{"id":5219,"date":"2012-01-04T17:16:27","date_gmt":"2012-01-04T22:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisatener.local\/?p=5219"},"modified":"2024-09-30T09:00:36","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T13:00:36","slug":"writing-magic-secrets-to-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/2012\/01\/writing-magic-secrets-to-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing Magic: Secrets to Compelling Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"writing<\/a>
Your Writing Coach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once upon a time, a coach I know referred a client to me and–after reading a chapter–I almost told her I didn’t think I could help him. Lucky for both of us, I withheld judgement and agreed to edit one chapter.<\/p>\n

When he sent me his second chapter, it blew me away.\u00a0 I laughed, I cried and I thanked my lucky stars I hadn’t turned him away.\u00a0 But what could explain the phenomenal leap in the quality of writing? I could only ask…<\/p>\n

“I studied your feedback from chapter one and applied it. When I say I studied it, I mean I really studied it.”<\/p>\n

So, what did Adam do exactly to go from something completely unpublishable to a blow-your-editor-away chapter? He put into action several tips, but the two main writing “secrets” he employed are not exactly secrets.<\/p>\n

1).\u00a0 He made the writing come alive by showing, not telling and 2). He replaced most passive verbs with active ones.<\/p>\n

\"writing<\/a>
Active verbs engage readers and enliven your writing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Let’s talk about the second rule first. Instead of using “is,” “was,” “had,” “has,” etc., see if you can find a way to use a verb that has more energy. Passive verbs put readers to sleep and active verbs engage readers and enliven the writing.<\/p>\n

Example<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0 The chapter was boring. vs. The chapter bored me.<\/p>\n

More energy in the second example, right? Easy fix, too.<\/p>\n

Now, rule 1, which offers many more applications and subtleties. I’ll just offer a few examples of Show vs. tell.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the reader has to fill in too many details, you\u2019re telling. If you\u2019re not providing input into one or more of the six (yes, six) senses, you\u2019re telling. <\/em>If you\u2019re spoon feeding the reader a conclusion (oldest children are often bossy) rather than allowing the reader to draw that conclusion by illustrating with an example (me telling my sister she wasn\u2019t allowed to be Mister Nobody<\/em> in our pretend family), you\u2019re telling, as well.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Paint a picture with your words.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How do you move from telling to showing? Whether you\u2019re writing a how-to book with anecdotes, a memoir or fiction, you can use this checklist below to get started.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. What can I show the reader to create a complete experience?<\/li>\n
  2. \u00a0How can I employ two or more senses in my description?<\/li>\n
  3. What is one unusual detail I remember about this experience, something that is not ordinary or clich\u00e9d?<\/li>\n
  4. How can I get more specific?<\/li>\n
  5. What\u2019s an example from my own work or life, or the lives of my clients\/customers\/patients\/friends\/family that illustrates the point I want to make?<\/li>\n
  6. How can I help the reader draw the conclusion?<\/li>\n
  7. Where can I enhance the experience with dialogue?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \"\"<\/a>
    Get specific about the details--especially quirky ones<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Ready to dive into the details?<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. If you\u2019re asking yourself, \u201cWhat can I show the reader to create a complete experience?\u201d<\/em> your revision might delete the section telling the reader that you had lots of rules for how to pick a new hire, replacing it with sharing your rules and what you looked for. Don\u2019t gloss over the details\u2014give them to us.<\/li>\n
    2. If you\u2019re looking to employ your senses, you can ask yourself, \u201cWhat did I (or the person you\u2019re writing about) see? Hear? Smell? Taste? How might that have felt in my\/his\/her body? \u201c<\/em><\/li>\n
    3. How to hit upon an unusual detail<\/em>? Bring yourself back to picturing the situation (or if you\u2019re writing fiction, put yourself in the scene). Notice everything around you. What sticks out as different? A funny phrase the person says (\u201cI\u2019m tickled.\u201d)? The way the person drapes their scarf? An awkward and unbalanced gait?<\/li>\n
    4. Here\u2019s an example of \u201cHow Can I Get More Specific?\u201d<\/em> Adam described his car as a mess\u2014papers and empty beer bottles strewn about the car. First I asked, \u201cWhere were these items?\u201d It turned out that the papers were in the front seat and the beer bottles were in the back seat, on the floor and in the trunk. As we got even more specific, we uncovered that the papers were fertility treatment instructions and lace patterns. The beer bottles were Heinekens in the back of the car and Bud Lights in the trunk. At the start of the writing, the car was a clich\u00e9d mess. After polishing the paragraph, the reader could picture the author\u2019s hummer in all its disheveled detail. When you do this exercise on your own, give a specific detail and then see how you can get even more specific. Try this until you run out of specificity.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \"\"<\/a>
      Join me for a writing class this weekend at All That Matters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

      If you’d like more tools for polishing your writing and making it compelling, join me for Writing Magic<\/a><\/strong> Saturday, January 7 at 10:30 am at All That Matters Yoga and Conference Center in Wakefield, RI. We’ll learn the rules and put them into action. When you compare your writing from the beginning of class to the end, you’ll be amazed at the leap in style and impact!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Once upon a time, a coach I know referred a client to me and–after reading a chapter–I almost told her I didn’t think I could help him. Lucky for both of us, I withheld judgement and agreed to edit one chapter. When he sent me his second chapter, it blew me away.\u00a0 I laughed, I…  Read more<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5122,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1678,18,364,108,28,36,42,30],"tags":[1044,1043,472,49,1042,1045,1046],"class_list":{"0":"post-5219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-how-to-write-a-book","8":"category-secrets-of-good-writing","9":"category-secrets-to-good-writing","10":"category-writing-classes","11":"category-writing-coach","12":"category-writing-courses","13":"category-writing-secrets","14":"category-writing-workshop","15":"tag-compelling-writing","16":"tag-how-to-write-better","17":"tag-writing-class","18":"tag-writing-course","19":"tag-writing-magic","20":"tag-writing-secrets-2","21":"tag-writing-tips","22":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279299,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5219\/revisions\/279299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}