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We had an apartment in the city,
Me and Loretta liked living there.
Well, it'd been years since the kids had grown,
A life of their own left us alone.
John and Linda live in Omaha,
And Joe is somewhere on the road.
We lost Davy in the Korean war,
And I still don't know what for, don't matter anymore.

(John Prine - 1st verse of Hello in There)

 

Lesson 5 - carry a cat

I'm not quite sure what happened in this lesson. I took very few notes:

  • Don't give observations to people that they couldn't actually make eg small person seeing bald patch of tall person
  • Telling of a story: narrator, characters, author
  • Psychic distance (did I hear right?): start landscape, drill down, use description which might apply to narrator or character
  • 1st person: think about what the character sees, not what the author sees. Make POV choices and stick to them
  • Don't put the important part of a description last eg hat, boots, clothing, gun!
  • "Walk in the space" when you write
  • Don't mix metaphors - use any metaphors consistently

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