Tag: Sara Dailey

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…
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…
Sara Dailey Week #001: Starter from a title

Jun 24, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

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

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…

Tag: Sara Dailey

Sara Dailey #007: Circle technique

Sara Dailey #006: Character foils–another interesting contrast for your writing

Sara Dailey #005: Rhetorical questions and contrast

Sara Dailey #004: Hard and soft similes

Sara Dailey week #002: Character and pathos

Sara Dailey Week #001: Starter from a title