Category: writing technique

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 #003: The DOUBLE DELAY

Jul 11, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fiction, novels, power punch, short stories, writing technique

Today, we’ll look at a very powerful technique Neil Gaiman makes use of in The Ocean at the End of the Lane. It’s one I call the DOUBLE DELAY. Now, even kids know what a cliff-hanger is if they’ve ever read a Hardy Boys or Goosebumps book. The idea that you end a chapter…
Neil Gaiman #002: Use THE ECHO as a voice!

Jul 10, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fiction, knockout idea, nonfiction, novels, short stories, writing technique

Let’s get right to it today and see an innovative way Neil Gaiman uses parentheses in The Ocean at the End of the Lane: I would talk to people whose existence I had forgotten years before and they would ask me about my marriage (failed a decade ago, a relationship that had slowly frayed…
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 #006: Character foils–another interesting contrast for your writing

Jun 29, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fiction, nonfiction, novels, poetry, power punch, short stories, writing technique

Character foils are two characters in the same situation who react differently. Picture two kids with an alcoholic parent. One grows up and never touches a drop of alcohol. The other becomes alcoholic. Those are foils, and they’re another way to show contrast, just like the rhetorical questions we explored yesterday. Let’s see…
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…