Crafting an Agent-Catching Chapter One

I was given the news by the editor at my publishing company.  It was a shock, even in these shocking times in publishing.  "We only read the first two pages of chapter one," she said.  "If it doesn't grab me, it doesn't get further."

What intense pressure for writers these days!  To craft a chapter one that
sings loudly and uniquely enough to catch an editor's (or an agent's) eye.  To keep them reading past the first two pages.  To make them fall in love with your story, be it nonfiction, fiction, or memoir.

Chapter one is perhaps the hardest chapter to write. It has to establish three essential elements that pull the reader into your story. These elements are key to successfully placing your manuscript with an agent. If you don't have them securely in place, you won't get a contract. They exist in any genre of book, if you know how to find them.

Dilemma is the conflict, the question, the quest.

Players are characters, or the narrator, or anyone on stage, whom should we care about.

Container is where everything happens, both outwardly as setting and inwardly as emotional or cultural environment.

These elements create a kind of tension cord. It pulls the reader through your book to the last page. If they are not all in place, the cord is slack and your manuscript doesn't make it past the round file.

Be Aware of Your Natural Strength

Every writer gravitates toward one of these three elements.  It is her or his natural, almost unconscious, strength. I've worked with many mystery writers, for example,  who dream up plots--dilemma--without any effort. One writer I worked with came to class each week with a new plot twist that had the rest of us envious.  She would enter her story from the question What happens? And that question always led toward new ideas.  

Another writer might dream of characters.  A psychologist in one of my weekly groups loved to analyze how people ticked (no surprise, given his profession) and was adept at writing them on the page.  

Then there's the writer who loves setting.  Who goes deep into the details of a culture, defining the marketplace or the mountain range or the English garden without any effort.  We salivate at her descriptions of weather and sounds and smells and the lattice work on a wall, details that bring the environment of her story alive.

So we first need to recognize what we do best, and keep doing that.  And at the same time, bring the other two elements into our awareness too.

Otherwise, the mystery writer might have a fantastic plot that comes across completely ungrounded:  she has  overlooked the place it happens, and the characters who are complicating things and getting deeper into trouble. So her story is interesting but the agent or editor might say, "Your prose needs tightening." Read: "Two elements are missing here; plug them in." Or, most important: "Make us care!"

A medical memoirist might also think of dilemma first--the accident that left him in a wheelchair, for instance. Event is what matters most to him, but the reader engages through first caring about his dilemma--or character. So the memoirist must begin to reveal himself on the page, more and more. Not always comfortable, but essential.

The psychologist writing a book on mental illness might think first of players--the people she counsels at the clinic or hospital, their personalities. She presents their background, their case histories (disguised or with permission), but she can't figure out how to place them in a setting that's believable. She begins to write the setting--a hospital--and suddenly we see the frailty of these people because we smell the antiseptic or hear the intercom paging doctors.

Your job is to think of all three, no matter which strength you build from. And they all must appear in chapter one.

How Does Chapter One Reveal Dilemma, Players, and Container?

In my weekly classes, we use published books as examples of how to craft chapter one.  One of the favorites is the opening chapter--only three pages long--of Judy Blundell's What I Saw and How I Lied. Blundell won the National Book Award for this novel. Her first chapter made me want to buy the book, and I'm not surprised that both an agent and editor felt the same way. 

Because that first chapter covers all three elements beautifully.

The chapter opens with the main players, in their unique "container"--a mother still dressed from her evening out, as daybreak slides into a room.  The mother, who smells of cigarette smoke and My Sin perfume,is lying in bed next to the young daughter who pretends to be sleeping beside her.  There's huge tension between them, even though nothing is said.  On the next page, the dilemma is heightened:  a man, Peter, has died tragically, the father who left, the mysterious friend. We learn of the dilemma--a small reference to the beach town and his body pulled in from the sea by fishermen.  We don't know how it happened, but there's enough hint to present the mystery this book will solve.  We also learn (still in the first two pages) how everyone at this Florida resort hotel knows the family's faces because they've been in the news recently. 

So players and dilemma are solidly presented.  How is the container in these two pages?  Expert.  Blundell creates an amazingly engaging container, both physically and emotionally, with lines like "The match snapped, then sizzled, and I woke up fast" or "I heard the seagulls crying, sadder than a funeral, and I knew it was almost morning." 

Studying the first two pages of your favorite published book might teach you how writers manage this.  Blundell's book is usually a revelation to its readers, compact and elegant and effective.  It grabs you immediately.  

That's what you want your first chapter to do, as well.

This Week's Writing Exercise

Want to join my writing class--at least virtually--this week? Try focusing on chapter one in one of your favorite published books. Pick one that's been published within the last 5 years, a book in your book's genre, one you admire a lot.

Photocopy the first two pages and see if you can find the three elements:  dilemma, players, container.

Then, once you've seen how it works, try it with your own first chapter.  Can you draft it--or look it over if it's already written--and check it for these three elements? What's missing? What's already present?

To read more about Judy Blundell's book, click .http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6624886.html

Steve Jobs' Biography and Starting a Law Firm | SEO Spot Available | Overcoming Fear

As you can tell by the title of this post, this might turn out to be a long one. I've decided to go from two posts per week down to one, so the one per week could turn out to be longer than usual, if I have something to write about (which I do this week). If you don't like it, too bad. Just read the post slower to stretch it out over a week.

I'll give you a brief overview of what I'm going to write about in case you want to skip something or jump around. First, I just finished reading Steve Jobs' biography and I'm going to tell you what I thought about it and what lessons, if any, I plan on trying to take with me moving forward. Second, a spot has opened up for SEO services if anyone wants them. One of the people I was helping, though they'd just gotten on the first page of the search results for their term, decided they didn't have the funds to move forward. Bad for them, good for you. And finally, I'm going to talk about overcoming fear and getting out of the loop that we all find ourselves in from time to time. Here we go!

Starting a Law Firm and Steve Jobs | What You Can Learn

First things first, I'm not going to keep you in suspense - I thought the book was fantastic. As I'm sure you know this book is a full run through of Jobs' life, from start to finish, with everything in between. Although I don't know Steve Jobs, I believe the book is a good recitation of his life, and did a good job capturing who he was as a person and as a businessman. The author was instructed to include all the good and the bad that make Steve Jobs who he is, and that comes through. And included in that life story are a bunch of great lessons we can use to help our business moving forward.

This Book Shows You the Hard Work that Success Requires

One thing I love about this book is its refusal to gloss over the early years, the hard work, the late nights, and the sacrifice that are required to have a successful business. Too often authors decide to glamorize a company as some instant success, some sure thing, when in reality it's anything but that. Okay, now on to some things I thought were cool and interesting.

Differentiate Yourself with User Experience

As you begin to work on your practice and think about ways to get clients (you will spend a lot of time thinking of ways to get clients when you are starting your law firm and when you are growing your law firm) you'll soon come to realize that if you could just show other people what makes you so special then you'd be half of the way there.

One way to do that is to create the best experience out there for your clients from start to finish. And the best thing about this is that it's possible - you can control their experience from the moment they find you or are referred to you for the rest of their interaction with you. It just takes some thought, some planning, some attention to detail, and a commitment to stick to it. If you want, you can create an experience that makes it nearly impossible for a potential client to say no to your services.

Great Expectations Get Great Results

Throughout the book many different people talk about Jobs's "reality distortion field," or his ability to will project to succeed in ways people didn't think were possible. The way he would do it is, for the most part, tell the people working with him that the way he wanted it was the way it had to be, so if it was impossible right now, find a way to make it possible - and most of the time they did.

That lesson carries over to the practice of law in several ways, but for purposes of this blog it's the idea that it's okay to expect success - see the the outcome you want and then go work at it until you make it happen. If you give up before you even try you've already failed.

If You're Standing Still You're Moving Backward

Toward the end of the book Jobs mentions a couple of times reading a book called "The Innovator's Dilemma" which discusses successful company's tendency to languish in their success and miss what should be an obvious shift in the dynamics of their business (see Borders and Blockbuster for concrete examples). He never wanted that to happen to Apple so he was constantly looking for ways to innovate, to stay ahead of the curve. Those lessons can be applied to law firms as well.

No, I know we're not working against the newest technology, trying to find the next big thing, but there are changes to society, to the way we live, to the way we think, to the way we consume information, and to the way we look for lawyers that are dramatically different than they were ten years ago. If you aren't constantly looking around and adjusting your business plan to take advantage of these changes and adapt to these changes, you're going to find yourself at the back of the pack.

It's Important to have "A" Players on Your Team

On of Jobs's core beliefs was that "A" players get you "A" results and everybody else gets you crap. In Jobs's eyes, if you weren't an "A" player, you might as well be an "F" player. He got rid of several people because he just didn't think they were up for the job.

This lesson is maybe the most important lesson of all. The people who work for you, the people you work with, if they aren't the best, they're bringing your work product down. And, likewise, if you aren't bringing your best, you might as well be giving nothing.

Go read the book. You won't be disappointed.

SEO Spot Available

If you remember a while back I let all of you know that I was going to start doing some SEO work for law firms and lawyers that needed or wanted my help. I've had some great success with my own law firm and I wanted to pass the opportunity to get the exposure to potential clients that comes with organic search results on to other people.

I decided to take on two clients, because that's all I had time for. And I did. That was a few months ago. Today, one of them decided they couldn't afford my help anymore. This person, by the way, was already on the first page of Google for his desired keywords (it had been about 10 weeks, which is pretty darn fast). I don't think he had all of his ducks in a row and needed to take care of some other, more basic things first.

His loss is your gain. If you are interested, please email me and we'll chat. I will tell you though, the right person for this has at least one thing in place - a website. It doesn't have to be the best website, but it needs to be up, it needs to be functional, and you need to be willing to make a few minor tweaks to really make it pop. As I said, it can take a couple of months to take effect (and depending on the keywords it can take a little bit longer than that), but once you're up on the top of Google you've got priceless real estate, and that's going to be reflected in your bank account.

Email me if you're interested. If I don't hear any responses I'll ask some other colleagues I know that would be interested in the service.

UPDATE: Spot is filled. Thinking about expanding to add a couple more people - this service is just too important if you're starting out. I'll keep you posted

Starting a Law Firm and Overcoming Fear

If you read this blog at all then you know by now, two and half years into this gig, I consider myself to have moved out of the starting phase of law firm growth and into the growing stage of law firm growth. What that means for me is that if I wanted to tread water, if I wanted to just stand still, I probably could for a while, and I probably have been for a few months. Once you get to that point you have to start doing new things, start branching out, start spreading your wings - but that's scary.

Now, I'm not talking about going into a new practice area or anything like that. I'm a DUI lawyer, and that's what I'm always going to be. What I'm talking about is taking advantage of the marketing systems I already have set up and building additional layers on that to open up my services to more clients. These new layers, though, they're not just new, they're unfamiliar. They're scary.

But you've got to overcome that. That's the fun part of this entire experience - doing things that you probably never thought you'd do. And I'm doing that in three ways:

1. Recognize that the fear isn't rational, that it's made up in my mind.

2. Know that the worst that can happen is you fail - then you just go try it again.

3. Set up real deadlines with real consequences just in case you have a harder time with number 1 and number 2 than you anticipate.

So that's what I did. I had a meeting with my business coach today and we set a hard date to do a couple of things I know I should be doing. And if I don't make that date I'm going to take a $100 bill and burn it up.

The way I see it, I'm letting a lot more money leave my office every month than $100. That's a small price to pay, if necessary, to motivate me to do what I need to do to make my law firm better.

What should you be doing that you're afraid of? Get over it and get started.

Bonjour

Bonjour chic friends! I’ve so enjoyed my month ‘almost’ away from technology and would heartily recommend it to anyone wishing to regain some equilibrium. I did check email and bank accounts daily, and had the occasional blog read, but just knowing I didn’t have any commitments was wonderful and so calming.

Of course I wasn’t sitting on a poolside lounger with a trashy novel and a drink with an umbrella in it, but I did get in some relaxation time in between moving house, unpacking, running a busy shop (in school holidays no less which is at times insanely busy) and trying not to have takeaway dinners too often.

It only took a handful of nights for us to get sick of eaten-out dinners and craving home-cooked real food and lots of veges. And we only had one fast-food breakfast– it was quite a novelty because we very rarely do it, but I somehow don’t think my ideal Paris girl would be caught dead eating a sausage and egg muffin with deep-fried hash brown at 8am (or anytime!). At least I was sitting down at a chair and table, that was probably the only French-inspired detail.

The funniest breakfast was at our old place when mostly everything was packed and I found my husband eating Weetbix made with hot water (rather than his usual hot milk) ladling it into his mouth with a large-size black plastic serving spoon out of a cooking pot. He was very happy though and said it was like an adventure. I think he was quite proud of himself for improvising.

Even though I still haven’t unpacked two of our three bedrooms (the guest room and office/sewing room), the rest of our house is pretty much set up, albeit in a slightly haphazard manner which I am tidying as I go. Just being in our own house makes me so happy and content, even though there are many little maintenance and decor things that need addressing.

I actually enjoyed cleaning our twenty-year old oven last week because it’s our oven, and I have to say it sparkles. We will update the kitchen eventually, but for the moment I am more than happy cooking in and keeping clean and organised my outdated kitchen because, yes, it’s our kitchen.

The area we live in now I am very pleased with too. It’s where my husband grew up, so he feels instantly secure and happy here. It has a really nice family feeling, with people walking their dogs and out with their children after work. There are even ducks which waddle around in pairs, and I saw a Mother duck and her ducklings. There are some ponds nearby which explains exactly why you sometimes have to wait for the ducks to cross before you can turn into your driveway.

I haven’t picked up Jessica cat yet, I go in a few days time. But at the top of this post is a photo of her which the cat shelter kindly sent me. I remembered her as being quite homely but perhaps she was having an off day as she is quite the pretty girl here. I felt mean looking at the most beautiful cats thinking which one I should choose, so I asked the shelter person ‘which one needs a home the most’ and came away sponsoring Jessica until we could pick her up.

Another thing I love about our neighbourhood is, while we are out in the suburbs, it is on a direct and nearby bus route into the city, and there is a big supermarket, shops, and restaurants within walking distance. It took me eight minutes to walk to the supermarket the other day to pick up a few items for dinner. I am glad we can continue to live well with one car. I never mind taking public transport either, it always makes me feel like I live in a big city. I just have to remember to tuck a book into my bag.

So that’s all to report in with now. I will share some photos with you when the house is looking a little more presentable. I've taken many photos and I'll entertain you with some befores and afters one day, but I'm afraid at the moment they are all 'befores'!

Lead, Follow, or Get the F&*! Out of the Way

I wish I'd come up with the title of this post, but I didn't. I stole it blatantly from "Both Sides of the Table" an entrepreneurship blog that I frequently read. I stole the title because I think it says everything that needs to be said on the subject (although I guess, not really, since I'm saying more about it right now). The post had some great insight into what we do as business owners that I thought I'd share on here.

Leadership Isn't Easy

Two paragraphs about leadership that I thought were great for us to think about:

It’s hard to be a real leader. To do that you need to be saying & doing what most people think is wrong. If you think you’re on to a really big idea and everybody else thinks so, too, then most likely it’s already conventional wisdom and you’re too late. When Steve Jobs decided to open retail Apple stores people thought he was crazy. When he launched the iPad many people were saying, “I don’t get it, it’s just a big iPhone” or similar.

Leaders need to be early, have conviction, be persuasive and get others to follow when rational people should not. And trust me, the world is FILLED with naysayers. Whether they succeed or not does not defeat their leadership and willingness to try.

I really like these two paragraphs because that's where I want to be with my firm. I want to revolutionize the practice of DUI defense. I want to change the way that things are done so that my clients get better results, so the cop's jobs are harder when they are out on the street, so innocent people aren't charged and forced to fight a DUI charge they never should have received.

It's easy to want that, but to actually go out and do it is an entirely different story. I've got some ideas for some things to do, but they are a bit controversial. At the end of the day my ideas center on educating the public before they find themselves in their car with flashing lights behind them. They also center on streamlining the DUI defense process so that all of my clients get the kind of representation they deserve (which often requires expert witnesses).

When it comes to just starting a law firm in general, there are always going to be naysayer. "You're going to do what?!" is a typical response from people. You've got to have some conviction for what you are doing, some drive to be better, and then you've got to go after that with passion. And remember, just because people think you're crazy doesn't mean you have a bad idea.

Being a Leader Means Getting Some Followers

Another great paragraph from the article on followers:

There truly aren’t many leaders. It’s a thankless and stressful job. And leaders aren’t always right of when they are they don’t always win. But in every team you need the majority of people who excel at their job functions. They are great at their respective fields whether they be marketing, sales, programming, PR, whatever. People in these job functions are also leaders – don’t get me wrong – but on each team you still need leaders & followers. You simply can’t have a team of people all pulling in different directions.

When you read that paragraph, it becomes clear that being a follower isn't a negative label. In any business you have certain roles to fill. Not everyone can be the person that directs the company in the future or is charge of the vision for the company. People need to be there to execute this vision. In the law firm context, this is your team.

When I first started, my team was me. I did everything. But, as I've become more successful I've begun to see the value in having people that can fulfill certain roles and fulfill them extremely well. For example, I don't do the books anymore - I have an accountant that handles that aspect of the business. Very soon I'm going to have someone acting as a CFO (not just for me but for others) to help direct me on the state of the firm from a cash flow and growth point of view. Just last night I talked to a new website guy who's also got a great background in marketing, website design (from a user standpoint), and website analytics. He's going to help me make sense of what I've got going on with my marketing. And obviously I've got my assistant, who keep the ship running.

The great thing about these people, these "followers" is that they are all able to be unleashed to fulfill their roles in great ways. All successful law firms have these roles to fill, and the more successful you are at filling those roles with people suited to those roles, the better off your business is going to be.

Get the F@$! Out of the Way

Here's his take on these type of people:

But too many people are “back benchers” – the people who are in the back of parliament and get to throw out their opinions in public time but aren’t having to lead. I learned early in life about the destructive nature of back benchers.

Throughout life I’ve realized that many people are back benchers. “That will never work” is their motto. They like to criticize but they don’t have strong ideas of their own. They “know” what’s wrong but they never do anything about it. They never lead. Yet they don’t follow.

When you spot people like that in your company you shoot them. If you wake up one day in any organization and you realize that you’re no longer “part of the solution” it’s time to get the fuck out of the way. This is especially true when you’re senior and too many people are looking at you or when your disbelief undermines the confidence of others.

In work I find nothing more irritating than people who always have their three critiques of your plan but never do anything themselves. I don’t hide it well. I have “get the fuck out of my way” written all over my forehead. It can be a weakness, sure. It makes me less of a politician. But I sleep better at night.

Here's the thing about criticism - I'm all for it. Critique my ideas. Tell me they suck. But if you tell me they suck, you better tell me why you think so and what you think will work better.

In some ways these are the people that fall back on the old "this is the way we've always done it" when new suggestions for things are made. I don't care how it's been done forever - maybe it's been done forever wrongly. If you have these people around you, get rid of them. They aren't giving anything to you, your business, or those around you.

I strongly urge you to check out the whole article, it's really good. And then get moving on your own company - there's always work to be done!

Using the Short Form to Get to the Long Form--Two Fun Excercises for Your Book This Week

A good writing friend once shared this piece of wisdom:  Sometimes we have to get small to get big, with our books.  Books span large areas of time and space, and it's easy to get lost in the expanse of them, overwhelmed with all the details.

In my writing classes, I use two fun exercises to help writers manage the immensity.  One exercise is a poem, the other is an exploration of one of your main characters, your narrator, or your potential reader, by putting them in a five-page short story. 

These two exercises are such fun, they can feel like a sidetrack away from the "real" writing.


One writer in my book-writing workshop (see more about the upcoming workshops at the Loft in November and December) wondered about this. In the middle of working on an epic novel, she was suddenly finding herself drawn back to some short stories she'd started years ago.  Was this a valuable detour or a derailment by her Inner Critic?

She had a deadline for her rough draft and needed every week between now and January to make it.  Working with a goal-setting plan each writer sets up for herself in my workshop, she was excited about finally have a good solid draft of her novel.  She even had a "nag buddy" (her words), to keep her going forward with check-ins each week.  Her buddy was doubtful that the pull towards short stories made sense, given her goals.

I know this writer pretty well, since she's taken many workshops with me, and I could see the stress in her face every time she discussed her book.  It was beginning to weigh her down.  The light was going out of it for her, and she needed a fresh look, a way to get over the overwhelm.  She's also quite dedicated to her writing and I had no fear that she'd stop the novel.

So I agreed; she needed to take a break.  I gave her two possible exercises:  Veer off into one of the short stories that was attracting her, only play with adding one of the characters from her novel.  She loved this idea--because the character she had in mind was perfect for complicating the story's plot.

"See if the short story might actually end up as part of the book," I said. "Don't write it toward that goal; let your creative self just explore the possibility."
 

Short pieces of writing, taken as breaks from my books, have taught me so much--about pacing, dialogue, the tension arc, the beginnings and endings. I remember writing, then publishing short essays, as a vacation while I was struggling with writing a memoir.  These ended up enlightening me as to why I was so stuck with the larger piece of writing.  When I was deep into my novel Qualities of Light, I explored a series of short stories about the same group of characters, working from small to large, finding out that the most compelling of the stories was the pivot for the novel.

In the long months and years of writing a book, we all need breaks of brief intensity. Experienced writers often conscious divert to the short form, then come back from their "vacations" refreshed and ready for the long haul.

This Week's Writing Exercises

1.  Create a haiku or short poem about your book, as it is now. Try to have the beginning, the ending, and the main conflict included in a few brief words. Then add a line about the main setting. And a line about the emotional focus of the book. (Thanks to Stuart Dybek--Coast of Chicago--for this inspiration.)

2.  Write a five-page short story about one of your main characters, your narrator, or your potential reader.  Put this person into an event or challenge that brings out something unexpected in them--a strength you didn't know about, a weakness that they've hidden, a secret previously unrevealed.

3.  See if either of these "sidetracks" actually takes you deeper into your book. 

Starting a Law Firm | The Attributes of a Successful Entrepreneur

I don't do this very often, so I don't feel bad about doing it today. I'm going to talk a little bit about a post I read on another blog, send you to that post, and then call it a day. It's a good enough post that it speaks for itself, and I've got other stuff to do today - for the most part, starting a law firm has nothing to do with this blog!

The article comes from a blog called "Both Sides of the Table." It's written by a guy who used to be an entrepreneur but who now owns a venture capital business (though I guess technically he's still an entrepreneur). He wrote a post entitled "Entrepreneur DNA" (the link takes you to the post where he listed out 12 qualities that make an entrepreneur. I wanted to just talk about a couple of them.

1. Tenacity

Right after listing this word, the author says:

The most important aspect of an entrepreneur is never being willing to give up.

Couldn't have said it better myself. There will be times when you will be challenged here. There will be times when it will be easy to give it up and go do something else. But if you really want to start a law firm you'll push through that.

2. Perspiration

At the end of the day, what's going to make your business a resounding success or a dismal flop is the amount of work you put into it. People don't just wake up one day with a million dollar practice. They bust their butt every day to build it. And you are going to have to do the same thing. If you want something easy, go work for a law firm, they'd love to have you. If you aren't willing to see a challenge in front of you, accept that challenge, and get to work on it, then starting a law firm probably isn't right for you.

3. Willingness to Accept Risk

This is probably the most important and the hardest one for lawyers to get over. From the first day of law school until we retire, we spend every waking day of our lives dealing with and trying to fix or defend the problems other people have created. We see time and time again how one minor error can result in utter destruction. And that scares us.

But if you want to be an entrepreneur, if you want to start a successful law firm, you've got to be willing to accept risk. This is how the author of the article puts it:

I'm not talking about crazy risks, but entrepreneurs are people who are willing to start a business on a leap of faith. They don't wait on the sidelines forever doing "side projects" until the day when they are ready to start a company. If you aren't willing to take a shot by going full time on your startup it tells investors you aren't confident enough in the idea or in yourself.

Scary, right? "Leap of faith" is a term lawyers don't often throw around. It's probably followed closely by "litigation." But if you want to start your law firm, you're going to have to step off that ledge and just go for it.

Go read the rest of the article. It's worth it. And tell me what you think the attributes are of someone that can successful start a law firm.

How to Educate Yourself about Publishing in Today's Changing Industry

Publishing is changing so fast, it's hard for writers to keep up with the shifts.  A friend sent me this wonderful article from author Steve Pressfield's site, "What It Takes," featuring publishing-savvy Shawn Coyne talking about the profit and loss analysis that publishers make before accepting a manuscript. Fascinating to hear the inside scoop.

If you're game, educate yourself this week.  Scroll down to his article, "A Matter of Infinite Hope."

Feel free post your comments and questions.

Click here.

And for an even more eye-opening article, about how Amazon.com has just started signing up writers, click here for this week's New York Times article.