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  • Home
  • Explore with Me
    • BOOKS!!
    • LIVE Retreats & Circles >
      • ​Come As You Are, Meditation & Writing Retreat
      • A Year of Transformation, Initiation & Manifestation: World into Word & Action
    • Online Courses >
      • Be The Cause of Your Life
    • Spiritual Mentoring
    • Writing >
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    • Counseling & Spiritual Mentoring
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Julie's Blog
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 World into Word & Action

Catching The Wild World in Word

4/17/2019

3 Comments

 
 "The world is wily, and doesn't want to be caught." –Susan Mitchell

Writing is not a simple thing; but to write well we do best by keeping our writing simple.

We want to find the fewest and best words to show what we mean, to write a great scene, or to share a meaningful lesson or experience.   Keeping it simple means to give the reader details and descriptions that are story and character relevant.  The story, as it turns out, is in the details.

The world is a wild and complex place. You want to take the time to find the accurate words, to find that metaphor or analogy that brings the reader into your story.  Long, complicated sentences, full of mystery and mixed messages will lose most readers. You want the story to hold mystery but you don't want what you are expressing to be a mystery to the reader.

We want our language to match our experience. And when that happens the reader is transported into a new world–– the world you created.

This is our work as writers: to translate experience into something meaningful to our readers.

Keep it simple and carry on. 



3 Comments
Madeline link
4/17/2019 08:08:40 am

That is wild and wily advice. Will re-double my efforts to keep it short and precise to unravel the mystery.

Reply
Rebecca
4/17/2019 09:29:17 am

Amen.

Reply
Michael link
4/17/2019 07:30:52 pm

Love this!! thanks--

"This is our work as writers: to translate experience into something meaningful to our readers.

Keep it simple and carry on. "

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    Author and counselor Julie Tallard Johnson
    I live in Mount Horeb WI where I walk (snow shoe in the winter) my dogs through Stewart Park or Military Trail, garden my corner lot, wear a mask in public (and a cape at night). I love to write & connect to writers and spiritual seekers. My book The Clue of the Red Thread is my latest of eleven, written in collaboration with Parker J Palmer and poet Rebecca Cecchini  The Clue of the Red Thread: Discovering Fearlessness & Compassion in uncertain times  came out in January, 2021 through Shanti Arts, Nine Rivers Imprint. 

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