Reading time: About 1.5 minutes If you think your yearly publication is going to be able to change anyone’s mind, think again! Here’s why your readers need more touches… Clients sometimes ask me to produce yearly or quarterly publications for them. Unless they’re asking for an annual report (or a
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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 simile from Jonathan Letham…. I read the 1999 novel Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Letham on the strength of a radio interview I heard with him. I
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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: piebald. The Salley Vickers novel Miss Garnet’s Angel holds an honoured spot in my lifetime list of top 10 books. (My list, I must
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Reading time: About 3 minutes Have you ever struggled with how to make writing easier? Here are some tips I’ve picked up as I’ve aged… I have a weird psychological quirk. Significant birthdays — ones ending in 0 — never upset me. Instead, I get freaked out by ones ending
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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 walking that appeared on the CTV News website… Quick question: How often do
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Reading time: Just over 1 minute How you deal with a customer service problem tells people far more about your company than you might think…. I emailed one of my suppliers recently. I had a very small print job for a client and I needed a quote. Uncharacteristically, I didn’t
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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 smart metaphor from a Margaret Talbot piece in the New Yorker. When my husband and I finish with our New Yorkers, we pass them along to a
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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: gallimaufry. When I read the new Elizabeth Gilbert novel, The Signature of All Things, I was gobsmacked to see a word I couldn’t fathom:
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Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Does writing scare you? Maybe the problem is you don’t have a system for writing. I faced the same challenge with Hollandaise sauce, recently…. Cooking doesn’t usually scare me. I’ve made soufflé, mousse, bread without a machine and turkey dinner for 22 without turning a hair
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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 Kristopher Jansma. I am frequently troubled by endings. I don’t like many of
What’s in an ending? Read More »
