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Introduction: A Nation of Writers | |
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Nuts and Bolts | |
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Begin sentences with subjects and verbs | |
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Order words for emphasis | |
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Activate your verbs | |
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Be passive-aggressive | |
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Watch those adverbs | |
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Take it easy on the -ings | |
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Fear not the long sentence | |
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Establish a pattern, then give it a twist | |
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Let punctuation control pace and space | |
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Cut big, then small | |
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Special Effects | |
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Prefer the simple over the technical | |
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Give key words their space | |
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Play with words, even in serious stories | |
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Get the name of the dog | |
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Pay attention to names | |
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Seek original images | |
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Riff on the creative language of others | |
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Set the pace with sentence length | |
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Vary the lengths of paragraphs | |
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Choose the number of elements with a purpose in mind | |
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Know when to back off and when to show off | |
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Climb up and down the ladder of abstraction | |
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Tune your voice | |
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Blueprints | |
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Work from a plan | |
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Learn the difference between reports and stories | |
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Use dialogue as a form of action | |
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Reveal traits of character | |
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Put odd and interesting things next to each other | |
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Foreshadow dramatic events and powerful conclusions | |
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To generate suspense, use internal cliffhangers | |
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Build your work around a key question | |
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Place gold coins along the path | |
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Repeat, repeat, and repeat | |
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Write from different cinematic angles | |
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Report and write for scenes | |
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Mix narrative modes | |
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In short works, don't waste a syllable | |
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Prefer archetypes to stereotypes | |
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Write toward an ending | |
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Useful Habits | |
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Draft a mission statement for your work | |
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Turn procrastination into rehearsal | |
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Do your homework well in advance | |
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Read for both form and content | |
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Save string | |
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Break long projects into parts | |
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Take an interest in all crafts that support your work | |
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Recruit your own support group | |
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Limit self-criticism in early drafts | |
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Learn from your critics | |
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Own the tools of your craft | |
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Afterword | |
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Acknowledgments | |
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Writing Tools Quick List | |
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Index | |