writing Structure

·         Be brief. A  story on television or radio may have to fit into 30 seconds—perhaps no more than 100 words. If it is an important story, it may be 90 seconds or two minutes. It is essential to  condense  the  information into the most important points for broadcast writing.

·         Use correct grammar. It will enhance credibility of the news story.

·         Put the important information first. It essential to maintain a writing style like that  the important information first.

·         Write good leads. Begin the story with clear, precise information. Because broadcast stories have to fit into 30, 60, or 90 seconds

·         Stick to short sentences of 20 words or less.  Long sentences make it difficult for the person voicing the script to take a breath.

·         Write the way people talk. Sentence fragments—as long as they make sense—are acceptable.

·         Use contractions. Use don’t instead of do not

·         Use simple subject−verb−object sentence structures.

·         Use the active voice and active verbs. It is better to say “Sita meet Rama.  than “Sita was met by Ram.”

·         Use present-tense verbs, except when past-tense verbs are necessary. Present tense expresses the sense of immediacy. Use past tense when something happened long ago.

·         For radio news stories, write with visual imagery. Visualize the situation that is essential.  Make listeners to “see” what they are listening..

·         Use a person’s complete name 

·          use phonetic spellings for unfamiliar words and words 

·         Omit obscure names and places if they are not meaningful to the story.

·         Titles precede names; therefore, avoid emparrassing.

·          Do not write, “Uthayakumar, Minister of culture, said today….” Instead, write, “Cultural minister Uthayakumar said today….” 

·         In age reference, precede the name with the age. (Example: “The victim, 21-year-old Rob Roy…”)

·         AVOID WRITING DIRECT QUOTATIONS INTO A NEWS script, Instead, let people say things in their own words during soundbites.

·          A SOUNDBITE is the exact words spoken by someone in his or her own recorded voice.

·         THE ATTRIBUTION should come before a quotation, the attribution of paraphrased quotations in broadcast stories should be at the beginning of the sentence, before the paraphrase.

·         AVOID MOST ALL ABBREVIATIONS, even on second reference, unless it is a well-known abbreviation. This is different from the Associated Press Style rules for print stories.

·         AVOID SYMBOLS WHEN YOU WRITE. For example, the dollar sign ($) should never be used in broadcast writing. Always spell out the word “dollar.”

·         USE CORRECT PUNCTUATION. Do not use semicolons. Use double dash marks for longer pauses than commas. Use underlines for emphasis.

·         ROUND OFF NUMBERS UNLESS THE EXACT NUMBER IS SIGNIFICANT. (Example: Use “a little more than 150 crores,” not “150 croes 50 lakhs,

 

 

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PRINCIPLES OF WRITING FOR VISUALS /Television News Writing Structure

BASIC RULES OF TELEVISION 

USE SIMPLE SUBJECT−verb−object sentence structures.:

The writer of TV news must be able to make complicated stories simple. In short, understanding must be immediate in the TV News Bulletin. The golden rule to follow is "never underestimate the viewers' intelligence or over-estimate their knowledge".Stick to short sentences of 20 words or less. The announcer has to breathe. Long sentences make it difficult for the person voicing the script to take a breath.

CLARITY: The first rule of TV news is that the story must be clear at once. Unlike the reader, the viewer has no second chance to go over the material. TV news is written on the wind.

BREVITY: Clarity comes not only from writing simple sentences but also from writing short ones. Long sentences cannot be read easily by the newscaster, and a viewer has a hard time following them. Every sentence that you write for broadcast should be short, simple and easy to understand. The average acceptable number of words per sentence in a TV copy is 13 to 14. TV news has been described as a headlines service. It is intended to give the viewer only an outline of the event. A good newspaper story ranges from hundreds to thousands of words. The same story on television or radio may have to fit into 30 seconds—perhaps no more than 100 words. If it is an important story, it may be 90 seconds or two minutes. You have to condense a lot of information into the most important points for broadcast writing.

USE CORRECT GRAMMAR. A broadcast news script with grammatical errors will embarrass the person reading it aloud if the person stumbles OVER MISTAKES-

PUT THE IMPORTANT INFORMATION FIRST.  Writing a broadcast news story is similar to writing a news story for print in that you have to include the important information first. The only difference is that you have to condense the information presented.

Write good leads. Begin the story with clear, precise information. Because broadcast stories have to fit into 30, 60, or 90 seconds, broadcast stories are sometimes little more than the equivalent of newspaper headlines and the lead paragraph.

WRITE THE WAY PEOPLE TALK. Sentence fragments—as long as they make sense—are acceptable.

USE CONTRACTIONS.  Use dont  instead of do not. But be careful of contractions ending in -ve (e.g., would’ve, could’ve), because they sound like “would of” and “could of.”

USE PRESENT TENSE VERBS, except when past-tense verbs are necessary. Present tense expresses the sense of immediacy .  The present tense is the most engaging tense in the language. It indicates that the action is still going on.  Use past tense when something happened long ago. 

 

 

 

 

 

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