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: irenic…. I feel especially happy whenever I discover a word I’ve never seen before. What can it possibly mean, I wonder? And
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Reading time: About 5 minutes Lots of people know about the importance of deliberate practice. But few explain exactly how to execute it. Here are instructions on deliberate practice for writers. As you read my column today, I’d like you to keep one metaphor in mind. Imagine that you want to
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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 Madeleine Watts… Madeleine Watts, who grew up in Australia, but who has been based in New York since 2013, writes
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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: gouache… My late mother, Ethel, was an artist. Her medium was pastel chalks so I never heard her mention the word gouache
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Reading time: About 3 minutes Have you ever fought with how to get unstuck when writing? Here are seven tips that will help you put an end to that sticky problem…. You’re trying to write a book or long report and you’re feeling tired and uninspired. You peck out a
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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 from Belinda Bauer…. I didn’t used to read many mysteries, but the Belinda Bauer book, Snap, was a gift from a friend. I
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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: quondam…. I always enjoy stumbling across words I’ve never before seen. Part of me is always astonished, because I read so much
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Reading time: About 3 minutes If you’re trying to become a better writer, having a forgiving writing practice will make a huge difference… I led a writing workshop for an organization last week. In the Zoom-based meeting, I challenged the 10 participants to interview me and, then, write a lede
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Reading time: About 2 minutes In his life as a journalist, James Fitzgerald has relatively recently turned to book writing and his 2010 memoir shows a keen eye and ear for figurative language… The first book of journalist James Fitzgerald was, Old Boys: the Powerful Legacy of Upper Canada College
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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: chifferobe… I read a number of positive reviews of the novel An American Marriage by Tayari Jones before it scampered to fame
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