Grande Finale

by  Sandra Gould Ford

To finance a creative project by winning the Powerball, ehow.com  suggests:

1. Play the same numbers all the time; every time.
2. Add Quick Picks.
3. Join Powerball group with processes to keep whoever buys the winning ticket from deciding it was a personal purchase.

Another way to fund inventions, performances and publications is Kickstarter.  According to the online platform, “Each project is independently created and managed.  …  Anyone can launch a project on Kickstarter as long as it meets our guidelines.”

Of the successful, $5,000 campaign for Stan the Snowman’s Plan for a Summer Tan, Marc Thomas Eckel said, “Finances were set as needed with rewards and publishing expenses. Simply a mathematical calculation.  The more we could get the more we could do.”

Strategies

by  Sandra Gould Ford

According to DeseretNews.com’s  “Twenty Things More Likely to Happen Than Winning the Mega-Millions Lottery,” the probability of perfectly bracketing the entire NCAA Basketball Tournament are thirteen times better.  Our chance of finding a four-leaf clover on our first try is far easier.  The proven chance of winning money a KickStarter campaign is two to one.

Kickstarter is a “crowdfunding” resource for creative and inventive projects.  During the “How to Build A Successful Kickstarter Campaign” panel at the 2013 Associated Writing Programs Conference,  I learned that 45% of Kickstarter’s campaigns succeed, with an average win of  $7,000.  Most projects that don’t succeed never really launched, and campaigns with videos are 30 percent more successful.  

What Are The Odds

Author: Sandra Gould Ford

Before investing in the nearly $600 million Powerball, I didn’t know that my chance of being zapped by lightning was more than 100 times better.   According to Durango Bill’s  applied mathematics, the Powerball offers 175,711,536 number combinations, making my personal collision with a meteor far more likely.

At this year’s Associated Writing Programs Conference  I learned a surer way to raise funds for my projects.

Plot and Denouement

by Edgar Allen Poe

This essay from Wordsmith Star’s predecessor, a BriteLites series that revisited 19^th century authors and topics they explored that remain important to WordSmiths today.  Comments are welcomed.

Did you ever wonder how Edgar Allen Poe made his endings work so effectively?  Here, he explains in this excerpt from the larger essay, first appear in Graham’s Magazine in 1846.

by Guy de Maupassant

This essay from Wordsmith Star’s predecessor, a BriteLites series that revisited 19^th century authors and topics they explored that remain important to WordSmiths today.  Comments are welcomed.

This essay is excerpted from the introduction to de Maupassant’s novel Pierre et Jean.

As with movies, some novels are vivid, full of action, explosions and tension.  Others are quiet studies of characters whose situations appear normal, commonplace and unexciting.  In this excerpt from Guy de Maupassant’s longer essay, the author explains the value and significance of the quiet, the character-driven or literary novel.

by Guy de Maupassant

This essay from Wordsmith Star’s predecessor, a BriteLites series that revisited 19^th century authors and topics they explored that remain important to WordSmiths today.  Comments are welcomed.

This essay is excerpted from the introduction to de Maupassant’s novel Pierre et Jean.

by Guy de Maupassant

This essay from Wordsmith Star’s predecessor, a BriteLites series that revisited 19^th century authors and topics they explored that remain important to WordSmiths today.  Comments are welcomed.

This essay is excerpted from the introduction to de Maupassant’s novel Pierre et Jean.