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: pyknic…. Whenever I read an unusual-looking word, I often assume it is of Greek origin. The word pyknic from Olga Tokarczuk‘s marvellous […]
What does the work ‘pyknic’ mean? Read More »
Reading time: About 4 minutes Time is precious. If you want to make time to write, it’s not hard. But you’re going to have be persistent and dedicated about it. My schedule is jam-packed. Each day I race between writing projects, meetings and necessary admin work that only I can
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Are you spending enough time thinking? In a recent blog post, Deep Work expert Cal Newport, meditated on a quote from Ernest Hemingway in which the writer said: “My working habits are simple: long periods of thinking, short periods of writing.” As a thoughtful academic, Newport reflected on his own experiences as a writer —
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Reading time: Just over 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 about how to stop trying to do it all… Are you the type
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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 similes from Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk… Named as the winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature, Polish writer and activist Olga Tokarczuk
The figurative language of Olga Tokarczuk… Read More »
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: everted…. I discovered the writing of Aminatta Forma earlier this year, thanks to the recommendation of a client. Her arresting and multi-layered
What does the word ‘everted’ mean? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Do you know how important stories are to writing? Learn how to be a great storyteller… Our dishwasher broke last week. It was an expensive model — a Bosch — and only three years old so I was plenty peeved. Making matters worse, our
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I often write about how we talk to ourselves, usually in a highly negative way, as in: My sentences are so boring. I’m a terrible writer. No one enjoys reading what I’m producing. My supervisor/editor/boss thinks I’m a loser. But I didn’t know, until I read a fabulous new book called Chatter by psychologist Ethan
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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 about why we stop writing…. Do you tell yourself lies about your writing?
Why we stop writing… Read More »
Reading time: About 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a series of similes and metaphors from Ocean Vuong…. Ocean Vuong is a young Vietnamese-American poet, essayist and novelist, who was born on a rice farm in
The figurative language of Ocean Vuong… Read More »
