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: hoyden. I read the novel Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger when I was about 13-years-old. I enjoyed it moderately, as I recall, although I remember being uncertain […]
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Change can be both exciting and difficult. I confess I’ve held both feelings as I’ve worked on my website redesign… When I was features editor at a large metropolitan daily newspaper — this was in my previous life — I had one experience I will never forget. It was about
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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 an article on how to pay attention, published in the online magazine Re-Form. I’m constantly struck by how often writers remain convinced
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Reading time: Just over one minute So many people massacre their PowerPoint presentations. Here are three tips to teach you how to punch up PowerPoint… Do you ever use PowerPoint? I find the vast majority of PowerPoint presentations are far too dull — snooze-fests, seemingly designed to lull the audience into somnolence rather than awaken them with
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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 from Eudora Welty…. Eudora Welty (1909—2001) was a prolific writer from the American South who wrote in many different genres, including novels, short stories, speeches and essays. She is most famous for
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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: threnody. I read Anne-Marie MacDonald’s landmark novel, Fall on Your Knees, back in 1997, the year in which it was published. Set largely in a Nova Scotia coal mining
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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 an article containing a description of Jerry Seinfeld’s writing strategy… Are you the kind of writer who procrastinates? A lot? Let me share with you
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Reading time: Less than 2 minutes There’s plenty of collateral damage from Jian Ghomeshi — an object lesson in crisis communications gone wrong… When I coach clients on how to prepare for crisis communications, I have one key message for them. It’s something my mother told me when I was a kid: Don’t guess. This may
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Reading time: About 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a series of metaphors from Shane Koyczen. I first heard spoken-word poet Shane Koyczen when he performed at the 2010 winter Olympics, hosted by Vancouver. He was a marvel: Articulate. Powerful. Challenging.
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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: swards. I read William Trevor’s 1994 novel Felicia’s Journey in a mad panic last November. I was desperate to hit my goal of 52 books before the end of the
