Sunday, March 8, 2015

A Step in the Write Direction, March 9, 2015, More "Show, Don't Tell"


A Step in the Write Direction
March 9, 2015

Update: Luckily I had most of this blog completed early or else I wouldn’t have been able to send it. My beautiful, loving, caring husband of 54 years passed away Saturday night at 5:37 p.m. I don’t know how long it takes before it becomes real. My son-in-law just called and on their way home they saw a car with the license plate Revelation 21:4. He looked it up and called me. It reads: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain…”

Thought for the Day: There's a story about the artist Rodin who one day saw a huge, carved crucifix beside a road. He purchased the cross and arranged to have it carted back to his house. But, unfortunately, it was too big for the building. So he knocked out the walls, raised the roof, and rebuilt his home around the cross (Best Sermons 3, Harper & Row, 1990, p. 115, found on sermons@clergy.net).

Song for the Day:
He giveth more grace as the burdens grow greater. 
He addeth more strength as the labors increase.
To added affliction He addeth His mercy;
To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.
When we have exhausted our store of endurance, 
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done.
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources, 
Our Father's full giving is only begun.
            Annie Johnson Flint, “He Giveth More Grace”

Laugh for the Day:
Once you lick the frosting off a cupcake it becomes a muffin and muffins are healthful (The Gospel Greats newsletter, 3/3/15)..

Writer’s Tips:                       More “Show, Don’t Tell”

Use Descriptive Words

Max Lucado in No Wonder They Call Him the Saviour (Portland: Multnomah Press, 1986, pp. 105-06) could have just said, “Tears are necessary to show our emotion.” But instead he said:

“Tears.

“Those tiny drops of humanity. Those round, wet balls of fluid that tumble from our eyes, creep down our cheeks, and splash on the floor of our hearts. They were there that day. They are always present at such times. They should be; that’s their job. They are miniature messengers; on call twenty-four hours a day to substitute for crippled words. They drip, drop, and pour from the corner of our souls, carrying with them the deepest emotions we possess. They tumble down our faces with announcements that range from the most blissful joy to darkest despair.

“The principle is simple; when words are most empty, tears are most apt.”

More Samples of Descriptive Writing

The Heart Remembers, June Masters Bacher, Harvest House.

*          "She had made a soft landing into the real world of        today."

*          "My mouth's so dry I could spit enough cotton to knit a sweater."

*          "It's a ten-hanky crying jag."

*          "One eye that, like his tie, always drifted to the left."

*          "We're all different.  Did you think God made a paper-doll pattern from Adam and Eve?"

 Have a good week spreading the
gospel through the printed page.

Donna Clark Goodrich

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"A Step in the Write Direction--the Complete How-to Guide for Christian Writers"

1 comment:

  1. I read of your loss on The Writer's View. I am truly sorry for your loss.

    ReplyDelete