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Michael Joel Green

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commandments of writing

August 15, 2018 By Michael Green Leave a Comment

LESS. Is. more (the final commandment)

I’m a word count junkie. A lot of writers are, I suppose, as word count determines the length of our books. I’ve always had this embedded belief that the best books are the long ones, those two-inch thick ones. East of Eden. War and Peace. Any Harry Potter novel. But I’m starting to realize that this isn’t always true. Haven’t we all read books (or watched epic-long movies or listened to … [Read more...] about LESS. Is. more (the final commandment)

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: A writer's life, acceptance, commandments of writing, empathy, hearing more, less is more, novel size, talking less, two sides to an argument, understanding, word count

August 8, 2018 By Michael Green Leave a Comment

Show, Don’t Tell (The Second Commandment)

Show, don't tell ... the second commandment of writing. Though it's probably the commandment that gives writers the biggest headache, it's probably the most rewarding one to obey, as we feel a great satisfaction when we see the results of doing it, as we know how hard we've worked for it. Show, don't tell: Carl was happy with his new school.  This is more telling, versus: As Carl … [Read more...] about Show, Don’t Tell (The Second Commandment)

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Art imitates life, commandments of writing, don't tell, Fiction writing, Show, Writing descriptively

August 1, 2018 By Michael Green 4 Comments

Killing Your Darlings

There are many “commandments” of writing. But probably the three biggest, and most difficult, are: Less is More Show, don’t tell Kill your Darlings None of these are easy. Let's take the first. Less is more. Telling someone who spins words together to use fewer of them is like telling a professor not to use every second of lecture time, or advising a preacher to cut a sermon by 10 … [Read more...] about Killing Your Darlings

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: A writer's life, commandments of writing, fiction, kill your darlings, only the basics, storytelling

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Michael Joel Green

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Hi, I’m Michael Joel Green, an LA-based writer of memoir, fiction, and numerous blog posts. Let’s connect. Send a message.

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  • Thoughts from the Open Road September 5, 2018
  • The Hero’s Journey (Travel Edition) August 29, 2018
  • The Problem with History August 22, 2018
  • LESS. Is. more (the final commandment) August 15, 2018
  • Show, Don’t Tell (The Second Commandment) August 8, 2018

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