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: precipitous…. Ophelia Dahl (pictured above) grew up in privileged and challenging circumstances. She was the daughter of movie star Patricia Neal and wildly successful writer Roald Dahl, […]
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Reading time: Just over 3 minutes Do you want to learn how to improve productivity as a writer? Here are eight counterintuitive ways…. I wrote a post headlined “13 ways to improve your writing productivity” a few years back. Since then, I’ve come up with eight more strategies you can use. Together, they give you
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Reading time: Just over 1 minute Jesse Green writes for the New York Times. Today, I discuss his great facility with figurative language… I stopped paying attention to contemporary music in 1979 when I graduated from university. I didn’t stop listening but I stopped caring about the names of the songs and the performers and the
The figurative language of Jesse Green…. 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: rebarbative…. I’m still reading the book Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (pictured above) and I can tell you already that it’s one of 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 a blog post on how to figure out your best time of day… Do you know your best time of day
What’s the best time of day for writing? Read More »
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 similes from novelist Katherine Heiny…. I seldom read what might be described as “chick-lit.” That kind of writing usually doesn’t appeal to me. I can’t recall why I
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Reading time: Just over 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: restive…. I started subscribing to the New Yorker magazine back in 1993, shortly after Tina Brown (pictured above) had become its editor. While I’d found much of her work
What does ‘restive’ mean? Read More »
Reading time: Just over 3 minutes A research diary can take a number of different forms, but it will help you declare your opinions about your research AND allow you to stay connected with the writing process…. After reading The Diary of Anne Frank, at about the age of 11, I started keeping a diary.
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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 similies and metaphors from omaopy editor Mary Norris…. The majority of people who are really good at grammar often aren’t hugely creative. It’s almost as if talent in
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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: spavined…. When I read a Calvin Tomkins story about artist Dana Schutz in the New Yorker, I was thrilled to see it gave me three fascinating words.
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