Dogs Are Smarter Than People – Episode Two – Living With a Writer

Living with a writer isn’t always easy. Shaun can give you some mellow tips that he’s learned from the dogs.

Best weird podcast for writing tips
Dogs Are Smarter Than People: Writing Life, Marriage and Motivation
Dogs Are Smarter Than People - Episode Two - Living With a Writer
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Podcast Two – It’s Hard Living With a Writer


Writers and over-thinkers like Carrie break down every word and symbol into multiple layers and levels. That’s because authors spend so much of their time analyzing interactions and sentences and people. We recreate the world into our story by building that story word by word and symbol by symbol.

 

Sometimes that’s hard to live with especially when the writer is (cough) sensitive (cough).

Dog Tip – Cut Through the Noise. Dogs don’t pay attention to every word. They pay attention to intent. Live like a dog, but write like a writer.

 

Writing Tip – Make yourself more aware of the words you use and the symbols they are sending to a reader. When I write, “tree,” Shaun sees a kid’s drawing of a tree – a triangle with green crayon colored in. That’s not what I ever expected. Write all the different kinds of trees you can think of. Then write all the states of being a tree can have like, barren, bent, ice-covered, growing, etc. There are so many ways that one word can be interpreted. Pick the words in your stories that need to be specific and think about the words that don’t have to be. Your choices matter as you create the story in your reader’s minds. Writing is about communicating. Choose what you want to communicate.

Hey!

There’s some bonus content over on my website with links to free things. FREE THINGS!

Author: carriejonesbooks

I am the NYT and internationally-bestselling author of children's books, which include the NEED series, FLYING series, TIME STOPPERS series, DEAR BULLY and other books. I like hedgehogs and puppies and warm places. I have none of these things in my life.

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