1. The Zoom Lens Adding close-up camera shots to your sentence

2. Mentor text Leg going up and down, pencil tapping against the metal, Garrett waits for sustained silent reading to be over. “And on my honor,” Bear said, his voice booming, his arms spread wide.

3. Make a simple sentence using the image

4. Nonu ran down the field. The above sentence is okay, but we can use the following: Using concrete and specific nouns in my writing will help show the picture I have in my head more clearly and effectively

5. Writer’s Hack What writers do is find a smaller noun that’s in the wide-angle shot of the sentence and then they add an –ing verb to that noun

6. List the nouns

7. Legs pumping, dreadlocks flying, Nonu thundered down the field. Nonu thundered down the field, legs pumping, dreadlocks flying.

8. Your turn Use the pictures to write your wide angle shot simple sentences. Next, go back and find the little nouns that are part of the big picture and make a list. Pick your favourite combinations and connect one or two to a sentence.

9. Expand Use your zoom lens sentence to begin a descriptive paragraph.

10. Variations on the zoom lens Lip quivering, fist knotted, heart broken, Stephen Moore leaves the field. Noun + an –ing, -ed, -en verb

11. Variations on the zoom lens Arms raised in unison, Iceland’s pylons stand victorious over the landscape.

12. Congratulations! You have now conquered the absolute-a free modifier that is grammatically independent of the sentence and set off by commas.