Category: Descriptive Writing
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Endings Affirm Meaning
An ending knows what it does. It also knows what it means. An ending forces one to divorce the beautiful. It brutally parts the ways with an uncomfortable finality. An ending sees the past clearly. Perhaps too clearly for comfort. And that is why an ending brings tears, regrets, wishes, and what-might-have-beens. But an ending…
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A Vigil for a Starry (Christmas Eve) Night
On a night when the clouds cover the stars like an impenetrable mountain cliff, I wait for a sign. A small tinge up my spine. A desperate plea for the ancient ways to speak once again. I wait for the light, hoping it will come, hoping it will be enough. . The stars, spread brightly…
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A Photo and a Description
I posted this photograph the other day when I highlighted that northern Vietnam was my favorite place in Asia: It made me think of the opening paragraph of my new novel, The Reach of the Banyan Tree, set to release this coming summer. I’d be curious to hear what you think of the two of…
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Writing Excerpt from Novel #3 – to be released in 2014
My third novel is split into two completely different time periods. Here’s a short excerpt about Vietnamese villagers, caught in the complexities of war at the tail-end of WWII, in Tonkin, French Indochina – 1945. The long hard sorrow doesn’t end easy in a place like Tonkin, but sometimes an epic struggle that demands justice…
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About that ocean
This afternoon, I stood on the embankment looking out over the sea. Two individuals were talking, facing away from the expanse. The expanse which seems to widen minds and open the world to possibilities. At that moment, standing on the bank in Penang, I felt an overwhelming sense that the world was so much bigger…
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Description: Draft Writing from 3rd Novel
Here’s a teaser. I shared this paragraph at the writing workshop last night. It’s just a draft description of the Vietnamese countryside which may eventually make its way into my third novel – currently in process. I’d appreciate your comments. This part of the Vietnamese countryside has witnessed little change through the centuries. The crooked-back…
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Life on the Hudson: A Description
I wrote this last summer as I was taking in the views of the Hudson River just north of New York City. It was a descriptive writing exercise. I’d appreciate your thoughts. A majestic brick manor sits high on the banks of the Hudson River at the Tappan Zee – the broad river expanse –…
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Practice Writing – Niagara Falls
Besides just writing – as in writing novels or plays, etc… I came to the realization that I wanted to do some writing that targeted what I perceived as a weakness of mine – descriptive writing. I’m a fast writer; it flows and I can whip off pages of dialogue in no time. But I…
Author Mark W Sasse 