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A gentle reminder can deliver
great force at just the right time.
It’s the little things that mount up to victory. So make
yourself a reminder list, changing it periodically as you
grow in your writing skill.
I put my reminders on little Post-it notes stuck on a
5 × 8 card. That way I can easily revise them.
Currently, here are the notes on my card:
Emotion, emotion, emotion!
Be dialogue happy.
The right answer.
Surprise me now!
Here’s what those notes mean:
emotion, emotion, emotion!
This reminds me that the primary objective of a novel is
to give the reader an emotional ride. If I get too analyti-
cal and lose the heart, I have to stop and start a fi re inside
me, then inside the characters.
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be dialogue happy.
Let the dialogue fl ow. I can always edit it later.
the second right answer.
Learn to stop at every major creative decision and go
to the next “right answer.” My brain usually feeds me
a cliché, the standard, the same old. So I make a list of
alternatives and choose one of these.
surprise me now!
Whenever the story even holds the hint of dragging, I
want to create a surprise. Something to beef up the nar-
rative. Like the old Raymond Chandler trick of just bring-
ing in a guy with a gun. Any variation on that theme.
What are your most important reminders? Make that list
now, and start using it.
1.
2.
3.
4.
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