Tag Archives: Sandi Somers

Giving and Receiving Feedback Part 2 by Sandi Somers

In Part 1, I emphasized the process of critiques. Critiques often come in the development phase of writing. It’s where the author has offered a short piece in progress (three pages or fewer), or has difficulty developing particular areas of the writing. Part 2 now focuses on Beta Readers. What are beta readers? They are… Read more »

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Giving and Receiving Feedback by Sandi Somers

When our local InScribe writers group began, we gradually brought more and more items to critique. Often our comments centred on the techniques of grammatical structures. We soon realized we needed more in-depth analysis. I knew that effective critiquing encourages and elevates excellent writing, both for the writer and those critiquing. While I had received… Read more »

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Writing Strategies from the Masters Part 2: Imitate by Sandi Somers

How many times have you read a book, loved it so much you read and reread it over and over? Have you thought, “I wish I could create such dynamic characters. I wish I could write such vivid details. I wish I could write like that.” Yes, you can “write like that.” Not to become… Read more »

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Writing Strategies from the Masters Part 1: To Riff or Not to Riff by Sandi Somers

“What is riffing? Is that even a word?” This is what one member of my InScribe’s local group asked when I suggested she could riff a quote she admired. Yes, “riff” is a word. It comes from jazz and describes how one musician improvises a musical phrase of another. For example, one piece in my… Read more »

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What is the Ladder of Abstraction Part 2 by Sandi Somers

In Part 1 of “What Is the Ladder of Abstraction?”, I covered the basic concepts. Our speaking and writing can be compared to different rungs on a ladder. As your words climb up ladder, you increase the abstract language—concepts, ideas, and meaning. As you climb down to the bottom rungs, your language becomes more concrete—as… Read more »

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What is the Ladder of Abstraction? Part 1 by Sandi Somers

When I was teaching, someone pinned on the bulletin board in our staff room this quote by Donald Rumsfeld when he was the US Secretary of Defense. There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t… Read more »

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Lessons from the Writing Path of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn by Sandi Somers

Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008), a Russian novelist and an outspoken critic of communism, has been one of my “shadow mentors.” I was introduced to his work when, years ago, my dad bought his book, The Gulag Archipelago, and I became fascinated with his life and works. As a young man, Solzhenitsyn dreamed of writing the grand… Read more »

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The Mind’s Eye: Part 5 of Writing with Sensory Details – Sandi Somers

I had read the book Pride and Prejudice, noting that the author, Jane Austen, didn’t give many visual cues as to clothing, body language or even where the scene was located. Instead, she focused more on  dialogue. The movie, in contrast, contained a lot of visual cues, showing the Bennet family home, the family at… Read more »

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Sound Bytes: Part 4 of Writing with Sensory Details – Sandi Somers

Beethoven discovered he was losing his hearing as early as age 25. For a musician, nothing could be more disastrous.  In his depression he wrote, “Alas! How could I possibly refer to the impairing of a sense which in me should have been more perfectly developed than in other people, a sense which at one… Read more »

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Touch, The Intimate Sense: Part 3 of Writing with Sensory Details – Sandi Somers

Blind and deaf, Helen Keller developed a very refined sense of touch, even able to know that a person was approaching as she felt vibrations on the floor. She learned to “see” people and discern their character through touching different parts of the face. Helen learned to understand speech through feeling the vibrations on a… Read more »

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