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Showing posts from January, 2021

Guide to writing scholarships (v2)

 I made some improvements to the last one. Here you go. As I say, "You lose by the real rules, when you play by the false rules." There is a gradient, from challenge to solution, in a scholarship story: That which serves to point out a challenge, That which serves to show the oppressions of the challenge, That which shows what motivates the protagonist to overcome it, The moment the protagonist gains (or uncovers) the permanent resolve to overcome it, That which serves to show how the protagonist overcame it,  How the protagonist, or his situation changes from accomplishing it, The benefits the protagonist experiences or the indications it was right solution,   The takeaway he shares with the reader, his belief inferring from the benefits it is the right thing to do. Suffering > Uncovering of strength > Overcoming problem with strength > Enlightenment? Here, we detail structural elements that intend to both accomplish the above, and accomplish incidental other purpos

The REAL way to win scholarships

My readers, of which I am the only one, want to know how to win scholarships, not from a "take 10 years off your life from extracurricular-academic-sport-stress-overload" kind of way, but from a "know the real rules of the situation to optimize what matters" kind of way. So after some crunch time, we came to our conclusion:  You need three things: Suffering, Virtue, and Quality. Why is suffering crucial? Empathy is also the best part of friendship, and by suffering "with" him, you become a person who wants to help him out. By suffering, are we provoked to wish to help others not feel suffering. By forcing the reader to feel suffering remotely, we can provoke this same response (create empathy). It also causes his investment (he will remember it), makes it seem realistic (suffering is da realz), and implies to the reader that the person's virtuousness is authentic (since suffering = empathy > goodness). If he suffers, he has the sympathy of the reade