It's a white Christmas in the United States today, with snow falling from Seattle to Maine.

    Northeast

    Biting winds with snow swept the Northeast.

    Earlier, up to 15 inches of snow fell during a snow storm in Maine, while up to one foot fell in New Hampshire. Winds reached 76 mph on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, while up to 61 mph winds tore through Long Island, New York. Falling snow collected on the runways at Boston's Logan International Airport, causing temporary flight delays.

    The wind was so severe in Pennsylvania and New Jersey that the annual (重演) of George Washington and his soldiers'crossing the Delaware River was canceled, the Washington Crossing Historic Park told ABC News.

    Midwest

    Heavy lake effect snow fell in western Michigan.

    The National Weather Service has issued a wind-chill warning and advisory (公告) from Montana to Michigan. Bitter cold air in the Midwest produced wind chills Monday morning as low as minus 48 degrees in North Dakota and minus 47 in northern Minnesota.

    As this bitter cold made its way east overnight, it was expected to move over relatively mild Great Lakes, producing intense lake-effect snow bands capabie of producing 2 to 4 inches of snow in an hour.

    West Coast

    That storm system moved overnight through the Rockies, bringing more snow and the threat of avalanches(雪崩). The National Weather Service has issued an avalanche warning for the Wasatch Range Mountains outside Salt Lake City.

    What's the most important thing in a piece of writing? Is it the story, the characters, the description, or the style? Obviously, you can't choose only one. A great work succeeds in combining all of them in a great mix, producing a wonderful work.

    In most cases, you're better at one writing element over the rest, and working on your strengths will work to your advantage. Building characters, however, is important to your writing. It's not to be ignored no matter what your case is. So, how do you achieve that?

Make Them Real

    This is probably one of the most common pieces of writing advice: make your characters believable. What does it really mean? It means that your characters need to be there for a reason, not just for pushing the story forward. He/She has a real life, with his/her own fears and dreams, and you have to show this. Your characters don't need to be typical to be believable. The unusual ones are even more interesting, but it's your job to make your readers relate to them.

Understand Human Psychology

    To build great characters, you'll need to understand people's psychology: what are they thinking about, what are they feeling and experiencing, and why are they doing what they are doing? Get behind the obvious. Be in the backstage with them. Sit them in a chair and let them talk away. If you truly listen, you will learn.

Be your character

    When you immerse (使沉浸) yourself in your writing, you get lost in that world and you start living in it. This is when the magic happens and you become your character. By putting yourself in your character's shoes, you allow yourself to experience what you're writing about first-hand. The more it feels real to you, the more the readers will feel the same, too.

    When an earthquake hit a small town，many houses fell down.After the earthquake，all the newspapers reported many stories about some of the families who were in trouble.

    One Sunday，when I was reading a newspaper，a special picture touched me.It gave the clothing sizes of each family member.I thought that this would be a good chance to teach my children to help those who were less lucky than themselves.I said to my seven years old twins，Brad and Brett，and three years old Meghan，"We have so much，and these poor people now have nothing.We'll share what we have with them."

    I filled a box with foods and clothes.While I was doing this, I encouraged the boys to choose their toys and donate some of their less favourite things.Meghan watched quietly as the boys took out their old toys and games and put them together.Then she walked away.A few minutes later she came back with Lucy，her much loved doll.She put the doll on top of the other toys. "Oh, dear," I said. "You don't have to give Lucy.You love her so much."Meghan said，"Lucy makes me happy，Mommy.Maybe she'll make another little girl happy, too."

    I looked at Meghan for a long moment.She taught me a lesson.It's easy to give something that we don't want any more，but hard to give what we cherish(珍爱)，isn't it?

    Imagine on your way out of class today you trip (绊倒) on a loose piece of carpet and twist your ankle. As a result of the injury, you lose your place in the local sports team, and have to miss an important job interview. Bad luck? Or an opportunity to get rich quick?

    Perhaps it's not surprising that Roslyn Darch of Houston, Texas, USA felt annoyed when she tripped over a toddler (学步的儿童) running around a furniture store, and broke her ankle. But a few months later, she was $780,000 richer after she successfully sued (起诉) the shop. The owners were clearly surprised at the size of Roslyn's payout, particularly since the toddler she tripped over was her own son.

    And it's not only claims for physical injuries that are keeping the lawyers busy. A group of overweight New York teenagers sued a giant fast-food company claiming that they had not had enough warning that a diet of burgers, fries and milk shakes would make them fat. The parents of one nineteen-year-old English schoolgirl successfully sued her school for 42,000 compensation when she failed to get a top grade in a university entrance exam. Sandra York received $113,000 from a Washington D.C. restaurant after slipping on a spilt soft drink.

    Who knows where it will end? Some say there should be penalties (处罚) for excessive (过度的) claims, or that there should be a limit on payouts. But one thing's for sure—in the end, the only certain winner is the lawyer!

    Most people who own iPhones use them as their alarm clocks―making it very easy to check emails one last time before falling asleep and hard to ever feel away from work and social networks.

    Several years ago, my boss fainted due to exhaustion after staying up late to catch up on work. She banged her head and ended up with five stitches (缝针) and became what she calls a "sleep evangelist (传教士)." Now she leaves her phone charging in another room when she goes to bed and encourages her friends to do the same.

    "I sent all my friends the same Christmas gift―a lovely alarm clock―so they could stop using the excuse that they needed their very attractive iPhones by their beds to wake them up in the morning." she said.

    If your phone wakes you up in the morning, it may also be keeping you up at night. A 2008 study showed that people exposed to mobile radiation took longer to fall asleep and spent less time in deep sleep. "The study indicates that during laboratory exposure to 884 MHz wireless signals, components of sleep believed to be important for recovery from daily wear and tear are severely affected," the study concluded.

    A quarter of young people feel like they must be available by phone around the clock, according to a Swedish study that linked heavy cellphone use to sleeping problems, stress and depression. Unreturned messages carry more guilt when the technology to deal with them lies at our fingertips. Some teens even return text messages at midnight.

    Most of us choose not to set limits on our nighttime availability. Nearly three quarters of people from the age of 18 to 44 sleep with their phones within reach, according to a 2012 Time poll. That number falls off slightly in middle age, but only people aged 65 and older are leaving the phone in another room as common as sleeping right next to it.

    Did you know that Albert Einstein could not speak until he was four years old, and could not read until he was seven? His parents and teachers worried about his mental ability.

    Beethoven's music teacher said about him, "As a composer (作曲家) he is hopeless." What if this young boy had believed it?

    When Thomas Edison was a young boy, his teachers said he was so stupid that he could never learn anything. He once said, "I remember I used to never be able to get along at school. I was always at the foot of my class ... My father thought I was stupid, and I almost decided that I was a stupid person." What if young Thomas had believed what they said about him?

    When the sculptor (雕刻家) Auguste Rodin was young, he had difficulty learning to read and write. Today, we may say he had a learning disability. His father said of him, "I have an idiot (白痴) for a son." His uncle agreed. "He's uneducable," he said. What if Rodin had doubted his ability?

    Walt Disney was once fired by a newspaper editor because he was thought to have no "good ideas". Enrico Caruso was told by one music teacher, "You can't sing. You have no voice at all." And an editor told Louisa May Alcott that she was unable to write anything that would have popular appeal.

    What if these people had listened and become discouraged? Where would our world be without the music of Beethoven, the art of Rodin or the ideas of Albert Einstein and Walt Disney? As Oscar Levant once said, "It's not what you are but what you don't become that hurts."

    You have great potential. When you believe in all you can be, rather than all you cannot become, you will find your place on earth.