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: jink…. I’d heard rave reviews of Anne Enright’s writing since 2007 when her breakout novel The Gathering won the Man Booker prize. Nevertheless, I’d
What does it mean to jink? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Is your writing as fast as you want it to be? If not, perhaps it’s time to think about email productivity for writers… I typically receive somewhere between 200 and 350 emails a day, by which I mean emails that I must answer. (In
Is email derailing your writing? Read More »
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 an article about the exclamation point written by Lauren Katz… I confess: I sometimes overuse exclamation
I’m not kidding about the exclamation point… Read More »
Reading time: Just over 1 minute Could taking a fresh start — apart from on New Year’s Day — help you accomplish something important? Two classes I ran this week ended up being better, livelier than usual. One, for my Get it Done group, seemed friendlier and more engaged. The
The benefits of a fresh start 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 — and a simile — from Guy Lawson. I read a New York Times Magazine piece about new Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, some time
The figurative language of Guy Lawson… 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: riparian. As a youth, I was a serious canoeist. I had belonged to the Girl Guides (known as the Girl Scouts in the
What does “riparian” mean? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Do you think there ought to be some new year’s resolutions for writers? Let me suggest something that will work even better… I know it’s resolution season. New year’s plans seem to lurk in blogs like dangerous creatures in swamps. But not here. I
Here’s a non-resolution that could change your writing life Read More »
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Here are 7 reasons why you might want to use the principles of time management for writers in 2016… I know Christmas is looming (only three more sleeps!) so perhaps I’m crazy to take on the topic of time management right now. But Christmas
Top 7 reasons why you should learn time management for writers Read More »
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 an article on collective nouns from the Language Matters blog by the Oxford Dictionaries… Collective nouns —
Collecting some collective nouns… Read More »
Reading time: About 1 minute Is your workplace riven by conflict? Here’s a video you might want to watch… I was especially interested by a recent talk by Rochelle King (pictured above) Global VP of Design for the company Spotify, a music streaming, podcast and video service. King speaks insightfully — and
Are you embracing conflict? Read More »
