Ellipses . . . I’m not a fan
I receive a number of writing magazines each month, but my all-time favorite is The Writer. I’m always finding great information in these pages, so when my magazine came a few days ago, I was soon reading it from cover to cover. There’s a small feature titled Ask the Writer by Brandi Reissenweber which gives tips on grammar and punctuation. This month’s article is about those pesky ellipses—you know, the spaced periods (…) indicating a pause or hesitation in dialogue. I’ve never been a fan of the ellipses and often suggest when editing that they be eliminated. But Brandi takes it one step further. She suggests the writer add action instead of the ellipses to suggest a passing of time. She gives this great example: “She...
Read MoreThe Heart of the Story
We’ll be talking about “the heart of the story” at the Writing in the Garden Retreat in Baxter on the 19th of August. So what is it? What do I mean by heart? We all know the traditional description of a story — a beginning, middle and an end. But that’s not really what makes a story. I believe the true essence of story is the emotion that drives it. And how do we get to that emotion? Through conflict. If you’re interested in learning more about the heart of the story, sign up for my writing retreat on August 19th. We’ll spend the day together talking about how to get that “heart” into your story and then we’ll put paper to pen (or fingers to keypad) and write, write, write! There will be time during the...
Read MoreBack to Basics – A lesson on emphatic words
A long time ago, I learned the importance of putting the prominent word at the end of the sentence whenever possible. This is especially true for poets, who are always trying to write so that the word before the line break is emphatic. I’ve been working on a book edit this past weekend and turned often to my favorite reference book, The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White. On page 32 (Principles of Composition) there is a section on “Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end.” Here is one of the examples given: This steel is principally used for making razors, because of its hardness. Here’s the corrected example, placing the most prominent word at the end: Because of its hardness, this steel is used...
Read MoreMaster Story Teller, Robert McKee
I’m always looking for writing information on the web and today I discovered something that is great. I’ve been getting regular e-mails from Robert McKee’s Storylogue for quite some time, wishing I could afford the large fee to attend one of his three-day sessions on writing screenplays. It’s not that I want to write a screenplay, I just want to see if I can steal any of his devices to improve my memoir writing skills. I never thought to look on You Tube. Here’s the link to a lesson on setting from the master story teller, Robert McKee. Like a bag of potato chips, I’m sure I won’t be happy with just one. Over the next few days, I’ll be watching as many of these short lessons as I can find on You Tube and maybe even...
Read MoreI’m All About Compression
During the last residency of my MFA program, we spent three hours each morning going over our manuscripts. When asked what I would do to expand a fellow-student’s story, I had to pass. “I’m all about compression,” I said. I tend to write with as few words as possible and often recommend others do the same. Sometimes, the simple act of compression improves the writing. I found a great article on-line from Writer’s Relief, Inc. on how to shorten your writing. Here’s the link: http://www.writersrelief.com/blog/2009/03/why-length-matters-when-submitting-your-stories-and-poems-for-publication/ Give it a try. Shorter pieces are easier to get published. Shorter pieces keep the reader’s interest. Do you have one written piece...
Read MoreEating an Elephant
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Does the idea of beginning a writing project overwhelm you? Are you still procrastinating? Can you write a word? A sentence? A paragraph? If you can’t see yourself writing the entire story, just get a sentence or two down on the page. Build from that. Maybe you can’t quite imagine how the story will hang together, but you could write that one little scene. What’s the dialogue? How did your mother’s face look when you gave her the bad news that September morning? What was the light in the room during the conversation? What noises were in the background? What smells? As writers, sometimes we don’t know where to begin or how to get started. We flounder and fail. Try again and again and...
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