Friday, December 10, 2010

Writing advice: Keep a diary

I think the following advice from John Berendt is great. Try it for a week and let me know how it works for you.

Keep a diary, but don't just list all the things you did during the day. Pick one incident and write it up as a brief vignette. Give it color, include quotes and dialogue, shape it like a story with a beginning, middle and end—as if it were a short story or an episode in a novel. It's great practice. Do this while figuring out what you want to write a book about. The book may even emerge from within this running diary.

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4 comments:

  1. I love to do this; that's how my Tennis Court post came about. Actually, that's how a lot of my posts come about! Great idea, Buffy :)

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  2. It's a great idea. I can already see how this could lead to a story, or even create vignettes to add to an existing one.

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