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Nano 2010 Winner
Exercise #440

Exercise #440: Craft
Posted  10/7/11

How do you decide how to say it?

I’ve started watching the television series “Bones,” about a forensic anthropologist, http://www.fox.com/bones/. Some of the humor in the episodes comes from the main character’s tendency to use big words. For instance, “Any major alteration of our underlying architecture demeans us” was her comment about unnecessary plastic surgery.

As an author, how do you decide how to word something?

If you can’t come up with an answer to that, try this:

First, write a short section of dialog. Two characters are discussing the weather. Then, rewrite it so that one character uses more complex language. Summarize your findings and thoughts for us. You may choose to share both sections of dialog, without including them in your word count.

Critiquers, along with the usual grammar, spelling, etc, review, consider these questions:
     * Did you find this author’s viewpoint helpful?
     * If the dialog parts were included, do they illustrate the summary?

Word limit: 500, not including any dialog examples
Please use the subject line
       SUB: Exercise #440/yourname

 

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