WEEK 1: Short & sweet vignettes | WEEK 2: The room where it happens | WEEK 3: Pictures are worth a thousand words, but need your help

Pardon the "Hamilton" reference, but I'm mildly obsessed with Lin-Manuel Miranda's all-everything musical. In it, Aaron Burr sings about having the power that comes with being "in the room" where deals are made.

As a writer, part of your power is, plain and simply, having access to the room. You get to see, hear, smell and experience things your audience doesn't.

Thus, one of your greatest tools is just being there -- then, describing the details, the sensory effects, putting the rest of us in the room where it happened.

Of course, with great power comes great responsibility. This means you need to lose the platitudes -- don't "moralize" or "try show off," as Kevin Van Valkenburg wrote in his original syllabus. And, while no journalist is truly objective, you carry the burden of describing the scene to an audience that may see it differently than you.

Kevin selected a simple, direct account of a witness to a state execution. In 2005, Baltimore Sun reporter Jennifer McMenamin watched convicted murderer Wesley Eugene Baker die by lethal injection.

Her straight-forward account of what happened, as well as her efficient style, is worth reading and emulating.

STILL LOOKING FOR MORE?: Sometimes you have to describe the scene even when you weren't in the room where it happened. These Denver Post reporters pieced together what happened on a 2012 night in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.

* "What first seemed part of the show, turns to horrific, chaotic scene" by Kevin Simpson and Michael Booth

How'd they do it? By looking at the scene after the fact, interviewing people involved and using public documents.

What is #QUreads? Each Monday, I will tweet a link to a blog post that will include a selected reading and an explanation of why you should read and study it. You can find it using the hashtag any time. My prediction is that, if you read and study these stories, you will be a better writer by the end of the summer. Granted, if you practice in a journal, read consistently, take note of style and think about what might the writer's decision-making process be, you will improve greatly. I'm just here to help the process along for you.

Feel free to use the Comments section here or on Twitter to discuss the articles and writing techniques, to ask questions, or offer links to other great stories. ​

WEEK 1: The short & sweet vignette | WEEK 2: The room where it happens

Welcome to #QUreads, your online, summer crash-course in writing well.

I'm going to be honest right off the bat -- this idea was inspired by an exceptional syllabus put together and shared on Twitter by ESPN the Magazine senior writer Kevin Van Valkenburg.

Some of the stories I will post this summer, as well as a little of the instruction I'll provide, I glean straight from his syllabus for the course Storytelling 101, which he taught last semester at the University of Montana.

Emulation is the highest form of praise, but you damn well credit it, so, Thank you, Kevin.

Kevin writes, "No one should start out writing long narratives. NO ONE."

To me, beginning with the long narrative is the equivalent of walking on to a basketball court for the first time, picking up a ball and beginning to shoot half-court shots. Maybe you make one of a hundred, but your shooting fundamentals are a disaster and you are of absolutely no use to your team.

Instead, start with the set shot. Get close to the hoop and work on that perfect flick of the wrist, the followthrough. As you master the technique, slowly begin to move back. Before long, you're canning every three-footer. Then, you're making the majority of your free throws. Your fundamentals become engrained in your muscle memory and, by the time you hit the three-point line, you are becoming a natural shooter.

It's the same thing with writing.

When you have a strict word count and are forced to carefully choose every word, every verb to create the scene you want to convey, your writing becomes clear, succinct, efficient and great.

While working for the St. Petersburg Times, Brady Dennis wrote 300-word vignettes on the people the encountered in the area. The award-winning series, Van Valkenburg writes, "can teach you so much about details, about character, about not revealing everything right away, and about scene."

Start here with "After the Sky Fell," about a toll booth operator who works the night shift. Continue with more from his series.

STILL LOOKING FOR MORE?: After the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, the New York Times produced vignettes on every person who died in a series called "Portraits of Grief." Without a lot of words, these stories still resonate.

What is #QUreads? Each Monday, I will tweet a link to a blog post that will include a selected reading and an explanation of why you should read and study it. You can find it using the hashtag any time. My prediction is that, if you read and study these stories, you will be a better writer by the end of the summer. Granted, if you practice in a journal, read consistently, take note of style and think about what might the writer's decision-making process be, you will improve greatly. I'm just here to help the process along for you.

Feel free to use the Comments section here or on Twitter to discuss the articles and writing techniques, to ask questions, or offer links to other great stories.