1. Magic Three

Three groups of words, usually separated by commas, that create a poetic rhythm or add support for a point, especially when the three word groups have their own modifiers.

Original Sentence: When you're in a big city, there are many places you can visit that smaller places don't have.

With Magic Three: When you're in a big city--you know--the kind with around-the-clock lights, laughter and love, there are many places you can visit. There are nooks and crannies or rooms with echoes and floor-to-ceiling windows that smaller places don't have, wouldn't have and probably, definitely, shouldn't have.

3. Figurative Language

Non-literal comparisons – similes, metaphors and personification add “spice” to writing and can help paint a more vivid picture for the reader.

Original Sentence: When you’re in a big city, there are many places you can visit that smaller places don’t have.

With Figurative Language: When you’re in a big city, you’re a lion in a jungle, able to roam the many places you can visit. There are nooks and crannies or rooms with echoes and floor-to-ceiling windows that call you to explore. Smaller places don’t have these magical places that can be as surreal as a fairy tale.

5. Specific Details for Effect

Instead of general, vague descriptions, specific sensory details help the reader visualize the person, place, thing, or idea being described.

Original Sentence: When you’re in a big city, there are many places you can visit that smaller places don’t have.

Adding Specific Details: We would travel through the big city like walking through knee-high grass, marveling at the smaller, obscure places that seemed to tickle our legs like spiders.

7. Repetition for Effect

Writers often repeat specially chosen words or phrases to make a point, to stress certain ideas for the readers.

Original Sentence: When you’re in a big city, there are many places you can visit that smaller places don’t have.

Adding Repetition: In the smaller city, I was never Peter Pan and flew to Never-Never Land. In the smaller city, I was never Cinderella getting ready for the Ball to dance the night away with Prince Charming.  In the smaller city, I was never Jane waiting for Tarzan in our tree hut. But in the big city, there are many places that I can visit.

9. Hyphenated Modifiers

Hyphenated adjectives often cause the reader to “sit up and take notice.”

Original Sentence: When you’re in a big city, there are many places you can visit that smaller places don’t have.

Adding Hyphenated Modifiers: It was one of those please-don’t-make-me-go-to-school mornings in the big city. There were so many other places to visit. Unlike in smaller places where everyone knows who you are if you ditch.

2. Painting With Participles

Participle: Adding an -ing or -ed verb onto the beginning or end of a sentence.

Original Sentence: When you’re in a big city, there are many places you can visit that smaller places don’t have.

With Participles: When you’re browsing, admiring and exploring in a big city, there are many places you can visit. There are nooks and crannies or rooms with echoes and floor-to-ceiling windows that smaller places don’t have, wouldn’t have and probably, definitely, shouldn’t have.

4. Adjectives Out of Order

To avoid the three in a row pattern, use this brush stroke to keep one adjective in its place and move the others after the noun.

Original Sentence: When you're in a big city, there are many places you can visit that smaller places don't have.

With Adjectives Out of Order: When you're in a big city, bright and bustling, there are around-the-clock lights, laughter and love and many places you can visit. There are nooks and crannies or rooms with echoes and floor-to-ceiling windows that smaller places don't have, wouldn't have and probably, definitely, shouldn't have.

6. Action Verbs

Go from passive voice to active voice by deleting “Be” verbs.

Original Sentence: When you’re in a big city, there are many places you can visit that smaller places don’t have.

Adding Action Verbs: When you're in a big city, it overflows with places to visit that smaller places don't have.

8. Painting with Appositives

An appositive is a noun that adds additional information to a preceding noun.

Original Sentence: When you’re in a big city, there are many places you can visit that smaller places don’t have.

Adding Appositives: When you're in a big city, like New York, there are many places you can visit, but they pale in comparison to lazing in a raft on the lake in smaller cities, like Minden.

10. Painting with Absolutes

An absolute is a noun combined with an –ing verb at the beginning of the sentence.

Original Sentence: The dog yawned silently.

Adding Absolutes: Paws curling, back stretching, the dog yawned silently.