Archive For The “Uncategorized” Category

Before Taking a Word Trip

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Before Taking a Word Trip

How to think about organizing the story is typically one of the most intimidating challenges we hear from writers. A good metaphor is to think about taking a car trip. We don’t just get in and drive aimlessly. Usually, we have a purpose around why we need to drive. And, we map out in our…

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Framing the Story

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Framing the Story

A key to success in writing, and reader or listener understanding, is always thinking in terms of creating a storytelling framework. Every story that we tell should have a beginning, middle, and end. Otherwise, we present snippets of information that may or may not contextually connect. The shortest story is the sentence. Good sentences have…

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Beware of Verbing Nouns

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Beware of Verbing Nouns

The television commercial dazzled us with the attributes of the SUV and proclaimed it as the “most awarded” vehicle in its class. The prominent headline on the front of the direct mail piece for the cruise line said it was the “most awarded.” As passengers step into the airplane in Atlanta they see a large…

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Punctuation as a Storytelling Tool

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Punctuation as a Storytelling Tool

One day the newspaper editor received copy from a young journalist that was filled with long and rambling run-on sentences. Exasperated, the editor typed a page filled with dots, printed it, walked over and handed it to the budding writer. “These are periods,” the editor said. “Use them. When you run out, come back and…

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Of Lightning and Lightning Bugs

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Of Lightning and Lightning Bugs

Mark Twain wrote “the difference between choosing the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” Precision in words is one of the most important decisions a writer makes. Think, for example, of the images evoked in the listener or reader’s mind by the word “vehicle.” The…

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