At Ringling, Roy Peter Clark Talks Great Writing

The Tampa Bay-based writing coach has published seven books.

By Mark Mathes

One of the top writing coaches in the US shared tips on storytelling, writing and even music. Roy Peter Clark spoke to a full crowd at Ringling College as part of the Sarasota Library Off the Page program Nov. 14, 2023.

I’ve recommended Clark’s tips and training to reporters and editors in my Florida newsrooms since 1980. Some notes, quotes and parahrases:

God and Darwin gave us permission to tell stories or make them up.

Reading is a time travel.

Get the name of the dog. Times city editor Mike Foley often said: don’t come back without the name of the dog. Particularity counts. My obit will say he urged writers to get the name of the dog.

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One that’s on my list of 55 writing tools, one of my 7  books.

Put things together that don’t quite fit. Juxtaposition of two things that don’t belong together makes it interesting.

Great Gatsby

The Irish Mafia

The Glamor of Grammar, his book.

Cajun Millionaire 

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Create friction to leave the reader hanging. Forced waiting. Something is about to happen. We don’t know what.

Language tips:

Begin sentence with subject or verb.

Read you sentences for clarity. Two examples with different meanings:

The queen my lord is dead. Shakespeare.

The queen is dead, my lord. Clark’s version.

I dropped my toothpaste, she said, crestfallen. 

Vs. Crestfallen, she dropped her toothpaste.

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There are enough editors who are looking for the bad stuff, the weak stuff.

Don’t let something important, dramatic, or funny hide in the middle of the sentence. Put the emphatic at the end or better, the beginning.

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The period is a stop sign. A period comes at the end of a sentence. A period at the end of a sentence in a paragraph is set off by white space.

The wider the column on paper, book or screen, the shorter the paragraph.

Look for how a writer uses white space at the end of her grafs.

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Murder Your Darlings is my book. Before you send your story in: if it doesn’t answer your premise, then murder the darlings.

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If I think it, I write it down. My final draft was 80,000 words. How do you get from a manuscript that is 130,000 words down to 60,000? You select the best stuff and you leave aside characters, scenes. 

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I know that I’ve got lower my standards at the beginning of the story and then write away. It was taught what the story was. Procrastinate in writing. I practice speeches in the middle of the night, taking a shower, washing the dishes, taking a walk, I was beginning to write the story to see the story in my head and that's creative. It’s not necessarily something whispering to you.

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Brevity comes from selection, not compression. 8 anecdotes became 5,

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When I’m blocked, one of the things that I do when I’m blocked is to change my method. So I go from the computer to index cards or I change my location. I go from my chair to the coffee shop.

I am trying to learn something something every single day out with my favorite song: Here Comes the Sun.





mark mathes

mmathes1@gmail.com

985-415-6367

PO Box 1053

Sarasota, FL 34230

My publishing career of 5 decades. LinkedIn. Connect  there?

Many of my 80 published books since 2015. Many as editor at regional independent Pelican Publishing in my hometown New Orleans. 

My website: writing, editing, publishing website with tips, trends, Florida author news.

President of Sarasota Fiction Writers. I'll send you my most recent newsletter.

Member: Florida Writers Association, Florida Authors and Publishers Association.