Category: fancy footwork

Poetry Week #001: Poem within a poem!

Jul 14, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fancy footwork, knockout idea, poetry, writing technique

Time for some poetry! A poem can contain a great amount of meaning in a small space; it’s what separates us from the rest of the animals, someone once told me. And while I enjoy spoken word poetry, especially when it’s well done, there are some things you can do on a piece of…
Gaiman #005: Explore a difference

Jul 13, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fancy footwork, fiction, novels, short stories, writing technique

As I’ve said before, contrast makes writing interesting. But in a longer work of fiction, it’s possible to REVISIT the same contrast in different ways. Here’s how Neil Gaiman does that in The Ocean at the End of the Lane: “Adults follow paths. Children explore. Adults are content to walk the same way, hundreds…
Neil Gaiman #004: Hit ’em hard!

Jul 12, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fancy footwork, fiction, novels, short stories, writing technique

Take a look at how Neil Gaiman piles on the negatives at the beginning of chapter 7 of The Ocean at the End of the Lane: The next day was bad. My parents had both left the house before I woke. It had turned cold, and the sky was a bleak and charmless gray.…
Neil Gaiman: the clothes make the man!

Jul 9, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fancy footwork, fiction, novels, poetry, short stories, writing technique

I’ve just read Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane, and I highly recommend it. This week, I’ll be examining five techniques he makes use of, and the first is one he uses at the beginning of the prologue: I wore a black suit and a white shirt, a black tie…
Braunstein: Contrast and time shift

Jul 8, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fancy footwork, fiction, novels, poetry, short stories, Uncategorized, writing technique

Check out a few interesting techniques that are being combined in Sarah Braunstein’s short story, “Marjorie Lemke.” The first is that it is like she’s holding a conversation…with herself. The second is a time shift: the “selves” who are talking with each other are the person she used to be and the person she…
Sara Dailey #007: Circle technique

Jun 30, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fancy footwork, fiction, nonfiction, novels, power punch, short stories, writing technique

Ok, so it’s our final day of looking at Sara Dailey’s technique via her creative nonfiction piece, “The Memory Train.” Today it’s all about circle technique. If you look back to the first post of this week, you’ll see she began with a paragraph about Phineas Gage, a railway worker who LIVED after accidentally…
Sara Dailey #005: Rhetorical questions and contrast

Jun 28, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fancy footwork, fiction, nonfiction, novels, poetry, power punch, writing technique

I know what you’re thinking…POWER PUNCH? For a rhetorical question? Are you kidding me? But rhetorical questions are powerful because they automatically imply a CONTRAST and contrast is what makes writing interesting. What I mean is that there are usually two opposite ways of answering a question, so conflict is naturally indicated this…
Sara Dailey #004: Hard and soft similes

Jun 27, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fancy footwork, fiction, nonfiction, novels, short stories, writing technique

I was always taught that similes are gentler than metaphors. You know–use simile in a Valentine’s Day card to your girlfriend; use metaphor for your angstiest emo poetry. Clearly, Sara Dailey didn’t get that lesson. First, look at the hard-hitting simile she works into her story, “The Memory Train”: Like the soul, a migraine…
Sara Dailey week #002: Character and pathos

Jun 25, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fancy footwork, fiction, nonfiction, novels, short stories, writing technique

In “The Memory Train,” Sara Dailey begins by describing a man, Phineas Gage, a railroad worker who survived after a large iron rod punctured his left frontal lobe. The bleached bone shows a jagged U above the empty hollow of the left eye’s socket, bone that never again seamlessly met other bone. It…
TC Boyle Week #7–Sanders and Boyle BEND the Rule of 3!

Jun 15, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fancy footwork, fiction, nonfiction, novels, short stories, touch gloves, writing technique

Touch gloves–Sanders meets Boyle today. Yesterday, we saw Rule of 3, a common technique employed by MANY writers, especially those who write in English. There’s something about the rhythms it creates that are pleasing to the ear. Today, we’re going to see how both Sanders and Boyle BEND that rule. First, I’ll show…