Reading time: Less than 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a series of similes from Tayari Jones…. I read a couple of laudatory reviews of the novel An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (pictured above) and decided to read it for […]
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: skirling… I love onomatopoeia — words imitating the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to. Examples? Buzz. Sizzle. Cuckoo. And when I recently encountered the word skirling, I assumed it fell into the same
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Reading time: Less than 4 minutes If you’ve never learned how to deal with guilt, make doing so one of your most important goals for 2022… I have many flaws and shortcomings. For example, I’m blindingly impatient, especially with myself. I’m so persistent that you might be inclined to call me stubborn. And I occasionally
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world to find websites, books and articles to help other writers. Today I discuss a blog post by Derek Sivers on the upside of self-employment… I have been my own boss for 26 years now.
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about simile and personification from Jon McGregor… British novelist and short story writer, Jon McGregor (pictured above) had his first novel If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2002, making
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: lambency… I encountered the word lambency while reading Elizabeth Strout’s remarkable novel Anything is Possible. If you’re looking for a good book to read — a series
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Reading time: About 4 minutes Are you the type of person who finds editing to be a discouraging, torturous process? Here’s how to come to terms with editing…. Many of the people I work with start off by detesting writing. Instead, they’d much rather be editing. In fact, I’d say this describes about 80% of
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world to find websites, books and articles to help other writers. Today I discuss a podcast interview with Greta Gerwig…. I love hearing other writers reflect on the art of writing. Their thoughts fascinate and energize me,
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Reading time: Just over 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a series of similies from Lisa Ko… The first of her family to be born in the US, Chinese-American writer Lisa Ko (pictured above) is the author of the novel The Leavers,
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: oneiric… I can’t remember who recommended the novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves to me. But I read the book, by Karen Joy Fowler, during a
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