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6 entries · last tended July 2026
A living collection — it grows as the room's conversation does
A metaphor needs two halves An effective metaphor needs both a sensory connection and a logical one; with only one of the two, it reads as forced. July 2026 Enact the bad thing — don't describe it To criticize bad writing, perform a short specimen of it rather than describing it — but keep the dose small. July 2026 One carrying object Let a single image, object, or recurring motif carry the whole abstraction, so the reader holds one thing instead of many. July 2026 Point a camera at it Hand every abstraction something a reader can see — an image, an object, a scene a camera could film. July 2026 Characters as subjects, actions as verbs The clearest sentences tell a small story — the main character in the subject, the action in the verb; murky prose buries both, usually inside a nominalization. July 2026 Foreground what you saw; background the research Experts foreground their research to show what they know; the best writers foreground what they saw and let a scene teach the idea — no definition required. July 2026

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Writing for the Reader Voice & the Human Hand Where the Reader Looks Restraint & Cutting Making Something Change Form & Its Reader

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