Tag: voice

A Plunger is a Writer’s Best Friend

May 31, 2023

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by

Ace Baker

in Uncategorized

I call CTRL plus F a plunger, because, well, it sucks the SH*@! out. When you hit “control find” and put in THOSE dead words, you may find a lot of crap you need to clean out. I usually start with the word “that” and move on to “be” verbs like “am,” “is,” “are,” “was,”…
“FLY FISHING” writing technique with Susan Pieters!

Jul 14, 2014

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by

Ace Baker

in fancy footwork, fiction, novels, short stories, writing technique

I’m no angler… and I’m not sure whether Susan Pieters knows how to fly fish or not—but she’s a gifted writer who uses fly fishing technique in at least one of the tales she tells. Let me show you how… In fly fishing, the lure itself is light, made to appear to be a…
STARTERS : Great opening lines from 2013 BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS

Nov 19, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in nonfiction, starters

I picked up a copy of the 2013 BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS, edited by Cheryl Strayed. Here are a few of the best opening lines: On Thanksgiving my father asked me if I wanted to visit the Nazi. –“Keeper of the Flame,” by Matthew Vollmer The first time I heard her I didn’t hear her at…
Nonfiction beginnings #004: When reality hits hard!

Aug 9, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

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

First, read… THE BITCH IS BACK, by Sandra Tsing Loh, from The Atlantic During menopause, a woman can feel like the only way she can continue to exist for ten more seconds inside her crawling, burning skin is to walk screaming into the sea—grandly, epically, and terrifyingly, like a fifteen-foot-tall Greek tragic figure wearing a…
Nonfiction beginnings #003: Sarcasm to the ultimate!

Aug 9, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

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

In the following passage, watch how Mark Edmundson creates a long buildup, lulls us into what we expect to hear–and then snaps us out of it in an instant! WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? by Mark Edmundson, in The Oxford American Welcome and congratulations: getting to the first day of college…
Nonfiction openings #001: “You Owe Me,” by Miah Arnold

Aug 6, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fancy footwork, fiction, nonfiction, novels, short stories, writing technique

I’ll begin this week’s look at nonfiction openings with a tear-jerker from Miah Arnold: YOU OWE ME, by Miah, Arnold, from Michigan Quarterly Review The children I write with die, no matter how much I love them, no matter how creative they are, no matter how many poems they have written or how much they…
July 31st post comes early: A Starter for You from Rachael Frey

Jul 31, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fiction, novels, short stories, starters

Ok, I’m getting ready to embark on a 17-HOUR flight to Singapore, so tomorrow’s post is coming, well…tonight. As in just before I leave. As in now. It’ll be short and sweet (maybe not so sweet, but short) because of that, too. Here’s the beginning line to Rachael Frey’s “The Lost Twice Legend,”…
Opening paragraphs #003: Shake it up!

Jul 27, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

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

For day three of our investigation of openings, I thought I’d show you one that is powerful, sarcastic, hilarious, and tragic–all at the same time! Check out the beginning to “Property,” by Elizabeth McCracken: The ad should have said, For rent, six-room hovel. Quarter-filled Mrs. Butterworth’s bottle in living room, sandy sheets throughout, lingering…
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 #005: A gentle touch with personification…

Jul 23, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fancy footwork, fiction, novels, short stories, writing technique

Is it day five already? Our final day of looking at some of the writing technique Cody Klippenstein uses in “Case Studies in Ascension”? It’s gone by quickly. For today, I decided to end with a tool familiar to most every writer: personification. Let’s read the passage first: Neither Obaa-san nor I have been…