Reading time: Less than 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about the metaphorical language of Gary Shteyngart… Gary Shteyngart was born in Leningrad in 1972 and moved to the United States in 1979. He is the author of the novel Super Sad True Love […]
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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: cusp…. I was reading an interview with fiction writer Emma Richler (pictured above) this week when I stumbled across the word cusp. Here is how she used it (in answering
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 on the cost of editing….. I hire a very good copy editor who is worth every cent that I
How much should editing cost? 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: euphoria… I was flipping through a book on my shelves this week and encountered a favourite word of mine: euphoria. Here is how author Daniel Goleman used it
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Reading time: Just over 5 minutes Are you writing slowly because you’re editing WHILE you write? Today, I give some practical advice on how to break this terribly destructive habit….. When I started writing back in high school, I developed the practice of producing a sentence and then going back to edit it, immediately. The game usually
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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 by Steven Pressfield….. As a longtime fan of Steven Pressfield’s book The War of Art (if you’ve ever struggled
Why ‘unique ability’ is so important for writers 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: murmurous…. Today’s word comes from a book of short stories, The Shell Collector, by Anthony Doerr. Published in 2002, it predates his spectacular, Pulitzer Prize winning novel, All
What does ‘murmurous’ mean? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes The recent American election — and subsequent backlash — has more people following politics than in recent memory. If you want to get involved, here’s how to write more effective letters to elected representatives… I love getting questions from readers. Today’s comes from American Pam Weaver. She wrote me
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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 Tim Ferriss…. I am neither a Tim Ferriss fan, nor one of his many detractors. I do, however,
Time management advice from a bestselling author… 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: gamboling… If you had asked me what the word “gamboling” meant, I would have told you, correctly, that it refers to running or jumping about playfully. I might even have
What does ‘gamboling’ mean? Read More »
