12 Writing Tips Hidden In The Garden: Brought To You By Cold Mountain

12 Writing Tips Hidden In The Garden: Brought To You By Cold Mountain

It’s planting season where I live. Buds grow, flowers bloom, and vibrant energy courses through the air (this energy, also known as pollen, causes frequent sneezes). If you are gardening or writing like me, you’re in luck. The novel Cold Mountain contains twelve time-tested tips to inspire your craft. The lessons are buried deep in this Civil War saga and National Book Award winner, so I’ve dug them up and scrubbed them clean.

Behold, here are a dozen secrets to a banner crop and brilliant writing.

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Writing A Compelling True Story: Fiction Tools For Non-Fiction

Writing A Compelling True Story: Fiction Tools For Non-Fiction

The third book of the Omega Trilogy, Great White Throne, is in my editor’s hands. I’m trying to keep it out of my mind, so I can look at it fresh in a few weeks. The best way to do that: start something new.

So that’s what I’m doing, and this new story is powerful and good. It has great characters and big ideas. But it’s quite different from my novels. Mainly, it’s not fiction.

Switching gears from fiction to true story presents some challenges. Here’s what I’ve learned so far.

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Ten Words on Simplicity in Writing and Life

Ten Words on Simplicity in Writing and Life

I like the idea of simplicity even more than I like the practice of it. This is probably the case for most of us. In our super-complex modern world, every step toward simplicity feels like a leap. But it's a leap worth taking, and especially for writers.

In his classic book Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster presents a beautiful description of simplicity. He also describes ten principles to help us understand what simplicity means today. These repeatedly reminded me of Strunk & White's The Elements of Style. The connection is that simplicity in life helps us write with the unique force of simple words. As Strunk & White put it, "style is the writer, and therefore what you are, rather than what you know, will at last determine your style." 

Here I boil down Foster's ten ideas for simplicity and tie them to Strunk & White's timeless lessons on writing.

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