First Page Lightning: Adding Power with Rhetorical Devices
By Margie Lawson
A big Thank You to Nikki for inviting me to be her guest today.
Nikki knows I have a serious topic I want to mention, my fundraiser for ALS. My cousin (pictured with me here) has Lou
Gehrig’s disease and I am committed to helping him raise $100,000 to support ALS research.
Donate $50 on my cousin’s ALS web page, and you could win a prize valued at $450 each!
1. 75 page Triple Pass Deep Edit
2. Registration for a three day Immersion Master Class
The drawing is AUGUST 9th.
Check out the details on my web site: www.MargieLawson.com
So far, only 14 people have entered the drawing. And I’m drawing two names. We’ll have TWO BIG WINNERS!
The odds are in your favor, big time!
Please join me, support ALS research, and you’ll have TWO CHANCES to WIN BIG. Thank you.
Now – we get to dive into the fun!
First Page Lightning: Adding Power with Rhetorical Devices
By Margie Lawson
You all know the three-second-rule. Right?
When you meet someone new, that’s how long it takes to form an impression. That all important first impression. That hard to reverse first impression. That colors-your-perception-forever first impression.
Three seconds.
Look. Blink. Smile.
Your three seconds are up.
Writers have a similar challenge to make a positive first impression on agents, editors, and readers. They have a first sentence challenge, a first paragraph challenge, a first page challenge . . .
The first few pages of most novels are the most rewritten. Writers scrutinize those pages. They revise, rethink, rework, rewrite, reject-and-start-over.
Having analyzed the first several chapters (and beyond) of over a thousand novels, I know what components add power to openings. Many writers overlook one of those options--the power of rhetorical devices.
My research reveals that some New York Times bestsellers almost always use the more obscure rhetorical devices in their first few pages. Harlan Coben almost always uses ANAPHORA in the first few pages of his books. In some books, he uses anaphora in his opening paragraph and several more times in the first chapter.
Lisa Gardner and Stephen White often use anaphora and epistrophe in their opening chapters too.
In my Deep Editing course, I teach writers how to use THIRTY rhetorical devices. I’ll introduce three of these devices in this blog.
We’ll dive into ANAPHORA first.
ANAPHORA – Using the same word or phrase to START three (or more) consecutive phrases or sentences.
From Harlan Coben’s NO SECOND CHANCE, opening paragraph:
I know that I lost a lot of blood.
I know that a second bullet skimmed the top of my head . . .
I know that my heart stopped.
Two more examples from the first chapter of NO SECOND CHANCE:
I remembered waking up that morning . . .
I remembered looking in on Tara.
I remembered turning the knob . . .
I longed for the numb.
I longed for the comatose state of the hospital.
I longed for that IV bag . . .
Here’s an example of using anaphora to start phrases. It’s from Harlen Coben’s THE WOODS, Chapter 1:
I have never seen my father cry before—not when his own father died, not when my mother ran off and left us, not even when he first heard about my sister, Camille.
Look what Harlan Coben accomplished in that line. He slipped in backstory. But with anaphora, it’s fast and smooth and intriguing. Here are two examples of ANAPHORA, from Allison Brennan, FEAR NO EVIL, Chapter 1. It’s two paragraphs.
Fourteen years ago she wanted the exact same thing as Lucy--to get out from under her parents thumb. But that was before she'd decided to become a cop. Before she realized how truly dangerous the city could be. Before she realized that justice wasn't always swift, that the system didn't always work.
That some murders would never be solved.
Stephen White used anaphora eight times in BLINDED. The example below is from Page 1:
It may sound goofy, but I also believed that on good days I could smell the spark before I smelled the fire and I could taste the poison before it reached my lips. On good days I could stand firm between tenderness and evil. On good days I could make a difference.
OKAY! What makes ANAPHORA powerful?
The rhythm . . .
The auditory echo . . .
The repetition of the message . . .
Anaphora speaks to the reader’s subconscious.
Using anaphora makes the read imperative.
Let’s look at another rhetorical device. EPISTROPHE. This one is even more obscure than anaphora. I’ve found 20 times more examples of anaphora, than epistrophe. Yet, it’s equally powerful.
And it’s as fun to write as anaphora. I used epistrophe to draw you into this blog. It’s in my second paragraph, and in my sixth paragraph.
EPISTROPHE – It’s the opposite of anaphora. Using the same word or phrase to END three (or more) consecutive phrases or sentences.
When you meet someone new, that’s how long it takes to form an impression. That all important first impression. That hard to reverse first impression. That colors-your-perception-forever first impression.
They have a first sentence challenge, a first paragraph challenge, a first page challenge . . .
Here are more examples of EPISTROPHE from bestselling authors:
From Michael Connelly, the opening lines from THE BRASS VERDICT:
Everybody lies.
Cops lie. Lawyers lie. Witnesses lie. The victims lie.
A trial is a contest of lies. And everybody in the courtroom knows this. The judge knows this. Even the jury knows this. They come into the building knowing they will be lied to. They take their seats in the box and agree to be lied to.
The trick if you are sitting at the defense table is to be patient. To wait. Not just for any lie. But for the one you can grab on to and forge like hot iron into a sharpened blade. You then use that blade to rip the case open and spill its guts on the floor.
That’s my job, to forge the blade. To sharpen it. To use it without mercy or conscience. To be the truth in a place where everybody lies.
Here are the first four paragraphs of HIDE by Lisa Gardner.
My father explained it to me the first time when I was seven years old. The world is a system. School is a system. Neighborhoods are a system. Towns, governments, any large group of people. For that matter, the human body is a system, enabled by smaller, biological subsystems.
Criminal justice, definitely a system. The Catholic Church—don’t get him started. Then there’s organized sports, the United Nations, and of course, the Miss America Pageant.
“You don’t have to like the system,” he lectured me. “You don’t have to believe in it or agree with it. But you must understand it. If you can understand the system, you will survive.”
The family is a system.
LISA GARDNER used the word SYSTEM eight times. Plus—one use of SUBSYSTEM.
She nails the reader again and again and again with that regimented word, system. And she brings it home with her last sentence: a spotlighted, stand alone sentence.
The family is a system.
There’s a page break after that line—then the story kicks in with a vengeance. ;-))
I’ll share one more rhetorical device – SYMPLOCE.
SYMPLOCE uses a combination of anaphora and epistrophe – in the same sentences.
The SYMPLOCE example below is from Christa Allan. I met Christa when she attended one of my full day Master Classes. This is the prologue for her recently contracted first book, WALKING ON BROKEN GLASS.
PROLOGUE, by Christa Allan:
If I had known children break on the inside and the cracks don’t surface until years later, I would have been more careful with my words.
If I had known some parents don’t live to watch grandchildren grow, I would have taken more pictures and been more careful with my words.
If I had known couples can be fragile and want what they are unprepared to give or unwilling to take, I would have been more careful with my words.
If I had known teaching lasts a lifetime, and students don’t speak of their tragic lives, I would have been more careful with my words.
If I had known my muscles and organs and bones and skin are not lifetime guarantees that when broken, snagged, unstitched or unseemly, can not be returned for replacement, I would have been kinder to the shell that prevents my soul from leaking out.
If I had known I would live over half my life and have to look at photographs to remember my mother adjusting my birthday party hat so that my father could take the picture that sliced the moment out of time- if I had known, if I had known- I would have been more careful with my life.
KUDOS TO CHRISTA ALLAN! I’m looking forward to reading WALKING ON BROKEN GLASS. It will be released in the spring of 2010.
With anaphora, epistrophe, and symploce—once you’ve established the repetition three consecutive times, you can play with it. You don’t have to stop at three. You can have a sentence or two following the last repetition, that don’t carry the repetition. The last sentence could pick up the repetition and end with a rhetorical punch.
Anaphora, epistrophe, and symploce are three of the thirty rhetorical devices I cover in my Deep Editing course. Deep Editing has three power-loaded tracks: Rhetorical Devices, the EDITS System (deeper than in ECE), and more deep editing goodies like my killer Five Question Scene Check List.
This blog focused on using rhetorical devices to add power to first pages. They can be used to add power anywhere. Writers could use this stylistic power at the opening of any scene, at turning points, before a page break, at the end of a chapter.
NOW IT’S YOUR TURN!
If you have an example of an obscure rhetorical device in your work, please post it.
If you’d like to write an example of an obscure rhetorical device, one you may decide to use in your WIP, please post it!
Post a comment – or a ‘Hi Margie!’ - and YOU COULD WIN A LECTURE PACKET!
For every 25 people who post a comment today, I will draw a name for a Lecture Packet giveaway, a $22 value. Winners may choose a Lecture Packet from one of my six on-line courses:
1. Empowering Characters' Emotions
2. Deep Editing: The EDITS System, Rhetorical Devices, and More
3. Writing Body Language and Dialogue Cues Like a Psychologist
4. Powering Up Body Language in Real Life:
Projecting a Professional Persona When Pitching and Presenting
5. Digging Deep into the EDITS System
6. Defeat Self-Defeating Behaviors
Margie Lawson—psychotherapist, writer, and international presenter—developed innovative editing systems and deep editing techniques for writers.
Her Deep Editing tools are used by all writers, from newbies to NYT Bestsellers. She teaches writers how to edit for psychological power, how to hook the reader viscerally, how to create a page-turner.
Over four thousand writers have learned Margie’s psychologically-based deep editing material. In the last five years, she presented forty-eight full day Master Classes for writers in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Lectures from each of Margie’s on-line courses are offered as Lecture Packets through Paypal from her web site. For more information on courses, lecture packets, master classes, and 3-day Immersion Master Class, visit: www.MargieLawson.com
By Margie Lawson
A big Thank You to Nikki for inviting me to be her guest today.
Nikki knows I have a serious topic I want to mention, my fundraiser for ALS. My cousin (pictured with me here) has Lou
Gehrig’s disease and I am committed to helping him raise $100,000 to support ALS research.Donate $50 on my cousin’s ALS web page, and you could win a prize valued at $450 each!
1. 75 page Triple Pass Deep Edit
2. Registration for a three day Immersion Master Class
The drawing is AUGUST 9th.
Check out the details on my web site: www.MargieLawson.com
So far, only 14 people have entered the drawing. And I’m drawing two names. We’ll have TWO BIG WINNERS!
The odds are in your favor, big time!
Please join me, support ALS research, and you’ll have TWO CHANCES to WIN BIG. Thank you.
Now – we get to dive into the fun!
First Page Lightning: Adding Power with Rhetorical Devices
By Margie Lawson
You all know the three-second-rule. Right?
When you meet someone new, that’s how long it takes to form an impression. That all important first impression. That hard to reverse first impression. That colors-your-perception-forever first impression.
Three seconds.
Look. Blink. Smile.
Your three seconds are up.
Writers have a similar challenge to make a positive first impression on agents, editors, and readers. They have a first sentence challenge, a first paragraph challenge, a first page challenge . . .
The first few pages of most novels are the most rewritten. Writers scrutinize those pages. They revise, rethink, rework, rewrite, reject-and-start-over.
Having analyzed the first several chapters (and beyond) of over a thousand novels, I know what components add power to openings. Many writers overlook one of those options--the power of rhetorical devices.
My research reveals that some New York Times bestsellers almost always use the more obscure rhetorical devices in their first few pages. Harlan Coben almost always uses ANAPHORA in the first few pages of his books. In some books, he uses anaphora in his opening paragraph and several more times in the first chapter.
Lisa Gardner and Stephen White often use anaphora and epistrophe in their opening chapters too.
In my Deep Editing course, I teach writers how to use THIRTY rhetorical devices. I’ll introduce three of these devices in this blog.
We’ll dive into ANAPHORA first.
ANAPHORA – Using the same word or phrase to START three (or more) consecutive phrases or sentences.
From Harlan Coben’s NO SECOND CHANCE, opening paragraph:
I know that I lost a lot of blood.
I know that a second bullet skimmed the top of my head . . .
I know that my heart stopped.
Two more examples from the first chapter of NO SECOND CHANCE:
I remembered waking up that morning . . .
I remembered looking in on Tara.
I remembered turning the knob . . .
I longed for the numb.
I longed for the comatose state of the hospital.
I longed for that IV bag . . .
Here’s an example of using anaphora to start phrases. It’s from Harlen Coben’s THE WOODS, Chapter 1:
I have never seen my father cry before—not when his own father died, not when my mother ran off and left us, not even when he first heard about my sister, Camille.
Look what Harlan Coben accomplished in that line. He slipped in backstory. But with anaphora, it’s fast and smooth and intriguing. Here are two examples of ANAPHORA, from Allison Brennan, FEAR NO EVIL, Chapter 1. It’s two paragraphs.
Fourteen years ago she wanted the exact same thing as Lucy--to get out from under her parents thumb. But that was before she'd decided to become a cop. Before she realized how truly dangerous the city could be. Before she realized that justice wasn't always swift, that the system didn't always work.
That some murders would never be solved.
Stephen White used anaphora eight times in BLINDED. The example below is from Page 1:
It may sound goofy, but I also believed that on good days I could smell the spark before I smelled the fire and I could taste the poison before it reached my lips. On good days I could stand firm between tenderness and evil. On good days I could make a difference.
OKAY! What makes ANAPHORA powerful?
The rhythm . . .
The auditory echo . . .
The repetition of the message . . .
Anaphora speaks to the reader’s subconscious.
Using anaphora makes the read imperative.
Let’s look at another rhetorical device. EPISTROPHE. This one is even more obscure than anaphora. I’ve found 20 times more examples of anaphora, than epistrophe. Yet, it’s equally powerful.
And it’s as fun to write as anaphora. I used epistrophe to draw you into this blog. It’s in my second paragraph, and in my sixth paragraph.
EPISTROPHE – It’s the opposite of anaphora. Using the same word or phrase to END three (or more) consecutive phrases or sentences.
When you meet someone new, that’s how long it takes to form an impression. That all important first impression. That hard to reverse first impression. That colors-your-perception-forever first impression.
They have a first sentence challenge, a first paragraph challenge, a first page challenge . . .
Here are more examples of EPISTROPHE from bestselling authors:
From Michael Connelly, the opening lines from THE BRASS VERDICT:
Everybody lies.
Cops lie. Lawyers lie. Witnesses lie. The victims lie.
A trial is a contest of lies. And everybody in the courtroom knows this. The judge knows this. Even the jury knows this. They come into the building knowing they will be lied to. They take their seats in the box and agree to be lied to.
The trick if you are sitting at the defense table is to be patient. To wait. Not just for any lie. But for the one you can grab on to and forge like hot iron into a sharpened blade. You then use that blade to rip the case open and spill its guts on the floor.
That’s my job, to forge the blade. To sharpen it. To use it without mercy or conscience. To be the truth in a place where everybody lies.
Here are the first four paragraphs of HIDE by Lisa Gardner.
My father explained it to me the first time when I was seven years old. The world is a system. School is a system. Neighborhoods are a system. Towns, governments, any large group of people. For that matter, the human body is a system, enabled by smaller, biological subsystems.
Criminal justice, definitely a system. The Catholic Church—don’t get him started. Then there’s organized sports, the United Nations, and of course, the Miss America Pageant.
“You don’t have to like the system,” he lectured me. “You don’t have to believe in it or agree with it. But you must understand it. If you can understand the system, you will survive.”
The family is a system.
LISA GARDNER used the word SYSTEM eight times. Plus—one use of SUBSYSTEM.
She nails the reader again and again and again with that regimented word, system. And she brings it home with her last sentence: a spotlighted, stand alone sentence.
The family is a system.
There’s a page break after that line—then the story kicks in with a vengeance. ;-))
I’ll share one more rhetorical device – SYMPLOCE.
SYMPLOCE uses a combination of anaphora and epistrophe – in the same sentences.
The SYMPLOCE example below is from Christa Allan. I met Christa when she attended one of my full day Master Classes. This is the prologue for her recently contracted first book, WALKING ON BROKEN GLASS.
PROLOGUE, by Christa Allan:
If I had known children break on the inside and the cracks don’t surface until years later, I would have been more careful with my words.
If I had known some parents don’t live to watch grandchildren grow, I would have taken more pictures and been more careful with my words.
If I had known couples can be fragile and want what they are unprepared to give or unwilling to take, I would have been more careful with my words.
If I had known teaching lasts a lifetime, and students don’t speak of their tragic lives, I would have been more careful with my words.
If I had known my muscles and organs and bones and skin are not lifetime guarantees that when broken, snagged, unstitched or unseemly, can not be returned for replacement, I would have been kinder to the shell that prevents my soul from leaking out.
If I had known I would live over half my life and have to look at photographs to remember my mother adjusting my birthday party hat so that my father could take the picture that sliced the moment out of time- if I had known, if I had known- I would have been more careful with my life.
KUDOS TO CHRISTA ALLAN! I’m looking forward to reading WALKING ON BROKEN GLASS. It will be released in the spring of 2010.
With anaphora, epistrophe, and symploce—once you’ve established the repetition three consecutive times, you can play with it. You don’t have to stop at three. You can have a sentence or two following the last repetition, that don’t carry the repetition. The last sentence could pick up the repetition and end with a rhetorical punch.
Anaphora, epistrophe, and symploce are three of the thirty rhetorical devices I cover in my Deep Editing course. Deep Editing has three power-loaded tracks: Rhetorical Devices, the EDITS System (deeper than in ECE), and more deep editing goodies like my killer Five Question Scene Check List.
This blog focused on using rhetorical devices to add power to first pages. They can be used to add power anywhere. Writers could use this stylistic power at the opening of any scene, at turning points, before a page break, at the end of a chapter.
NOW IT’S YOUR TURN!
If you have an example of an obscure rhetorical device in your work, please post it.
If you’d like to write an example of an obscure rhetorical device, one you may decide to use in your WIP, please post it!
Post a comment – or a ‘Hi Margie!’ - and YOU COULD WIN A LECTURE PACKET!
For every 25 people who post a comment today, I will draw a name for a Lecture Packet giveaway, a $22 value. Winners may choose a Lecture Packet from one of my six on-line courses:
1. Empowering Characters' Emotions
2. Deep Editing: The EDITS System, Rhetorical Devices, and More
3. Writing Body Language and Dialogue Cues Like a Psychologist
4. Powering Up Body Language in Real Life:
Projecting a Professional Persona When Pitching and Presenting
5. Digging Deep into the EDITS System
6. Defeat Self-Defeating Behaviors
Margie Lawson—psychotherapist, writer, and international presenter—developed innovative editing systems and deep editing techniques for writers.
Her Deep Editing tools are used by all writers, from newbies to NYT Bestsellers. She teaches writers how to edit for psychological power, how to hook the reader viscerally, how to create a page-turner.
Over four thousand writers have learned Margie’s psychologically-based deep editing material. In the last five years, she presented forty-eight full day Master Classes for writers in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Lectures from each of Margie’s on-line courses are offered as Lecture Packets through Paypal from her web site. For more information on courses, lecture packets, master classes, and 3-day Immersion Master Class, visit: www.MargieLawson.com
Thursday, August 06, 2009 |
Category:
ALS,
contest,
Guest Blogger,
Lou Gehrig's Disease,
Margie Lawson,
writing
|
48
comments
Comments (48)
WOW! That's some awesome information. I only actually read it after I posted it, but wow!
Thanks for being here, Margie.
Guys, I got to meet Margie this year at Nationals. She's super sweet, funny, and knows what she's talking about. I hope you enjoy her being here.
And if you're generally a lurker, delurk long enough to at least say hi to her.
Hey Margie!! (waving madly)
For those who don't know Margie or haven't taken one of her fabulous workshops, she is brilliant, funny and ma'velous, d'alings simply ma'velous!
Cher
Hi Margie,
These techniques are super cool. I can't wait to hear at my chapter's conference in November.
Thanks for sharing with all of us.
Jen FitzGerald
Welcome to HoR! What a great blog topic! Thanks so much for sharing and I look forward to finding out more about your workshops.
I hadn't realized I was already using anaphora & epistrophe in my writings. I guess I'm starting off on the right footing. :) YAY!
I’m not sure if these are correct, but they were fun to work on. I love this post. It’s given me tons to think about and look at in my own work.
ANAPHORA:
I remember the first raindrops.
I remember wondering if it would fill the creek
I remember standing there as the drops splattered my face.
EPISTROPHE:
She swirled, a vision of darkness in the black dress.
She smiled, knowing what he’d think of the black dress.
She stopped, could she really kill him in the black dress.
SYMPLOCE:
I wished for the times when life was the ease of my youth.
I wished I could return and carry my adult knowledge back to my youth.
I wished, no I prayed the child inside me would never know my youth.
These are some great devices and I think I may have been subconsciously using at least one of them (anaphora).
My example:
I live vicariously through my children.
I live for the smiles, the dreams, the life and the laughter of my children.
I live to sustain the lives of my children.
Margay
Hello Nikki --
I had the best time with you in DC! Can't wait to see you again when I present in November.
Thanks for inviting me to play with your blog friends today and tomorrow. I appreciate you. ;-)
Hello Cher!
Always fun to see you on-line. Even more fun to see you in person. ;-)
Looking forward to connecting . . . soon!
Jen --
Ah! I'll get to meet you in November. Be prepared to have your brain stretched. :-))
Thank you for saying HI!
Hello Jax --
Kudos to you for already using anaphora and epistrophe in your writing. You must have a natural Cadence Ear. :-)
I cover over 30 rhetorical devices in my Deep Editing course (and Lecture Packets). So many ways to hook the reader with deep editing power.
Vicki --
Woohoo! Excellent!
Thank you for sharing your examples of anaphora, epistrophe, and symploce.
Now you know three of the rhetorical devices I teach. Twenty-seven more to go. :-))
I'm the only one who needs to remember the funky names of the rhetorical devices. Writers just need to remember the patterns, and when and how to use them.
Thanks for playing!
Hello Margay --
Yay! Another example of symploce! Well done.
Good for you for using anaphora to empower cadence and empower the read. You must have a Cadence Ear too. :-)
*Waves Hi. at Margie*
OMG Margie. I didn't know about any of these things! I'm so excited about your workshop in Denver. I can really use it. (I'm sure the rest of the Gnomies will back me up on that.)
I love the new website BTW, Easy to navigate with a crisp, clean look.
HI MARGIE!! Thank you so much for being here. I am very impressed with your blog. It made me think of my WIP and maybe switch up a few things! Thanks!
Hi Margie:
Thanks for the shout out. I'll see you in September in Denver, right?
I need a Margie refresher!
lo=ove margie. took one of her workshops for rwa. learned a lot.
great blog. i'm following you now. you should check out mine. i have reviews and author interviews with book give-a-ways. xo
Hi Margie,
I always love your classes, I learn SO much! I never knew the term for what I do, I call/teach it as the use of three. Now I know it's anaphora. :)
Not too obscure, but I love working with white space to create pace, focus, to frame words and sentences for impact. It's an amazing strong and at times, subtle tool.
I'll keep a lookout for your next advanced deep editing class. It's MUST on my list!
Diana
2009 JABBIC Finalist
2009 Maggie Awards Finalist
2009 Booksellers Best Finalist
www.dianacosby.com
I took a class with Margie in San Francisco a couple of years ago and it was amazing. It made me see writing in a whole new way.
Hi Margie! After reading this blog, I took out your ECE and EDITS class notes for a refresher. I love this stuff!
Hi, Margie! I'm one of the Gnomies and I'll be meeting you in Denver!
I'm fascinated by these rhetorical devices and would love to learn more. I know I've used a couple of them in my own writing, but never knew they had a name. I'll go hunt up some examples...
What a great piece, thanks for sharing!
Hello Julie B-F, or Jim's Sis ;-)
Yay! You got zapped with my rhetorical device taser. Ha! Now you will be hooked on RD's for life. And . . . you'll be intrigued about the other 27 RD's I teach in Deep Editing. ;-)
I'm anticipating amazing times with all the Gnomies who are coming to the Colorado Gold Conference in September. Three days of Margie-style fun!
Thank you for the kudos on my new web site design. I love it too! I'll pass your compliments on to Lisa Norman, my uber-amazing, uber-talented web designer. :-)
Oh -- and my two workshops at the Colorado Gold are short, one hour and two hours. I usually present full day Master Classes. You'll get a baby taste of Deep Editing. Yummy!
Hello Tonya --
I'm glad you liked the blog. Thanks!
I'm also glad it motivated you to make some changes in your WIP. ;-)))
Hello Christa!
Your prologue still WOWS me. It is the best prologue, and best example of symploce, I've ever read.
Kudos to you!
Can't wait to see you again in September. ;-)
Hello Kelly!
Thank you. I hope to see you in one of my other editing-focused on-line courses.
I will check out your blog! It sounds intriguing. And I like intriguing. ;-))
Hello Diana --
Ah! You would love all 30+ rhetorical devices in my Deep Editing course. I teach each of my on-line courses once per year. The next time I teach Deep Editing is May, 2010.
Now you know why I offer Lecture Packets - so people don't have to wait so long to take advantage of the material. ;-)
Great to hear from you!
Hello Jill!
Woohoo! Thank you!
I presented Empowering Characters' Emotions (ECE) for Silicon Valley RWA -- and about six months later I presented ECE for San Francisco Area RWA.
SVRWA is bringing me back to present an advanced Master Class: Deep Editing Power, in February. Maybe I'll see you there. :-)
I took a class with Margie in San Francisco a couple of years ago and it was amazing. It made me see writing in a whole new way.
Edie --
I thought you had ALL my lectures memorized by now. All 300+ pages of lectures per course. ;-))
I always love connecting with you. I had such fun with you all at WisRWA!
Margie wrote: Hello Diana --
Ah! You would love all 30+ rhetorical devices in my Deep Editing course. I teach each of my on-line courses once per year. The next time I teach Deep Editing is May, 2010.
~I'm making a note of it!
Now you know why I offer Lecture Packets - so people don't have to wait so long to take advantage of the material. ;-)
~I know, but I love the class interaction.
Great to hear from you!
~Always fabulous to 'see' you on-line or in the classroom. Your classes are always amazing! *Hugs*
Diana
2009 JABBIC Finalist
2009 Maggie Awards Finalist
2009 Booksellers Best Finalist
www.dianacosby.com
Hello Beth!
Yay! Another Gnomie I'll get to meet at the Colorado Gold.
Ha! My rhetorical device taser zapped you too. You and Julie are now addicted. There's no recovery. No RD's anonymous. You are hooked on rhetorical devices.
Feel free to post your examples. I would love to see them.
Can't wait to meet you in September!
Hello ccastano --
Thank you!
Wonderful article. It really puts things in perspective.
I discovered that I use some of these devices occasionally in blog writing. This excerpt contains both anaphora and epistrophe:
"...to understand how to write a novel, you have to read them. Lots of them. Reading fills the tank. Reading forges the neural pathways of plot development, teaching you on both conscious and sub-conscious levels how stories work.
Then you have to write. Not think about writing, not talk about writing, not write about writing, but Write. The. Story."
This next one has epistrophe (at least, I think it does. It happens at the ends of clauses, rather than the ends of sentences. Does that count?):
"The prose is spare and understated, in the deceptive way that a Chinese brush painting is spare and understated--only at first glance, until one sees the elegance and lyricism of line and color."
The following has anaphora, with a dash of epistrophe (just wait until I start blogging about these terms.(g) It's going to be fun. I may even learn how to spell them):
"So Robin wears a hoodie and Marian wears...well, odd things. Layered things. And she's mad. In the angry sense. Mad at the Sheriff, mad at her father (the previous Sheriff, now on permanent administrative leave), mad at Gisborne (sometimes), and very mad at Robin.
Hi Margie~
It was wonderful running into you in DC! The disappointing part was that was the only time I got to run into you!
Thanks for the good work you're doing with your cousin for ALS research. It is my favorite charity. My grandmother suffered for years with Lou Gehrig's disease and was at one time, the longest living ALS patient. The weird thing was that she and Lou Gehrig grew up together. They lived in the same apartment building and were good friends. It really makes you wonder since ALS is almost non-existent in women.
Margie I remember this from one of the classes. You are amazing great stuff. I loved it.
I'm having a blast reading these comments, and I'm still processing the information from the post.
I realized last night, as I laid in bed awake until around 3:00, that I use these devices on occasion, but better than that was an idea that popped into my head that I'm going to play with to see where it goes.
Thanks for the inspiration Margie.
I missed the contest, but I wanted to thank you for posting this. It was a fantastic lesson.
Julie --
The contest lasts until 8PM Mountain Time tonight. Everyone who posted yesterday or today is entered. :-)
Glad you enjoyed the mini-lecture.
My monthly newsletters include a Deep Editing Analysis -- a mini-lecture too.
Thanks for chiming in!
Beth --
Thank you for posting your examples.
To have anaphora and epistrophe, three phrases or three sentences in a row will have the same word or words.
Whtn two are echoed, I call it a Double. ;-)
This one is a good example of anaphora:
Not think about writing, not talk about writing, not write about writing, but Write. The. Story."
This is not epistrophe, because the end is repeated twice, not three times.
"The prose is spare and understated, in the deceptive way that a Chinese brush painting is spare and understated--only at first glance, until one sees the elegance and lyricism of line and color."
Beth - I like your word choice and the Double. If you were in my on-line class, I'd recommend that you end the sentence after the second 'understated.' I'd also add a few words to make the next sentence a full sentence. You'd boost clarity and cadence. ;-)
The following has anaphora, with a dash of epistrophe (just wait until I start blogging about these terms.(g) It's going to be fun. I may even learn how to spell them)
BETH -- I LOVE YOUR ENTHUSIASM FOR RHETORICAL DEVICES!
YOUR NEXT EXAMPLE NEEDS ONE MORE PHRASE ENDING IN 'THINGS' TO BE EPISTROPHE. ADD ONE.
WHEN YOU ADD ONE, LIST THEM WITH THE STRONGEST LAST. IT WILL BE PERFECT. :-))
"So Robin wears a hoodie and Marian wears...well, odd things. Layered things.
BETH -- THIS ONE WORKS WELL!
I DO HAVE ONE BABY SUGGESTION. I'D PUT mad at Gisborne AFTER mad at the sheriff.
And she's mad. In the angry sense. Mad at the Sheriff, mad at her father (the previous Sheriff, now on permanent administrative leave), mad at Gisborne (sometimes), and very mad at Robin.
BETH -- I HOPE YOU DON'T MIND THAT I PLAYED IN YOUR WORDS. ;-))
THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR TALENT!
I LOVED THE CONTENT AND VOICE AND CADENCE. ;-))
Hello Robin!
I wish we could have connected in DC again too.
So sad about your grandmother. You and your family know Lou Gehrig's disease too well.
It is surprising and statistically mind-blowing that your grandmother lived close to Lou Gehrig -- and she had it too. More strange than any statistician could justify.
Great to see you here!
Hello NJ -
Thank you for chiming in and letting me know you enjoyed reading my blog. Rhetorical devices are powerful tools for writers -- if you have them in your writing toolbox. ;-)
Kathy --
Fun to see you again!
Time to review your 300+ pages of lectures from my Deep Editing course? :-)
Maybe I'll see you in Digging Deep Into the EDITS System in October.
Just had to read your blog post. Margie, you are an awesome teacher! I learned so much from your classes, especially your Edits system.
Hello Vickie!
Thank you for giving me a smile. I'm so pleased that you learn a lot in my classes. That's my goal. ;-)
I hope to see you on-line again -- or maybe in person!
Hello Everyone!
It's Friday! Let's celebrate by having two winners!
Taa Daa -- Our two winners are:
1. Tonya Kappes
2. Julie Weathers
Tonya and Julie --- Please contact me regarding your Lecture Packets!
margie@margielawson.com
A BIG THANK YOU to NIKKI DUNCAN and HOOKED ON ROMANCE for inviting me to be their guest today. I appreciate your hospitality. ;-)
Nikki -- I'm looking forward to having a fabulous weekend with you and all your NTRWA friends when I present in November!
Thank you again........Margie
www.MargieLawson.com
Thanks for an awesome two days Margie.
Margie, thanks for the feedback! I feel a big "duh" on my part is due, since you did say that these devices appear in threes. So...duh. (g)
Oh, and congrats to Julie (whom I know) and Tonya on winning!