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: whiffling…. I’m a big fan of onomatopoeia. As you likely know, this refers to words that sound like the meaning they’re meant to represent. Here are a few […]
What does ‘whiffling’ mean? Read More »
Reading time: About 3 minutes If writing is boring you, solve the problem by figuring out how to increase curiosity. More curiosity will be like a slap on the face or a cold shower. It will invigorate you! The very first paying job of my life was as a babysitter, at the princely sum of
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Reading time: About a 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 blog post about dangling participles and other jokes of grammar… I have something lighter for you today: A bunch of bar
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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 series of similes from Jennifer Egan… My husband knows how much I enjoy the writing of Jennifer Egan. So, one of his recent gifts for me was her novel, Manhattan
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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: flummery…. When a friend recommended the book Conclave to me, I thought I was looking for a non-fiction work exploring the selection of a new Pope by
What is ‘flummery’? Read More »
Reading time: About 3 minutes If you’re easily distracted, it’s going to be tough for you to write. Here’s how to increase your attention span, to make the work or writing easier. For a couple of years, my kids started calling me “Daphne,” instead of mom when they wanted to get my attention. Why? Somehow
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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 written by Nancy Andreasen…. Have you ever wondered about the relationship between creativity and intelligence (as measured by IQ)?
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Reading time: Less than 2 minutes I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a series of metaphors, similes and personification from Gail Honeyman…. When I heard the book title, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (pictured above), I suspected it might be either
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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: scrimshaw… Someday soon, I will create a dictionary of the words I’ve seen several hundred times but still have no idea what they mean. It embarrasses me
What’s a scrimshaw? Read More »
Reading time: About 3 minutes Survivorship bias might sound like a pointy-headed theory that has nothing to do with writing. But read on to learn why that’s a mistaken idea… I apologize for throwing a scary piece of jargon your way with the term survivorship bias. What does this strange phrase mean? And what does
How does survivorship bias give you dumb ideas about writing? Read More »
