Category: poetry

Poetry Week #002: Writing the Cascade Poem

Jul 15, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fancy footwork, knockout idea, poetry, power punch, writing technique

THE CASCADE First, in order for me to discuss what a cascade poem is, let me show you one. “Woman on a Swing: Lions Park” is one of three poems that helped me win the Pacific Northwest Writers Association (PNWA) poetry prize in 2012. It’s one I quickly showed poet Patricia Young over dinner…
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…
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…
Think YOU had a bad teacher?

Jul 7, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fiction, novels, poetry, short stories, sucker punch

I remember some horrible instructors I’ve learned from in the past, but only the writing prof I took a class from at the University of Saskatchewan even approaches this one’s behaviour: From “The Master,” by Marc Fisher: Assigned to [Robert] Berman for tenth-grade English, I took a seat one September morning alongside sixteen or seventeen other…
Bullying, adult style… writing idea!

Jul 6, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fiction, knockout idea, novels, poetry, short stories, starters

Bullying is bad enough when it happens on a playground, but when it involves ADULTS, it can get downright nasty. Take a look at this piece of Nicholas Schmidle’s article, “Bring Up the Bodies”: According to an internal I.C.T.Y. document from 2004, Limaj’s relatives and associates launched a campaign of ‘serious intimidation of and…
A real-life Indiana Jones? Long starter from nonfiction…

Jul 5, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fiction, nonfiction, novels, poetry, short stories, starters

Talk about adventure! Here’s the beginning of a NONFICTION article, “The El Dorado Machine,” by Douglas Preston: The rainforests of Mosquitia, which span more than thirty-two thousand square miles of Honduras and Nicaragua, are among the densest and most inhospitable in the world. “It’s mountainous,” Chas Begley, an archaeologist and expert on Honduras, told me…
8 Titles You Can THINK SOMETHING DIFFERENT For. . .

Jul 4, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fiction, knockout idea, novels, poetry, short stories, standing 8 count

In the July / August 2013 Report on Business, Eric Reguly has an article titled “STORAGE WARS,” but it’s not about the TV show where people buy abandoned storage lockers in the hopes of finding treasure. It’s actually aboput Big Oil’s reserves and what would happen to them if we stopped “burning the stuff…
Starter from Margaret Talbot

Jul 3, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fiction, nonfiction, novels, poetry, short stories, starters

Today’s line to get you started comes from Margaret Talbot’s “Shots in the Dark,” in the April 15th, 2013 edition of The New Yorker : What’s the worst that could happen? Try this: Who’s thinking this and why? Once you decide that, go write the scene. Coming tomorrow: A fighting 8 count that…
Starter…from an ad for a tv show!

Jul 2, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fiction, novels, poetry, short stories, starters

Today’s prompt comes from an ad for the show Maron, and it shows a tweet that’s kinda, sorta, not really sweet: I found this article describing the 6 stages of a romantic relationship. I went thru all of them in one weekend. Her name was Jen. Try this: Now, it doesn’t matter if her…