Eva Hunter

Archive for the ‘Writers Resouces’ Category


Writing Exercise: Using Description

In Creative Nonfiction, Creative Writing, Writers Resouces, Writing a Book, Writing a Novel, Writing Fiction, Writing nonfiction, Writing Short Stories on October 9, 2010 at 10:49 am

What’s wrong with this sentence?

“I walked down the street, bustling and filled with activity, early one morning in Mexico City.”

It seems like a perfectly correct sentence, right? The commas are in the right place, it uses activity, it identifies a setting. So why isn’t it a good sentence? The answer is that it really doesn’t evoke much of a picture–it doesn’t put the reader in the scene. Now consider a short passage from Sandra Cisneros’s  Carmelo:

The racket of the street bustle–street cleaners, merchants with all of their merchandise on their back, chairs, baskets, brooms, the fruit vendor, the sherbet vendor, the charcoal vendor, the butter vendor, whistles and shouts, rattle of wheels, clip-clop of horses, hum of electric trains, hoarse, sad cries of the mules hauling streetcars, slap of guaraches, click-click-click of hard boots, the unmistakable Mexico City morning smelll of hot aotmeal, orange peel, fresh-baked bollilo bread, and the ripe tang of sewer foulness.

See the difference? Description is made by using details–details that essentially “paint” the scene in the reader’s mind.  So now it’s your turn. Take this sentence, and turn it into a rich, sensual experience. Then send me what you’ve come up with!

I was two blocks away from my childhood elementary school, and it had been 20 years since I walked down this small-town street.

Go for it!

 

TEN THINGS EDITORS WON’T TELL YOU

You’ve bought all the reference books.  You’re subscribing to at least one writers’ magazine. Each month you’ve read it from cover to cover—looking for special tips and “insider” information. You’ve studied advice about query letters,  read all the updates about new magazines and what they pay, and attended a writers’ conference or two. You’ve listened to countless hours of advice about how to get an Read the rest of this entry »

WORKSHOPS IN THE AFTERNOON!

In The Craft of Writing, Writers Resouces, Writing Fiction on September 12, 2010 at 9:46 am

With a few exceptions, I’ve switched all my writing workshops to the afternoon–from noon to four p.m. They’re now three-week workshops, rather than four. Why this change? For a couple of reasons: first, three weeks gives my ongoing students  (and me!) a little more resting time between workshops, rather than shaving classes for three months straight. And it gives me the mornings to get my own writing done. Those of you who have been following PROFESSIONAL WRITING COACH know that we’re doing an on-line magazine, sponsoring readings in San Miguel de Allende, about to put the first year of the magazine Sol: English Writing in Mexico out in hard copy as well as Kindle–your writing coach is very busy.

The next available writing class is in January, 2012. Click on “Writing Workshops” on the banner at page-top.