writing tips

Writing from an Outline (or summary, if you will. And I know you will.)

Way back in the beginning of the new decade (Jan. 15 to be precise), I was reading Albert Zuckerman’s Writing the Blockbuster Novel. Although there were some useful bits in there, it was Ken Follett”s successive outlines for The Man From St. Petersburg that caught my eye. When people talked about outlines and writing I …

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Listening

[tweetmeme source=”jjdanz” only_single=false service=ow.ly] Have you ever come away from a conversation discombobulated, wondering what happened? Listen to how people talk and you’ll know why that happens. You’ll find this advice in so many books about writing. But what happens when you actually do that? What happens when you listen in on your own coversations? …

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Writing Dialogue That Does Heavy Lifting

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsAFdZRRAFk] [tweetmeme source=”jjdanz” only_single=false service=ow.ly] Yet more brilliant writing from Cormac McCarthy in cinematic form. McCarthy originally wrote No Country for Old Men as a screenplay, so the dialogue you’ve seen here is pretty much directly from the book. And it’s solid. Beats sit neatly between the lines. Subtext simmers under the spoken words. The …

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Finding the Show in Your Writing

[tweetmeme source=”jjdanz” only_single=false service=ow.ly] My earlier post about nuance in story, about delving into subtext and abstraction, did little more than scratch the surface. However, it brought me back to the the idea of showing rather than telling. Why? As writers, we hear this edict all the time. Sometimes I have a hard time determining …

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The Nuance of a Story

[tweetmeme source=”jjdanz” only_single=false service=ow.ly] I’ve been enjoying exploring the nuances of story telling, ideas that build on fundamental concepts such as story structure, word and punctuation usage, and writing discipline. Over at Tribal Writer, novelist Justine Musk has offers two great posts (among many, really) on microtension and theme. Both posts underscored my goal for …

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Writing Reverie

[tweetmeme source=”jjdanz” only_single=false service=ow.ly] rev·er·ie \ˈre-və-rē, ˈrev-rē\ Function: noun Inflected Form(s): plural rev·er·ies Etymology: French rêverie, from Middle French, delirium, from resver, rever to wander, be delirious Date: 1654 1 : daydream 2 : the condition of being lost in thought Did you ever notice that some of your best ideas show up unannounced? You …

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