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Learn to cut

David Gane
David Gane

When I first started, I was so busy worrying about being creative that I neglected to write a clean, coherent sentence.

It's easy to overwrite. We're taught early on to fill the page.

Yet learning to find the single idea in your sentence, paragraph, and story—then clearing out the excess—sharpens your writing.

Descriptive is fine. Imagery is beautiful. But tightly crafted storytelling is divine.

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Co-writer of the Shepherd and Wolfe young adult mysteries, the internationally award-winning series, and teacher of storytelling and screenwriting.

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