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Courage has been widely misunderstood as the absence of fear. In the early days of the History Channel (when they actually featured history), soldiers described courage as action in spite of fear, defining it as the ability to face fear. It also includes the ability to identify healthy and unhealthy fear. Healthy fear is that…
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In light of my trip to Morocco, I just rewatched Lawrence of Arabia. It is an extremely well-made movie and with good reason remains in the top 10 movies of all time. It was an exhilarating feeling watching them ride camels over the same dunes we did and fun to revisit the locations, including Ouarzazate…
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And then we came to the end. This has been a great series by Aaron and I’m grateful for his guest posts, but this is the last one (at least for awhile). Without further ado, Vonnegut’s 8th Rule: by adgansky 8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck…
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We’re almost there – here’s #7 of 8 rules for writing fiction by Mr. Vonnegut as delivered by guest blogger Aaron Gansky. by adgansky 7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia. –Kurt Vonnegut Pneumonia, maybe, and…
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Well, this is embarrassing – I lost track of the days, but better late than never. #6! Thanks, Aaron. Now let’s all go make life difficult for our characters. Also, a hearty shoutout to friend and mentor Cheryl Strayed: Her memoir Wild hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list!! Now here’s Aaron: by…
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Thanks to Aaron for another guest post while I’m on the road in Morocco. By adgansky 5. Start as close to the end as possible. –Kurt Vonnegut Last week, I had a student approach me to ask my opinion on something they were working on. The story opened inside a hospital with the birth of a child.…
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We’re halfway through Vonnegut’s 8 Rules of Writing. We will get to the last four in a couple of weeks – this blog will be on hiatus until after July 4th. Keep writing and please check out Aaron’s blog. By adgansky 4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.…
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The Citron Review just published a new piece of mine. Thanks for taking a look!
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She posted them on Twitter awhile ago, but they’ve just been picked up by the internet. Do you agree with her? http://storyshots.tumblr.com/post/25032057278/22-storybasics-ive-picked-up-in-my-time-at-pixar #1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes. #2: You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer.…
Diane Sherlock 
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