Title: The Tools of Writing Clarity

Instructor: Ransom Stephens, Ph.D., Ransom@RansomStephens.com

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  • Learn when to show and when to tell and when to show and tell.
  • Make sure your metaphors and similes don’t just illustrate your prose but reflect your themes.
  • Have you thought about using graphics? It’s no longer difficult for you or your publisher.

    • “Very helpful, particularly on how to draw a reader in and hold him/her.” – Donna Banta

Description:

Clarity is the foundation of trust between the writer and the reader. If the reader loses trust, is unsure of where they are in a story and must flip pages back, they put books down. This seminar distinguishes how the elements of the writer’s craft can be used to maintain clarity at every level – sentence, paragraph, chapter, entire work and in every dimension of plot, theme, and mood.

      “Helpful, entertaining, specific information and examples to write clearly… appreciated down to earth, spelled-out information on writing skills.” –Sahaba Marks

This course will enable you to:

  • Earn and maintain your readers trust.
  • Understand when to show and when to tell and when to show-and-tell.
  • Build tension and suspense by withholding information without sacrificing clarity.
  • Choose metaphors and similes that illustrate your prose and reflect your themes.
  • Understand the concept of literary level and how clarity of point, theme, and tone are maintained at each level.
  • Make the best use of repetition and opposition.
  • Recognize and use point of view to get the most out of your work.
  • Introduce backstory without losing momentum.
  • Learn the cost, value and effective construction of flashbacks.
  • Make pacing work by understanding the difference in how time passes for the reader, for the writer, and within the story.
  • Write dialog that locks in readers.
  • Understand the role of purple prose.
  • Make use of graphics.

Details:

The best format is a one day seminar or set of three two hour workshops, but the highpoints can be covered in a single 90 minute lecture or 50 minute speech.

                “Excellent, I especially liked the way he used passages in his book to make a point.” –Barbara Moehring

Syllabus

  • Introduction
    • Clarity in different types of prose
      • Instructive writing: how-to, manuals, technical writing
      • Essays, opinion
      • Storytelling – fiction and memoir
    • Summary of the tools
    • Storytelling
  • The literary level concept
    • Clarity, mood/tone, theme  sentence, paragraph, chapter, whole
    • Techniques for draft and revision
  • The role of description, analogy – simile and metaphor
  • Point of view
  • Backstory and flashbacks
  • Scenes: show vs tell
  • The irony of effective dialog
  • Tension and suspense
  • Time and pacing
  • The quagmires: forced details, purple prose vs voice, wily pronouns, adjectives and adverbs, etc.
  • Bringing it all together in your work

                  • “Well done, gave me lots to think about, even for my nonfiction book.” – Naomi Berger

About the instructor:

Ransom Stephens, Ph.D., has been a writer and public speaker for 20 years. He has 1000s of hours classroom experience as a university professor, is the author of what the SF Chronicle called “a milestone not only for Ransom but for the book industry as well, as the first debut novel to emerge from the new paradigm of online publishing.…an ambitious first novel that sings of the heart and the scientific method as two parts of the same song,” The God Patent (Numina Press, www.TheGodPatent.com) He has also written over 200 articles, essays and anthology contributions on impossible subjects like quantum physics, the future of publishing, and parenting teenagers.