Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Punch it Up Too

Candice had a great post on Tuesday about "Punch it Up." This is something we've been talking about in our writing group for a while now, and I'm beginning to believe that it may be the most important piece of writing advice I've ever gotten. Check it out. I've yet to find any weaknesses with the advice, although I have found it difficult to implement at times.

9 comments:

Shauna Roberts said...

I've found backloading much harder to do in nonfiction than in fiction, perhaps because one has less freedom in structure, length, and style. Does anyone else have that problem?

Charles Gramlich said...

I agree. I think fiction just allows more flexibility. It's like working with fresh playdo. Part of it for me, though, is that with nonfiction I usually have to do a considerable amount of "learning" up front. I can't see the forest from the trees at first. With fiction I can sometimes visualize the forest more easily than the trees that will make it up.

Steve Malley said...

Strunk & White advise the strongest element in the sentence go at the end. Just like comedians, grammarians want to go out on a high note, I guess.

Stephen King quibbles that "he killed her with a hammer," beats "With a hammer, she was killed."

Either one beats 'With a hammer, he killed her.'

For sheer punch, none of them touch "Hammer-wielding killer STRIKES!"

I'm blaming the coffee. Yeah, that's it. The coffee...

AvDB said...

That is an interesting post. I'm curious to go back to my work and see if I end paragraphs with any sort of style.

Lisa said...

This is so great. I have to turn in a 10 page excerpt for critique on Monday -- I'm analyzing every sentence and paragraph now...not that I didn't have a list of 92 other things to focus on already!

Greg said...

Yeah, that's a really neat concept. I never would have thought about it, but it makes perfect sense.

Time to rewrite!

Bernita said...

Think I've learned to manage this with scenes, now to apply it to paragraphs...
Thank you, Charles, and for the link as well.

Charles Gramlich said...

Steve, "coffee" is a good word to end on.

Avery, I've been checking mine, and getting some winces.

Lisa, I know of the 92 things you speak of.

Greg, it does. So obvious and yet so hard to see until it's pointed out for you, as it was recently for me.

Bernita, you're welcome.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your blog. It has been opening my eyes to the ways of writing.