The Chimp Paradox

The Chimp Paradox is an incredibly powerful mind management model that can help you become a happy, confident, healthier and more successful person. Prof Steve Peters explains the struggle that takes place within your mind and then shows how to apply this understanding to every area of your life so you can:

- Recognise how your mind is working
- Understand and manage your emotions and thoughts
- Manage yourself and become the person you would like to be

The Chimp Mind Management Model is based on scientific facts and principles, which have been simplified into a workable model for easy use. It will help you to develop yourself and give you the skills, for example, to remove anxiety, have confidence and choose your emotions. The book will do this by giving you an understanding of the way in which your mind works and how you can manage it. It will also help you to identify what is holding you back or preventing you from having a happier and more successful life. 

Each chapter explains different aspects of how you function and highlights key facts for you to understand. There are also exercises for you to work with. By undertaking these exercises you will see immediate improvements in your daily living and, over time, you will develop emotional skills and practical habits that will help you to become the person that you want to be, and live the life that you want to live.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos

Acclaimed psychologist Jordan Peterson has become one of the most influential public thinkers to emerge on the world stage for many years, with his lectures on topics from the Bible to romantic relationships to mythology drawing an unprecedented following of tens of millions of viewers. In an era of unprecedented change and polarizing politics, his frank and refreshing message about the value of individual responsibility has resonated powerfully around the world.

In this #1 international bestseller, he provides twelve profound and practical principles for how to live a meaningful life, from setting your house in order before criticising others to comparing yourself to who you were yesterday, not someone else today. Drawing on vivid examples from Peterson's clinical practice and personal life, cutting edge psychology and philosophy, and lessons from humanity's oldest myths and stories, 12 Rules for Life offers a deeply rewarding antidote to the chaos in our lives: eternal truths applied to our modern problems.

The Importance Of Morality In Your Writing

Every story that has been written, whether for stage, screen or as a novel, has had a fundamental morality underpinning the story. If you can master morality in your story, it can help you:

Illustrate the main conflicts and subplots in your story, giving the whole story far more depth and realism.

Help you to create characters that are believable and who act in line with their personality.

Give your story a clear and defined theme.

The Definition of Morality

Putting it simply, morality is the behaviour of people which is deemed either good or bad by the majority of people. Morally good behaviour is socially accepted and seen by people as acting in a socially acceptable manner. Immoral behaviour is the opposite, where the actions are judged as causing harm or distress to another person. Most stories have a moral basis to the plot, where the protagonist battles against the evil of the antagonist, and tries to triumph over the villain to reach their objective. There are other novels, however, that have their plot based around a moral dilemma. Some good examples of this would be My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult where the plot examines the relationship of parent and child and whether it is morally right to save a child’s life even at the detriment of the rights of others. In the novel The Nightingaleby Kristin Hannah, a woman who is trying to escape the Nazis, as they invade France, is forced to go against all her values to save her life and the life of her child. As you can see by these examples, the conflict within the plot arises from the different moral viewpoints. The characters' opinions of the moral dilemma place them on one side or the other. The clash of personalities when characters from differing standpoints make their argument makes for excellent reading. You can also ask yourself, does the character who is acting immorally to achieve a goal for the greater good deserve to triumph? How will they feel after they have reached their objective, knowing others have suffered as a result; will their consciences haunt them?

Another perspective when you are creating your characters around a moral dilemma could be that a protagonist and their sidekick have to overcome an objective, but to do so, the protagonist has to act in a way that the sidekick disagrees with, as it goes against their moral compass. The protagonist now has to battle against the antagonist and the sidekick to succeed. An important point to remember is that any immoral course of action must be believable and understandable. Would a reader support a protagonist breaking the law? For example, the lead character has discovered their child is in grave danger from money lenders, and has to steal money in order to save the child’s life. The reader may support the protagonist if they stole from an evil, callous businessman, but would they be as understanding if the victim was a sweet elderly lady? A crime of theft has still been committed, but one would be more accepted by the reader than the other.

Ask yourself the following questions as you write your story. Are all your characters motivated by their moral opinion? Are your conflicts motivated by the opposing moral standpoint of your characters? Does your protagonist act immorally by hurting others to achieve their goal? If you have answered yes to all of these questions, then you will have created an amazingly complex and strong storyline that any reader will find enthralling.

Confusing Punctuation

The most difficult and confusing aspect of writing has to be using the correct punctuation. There are always applications such as Grammarly but you cannot always rely on these to be 100% grammatically correct. Do you use an apostrophe after names ending in S? So what is the difference between a colon and a semicolon and what on earth is an en dash?

The following explanation might clear up the mystery.

Semicolons and Colons

Semicolons and colons are probably most used as emotags in text messages and posts on Social Media but they are also useful in punctuations. However, knowing which one to use can often be misleading.

A semicolon is not used in writing as often as it could be. A useful guideline is a semicolon should be used when the pause falls somewhere inbetween a comma (short break) and a full stop (a long break). One key point to make, however, is they should never be used before words such as ‘because’ or and’. Technically a semicolon is used between two independent clauses instead of using the words ‘and’ or because’.

Example

I really enjoy using semicolons; I should make more use of them.

Colons can be the most confusing punctuation mark of them all. They are used when the latter part of the sentence bolsters the first part of the sentence. You must only use them when what you are saying is a complete statement and not a fragmented one. Colons can also be used when writing the time or showing a score for a competition.

Example

There were so many familiar faces in the meeting: June, Basil, John and Faith.

Hyphens

This is quite a familiar and well-known punctuation mark and primarily used when separating double-barrelled names or when you want to combine two adjectives to create a new one.

Example

Tara Palmer-Tompkinson.

Silver-grey hair

En Dash

You will see en dashes when dates and times are written.

Example

2001-2013

Em Dash

These are used to signify a character's dialogue has been interrupted or cut off. It can also be used instead of brackets to join two sections of a sentence. There is no rule concerning leaving a gap either side of the em dash but whatever you choose, you must be consistent through the piece of writing.

Example

‘John, I think I—'

I really do not know what to do—do you have a suggestion?

Square Brackets

These are used when you are quoting another writer but you have altered part of the text.

Example

“[They] said [they] just wanted to be alone.’

Curly Brackets

These will not be used at all unless you are writing a scientific assignment or book.

Normal Brackets

These are also used as emotags. But their main use is when you want to add extra information to the story.

Example

I told John I never loved him (but I really did).

Ellipses

I use these far too much in my writing. Their main use is when some of the text has been removed or when a character's thoughts trail off.

Example

I gave him a one final kiss goodbye…and then he was gone.

I believed he had gone for good…

Possessive Apostrophes

There is so much confusion and debate over where to place the apostrophe. Johns’ book or John’s book?  But the truth is either is correct. It all comes down to personal preference or more importantly, which your publisher prefers.

So there you have it, my guide to confusing punctuation.

Adding Personality to Your Writing

This article is predominantly for all writers of non-fiction who want to add some zest and personality to their content. There is a fallacy that non-fiction books must just be informative and full of fact and figures, but this isn’t going to create a book that will entice readers, unless your research is impeccable. The number of non-fiction authors who honestly believe that creating a boring account of their subject will entice readers to purchase is astounding to me. So if you do nothing else, then decide who you are actually writing for. Decide what age group your book is targeting, and then write specifically with them in mind. Remember, the wider your target audience, then the more difficult it will be not only in writing your book, but also to complete a successful marketing campaign.

If you were at a networking event and wanted to get someone’s attention about your latest work, then you would speak to them on a one to one basis. The more people you speak to at once, the harder it is to cater your marketing pitch to everyone’s needs. It is far better to have a smaller audience for your books but who are willing to become loyal purchasers of your books rather than target everyone but not gain a steadfast following.

It is very important to write how you speak. I have written an article outlining the reason why previously and I still feel this way. When you do this you immediately create a connection with your reader. After all, who wants to read a book that comes across as if it has been written by a robot with no personality? You want your audience to fall in love with your content and develop a passion for what you have to say. The fastest and the most efficient way to do this is to come across as passionate and human.

Write with honesty and your readers will build trust in you. Be authentic and genuine. Everyone understands that life isn’t perfect and happy all the time; don’t pretend otherwise or your reader will lose faith in the message you are trying to portray. Have the confidence to be yourself, don’t follow others because you feel that is how you should be. In time and with a lot of writing practice, you will work out who you are writing for, what message you want to get across and what your true personality is, and then you will have found the key to unlock the path to a very successful relationship with your readers.

Everyone has that sense of impending doom when they allow the public to gaze on their most recent work; feeling this way is completely normal and expected. Remember the famous novel, Feel The Fear But Do It Anyway? With plenty of practice, you will instinctively know the difference between feeling a little apprehensive and content that is not ready and needs a rewrite.

By following these guidelines, you will soon have a loyal following and an avid audience who love to engage with you.

How To Write Unique Dialogue

A vital part of the creative process is developing unique characters with recognisable and differing personalities. You can achieve this either by quirky behavioral traits and/or through their speech and dialogue. In other words, the reader would instantly recognise which character is speaking just by their dialogue. A character has to be multi-layered to stand any chance of sounding believable to the reader. The reader must believe in them or they will never care if the character reaches their objective or not. In regards to dialogue, there are many ways to achieve uniqueness; by their accent, speech patterns (someone in authority will speak very slowly, whereas a nervous person will speak in short sharp sentences), or by their mannerisms.

Before you decide how they will speak, you have to create a detailed backstory for the character, as the person’s life history will have a profound effect on their speech patterns. If you think of a confident person you know, how do they speak? Is it different to a shy person? Another person may constantly add, ‘Do you know what I mean?’ or ‘Do you get me? when they tell a story. What if one of your characters had a lisp or spoke in a gravelly tone because they are a heavy smoker. If you want to create a very boring character that tends to ramble on, it may be a good idea to have another character interrupt the conversation or refer to them as quite a verbal rambler, so the reader doesn’t have to read long pieces of dialogue causing the action scenes to suffer. All of your characters, like the real world, will have their own distinctive personalities. If you have a person that is quite an extrovert, they would most definitely jump at the chance to relay their life. An introvert would tend to talk in a whisper, use very few words, if any, and definitely avoid eye contact. Another important consideration is their dialect and their age. A person of 60 years of age is going to use a different vocabulary to their grandchild.

A great technique to add to your dialogue toolkit is to study people from differing backgrounds. Do these people use any slang words, what vocabulary do they use, are they open to discussing taboo subjects and what do their verbal patterns say about them?  You will soon have plenty of ideas to flesh out the bones of your character. When you are creating the backstory for your character, try asking yourself what is unique about them compared to the other characters. Do they have any comical sayings, do they constantly tell jokes (bad jokes) and then get the person to laugh at them? Do they burst into song at the most inopportune moments?

If you spend some time getting to know your characters and making them intriguing and full of flavor, your story will become much more engaging. One word of warning; if you are going to create a character where English is not their first language, never write the dialogue to show their accent. This is totally frowned upon. Instead, make a reference to their country of origin when introducing them into the story.