Reading time: About 4 minutes Do you need better blogging ideas? Here’s a formula to stop your struggle with finding topics for your blog…. I happen to enjoy cooking so I almost never object to making dinner. It’s fun and it helps me relax after a day of work. The only part of the job […]
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I understand the headline above — about being too busy to write — might sound like crazy talk. Especially as it’s coming from a writing coach. What type of coach encourages her clients not to write? Well, I sometimes do, (note the limiter “sometimes”) because I understand that writing is not the only responsibility you
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Here is my FAQ on how to be a better researcher: Q-Where should I begin researching? The first thing you need to do is to give yourself a broad overview of the subject area you’re focusing on. Doing this might be as simple as reading an encyclopedia entry or spending an hour on the Internet
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Reading time: Just over 4 minutes Did you know you can help your writing with reading? Here are some tricks for doing just that… Do you ever reflect on how remarkable it is to be able to read? We can pick up books (or, increasingly, screens) and translate a bunch of carefully assembled squiggles into
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Here are four examples of very different types of voice. The first is by a client of mine, a Manhattan-based Buddhist monk who goes by the name Soken. Let me begin by reading from a piece he wrote for a website called The Millions. The headline was: Leonard Cohen and Zen. I met Leonard Cohen—then a
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Reading time: Less than 5 minutes If you want to make more time for writing you’re going to need to learn how to say no…. Are you a pleaser and accommodator? Are the letters N and O foreign to your vocabulary? If so, I have bad news for you. You’re unlikely to become a successful
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My next book will be published very soon — I’m working with the cover designer right now and checking the final proofs with my copy editor. As I was reviewing the manuscript last night, I encountered some text that I thought would be useful for many of you so I am copying it below. As
Don’t even READ what you’ve written until time has passed Read More »
Reading time: About 5 minutes Are you working too hard? Part of the problem may be that you’re taking too much work home with you. Here’s how to leave your writing stress behind…. My husband and I both have busy, demanding jobs (in totally different fields) and it would be easy for either or both
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When I was in high school I had a teacher who required a daily word report. Here was the assignment: We had to find a word we didn’t know, in our reading, write it down and then write out its definition from the dictionary. Then, we had to use that word in a new sentence.
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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: feculent…. I picked up the novel Finding Dorothy, by Elizabeth Letts, in a bookstore and read the first three pages. It engaged me enough to persuade me
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