Reading time: Less than 4 minutes Has it ever crossed your mind that you might need a literary executor? Here is some advice all writers should consider… I had a grandmother I never knew. She died before I was born — before my mother had even married — but she […]
Do you need a literary executor? Read More »
When I was in high school English class, my teacher instructed us all to avoid repetition. Too bad she insisted on this rule with dialogue tags for short stories, as well. You know what I mean by a dialogue tag, right? “That’s what I hope for,” he said. The he said part is the dialogue
Why you should stick with the word ‘said’ Read More »
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 finding enough to do… Do you have enough to do during the
Do you have enough to do? Read More »
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 metaphors and similes from Megha Majumdar… When Megha Majumdar (pictured above) wrote her debut novel, she was working as an editor at Catapult
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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: brachiated…. The word brachiated is an interesting one. I recently encountered it in Elizabeth McCracken’s amusing novel, Bowlaway. Here is how she
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Reading time: About 3 minutes Are you doing enough stuff that is purposeless, fun and pleasurable? If not, perhaps you need to add more play to your life… I’ve always disliked playing cards and most games. Monopoly? Boring and it takes too long. Candyland? I played way too many rounds
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I recently read a blog post about the alleged benefits of writing a rough draft by hand. Too bad the author, Bryn Donovan, hasn’t consulted any of the science! If you’d like to see an interesting video about the scientific benefits of writing with a keyboard, please check out a 10-minute video by Clive Thompson,
When you shouldn’t write by hand Read More »
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 metaphors from writer Alix Ohlin… Three years ago, I picked up a novel by Canadian writer Alix Ohlin, from a shelf in a
Alix Ohlin’s figurative language…. 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: perfidious…. I confess there are words I’ve heard multiple times and I still don’t know exactly what they mean. Back in the
What does the word ‘perfidious’ mean? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes In view of last week’s death of American Supreme Court associate justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, I am re-running a column I wrote in 2017 focusing on some of her writing advice…. I have long admired the feistiness, clear writing style and commitment to hard
Writing advice from the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg Read More »
