Each tradesperson has a unique set of tools: the carpenter has her awl, the electrician has his wire cutters, the chef has their whisk. A writer has a set of tools as well, beyond pen and paper (or keyboard and laptop screen). The more really good work a writer reads, the more to add to the toolkit. How does Stephen King make us cringe in terror, for example? How does Sylvia Plath bring the reader into a darkness between father and daughter? How does David Sedaris make us laugh and Jon Krakauer make us want to scale the world’s tallest mountain? What tools do they use and how do they use them? Now that we’re reading as writers, as writing tradespeople, we can compile a toolkit of our own.
For this post, share some of the “items” in your toolkit. If you haven’t amassed many, that’s okay; what would you like to find? What do you want to know how to do?
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About this blogA blog is an online conversation. This one is for students of writing and is an extension of our face-to-face classroom. Here is where we can continue a discussion started in class, ask questions, and test new ideas. Archives
March 2020
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