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Oct 7

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Rhetorical devices: Your secret writing weapon

When a book instantly grabs me and draws me in, I like to go back later and analyze why. Sometimes, it’s the subject matter. Sometimes, it’s the narrator’s voice. Sometimes, it’s a simile or metaphor that hooks me. Always, it’s the strong writing. Strong writing means that the arrangement of words on the page “works.” Strong writing is an art that we can learn.

Many award-winning, best-selling authors have a secret weapon that helps them produce strong writing. That secret success weapon is the use of rhetorical devices.

Award-winning poet and author Jack Remick discusses his use of rhetorical devices in his interview with Joel Chafetz. He says that the devices all conspire to create a certain cadence in his work. He goes on to say:

…”it’s not enough to put the words down, that’s information. You have to make the words dance and rhetoric can make your words dance. Most people dismiss rhetoric but rhetoric cannot be dismissed. Rhetoric can give you rhythm, rhetoric can give you cadence, rhetoric can give your writing new life. So the writing in Blood is thick with rhetorical devices. And that’s what you’re picking up—the poetry of violence couched in rhetorical devices driving images at full speed so the story spins out ahead of you, drawing you along with each one.”

I’ve used rhetorical devices in my poetry for years–alliteration, assonance, similes, metaphors, etc. These are some of the more common devices with their definitions below: Read more

Oct 3

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Add depth to your novel or memoir with this structural technique

I’m always inspired to see the many ways authors add subtext and metaphor to their stories. As I read, I like to analyze the way an author creates a page-turning story so that I can learn how to apply those techniques to my work.

In The Speed of Light, Elizabeth Rosner uses a structural element to add meaning to the story. In the novel, brother and sister Julian and Paula Perel strive to find their voices in a home where their father struggles with devastating memories as a Holocaust survivor.

A scientist who exists by numbers and routines, Julian lives an isolated life. As Julian retreats from life, Paula throws herself into the world through her study as an opera singer. Both of them change when Paula asks her housekeeper Sola, who has struggles and a devastating past of her own, to stay at Paula’s apartment and look out for Julian in the apartment above while Paula travels.

Rosner tells the story in the alternating voices of the three protagonists. Then throughout the book, she threads scientific definitions written by Julian that reveal his character and create additional depth. The definitions leave readers with another way to interpret and experience the novel. Read more

Oct 2

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Art as activism: Project Unbreakable

Note: The links to Project Unbreakable contain emotionally disturbing material. Please consider this before clicking on those links.

Yesterday, Carly wrote a post about artists as activists—those of us, like poet Martin Espada, who feel called to make the invisible visible.

Another artist doing this same thing is photographer Grace Brown, founder of Project Unbreakable. Two years ago, Grace began photographing survivors of sexual assault holding up posters on which they quoted the words of their attackers. Since it began, the project has highlighted more than 2,000 survivors’ stories. Brown uses her art to give survivors the opportunity to heal and increase awareness of sexual assault.

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Oct 1

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Artists as activists: How will you wield your power?

Writers often write to shed light on a difficult subject, find justice, and make a difference. Some writers say it’s our duty to seek truth, speak out, and stand up for those who can’t. It’s the reason why writers are among the first to be persecuted during times of political unrest.

Poet Martin Espada, who worked as a tenant lawyer and is now a professor at Amherst College, in Amherst, Mass., says he feels it’s his duty as a poet to make the invisible visible. He calls himself a poet spy, taking notes on what will later become poems.

Espada writes about controversial issues and fights for human rights through his poetry. He writes about immigration reform, dictators, prisoners on Death Row, poverty, and 9/11 victims.

In an interview with Bill Moyers, Espada said, “There’s something about poetry that saves me. There’s something about poetry that energizes me, that brings me to another plane. That fires all the hormones, I don’t know what. Something intangible, and yet tangible at the same time. There is something to poetry and activism which has the same energizing effect.”

What will you do to wield your talent as an artist, a citizen of the world, and as a communicator, whether you’re a writer, painter, photographer, or someone who has a vision for something better?

Espada has won numerous awards, including the American Book Award, the PEN/Revson Fellowship, and the Paterson Poetry Prize. His most recent book is The Trouble Ball. For more information about Espada and his writing, visit his website.

Sep 30

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Frustrate your characters to keep readers turning pages

As writers, our job is to frustrate our characters. This job can be hard on us because we usually like our protagonist, maybe even feel she is a part of us. But when we write, we are forced to act more like her antagonist than best friend. That’s because, in order to keep our reader turning pages, we need to create conflict for our characters.

Even in fiction that doesn’t feature car crashes, bombs, or airplanes falling from the sky, we need to have some amount of conflict or tension. We need to create frustrated characters. So how do we keep the stakes high even in a cozy romance or literary novel? Read more

Sep 26

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How to honor someone special in your life by writing a tribute

Has your life been significantly changed by a family member, friend, teacher, or mentor? Consider how you can use your talent and passion for writing to create a tribute. The gift of words is a one-of-a-kind present that can’t be purchased at any store and has lasting value that goes beyond any material object.

Tributes can mark a special event or be a gift for a birthday, retirement party, or anniversary. Eulogies praise a person after they’ve passed on, but some of the best gifts of words are ones you can share with the person they honor while they’re still alive. One of my uncles always said he didn’t want a funeral. If anyone had anything to say about him, he preferred they say it before he died. So when his health began to fail, we threw him a party and told him what he meant to us.

Try these techniques to generate ideas:

1. Think of specific examples of when this person was there for you or did something that made your life better. The more you write, the more you’ll remember. Relax and write without thinking too hard. Don’t edit or worry about punctuation or grammar. Just put  your thoughts on the page.

2. Expand your writing to describe the impact, how you changed because of this person, and why it mattered. Read more

Sep 25

J. J. Abram’s mystery box as metaphor for writing

In producer/director/writer J. J. Abrams’s Ted Talk below, he says his fascination with how things work and the mystery surrounding life were given to him by his grandfather.

When he was a boy, his grandfather took him to a magic store where Abrams bought a Tannen’s Mystery Magic Box. This many years later, the box has never been opened because he says it represents his grandfather to him and the infinite possibilities and hopes that his grandfather instilled in him.

Abrams believes that mystery is the catalyst to imagination. He gives the example of when he was working on the TV series “Lost.” He had 11.5 weeks to write the script, cast it, and shoot it.

Because of the short time period, he and his crew had no time to think about what the show couldn’t be. No time to think about what they couldn’t accomplish. Read more

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