by Sarah Chauncey | Feb 9, 2017 | Writing
Language is symbolic. Words can’t possibly capture the essence of the person, place or thing they represent. That’s why people abuse adjectives and adverbs, to try and convey a noun or verb more precisely. But the word “cat,” for example, is...
by Sarah Chauncey | Aug 26, 2016 | Writing
Resonant storytelling includes a mixture of magic and logic, of possibility and practicality. Many nonfiction writers get trapped in one side or the other. Scientists and corporate types become overly attached to jargon and traditional logic out of a fear of being...
by Sarah Chauncey | Aug 19, 2016 | Writing
The Latin-based languages comprise 26 symbols that, arranged in a mind-boggling array of variation, somehow connect us with one another. It’s pretty awesome, when you think about it. Yet it has limitations. Not only do most words have multiple meanings (like...
by Sarah Chauncey | Jul 9, 2016 | Writing
Yesterday, the people behind the Wordnik Twitter account shared an article about how researchers at the University of Vermont have discovered that all stories follow one of six arcs. These are the arcs they identified by data-mining more than 1,700 novels: “Rags to...
