1. Techniques for making writing powerful Observe – not just the event but the context, including listening for quotes Capture the 5 W’s – who, what, when, where, why Journalistic tone – Concise, 3 rd person, dramatic and truthful

2. Techniques for making writing powerful Vivid physical details Color: Don't just say "green", be specific about what shade or hue, and feel free to get into some similes and metaphors or other comparisons to help the reader picture it exactly as you see it in your head. Example: The leaves of the tree in spring were glittering emeralds, shimmering in the light; in places, the green was as dark as a shadow at midnight, while in others, it sparkled like LED beacons.

3. Mood/emotion: The word "happy" is rather weak, descriptively; it doesn't really provide much in the way of intensity. A person who finds a penny might be happy, as might a person who wins ten million dollars in the lottery, but they're probably not feeling the same level or degree of that emotion. Many emotive words are similar. Again, the use of comparison can help quantify for the reader the type and intensity of emotion. Example: Instead of saying, "Marco was very sad"... Marco felt himself being pulled down in a whirlpool of depression; he could feel it sucking him deeper and deeper into darkness, choking off whatever breaths of happiness he tried to draw to help sustain him. The deeper he went, the harder it pulled at him, until all he could feel was the crushing, numbing pain. Techniques for making writing powerful

4. Grace note – straightforward prose Prose is so-called "ordinary writing" — made up of sentences and paragraphs, without any metrical (or rhyming) structure. If you write, "I walked about all alone over the hillsides," that's prose. If you say, "I wondered lonely as a cloud/that floats on high o'er vales and hills" that's poetry

5. Techniques for making writing powerful Delightful jolt – clever ending