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 and metaphors by Rebecca Mead…. A writer for the New Yorker, Rebecca Mead joined the magazine as a staffer in 1997 and […]
Rebecca Mead’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: ginnel… When I read English authors, I often encounter words that are idiosyncratically British. Of course I can figure out the obvious
What’s a ‘ginnel’? Read More »
Reading time: Just over 4 minutes Do you know how to exercise during the pandemic? If you’re having a hard time writing, consider lack of exercise may be part of the problem… Is the pandemic keeping you from exercising? If your writing habit is going to heck, lack of exercise may
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I know we’re in the middle of a pandemic right now and your writing may be suffering. That said, take a few minutes right now to review the kinds of attitudes and principles that best support a writing life. And — if you’re finding yourself heading in an unproductive direction right now — these tips
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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 a series of metaphors from JoAnna Klein…. JoAnna Klein is a freelance science journalist based in Brooklyn. She grew up in North Carolina and earned a
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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: infanta… When I stumbled across the word infanta, I knew I’d seen it before (and probably looked up its meaning) but I
What is an ‘infanta’? Read More »
Reading time: Just over 4 minutes Has your productivity taken a nose-dive during the pandemic? Mine sure has! Here’s why we should all STOP trying to be productive during the pandemic… Before you read today’s post, can I ask you to take 30 seconds to complete a one-question survey? I’m
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Whenever I teach an in-person writing workshop, I almost always ask participants to calculate how they divide up their writing time. I ask them to imagine writing as something that takes place in three stages: Step 1: Preparing to write – and by this, I mean interviewing, researching, mindmapping and planning. Step 2: Writing –
How to spend the right amount of time researching 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 similes and metaphors from Mark Haddon…. When I read the remarkable 2003 book The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-Time —
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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: nictitating… My reading last week once again proved the limits of a liberal-arts-oriented education. I encountered the fascinating word nictitating in the
What does ‘nictitating’ mean? Read More »
