Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Last week I wrote about the benefits of the word yes. Today, I reflect on the advantages of just saying no. I have a bad back. I know I’ve created this back myself, after 30 years of stooping over a computer keyboard and hunching my shoulders forward. Years of […]
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Reading time: Less than two minutes 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 Italo Calvino… I once worked for an editor who believed that Italian journalist Italo Calvino (1923 to 1985)
Are you a hedgehog, fox, eagle or hummingbird? Read More »
Reading time: About 2 minutes Do you know how to manage your communications suppliers? Here’s some advice that will get them working FOR you rather than against you…. As someone who works in communications, I end up managing a host of suppliers. Maybe you do, too. Writers, copy editors, proofreaders, graphic artists, web designers and printers
How to stop aggravating your suppliers…. Read More »
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 Elizabeth Renzetti. I’m a big fan of the journalist Elizabeth Renzetti who writes for the Globe and Mail newspaper. She’s funny, opinionated and articulate — all qualities I seek
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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: ambuscader. One of my readers, Richard Holden, has published a collection of short stories in a genre he calls “Elderlit.” I hadn’t before heard the term so he
What’s an ambuscader? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes There are five excellent reasons why you should say yes to writing more often. Here is a real-life email from one of my potential clients who wants to write for the theatre. It said: “I’ve put a hold on my play. I’m afraid of the “let down” when I realize
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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 on NOT writing by Bill Hayes…. It amuses me that my topic for today’s post is a New York Times article carrying
Could not writing be a good thing? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 2 minutes If you want to ask me something or share your opinion of what I’m writing about, here’s a step-by-step guide for how to comment on my blog… Readers sometimes tell me they’re unable to comment on my blog. I’ve spoken to my webmaster about this and he assures me
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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 metaphor from Nathan Heller. I love San Francisco. My husband and I went there for our honeymoon and returned for our 10th wedding anniversary. (The remarkable aspect of that, was that we left 5-year-old
The figurative language of Nathan Heller…. 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: cagoule. I seldom encounter words that offer me terra incognita. But a word in the very fine novel, Landing Gear, by Kate Pullinger, took me into just such a
