Reading time: Less than 2 minutes 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 Anthony Doerr. One of my favourite books of the last five years, the novel All The Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr (pictured above), is […]
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Reading time: Just over 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: limerence… I often discover some interesting books on the “Quick Reads” shelf of my local library. The loan period is just one week — and the overdue fines
What does the word “limerence” mean? Read More »
Reading time: Just over 4 minutes Is your major aim reducing writing stress? Over the last 40 years, I’ve developed 11 strategies that really work… My number 1 stressor right now? Organizing high school debate tournaments. Picture this: An event featuring 48 articulate and argumentative teenagers who must be matched against each other in 12
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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 list of 200 journalism cliches from the Washington Post…. Do you ever use cliches? Be honest! Of course the answer is
Throw these cliches in the garbage pail! Read More »
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 metaphor from a New York Times review of Benedict Cumberbatch playing Hamlet… I’m a big fan of the actor Benedict Cumberbatch. I find his acting to be remarkably nuanced and clever.
Such whispery, self-effacing presences… 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: ogival… It took me many weeks to finish the novel Safekeeping by Jessamyn Hope. Although others — including the Boston Globe — described it as “luminous, irreverent, and ambitious,” I
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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 New York Times article about Internet-based hyperbole… My least favourite error is when someone says or writes, “I literally died.”
OMG! Internet-based hyperbole Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute Have you ever wondered where to put only, the adverb? There’s a rule for that! This week I was working on a website for a client. Things were going relatively smoothly until the boss took a phrase I’d written and moved around the word “only.” To protect confidentiality I can’t
Where to put only… Read More »
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 and similes from Susan Jane Gilman… The non-fiction memoir, Undress Me In the Temple of Heaven, by Susan Jane Gilman, was recommended to me by an email book list. It
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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: auto-da-fé… In the Nov. 16/15 New Yorker I read an interesting article about Vera Nabokov, headlined “Silent Partner” by Judith Thurman. The wife of Vladimir Nabokov — who was
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