Did you guess?
Let me make it easier.
Got it now? Continue reading Give Your Writing Creative Power with This Magic Number
After the recent horrific terrorist attacks, it’s comforting to remember someone who advocated change without assassinating cartoonists or eradicating entire towns. We celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday. King was electrifying, and as a speaker he drew on his experience as a charismatic preacher. He also pulled from an enormous stock of rhetorical devices to add even more creative power and evoke emotion. His now-famous “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered on August 28, 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C., employed dozens of these, including charged words (last week’s topic!). Continue reading What Martin Luther King, Jr. Can Teach Us About Creative Power Writing
| Your mama is so fat… | Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious |
| The “N” word | I have a dream… |
| Death panels | I win! |
| Danger! | Sunshine, lollipops and rainbows |
| Our little girl has cancer | Free kittens! |
| Hijacked jets destroy twin towers | Je suis Charlie |
What do the words and phrases in the above columns have in common? They are “charged words”—words and phrases that, by their very sounds, definitions, connotations, or denotations, evoke a strong emotion in the reader or listener. Note the variety of emotions represented here—the horror you felt on 9/11, your anger at the racial epithet, your delight as you sang with Mary Poppins, the excitement you’ll feel when you win the lottery (even a dollar!). Continue reading The Shocking Truth about Charged Words
I bet if I give you a sentence, you will immediately be able to identify its speaker. Ready?
“Dark the night is.”
Did you guess that 900-year-old pointy-eared creature, Yoda, from Star Wars? He never uttered those words in any of the movies, so what made you guess him?
Ah, his use of inversion. (Or maybe the huge photo above gave him away.)
Inversion is the reversal of normal word order in a sentence. Used to emphasize key points, it is one of the power techniques that adds intensity to writing. Continue reading Key Words, Emphasize Them You Must
With the Polar Express bearing down, there is someone who will look beautiful and calm (she finished her shopping in October) with a box of homemade, decorated cookies; presents in paper with lots of of ribbon and bows; handsome sons and pretty daughters all dressed up; and no money worries.
Then there is that woman who will trudge through Toys ’R’ Us sans makeup to find that last Frozen gift; burn her one and only batch of chocolate chip cookies; stab the air with the scissors, Psycho-style, as the gift bags run out before the pile of presents, threaten to take back the kids’ gifts when they peek in the closet, and beg the post office to lose the bills in January.
Why am I always that second woman? Continue reading Deck the Hall with Action Verbs
Have you agreed to stop hoarding and clean up your writing? In my previous post, I told you what to get rid of (These are actually just a start!):
I had you look for redundancies such as “woke up out of sleep.” The George Carlin piece suggested “Duh!”s like “honest truth.” My all-time favorite duh! “Where’s he at?” Continue reading “Where’s he at?”…and Other Sentence Clutter
By Grap (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)
It’s time to purge. Even if you’re a creative writer.
If your writing is non-fiction or business, of course you want it to be clear and direct. But flowery embellishments and long, tangled descriptions don’t work now in creative writing, either. Maybe during the Victorian era that was the style, but today’s creative writing is clear and direct. All writers, then, need to use the “power” skill of writing concisely. Continue reading Call 1-800-GOT-JUNK?
In my last post, I encouraged you to incorporate metaphor into your writing. In case you’re still not convinced how it will work in non-fiction writing, here are some examples. Note in each case how the metaphor immediately created a visual image for the reader, bringing the concept into focus and making further explanation unnecessary. You may recognize a couple of the metaphors as similes, a specific type of metaphor that compares two items using “like” or “as.” Continue reading Real-life Non-fiction Metaphors
Metaphor—it’s not just for poems any more. Metaphor is one of those techniques all writers should grab from creative writers to add creative power to their writing.
At its most basic, metaphor is a comparison in image form, and how effective are comparison—and creating an image in your reader’s mind—in making any type of point? A description, an explanation, an argument—all are enriched through comparison and imagery. Continue reading Life is a Beach!
To illustrate Creative Power Writing, I have a real-life example for you today! You’ve doubtless noticed that I’ve changed the title of this blog. The new title came partly from my slogan: “Write with the creativity to inspire and engage and the power to command action.” And when I teach, students’ creative ideas elicit a “Wow,” and of course “Pow” is the first part of “power.”
Thus, Creative Power = WowPow.
“WowPow” is also a creative play on “powwow” because we’re all about communicating. Let me know what you think about the new title. I’m counting on “WowPow” to pique readers’ curiosity about this blog and nudge them to explore my related content (see below!).
More exciting news—my website is live! Please visit http://creativepowerwriting.com and learn even more about how to motivate your readers to action and achieve your goals.
For those of you who are audio/visual learners, I’ve started a YouTube channel. My first video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skjkHRbw4uc
Share your examples of Creative Power Writing–WowPow–in action.
WowPow 
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