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 writers. Today I discuss the blog Rejected and Alone: A Writer’s Life by Jon Stark….. Jon Stark is not as negative […]
Rejected and alone…really? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute A great way to improve your writing is to emulate the work of others. That’s why, every week, I present a sentence that I’d happily imitate. I comment today on a sentence written by Jeremy Denk. Is it because my son is studying to
A deep nostalgia for closets… Read More »
Reading time: Just over 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a metaphor by B.C. writer Tom Hawthorne. I used to work with Tom Hawthorne, an award-winning freelance journalist who was recently named Harvey Southam guest lecturer
The figurative language of Tom Hawthorn… Read More »
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: scalawag. I’m the eldest of five children and, when I was a youngster, my parents used to call all of us kids
What does scalawag mean? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes It took a less than perfect vacation to remind me of the value of stories…. As vacations go, it was more like a prison sentence. Time: seven days. My husband Eric and I had long planned an October trip to Washington, DC. He’d never
What I learned from my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad vacation Read More »
Reading time: About 3 minutes It’s no trying to overcome fear of writing. Trust me. I’ve dealt with a bellyful of fear in my lifetime… Here’s the most dangerous thing I’ve ever done: When I was about 25, I went on a spur-of-the-moment hiking trip with an athletic friend who
How to overcome fear of writing Read More »
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 writers. Today I discuss a New York Times Opinionator column by Carol Kaufmann. I love to walk while I write. But
Why do we try to write while held hostage… Read More »
Reading time: Just over 1 minute A great way to improve your writing is to emulate the work of others. That’s why, every week, I present a sentence that I’d happily imitate. I comment today on a sentence written by Hendrik Hertzberg I read the New Yorker enthusiastically but unreliably. So,
Improbable and inexorable Read More »
Reading time: Just over 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a metaphorical sentence by James Wolcott. American journalist James Wolcott produces elaborate, labyrinthine sentences, seeping with metaphors. The cultural critic for Vanity Fair magazine and a contributing
The figurative language of James Wolcott… 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: faience. When I read Ian McEwan’s wonderful new novel, Sweet Tooth, I encountered a word I’d never seen before: faience. Here is
