Tag: fiction

How to Make a Killing Jar: Out and About!

Nov 3, 2023

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by

Ace Baker

in Uncategorized

Ace Baker’s collection of 12+1 stories is published and is getting reviews! Find it on amazon.ca or amazon.com:
Step 2 of Nanowrimo Novel Planning: Back Cover Blurb

Oct 7, 2014

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by

Ace Baker

in fiction, novels

STEP TWO: THE BACK COVER BLURB Congratulations! You have your one-sentence summary complete, and you’re ready to build on it. Your agent pitch is ready, so it’s time for your back cover blurb. People who pick up a novel at a bookstore almost immediately flip it over to “see what it’s all about.” It’s…
The lists go on… list openings, that is!

May 27, 2014

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by

Ace Baker

in nonfiction, power punch, starters, writing technique

Yesterday, I posted a blog about list openings by a few writers who use the technique well to create a mood early. If you haven’t made your way through that blog yet, go back and treat yourself! Today, there is no new “Try this.” Today, I want to show you another LONG list example…
LIST OPENINGS…how they can help your fiction and nonfiction

May 27, 2014

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by

Ace Baker

in fancy footwork, fiction, nonfiction, power punch, starters, writing technique

There is a power to momentum that is undeniable and unstoppable. Many writers have learned to benefit from the energy of a LIST early in a piece of creative fiction or nonfiction. Let me SHOW you what I mean . . . Here’s a beginning paragraph from Gordon Grice’s “The Black Widow” in High…
Opening paragraphs #001: Strength AND vulnerability, at the same time!

Jul 25, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

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

For today’s starting paragraph, I decided to go with one that packs quite a punch. First, read how Megan Mayhew Bergman begins “Housewifely Arts”: I am my own housewife, my own breadwinner. I make lunches and change light bulbs. I kiss bruises and kill copperheads from the backyard creek with a steel hoe. I change…
Cody Klippenstein #001 VOICE through pathos!

Jul 19, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

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

If you want to add VOICE to your writing, Cody Klippenstein is the one to turn to. She has won many major writing awards for her short fiction, including “Case Studies for Ascension,” which won the Zoetrope All-Story Short Fiction Contest. It’ll be our study text for this week and it’s up on…
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…
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…
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…