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: scabrous I finished the novel Hot Milk by Deborah Levy (pictured above) last week and can’t say I much liked it. Despite glowing reviews from the New York Times […]
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute Are you interested in becoming a better presenter? Here’s one unusual tip: Leave more ‘holes’ in your speeches… I do a lot of presentations — some in person, the others online. (The online ones are always much harder!) And here is something I’ve always done naturally: Whenever I have
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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 couple of similes from Marni Jackson…. Marni Jackson is a Toronto-based journalist who has won many National Magazine Awards for her writing, and she’s also the author of three nonfiction books, including the
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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: manumission…. I grew up on the west coast of Canada, where our prejudice tends to be displayed towards Asian, South-Asian or First Nations people. I don’t think
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Reading time: Just over 2 minutes If the recent passage of Jan. 1 has you feeling bad for not having made some writing-related new year’s resolutions, remember this: plans for writers are a far better idea… I no longer believe in new year’s resolutions. This discovery came over me in 2013 and, ever since, I’ve
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Reading time: Less than 5 minutes Are you still struggling with what gifts to buy some writer friends for Christmas? Or, maybe, like me, you don’t even know what gifts to request for yourself. Here are 17 ideas for Christmas gifts for writers… I once overheard someone say, “Christmas is for musicians as tax season is
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Reading time: Just over 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 travel writing… I love to travel (our trip to Newfoundland last summer and our trip to Italy the summer
Travel writing: how to do it Read More »
Reading time: Just over 1 minute Do you need an expert to help you or would you be better off seeking some insider knowledge? I happily invested in a new version of Dragon Dictation software about seven months ago. Why? My doctor had told me that less typing might help my back. But here’s what made
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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 simile relating to the John Dory fish… I can no longer remember where I recently encountered the term John Dory — a book? a newspaper article? — but I couldn’t
It looks a little bit like a horseshoe that sprouted quills… 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 — or, today, phrase — of the week. Today’s phrase: Tarpeian Rock…. Two years ago, I stood near the Tarpeian Rock, and I didn’t even know it was an historic site. My husband
What is the ‘Tarpeian Rock’? Read More »
