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 […]
What does ‘spavined’ mean? Read More »
Reading time: About 4 minutes Can an electronic editor like ProWritingAid help you improve your writing? Here are my thoughts after having tested the program for several years…. When I wrote about the grammar-checking software Grammarly several years ago, my post generated huge reader response (some 279 comments online) and
Is it worth paying for ProWritingAid? (And is it better than Grammarly?) Read More »
Reading time: Just over 3 minutes Some people just never seem to find the time to be able to write. Here is my best advice on how to prioritize writing…. I learned some hard lessons when I wrote my first book. It took me more than a year of angst-ridden,
How to prioritize writing Read More »
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 series of metaphors and similes from novelist and screenplay writer Tom Perrotta…. Tom Perrotta (pictured above) is the bestselling author of nine works of fiction, including Election and Little
The figurative language of Tom Perrotta…. 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: prosody…. As a voracious reader, I regularly encounter words I’ve seen many times before but that I’m still hard-pressed to define. Prosody
What is ‘prosody’? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Are you good at collecting quotes from your interview subjects? Here’s a primer on how to ask better questions… As a former journalist, I’ve done more than my share of interviews, many of them with then big-name Canadian authors. I was a books editor
How to ask better questions… Read More »
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 series of metaphors and similes from Emma Straub…. I don’t normally enjoy books that might be described as “chick lit.” I find them too banal
The figurative language of Emma Straub Read More »
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: guignol … When reader John Friesen sent me the word guignol, I didn’t recognize it, although I knew immediately it was French. He found it
What’s a ‘guignol’? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes There are many benefits of walking for writers. Staying in shape is one of them. But becoming more creative is the biggest gain… I have a neighbour who often drove her three kids to school. I’m too polite to have told her off for
Why you should walk more if you’re a writer Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about similes and metaphors from American writer Maria Semple… American novelist and screenwriter Maria Semple (pictured above) earned her first writing credit in 1992 for the television show Beverly
Maria Semple and her figurative language… Read More »
