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Tag: fiction
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Sara Dailey #004: Hard and soft similes
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…
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Sara Dailey week #003: Knockout idea–Use a theme!
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:9 Now you know that if this idea is stated in the Bible, a book that’s a few thousand years old, then it’s not exactly a new idea that writers struggle…
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Sara Dailey Week #001: Starter from a title
Welcome to Sara Dailey week! Over the next seven days, we’ll be learning technique and getting ideas from a single article of hers, “The Memory Train,” that was published in Creative Nonfiction magazine, the one edited by Lee Gutkind. First up is taking a look at that title: “The Memory Train.” Other people’s…
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SPEED BAG: #001 Brainstorm from this title…
Today, we’ll try our first speed bag drill. These are meant to be quick writings–your hand flows across the paper for as long as you can maintain it (hopefully at least 5 minutes). Here’s how it’ll work today: I’m going to give you a title. It comes from an article by Nicholas Schnidle in the…
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TC Boyle Week #5–Dealing with dialogue and tags
A common problem with dialogue? Too many tags, or tags that are just a bit hokey. Here’s an example of the problem: “Yes,” she said. “No!” he exclaimed. “Why?” she inquired. “Because we have to get out of the rain and under cover,” he said, inTENTly. And so on, and so on, and….…
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TC Boyle Week #3–Smile with similes!
A simile is a comparison of UNLIKE items, using the words “like” or “as” to do so. Today, I’m going to give you the beginnings of three similes T. C. Boyle uses in his short story, “The Night of the Satellite.” Try this: First, think of how YOU might end each of these comparisons. Then,…
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TC Boyle Week: #2–STRONG SOUND IMAGERY
Writers often use imagery–appealing to the senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch–to help create a mood. While examples of stunning sight imagery abound, it’s rare to find stellar examples of the others. Today, let’s look at another short passage from T. C. Boyle‘s short story, “The Night of the Satellite”: A truck went blatting…