It's good advice to write with concrete details - the story depends on them. Roy Peter Clark, who gives the writing advice referred to in the previous post, gives an example:

When Kelley Benham wrote the story of the ferocious rooster that attacked a toddler, she not only got the name of the rooster, Rockadoodle Two, but also the names of his parents, Rockadoodle and one-legged Henny Penny. (I cannot explain why it matters that the offending rooster’s mother only had one leg, but it does.)

I know why it matters, and it's compelling but not good.

The rooster's mother with one leg gives an impression of a slatternly female, just the ill sort who would have a child who disloyally turned vicious. It is not true that one-legged females as a class are slatternly, not at all; but in literature the good women are nearly always beautiful as well as good, and the bad women are deformed in some way. That is a literary device that has been overused and abused, and the women it describes abused as well. To be fair, I must add that any deformed person, in literature, and in society, tends to be treated as poor goods and pushed to the sidelines.

Helpful writing tips

1. Writing Tool #1: Branch to the Right
2. Writing Tool #2: Use Strong Verbs
3. Writing Tool #3: Beware of Adverbs
4. Writing Tool #4: Period As a Stop Sign
5. Writing Tool #5: Observe Word Territory
6. Writing Tool #6: Play with Words
7. Writing Tool #7: Dig for the Concrete and Specific
8. Writing Tool #8: Seek Original Images
9. Writing Tool #9: Prefer Simple to Technical
10. Writing Tool #10: Recognize Your Story’s Roots
11. Writing Tool #11 Back Off or Show Off
12. Writing Tool #12: Control the Pace
13. Writing Tool #13: Show and Tell
14. Writing Tool #14: Interesting Names
15. Writing Tool #15: Reveal Character Traits
16. Writing Tool #16: Odd and Interesting Things
17. Writing Tool #17: The Number of Elements
18. Writing Tool #18: Internal Cliffhangers
19. Writing Tool #19: Tune Your Voice
20. Writing Tool #20: Narrative Opportunities
21. Writing Tool #21: Quotes and Dialogue
22. Writing Tool #22: Get Ready
23. Writing Tool #23: Place Gold Coins Along the Path
24. Writing Tool #24: Name the Big Parts
25. Writing Tool #25: Repeat
26. Writing Tool #26: Fear Not the Long Sentence
27. Writing Tool #27: Riffing for Originality
28. Writing Tool #28: Writing Cinematically
29. Writing Tool #29: Report for Scenes
30. Writing Tool #30: Write Endings to Lock the Box
31. Writing Tool #31: Parallel Lines
32. Writing Tool #32: Let It Flow
33. Writing Tool #33: Rehearsal
34. Writing Tool #34: Cut Big, Then Small
35. Writing Tool #35: Use Punctuation
36. Writing Tool #36: Write A Mission Statement for Your Story
37. Writing Tool #37: Long Projects
38. Writing Tool #38: Polish Your Jewels
39. Writing Tool #39: The Voice of Verbs
40. Writing Tool #40: The Broken Line
41. Writing Tool #41: X-Ray Reading
42. Writing Tool #42: Paragraphs
43. Writing Tool #43: Self-criticism
44. Writing Tool #44: Save String
45. Writing Tool #45: Foreshadow
46. Writing Tool #46: Storytellers, Start Your Engines
47. Writing Tool #47: Collaboration
48. Writing Tool #48: Create An Editing Support Group
49. Writing Tool #49: Learn from Criticism
50. Writing Tool #50: The Writing Process

Go to the page for the links to the details! Good awaits you

I came across an interesting site today that shows with text and photos, how to create assorted small objects using folding paper money.

My best original designs include spiders, eyeglasses, sailboats, and framed portraits. I got started in high school when I learned how to make a ring out of a dollar bill. I generally make these items to leave as tips.

To see what it looks like and how to do it, go to the Money Origami website.

tag: Music
All the music in Harlem

1. I share a birthdate with composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, who incidentally died the year I was born.
2. Yesterday jazz saxman Jackie McLean of Hartford, CT died.

One of the brightest in Blue Note's sea of saxophone stars, Jackie McLean can make an alto saxophone moan, scream and swing without ever losing the raw power and emotion that makes his music so vital. McLean played with Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus and had a starring role in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in the late 1950s before recording records as a leader with Blue Note. (If you haven't heard "Swing, Swang, Swung" or "Let Freedom Ring," put them on your to-do list. Now.) Jackie's son Rene McLean now carries the torch for his dad, but this isn't nepotism; showing the same adventurous spirit as his father, saxophonist Rene has played with Tito Puente and Hugh Masekela as well as Lionel Hampton and Sonny Rollins.

An alto sax in good hands is one of the sweetest instruments !