Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott

Can there be self-help books for writers? Sure, there's all kinds of books about craft, but what about a book to soothe the writer soul--one that tells the truth and ultimately motivates and inspires? For me, reading Bird By Bird fits the bill...or is it the beak? 

It's the equivalent of sitting down with a fellow writer friend to commiserate over the woe-is-me-how-do-I-get-words-down-on-the-page, a friend who gets it and isn't afraid to say out loud many of the things that the rest of us are thinking. Lamott's language may be a little (a lot) more colorful than mine, but her insights definitely resonate. 

Even if you aren't a tortured writer soul, but just someone like me trying to write a halfway decent story that people will enjoy reading on a lazy afternoon...and well into the night because YOU. CAN'T. PUT. IT. DOWN.--this book on writing will make you laugh and nod your head and get up tomorrow and begin again to get those words onto the page.

Happy Writing!

Finding Writing Time in Bird by Bird

by Tamara Passey

Another busy day coming and going around here. I have my parents to look after and my kids and hardest of all—myself. Staying on track and staying focused amid rides, meals, medication management, household management, and trickiest of all—time management. That last one could be an oxymoron couldn’t it? Most days I wonder if I manage my time or if my time manages me? And making time for writing? Is it my healthy sense of humor that drives me to fit the crafting of a novel inside the living of an epic?

So no wonder that this is what jumped off the page for me today, from Bird by Bird, in the chapter “Someone to Read Your Drafts.”

Anne tells the story of going shopping for a dress with her dying friend Pammy. Anne modeled a lavender mini-dress (though she usually wore big, baggy clothes) and asked her friend if it made her hips look too big.

Her friend’s response is something that she said may have permanently changed her:

“Annie? I really don’t think you have that kind of time.”

Anne goes on to say this, now speaking to you, the reader—the hopeful writer:

“And I don’t think you have that kind of time either. I don’t think you have time to waste not writing because you are afraid you won’t be good enough at it, and I don’t think you have time to waste on someone who does not respond to you with kindness and respect. You don’t want to spend your time around people who make you hold your breath. You can’t fill up when you’re holding your breath. And writing is about filling up, filling up when you are empty, letting images and ideas and smells run down like water—just as writing is also about dealing with the emptiness. The emptiness destroys enough writers without the help of some friend.”

Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott, p. 170-171

Enough said. I think I’ll get on with some writing now. Hope you will too.

Bird by Bird Take One

How many pieces have you started and then part-way in, abandoned or lost interest?

Anne Lamott in Bird by Bird believes, "it may be that there is nothing at their center about which you care passionately." That passionate caring inside you is your moral position. It is not a message, not a slogan, not wishful thinking. "It begins inside the heart of a character and grows from there."

She goes on to say, "The core, ethical concepts in which you most passionately believe are the language in which you are writing." And they may be such a part of you that you think they are givens, that they are things that everyone knows. "Telling these truths is your job." I love that line. Telling these truths isn't something that comes from maybe an insightful one-liner or bumper stickers. They are things demonstrated through our storytelling, unfolded page by page.

Anne says, "If your deepest beliefs drive your writing, they will not only keep your work from being contrived but will help you discover what drives your characters."

"To be a good writer, you not only have to write a great deal, but you have to care."


Lamott, Anne, Bird by Bird, pg 103-109

The Magic of Tidying Up

Our first guest post, by Deb Graham

Call me sensitive–when a perpetually neat houseguest bought me a book entitled The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, it kinda raised my ire. The houseguest was my mother, alias The Recreational Cleaner.

 

After walking by the book for two days, I finally picked it up, planning to casually skim the first chapter or two. Sucked in, soon I was turning the last page.

 

I admit I learned a few things, such as Never Throw Away Other’s Belongings, of which I may or may not be guilty. But the Spread Out Every Item You Own, Touch Each, Have A Conversation With It, Asking If It Brings Joy Or Not, seemed outlandish to me. I set the book aside; just another self-help scheme.

 

And then the weirdness started. Dressing in the mornings, I’d find myself thinking, “Hm. Do I love this faded tee shirt? How much joy is left in it?” Unloading the dishwasher, I’d ponder stacking the green bowl neatly, or throwing it out. Did it make me happy? It felt like a spell had been cast on me, and I was annoyed.

 

I’m an author, a mother, a traveler, and on a daily basis, I’m swamped. Between husband, kids, grandchildren, friends, Church people, writer’s groups, I converse plenty, and I simply don’t have time to be talking with jackets and seven-year-old skirts.

 

I’ve written ten non-fiction books, including two best-selling cruise books, and around this same time, I began my first novel. Off to a great start, until the voices in my head began. Does this paragraph bring me joy? Is this character making me happy? Has this scene outlived its usefulness?

 

I reread Mom’s book. I know it plainly talks about sorting one’s Things, but it wriggled its way into my mind and changed my writing for the good. If “man is that he might have joy,” then I guess I’m entitled to some joy in my writing, too.

 

Meet our guest blogger, Deb Graham!



Peril In Paradise was released in January 2016, and is selling well already. I love the cover design. It’s a cozy mystery set on a cruise ship in Hawaii, with warm characters and descriptions so rich, you could plan a cruise with it. The process was fun, and –bonus–I also have more room in my closet since I began writing. What is it about The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up?

Check out her book:
Amazon link: Peril in Paradise

  

Start the New Year With a Little Zen by "Tidying Up"

by Valerie Ipson

What is it about this cover that just makes me so calm and happy? 

The restful clouds and peaceful blue sky...and the no-capital letters. 

I just want to open it and learn how decluttering will bring me all of those things. 

Of course, the red circle announcing it's a NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER helps too. 

There is a place for ALL CAPS in our zen-world and that is it! Now on with my post...

"...do papers...accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles?"

Um, yes. Have you seen my house? Clothes, actually, aren't so much of an issue now that all my children but one are out of the house, but PAPER? PAPER is driving me CRAZY.

The first line of this post is from a blurb about the life-changing magic of tidying up by Marie Kondo. (We're giving it away this month! Details HERE.)

Here's what else you find in the blurb... 
"...Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you’ll never have to do it again." Even though, surely, it was too good to be true, that's the line that sold me.

She has a method--an order of what to tidy first, second, third, etc. Easy, non-emotional stuff first, like clothing and books (okay, maybe semi-non-emotional when it comes to books). But just the idea that eventually I would un-bury myself from the piles (snowdrifts--except that they absolutely will not melt, dang it!) of paper in my office and possibly discover a computer waiting with my current WIP* on it sounds lovely.

I've konmari-ed my clothes, now I'm on to books and looking forward to a clutter-free space, and brain, to work with.

What about you? What can tidying up do for your writing life?

*Work-In-Progress, for the non-writerly among us

Win a Copy of The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

If you don't already have the number one best selling non-fiction book from 2015*, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, then here's your chance:

**CONGRATS TO HEATHER L. WINNER OF 
A KINDLE COPY OF 
THE LIFE CHANGING MAGIC OF TIDYING UP**

Kindle Copy Giveaway

Sponsored by the authors of Five Pages of Something

Oh and just why the giveaway of this book? Best-selling books get our attention, but we also were so curious...was there 'magic' in 'tidying up' our lives? Would it have any effect on our writing? As mothers and authors, we've often talked about (lamented over) the near-constant tug-of-war between having a house of order and writing time. We decided to experiment, take on the challenge, and find out what 'tidying up' could do for our creative energies. And we're sharing what we discover with you. We'd love one of our lucky readers to discover the magic too. Check it out! Giveaway Ends Soon!

And for the record, we have no relationship with or connection to Marie Kondo -other than as some of her newest readers!

*Publishers Weekly

On Tidying Magic and Writing Joy

by Tamara Passey

Does this outfit make me...feel joy?
When was the last time you asked yourself that question?
Well, if you've been reading Marie Kondo's best-selling book "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up," (enter to win a free kindle copy here) then maybe you have been asking yourself that very question. She tells her readers to hold every piece of clothing they own and ask, "Does this spark joy?"

I'd been itching to clean out my closet. Over nine years in the same house can contribute to some pesky clutter. Her mandatory rule of gathering every item of clothing and piling it in one place didn't even sound like work--this is what I need! A system! But the question is what I, well, questioned.

Since when did I expect clothes to spark joy? Could I expect a t-shirt from Old Navy or a blazer from my tax-preparer days to spark something as lofty as joy in my soul? Not that I didn't have standards for my wardrobe--I'm sure liking the clothes I brought home from the store had something to do with the purchase, but four or five shirts into the process and I could see just how far my standards had fallen. I'd hold a piece and think, "but this is the only thing that matches the gray skirt," or "this was such a deal." Better yet, "At some point I will find the right pants to go with this Chaps navy-and-white-polka-dot-dress-shirt." Joy? Where did that fit into the equation?

I persevered and began to find clothes that did, in fact, bring a smile to my face and an immediate, "oh I am keeping this," to my mind. And by the end of the day (okay two days) I had stacks of clothes for Goodwill, more room than I'd ever had in my closet, and clothes that I could honestly say I looked forward to wearing.

But what could any of this do for my writing? My creative energy? That question was what started this journey in the first place. An off-hand comment at the end of a writer's group meeting, a fellow writer said, "my sister told me about this book and if I can get my house in order, maybe I can get my writing to follow." Ooohh, the sound of that was so inviting! A house in order so it's occupant could be free to write in a blissful state of "a place for everything and everything in it's place!" Sign me up!

Two weeks later, I'd read the book (mostly) and started the process (because I'm impulsive). Didn't matter that it was the middle of December and the holiday was fast approaching. I tackled clothes and moved right into books and though I was having the time of my life, I hadn't been spending much time writing. I had to ask if I'd found another brilliant way to procrastinate the finishing of my sequel. What could all this gathering, sorting, and purging really do for my writing if I wasn't writing?

But something was happening. How many times can you ask yourself if something in your life sparks joy without it seeping into your psyche, taking up residence? At what point do you wonder if what you are about to make for dinner sparks joy, if your workout at the gym (the same one you've been doing for ten weeks straight) sparks joy? I'm telling you--it gets to you.

In a joy-sparking good way.

So one day doing the dishes, I asked myself why I hadn't been writing? Why wasn't I making the time for it in the same way I was making time for clutter-clearing and package-wrapping. And the question I'd been afraid of asking just bubbled right up: did my story spark joy?
I wasn't afraid of the question as much as I was of the answer. If it didn't spark joy, I didn't want to have to throw it away. But here is what I realized. A story has parts. And I discovered the story did spark joy, but some parts of it, not so much. The good news, I could change those parts.
Pretty soon the dishwasher was loaded and I had found the indispensable "magic" every author needs to keep writing a story--enthusiasm. By asking that simple question of myself, I came upon the very feeling that got me started down the writing path in the first place, the excitement over an idea and saying within myself "I want to tell this story."

I'm still in the tidying process. The paper category. Yes, I have a lot of paper (I'm a writer, think journals, writing notebooks, and lists galore.) And yes, I am asking if this paper, or that scrap, sparks joy. And no, it isn't easy at all. But it's working. And with every item I decide to keep, my creative energy grows. Trust me, the joy is worth it.

Tidying Up - It's Magic!

This month's book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo is a game changer!

I have loved all the little tidbits of advice. This one comes at the beginning of the journey, "... when you put your house in order, you put your affairs and your past in order, too." Who doesn't want an orderly life?

She gives tools for deciding what to surround yourself with: only things that spark joy. It sounds crazy, but it really works. The biggest tool so far for me, though is Permission. Permission to thank something for its service and send it on to bring someone else joy. Permission to get rid of things that don't spark joy. It's beautiful and energizing. I'm excited to go forward on this journey and continue tidying up and sparking joy in my life.

New Year, New Books

Mastering the Craft with Stephen Wilbers has been a blast. And we're going to keep our copies handy for future reference. But with a new year upon us, we have a new party plan (ahem, course of study.)

Instead of one book for the year, we will be discussing 12 (or more) different books. Some will be on craft, some on creativity, a few on the business side of writing and even a cookbook (crock-pot meals, of course, to help writers find a little more writing time in the day!) All three of us will chime in throughout the month. Watch for guest posts and giveaways, too. We're turning the blog into an online book club for writers. So grab your kindle (or fav ereader of choice) and a virtual comfy chair and check out the line-up.

The books*:

January: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up--The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing/Marie Kondo 

February: Bird by Bird/Lamott

March: Hooked: Write Fiction that Grabs Readers at Page One & Never Lets Them Go/Les Edgerton

April: Writing Your Novel From the Middle/James Scott Bell

May: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles/S. Pressfield and S. Coyne

June: Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir/Beth Kephart

July: The Eureka Factor: Aha Moments, Creative Insight, and the Brain/J. Kounios and M. Beeman

August: The Creative Habit/Twyla Tharp

September: No Plot? No Problem/Chris Baty

October: Crockpot Cookbook

November: The Artist Way/Julia Cameron

December: Scene & Structure/ Jack M. Bickham

(*subject to change at any time, because you know--life)

Week 52: Develop Your Persona to Be the Person You Aspire to Be

Many writers, especially newer ones, wonder about ‘voice’—what it is and how to develop it. This chapter gives some insight on that and how our writing not only impacts us, but how we impact our writing.

Wilbers says, “Writing is power. When you write, you assert your concerns, your values, your point of view. … With this power comes both responsibility and freedom.”1

He talks about the assumed identities the ancients called personas. We know it as an avatar, an image of what we want people to think—it might be a close approximation or a gross distortion, but either way, it’s not the real thing.

“Just as your choice of images is key to your persona, your choice of words determines your persona or the impression you create in your reader’s mind. … Natural word choice goes beyond language and techniques of style. Natural word choice shapes the reader’s impression of who you are as a person. … Your word choice should be intentional not accidental … should serve a purpose.”2

We impact our writing, but our writing also impacts us. Our writing journey is an opportunity for self-exploration. Through experimenting with language, styles and techniques that work for us, we can discover who we really are. But what about who you would like to be?

John Steinbeck said this: “I instinctively recognized an opportunity to transcend some of my personal failings—things about myself I didn’t particularly like and wanted to change but didn’t know how.”

I love this insight from Wilbers in writing behind the persona: “Whatever your choice [of persona], I urge you to be a complete person. Reveal not only your thoughts, but also your feelings. Share your insights and humor. Be playful. Write with heart. Above all, be genuine.”

And from Stephen King: “Honesty in story-telling makes up for a great many stylistic faults…”3

Exercises:4

Revise the following using your own voice, making them less stilted.

1.            I am making an attempt to make an improvement in my writing.

2.            Please apprise me of what transpired at the meeting.

3.            We need to fabricate a dike around this building utilizing these sandbags.

4.            Such conditions impede progress in finding a resolution to said problems.

5.            Our team leader deems it imperative that we conduct ourselves ethically.

1. Wilbers, Stephen, Mastering the Craft of Writing, pg 290

2. Wilbers, Stephen, Mastering the Craft of Writing, pg 291

3. Wilbers, Stephen, Mastering the Craft of Writing, pg 293

4. Wilbers, Stephen, Mastering the Craft of Writing, pg293

Week 51: Eloquence and Grace

Go Beyond Clarity to Eloquence and Grace
by Tamara Passey

Meet my friends, Eloquence and Grace. They've worked hard all year to learn the steps to the dance they need to perform. They've learned periodic sentences, the long-short combo, using an appropriate level of formality. They've covered modifiers, strong verbs, active voice and they've expanded their sentence repertoire. They've mastered metaphors and similes and have avoided cliches (like the plague.) And so much more.  They can dance with clarity. But now is the time to showcase their talent with eloquence and grace.

When you watch a couple like this on the dance floor, do you see power, refinement, and dignity? Can you sense the authority with which they convey the message of their art?

If we want to create beauty through language and share our message with power and refinement, we have to know the rules, understand how to put words on the page, and allow our writing style to shine through.

Here's a few more thoughts on eloquence and grace:

"Elegance cannot be forced. It cannot be purchased and slipped into like fine clothes. Writing with elegance comes naturally and gradually. It comes from making the right assumptions about language and from following certain principles of writing." 1

"Elegance need not be complicated. It can be as simple as E.B. White's sentence in The Elements of Style: "These [questions of style] are high mysteries, and this chapter is a mystery story, thinly disguised." A simple shift in word order destroys the effect of that sentence: "These are high mysteries, and this chapter is a thinly disguised mystery story." Without the grace notes at the end of the sentence, it becomes ordinary." 2

"Elegance depends more on sound than content. Elegance requires a precise, robust vocabulary. It also requires an ear for language and attention to the cadence, rhythm, and flow of sentence structure."

"More than two centuries ago Samuel Johnson, described the most desirable English style as "familiar but not coarse, elegant but not ostentatious." My, how times don't change." 3

1. Mastering The Craft, Wilbers, p. 286
2. Mastering The Craft, Wilbers, p. 286
3. Mastering The Craft, Wilbers, p 287

WEEK 50: Know Your Options For Comic Effect

Humor is serious work...by Valerie Ipson

So much can be said about humor and its value not just to comedic writing, but to ALL writing. 

Wilbers says it this way, "...to tell a joke is to declare your humanity... To appeal to another person's sense of humor is to affirm a common bond."1 And, "Humor reduces the distance between writer and reader (and between speaker and listener)."2 

Even the writer of drama should employ a bit of humor here and there, not only to give the reader or audience a break, but to offer insights about the realities of life that can best be understand through comedy. Maybe kind of like, 'I can either laugh or cry, and laughing's more fun,' when faced with difficulties in our lives. 

In chapter 50 of Mastering the Craft, ten types (tropes) of humor are discussed. You're probably already using many of them without realizing it... paradox, situational irony, sarcasm, overstatement, wit...pick something new and try it in your current manuscript!

Mastering the Craft, p 278
Mastering the Craft, p 279

Week 49: Add a Light-Hearted Touch to Your Writing

This week's chapter is pretty self-explanatory. 

Wilbers says, "Humor is a matter of perspective..." - oh don't I know this. My husband and I do not share similar senses of humor. I'm pretty funny, but I'm also the only one usually laughing at my jokes. And I think word plays or errors are generally hilarious. Like these things that cracked me up in NYC (just please forgive my obvious lack of photography skills):

  

Look for writing that elicits a 
chuckle from you and then try to 
imitate it. A juxtaposition or 
something unexpected. (like this 
behemoth of a sandwich): 

Wilbers continues his thoughts on humor saying it is, "a bemused awareness of the incongruous, illogical, and sometimes absurd dimensions of our existence. It's also a matter of timing, technique, and detail." I'm a huge fan of both Sarah M. Eden and Janette Rallison's writing because each seems to effortlessly create such scenarios. 

Wilbers offers a paragraph from Kay Redfield Jamison's An Unquiet Mind.

"I decided early in graduate school that I needed to do something about my moods. It quickly came down to a choice between seeing a psychiatrist or buying a horse. Since almost everyone I knew was seeing a psychiatrist, and since I had absolute belief that I should be able to handle my own problems, I naturally bought a horse. Not just any horse, but an unrelentingly stubborn and blindingly neurotic one, a sort of equine Woody Allen, but without the entertainment value."1

The incongruity between "seeing a psychiatrist or buying a horse" lends to the comic effect. 

So this week in your writing, throw in something unexpected for comic relief.


1 Wilbers, Stephen,  Mastering the Craft of Writing, pg 274.

Week 48: Use Your Imagination

Use Your Imagination to Write with Personality and Style

by Tamara Passey

What do you think about when you stare at the stars?

When you see clouds does it make you wonder? 

What about spring flowers?

 

And where exactly is this bench? 

And who could be meeting there? And why? 

This week is all about using your imagination to add personality to your writing. It is adding the unexpected to our pages that can make them come alive. How do you spark your imagination? Wilbers shares an example from the poet Michael Dennis Browne who would sometimes ask his students to write as many outlandish lies as they could think of in the first few minutes of class.

"Don't overthink it," he would say. "Just write whatever comes to mind."

He found that his students were more fanciful, expansive, and creative in their exploration of what was possible in their poetry. 1

"At its deepest level, imagination enables us to associate words and thoughts. If we had no imagination at all, we would lack faith in the value and meaning of words. To varying degrees, every writer (and every reader) possesses imagination. To use language is to enter a symbolic world. Every word uttered, every sentence written, is an act of imagination."

"Without that spark [imagination], a writer's relationship to language becomes superficial and rigid. To write without creativity is to underestimate the potential of language." 2

Take a minute to think about your own imagination. What has fed it and fueled it in the past? What are exercises that help you get to a place where anything can be possible on the page? Some writers set a timer for 10 minutes and write freely, never using that writing for anything other than priming their pump, so to speak. Experiment the next time you sit down to write, spend a few minutes conjuring up some outlandish lies, or simply let your mind wander wherever it wants to go--and then see if your writing reflects some new twists, or even better--new verbs, you weren't expecting.

1. Mastering The Craft, Wilbers, p. 267
2. Mastering The Craft, Wilbers, p. 268, italics and bold added for emphasis

WEEK 47: AVOID VOGUE WORDS AND CLICHES

by Valerie Ipson

By Week 47 we have learned a variety of techniques that can make our words dance and sing on the page. Tired, oft-used cliches, though, have the opposite effect. They can bore the reader, or show our laziness as a writer. 

"According to Donald Hall, relying on the easy choices, on trendy words and cliches, causes us to end our search for more precise language..."1 

Stephen Wilbers says, "The first time it rained cats and dogs was brilliant, now it's a cliche."2

It's not that we have to avoid all cliches. They can be useful because their very commonality means they're easily understood. But a well-crafted phrase, even an old cliche twisted into something new, freshens our writing and delights the reader.  

Like this one: An apple a day still can't beat pizza.

I think we all understand that.


1 Mastering the Craft, p 261
2 Mastering the Craft, p 264

Week 46: Return to Your Metaphors and Similes

This year's posts have been like a mouse nibbling at cheese. Each week, a different lesson on writing, until the whole book has nearly been consumed, one morsel at a time.

This week's lesson, Wilbers has us reconnecting with our metaphors and similes throughout our work, like the mouse returning to his feast. It's something "... every good essayist or storyteller knows" how to do.1

We are warned though that this technique works well when you have three criteria: "they're simple, apt, and novel."2 When they are forced, however, it can be a distraction. Cliche metaphors may even be glossed right over by your readers.

John Mather, senior astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center used this technique giving us insight into the evolution of the formation of galaxies:

"We thought galaxies formed just like they are. But now we think they grew, they assembled themselves from smaller pieces. It might have been like rain on the side of a hill. First you get little rivulets that flow together into a larger stream."3

Or Thoreau's famous passage from Walden:

"A lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. The fluviatile trees next to the shore are the slender eyelashes which fringe it, and the wooded hills and cliffs around are its overhanging brows."4

Now that we've had a taste of this concept, try your hand at it:

1. The wind had been through/the valley/ leaving everything cold/ and gleaming/ like bells.

2. The sheer weight of one of these icy leviathans, some of which grew to a thickness of two miles, flattened the crust of the earth.5


1 Wilbers, Stephen, Mastering the Craft of Writing, pg 255.
2 Wilbers, Stephen, Mastering the Craft of Writing, pg 256.
3 Wilbers, Stephen, Mastering the Craft of Writing, pg 258.
4 Wilbers, Stephen, Mastering the Craft of Writing,  pg 258.
5 Wilbers, Stephen, Mastering the Craft of Writing,  pg 257.

Week 45: Use Analogies and Comparisons to Enliven Your Writing

by Tamara Passey

Comparisons. In the pop-psychology of the day we are told repeatedly to stop comparing--mainly ourselves to other people. Comparing can be the downfall of a decent amount of self-esteem, the undoing of some well-earned confidence, the snag that unravels a perfectly knitted day.

See what I did there? Okay, what I tried to do there? Use some metaphors and analogies to make my point. So if we want to keep that skip in our step and feel our confident best, we need to avoid comparisons. But if we want to make an enduring impression on our reader with our writing, metaphors, similes, and analogies are just what the doctor ordered.

Wilbers points out that "Your chances of creating a good analogy are greater if you know how to recognize a bad one." 1

And with that he gives some examples of  'delightfully bad' comparisons. Followed by more examples of better comparisons. And yes, please find the book, read the chapter and get up to speed on how to use metaphors and similes properly and effectively. But for now, I think we've worked pretty hard in the preceding weeks and can take a minute to blow off some steam, you know, like one of those old trains that used to run on steam? *Ahem* Sorry, okay, I couldn't resist the opportunity to use a bad analogy to introduce more...bad analogies.

Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met. 2

Funny? Yes. Bad? No doubt about it.

Here's a few more I found:

The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

Now it's your turn. Leave a comment with your favorite bad analogy,

1. Mastering The Craft, Wilbers, p. 250 
2. Mastering The Craft, Wilbers, p. 250

WEEK 44: LAY DOWN A BEAT...AND THEN BREAK THE RHYTHM

Easy Peasy
by Valerie Ipson

This might be the easiest lesson to blog about. Basically, it reminds us of what we learned about rhythm over the last several lessons (all those interesting Greek words known as schemes)and then says, don't overdo it. Whether you're using epistrophe,anaphora, or anadiplosis a little goes a long way.

Here's an example from the book, actually one taken from another book, Flood: A Romance of Our Time:

"The big sycamore by the creek was gone. The willow tangle was gone. The little enclave of untrodden bluegrass was gone. The clump of dogwood on the little rise across the creek--now that, too, was gone,"1

Here the author, Robert Penn Warren, uses epistrophe (repetition) to create a rhythm and then alters the beat at the end for a pleasing effect.

So, the moral of this blog post is: Establish a rhythm in your writing, then vary it because too much of a good thing is, well, too much.

1 MTC, pg 248

Week 43 Create Rhythm with Anadiplosis and Isocolon

Anna Diplosis is a cousin to Ann Timetabole. Ann chooses to reverse her stated ideas (you can see examples in Week 41) whereas Anna likes to take the last word of the statement and for emphasis repeat it as the first word in a juxtaposition.

Anna would quote John Keats, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty."

It goes a bit further with phrases as shown in Anna's favorite folksong by Pete Seeger and Joe Hickerson: " "Where have all the flowers gone... young girls have picked them
Where have all the young girls gone... gone to young men".

Now Iso Colon is a different fellow. He's particular about repetition, both in grammatical structure and in the same number of syllables.

He believes 'many are called, but few are chosen', and he likes to wear a Timex because 'it takes a licking and keeps on ticking'. But he's particularly partial to some advice his grandfather gave him. "How to succeed at business: Have a vision, know your values, and work like crazy."1

Anna and Iso can emphasize ideas or create rhythm in our writing, writing that will more clearly and effectively communicate to our audiences.


Wilbers, Stephen, Mastering the Craft of Writing, pg. 240.

Week 42: Use Anaphora and Epistrophe for Eloquence

by Tamara Passey

If you missed the guest appearance by Yoda on last week's post by Valerie, go and check it out here. Don't worry, I'll wait. She introduces the techniques we will be discussing this week. As mentioned in the title, they are:

Anaphora and Epistrophe

No, I did not sneeze. No, I did not invent these words. And no, I did not find them in a catalog for exotic flowers. Though, like exotic flowers, if you can master these techniques they can add some beauty or (as Wilbers says) some eloquence  to your writing. 1

See what I did there in that paragraph? "Opened successive phrases with repeated words"2 --that's what classical rhetoricians called anaphora. 

A more eloquent example would be Patrick Henry's proclamation: "Give me liberty, or give me death." 

Can you see and hear how employing this technique makes the writing more memorable?

As for epistrophe, it is "closing successive phrases with repeated words." Like this: "Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat." (Excuse the digression, but I try to remember that quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald when I'm baking.) Or if you need another example, compare these two sentences:

"There's not a liberal and a conservative US; there's a United States of America."

"There's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's a United States of America." 3

(I'll try to remember that one during this presidential election season!)

I hope the difference is obvious between the two sentences. The latter has the emphasis and eloquence to drive the point home to your readers or listeners.




1. Mastering The Craft, Wilbers, p. 234 
2. Mastering The Craft, Wilbers, p. 234
3. Mastering The Craft, Wilbers, p. 236