Reading time: About 3 minutes Do you need to get more done in less time? Here’s how to dramatically increase your writing productivity…. Are you one of those people who sees writing as a creative act? If so, you’re right. But only partly. Writing is perhaps 20% creative. But the […]
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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 out-of-the-mainstream editing trick you might want to try…. I scan about 80 blogs each week
Out-of-the-mainstream editing tricks you can try Read More »
Viewing time: 3 minutes and 17 seconds The Write Question is a weekly video podcast about writing that I started in 2017 and that ran, more or less weekly, until April 2022. This is a republication of issue #13, discussing how to stop holding breath while writing. The post first ran
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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 figurative language from Richard Osman…. If you’ve ever encountered comedian Richard Osman in person or on television, you’ll know him as a tremendously tall, very funny man.
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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: Gaeltacht…. An Irish writer of literary fiction, Colum McCann was born in Dublin but now lives and works in New York. I was
What does ‘Gaeltacht’ mean? Read More »
Reading time: Just over 4 minutes Is your writing filled with long, winding sentences? Here’s a guide to achieving better sentence length…. When I talk about sentence length at workshops, people sometimes object to my advocacy for short sentences. “I don’t want my writing to sound like a grade school
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Reading time: Less than 2 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 from the Economist on the passive voice…. When I work with many writers —
Passive voice vs. word choice Read More »
Viewing time: 4 minutes and 5 seconds The Write Question is a weekly video podcast about writing that I started in 2017 and that ran, more or less weekly, until April 2022. This is a republication of issue #12, focusing on writing a bio. The post first ran on April 7/17.
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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 similes and metaphors from Gish Jen…. Gish Jen (pictured above) is a second-generation Chinese American. She graduated from Harvard University with a BA in English, and later
The figurative language of Gish Jen… 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: escutcheon…. I am reading the delightful novel A Gentleman in Moscow, a gift from a friend. Written by a man with the
What’s an escutcheon? Read More »
