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Tag: write
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Step 5 of Nanowrimo Planning: Step Two, Pumped Up!
STEP FIVE: STEP TWO, PUMPED UP! Now that you know your characters better, and you know your plot a bit better, it’s time to look back for a moment and build on step two. You know more now, so this shouldn’t be tough, but here’s what step five involves: In step two, you…
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NANOWRIMO: Planner or Pantser? It doesn’t matter…
You know who you are as a writer–either you love to plan out every detail, or you love the thrill of writing by the seat of your pants, not knowing where it might take you… but it doesn’t matter. One area even the Pantser needs to think about is WHAT KIND OF NOVEL WILL I WRITE?…
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Quotation Inspiration #009: Words, not swords!
The power of words can be amazing: Try this: Write about a cause, a person, an idea you believe in!
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Vandermeer on dissection for fiction writers
First of all, I picked up a copy of Jeff Vandermeer’s book, Wonderbook, and I’m having trouble deciding whether it’s a book about writing or a work of art–amazing! But on page 42, I read the following: To grow as a fiction writer, you absolutely must engage in some dissection of stories, your own and…
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Can you smell it? How to use strong imagery like Natalie Kusz in “Vital Signs”!
Imagery is a definite “choose your weapon” topic. I mean, you have five senses to choose from (or combinations of them). While sight and touch are present in many works, look at how Natalie Kusz appeals to the sense of SMELL in “Vital Signs”: I was always waking up, in those days, to the smell…
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Poetry week #004: Crozier and symbolism
First, read this poem by Lorna Crozier quickly: CROSSING WILLOW BRIDGE On the farm a willow bridge though this is Saltspring Island not Japan. Sometimes it crosses water, sometimes not. This morning after rain the ground slides into mud. My mother and I tread our way to see the baby llama in the far…
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Poetry week #003: How does that SOUND to you?
Important tools in the toolkit of any poet are devices involving SOUND. There are many to choose from, but let’s focus on a few today. I’ll get some quick definitions out of the way, then demonstrate what I mean by them with a poem. Alliteration–repeating of beginning sounds: “buckets of baseballs; killer choir; ten…
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Poetry Week #002: Writing the Cascade Poem
THE CASCADE First, in order for me to discuss what a cascade poem is, let me show you one. “Woman on a Swing: Lions Park” is one of three poems that helped me win the Pacific Northwest Writers Association (PNWA) poetry prize in 2012. It’s one I quickly showed poet Patricia Young over dinner…