Reading time: About five minutes The human brain is powerful, but it also makes mistakes. Scientists consider some of these mistakes to be what they call cognitive biases… Is cognitive bias harming your writing? Even if you are unfamiliar with the term, the answer is almost certainly yes. Cognitive bias, […]
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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 a post about taking a holiday from writing… People often ask me if it’s a bad idea
Is it a bad idea to take a holiday from writing? Read More »
Viewing time: 3 minutes and 26 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 the issue #7, about how to avoid death by PowerPoint, which ran on March
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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 similes from Jennifer Haigh…. The most recent novel by Jennifer Haigh takes on the topic of abortion. And as the New York Times puts it, ” it
The figurative language of Jennifer Haigh… 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 term: Belisha beacon… When I read a juicy novel, I particularly enjoy the way it sends me scurring to the dictionary or the
What’s a ‘Belisha beacon’? Read More »
Reading time: About 3 minutes Are you fastidious about planning for your desired word count? If not, you should be. Read on to learn why…. Whenever a writer asks me why it’s so important to know their word count goal before starting to write, I tell them the following story.
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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 a blot post about song lyrics in books… Have you ever noticed how rarely you’ll hear the
Can you quote song lyrics in books? (Without being sued?) Read More »
Viewing time: 3 minutes 31 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 the issue #6, about how to recognize good writing, which ran on Feb. 24/17. Transcript:
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Reading time: I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a series of images from Sarah Polley. You may know Sarah Polley as a TV star, famous for her role as Ramona Quimby in the television series Ramona, based on Beverly Cleary‘s books. Subsequently
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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: sehnsucht… I was being lazy when I read the novel The Italian Party by Christina Lynch. It was an easy, unchallenging book described by The
What is ‘sehnsucht’? Read More »
