Reading time: About 3 minutes It’s highly likely that you mismanage your time. We all do! But writing time is another matter entirely… I protect my writing time the way a mother bear guards her cubs. I write first thing in the morning and I refuse to check my email (or Facebook or Twitter or […]
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Reading time: About 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 written by New York Times columnist Susan Gubar. I had never heard of Susan Gubar before stumbling across a column
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Reading time: About 2 minutes People often say “you and I” when they really should be saying “you and me.” Here’s a quick explanation of the rule… Grammar is seldom taught in schools these days and most of us struggle to speak correctly – just as we struggle to lose 10 pounds after Christmas. I
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Reading time: About 2 minutes I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a series of metaphors written by Jennifer Egan. Jennifer Egan, author of the 2011 book Look at Me, is a master of metaphor. I’ve developed the habit of using little yellow sticky notes
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Reading time: About 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: plectrumed. My family is intensely interested in music. My grandmother was a conductor, my aunt a concert violinist. My husband sings in a choir and my son is
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Reading time: About 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 an article about procrastination by Merrill Markoe. I’ve long believed that the secret to writing effortlessly is linked to writing first thing in
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Reading time: About 1.5 minutes When I ask if you have style, I’m not talking about your shoes, your blazer or your fascinator (see photo). I’m talking about whether you write St. or Street. Whether you write theater or theatre. And whether you use numerals for 175 or write it out like this: one hundred
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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 Alan Lightman. I’m not certain I can say I truly understood the novel Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman. I mostly avoided sciences in high school, and this book
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Reading time: About 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: concupiscent. I don’t usually read mystery stories; I’m much more interested in other genres. But someone recommended The Silent Wife to me and I agreed to give it a
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Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Tempting as it is to obsess on particulars, it’s always better to play the long game when writing… Here’s a problem facing most writers: We want our writing to be better, so we turn our laser-like gaze on what we are writing, the product. In fact, what we really
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