Word Count

Writers Talk About Writing

Pump Up The Rhetoric

When last we sunk premolars into chewy bagel, we talked about the "controlling idea" in composition with playwright and creative exec Clark Morgan. In this installment of our ongoing conversation about writing, we look at what happens once you nail your main theme. In a word, rhetoric. Yes, old-fashioned rhetoric. Let Clark explain:

VT: Okay, I've got my controlling idea. I've written for a while, I've generated a bunch of things I want to say. Now what?

Clark: Now you're looking at it thinking, what have I wrought? How do I make sense of this?

VT: Yes, how? It seems like you could arrange it any number of different ways. How do you know what's the right way to organize?

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