Creative writing – Page 106

Do you bog down the reader with too many details?

Published on September 10, 2015September 9, 2015 by Jean M. Cogdell9 Comments

How much is enough?

Is the Devil really in the details?

Many of y’all are too young to remember Dragnet, a 1950’s TV series. A movie remake in 1987 starring Dan Aykroyd, and Tom Hanks didn’t do justice to the old B&W series.

But so many times I want to make sure my reader “gets” the point. As a result, too often I bog the reader down in details that just muddy the water.

As Joe Friday used to say, “Just the facts, Ma’am.”

Like many of you readers out there, I sometimes skip through a story like Dorothy on the yellow brick road rushing toward Oz.

No one, myself included wants to read the boring stuff. So how do we strike a balance?

Jerry Jenkins wrote, How to Evoke Powerful Images in Your Reader’s Mind

In his post, he suggests that too often as writers, we crush the reader’s imagination instead of igniting the images.

Don’t force the details. Every reader wants an “ah-ha” moment.

Don’t strive for the reader to see what you see.

Resist the urge to explain and trust the reader to follow their own path of discovery.

So what do you think? Is your writing lighting fires or crushing the reader under the boulders of information?

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After years of hiding my words from the world, I have found my voice

Published on September 9, 2015 by Jean M. Cogdell

I’m thrilled this rainy morning to brag on a special person. My sister, and fellow writer Sheila Good featured today over at —

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Thank you!
If you’re not already, I’d be much obliged if you would follow me @jeancogdell on Twitter or jean.cogdell on Facebook!

Need to get organized?

Published on September 3, 2015September 2, 2015 by Jean M. Cogdell10 Comments

Do you need help organizing your writing?

Well, I do!

Because sometimes I’ve had so many files swirling around in my computer that I forgot which one was the last one.

I check the dates. Grab what looks like the right one, but lo and behold there is another one way over on the other side of a black hole.

Head slap! How in the hell did a 100 pages end up with the cookie recipes?

Listen, I’ve always considered myself a pretty organized person. I like the potato chips on the bottom shelf of the pantry. Drives me nuts when someone moves them around.

But sometimes my fiction runs rampant, and like scurrying little mice, stories duck into hiding spaces on the far side of my computer.