{"id":13826,"date":"2025-05-22T11:56:28","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T18:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=13826"},"modified":"2025-05-22T11:56:34","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T18:56:34","slug":"one-word-one-concept-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/one-word-one-concept-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"One word, one concept at a time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Brevity&#8217;s Blog, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/public-api.wordpress.com\/bar\/?stat=groovemails-events&amp;bin=wpcom_email_click&amp;redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fbrevity.wordpress.com%2F2025%2F05%2F16%2Fself-editing-secrets%2F&amp;sr=0&amp;signature=4f0b7e8b2b11d478a918f2ab3001bc3f&amp;blog_id=187081&amp;user=244903365&amp;_e=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&amp;_z=z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Worth the Climb: Self-Editing Secrets That Actually&nbsp;Work<\/a>&#8221; by Allison K. Williams reveals&nbsp;creative ideas for revision as well as first draft ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I particularly like&nbsp;Allison&#8217;s&nbsp;suggestion about&nbsp;\u201c<strong>converting similes to metaphors&nbsp;<\/strong>when possible\u2014saying something&nbsp;<em>is<\/em>&nbsp;something else is more powerful than saying it&#8217;s&nbsp;<em>like&nbsp;<\/em>something else.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Complementing Allison\u2019s recommendations is advice given to <a href=\"https:\/\/anitagailjones.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Anita Gail Jones<\/a>, author of The Peach Seed about her use of \u201cthe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anita found where she overused &#8220;the,&#8221; there were other problems. Her evaluation of \u201cthe\u201d led to stronger writing and improved her story telling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This advice reinforces Allison&#8217;s concept of focusing on one thing at a time when revising.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another gem from Anita, &#8220;Beats: A unit of emotional measurement between people.&#8221;&nbsp;Harder to find than the single word \u201cthe,\u201d but so important in creating a compelling narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thank you to Susan and Patricia for helping me to remember what Anita said at her keynote address at Sebastopol\u2019s Lit Crawl, May 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brevity&#8217;s Blog, &#8220;Worth the Climb: Self-Editing Secrets That Actually&nbsp;Work&#8221; by Allison K. Williams reveals&nbsp;creative ideas for revision as well as first draft ideas. I particularly like&nbsp;Allison&#8217;s&nbsp;suggestion about&nbsp;\u201cconverting similes to metaphors&nbsp;when possible\u2014saying something&nbsp;is&nbsp;something else is more powerful than saying it&#8217;s&nbsp;like&nbsp;something else.&#8221; Complementing Allison\u2019s recommendations is advice given to Anita Gail Jones, author of The Peach Seed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[126],"tags":[2036,2061,1740,2063,1177,2062,2064],"class_list":["post-13826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-just-write-2","tag-allison-k-williams","tag-anita-gail-jones","tag-brevity-blog","tag-compelling-writing","tag-revising","tag-the-peach-tree","tag-the-revision-process"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-3B0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13826"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13827,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13826\/revisions\/13827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}