Instant
Writing
Tip
The Writers Toolbox
Tips, talk and techniques
for students and teachers of writing
brought to you by the geist
foundation & geist magazine
Toolbox Home
About the Toolbox
About Geist
Contact
Warm-up exercise: Television weeping
Writing Exercises
Writer's Toolbox
MS
Start with this line by Dionne Brand, from
Inventory
, a book of poems, then freewrite for 10 minutes:
“One year she sat at the television weeping, no reason”
—MS
About the Toolbox
Sign up for free class sets of Geist
Geist home page
Workshops
In the toolbox
Lie, lay, laid, lain
Phrases and clauses
Warm-up exercise: Scar
Acronyms and otherwise
Going further with farther
Sentences: A sentence is a thought, not a warehouse
Sentences: Simple, fragment, run-on
Warm-up exercise: Eyes shut
Narrative: Six principles and some examples
Narrative exercise: Birthday
Dialogue: Keep it simple
Living vs. being based
Convince/persuade and other fake synonyms
Sentences: Long is beautiful
Verbs: Avoid the quiet and the copulative
Issues—the word
Trim those articles and prepositions
The handy dandy 5-W sentence
"And" or "but" at the start of a sentence
Warm-up exercise: Lunch
Trump and trumpery
How does narrative die?
Warm-up exercise: Television weeping
Gerunds and participles: Avoid ING words
Beware of getting involved
Morale exercise: Real writers
The order of things
The sense of sight
Find yourself, but don’t say so
Interview with Mary Schendlinger