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Archives for July 2010

Template your story

Create fill-in-the-blanks story forms An old friend was kvetching recently about his lousy job. After working for a series of magazines, he’d landed at the metro daily, where he was editing a daily page of tips and tricks for the lifestyle section. "My passion is for the long-form narrative," he said, sniffing at the prospect of being reduced to writing nibbles and bits of … [Read more...] about Template your story

Don’t practice AKK

‘All known knowledge’ obscures rather than reveals Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich wants prosecutors in his federal corruption trial to play all 500 hours of the FBI’s secretly recorded tapes of his conversations. “Of course,” I thought when I heard the news. “He’s practicing AKK.” AKK is The New York Times’ acronym for “all known knowledge.” That’s where — instead … [Read more...] about Don’t practice AKK

Better you than me

Want more Twitter followers? Stop talking about yourself The more you talk about yourself on Twitter, the fewer followers you’re likely to have. Or so says viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella. Using TweetPsyche data on more than 60,000 Twitter users, he looked at self-reference on Twitter. He found that Twitter users who don’t talk about themselves much tend to have … [Read more...] about Better you than me

Call me

Reach readers with callouts Think of your callout as a movie trailer for your story. Movie trailers give the best stuff away for free to entice moviegoers to buy a ticket. Callouts — aka pull quotes — give the best stuff away for free to entice readers to read your story. So go ahead: Find the most provocative point in the story — the more specific, the better — and give … [Read more...] about Call me

Resurrect a cliché

One way to write wordplay is to twist a cliché.

Rewrite your least favorite buzz phrase A few years ago, my nephew Evan — aka one of the five most adorable boys in the world — was attending Catholic preschool. It was his introduction to Jesus and heaven, and he’d been busy processing how all of this applied to his own life. When his uncle died, he wondered aloud when Jesus was going to finish fixing Uncle Carl and … [Read more...] about Resurrect a cliché

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Jan. 31, 2025

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