Reading time: Fewer than 3 minutes Our perception of how we’re doing — whether in writing or something else — can sometimes be wrong. This error is known as progress bias…. I spent 30 minutes yesterday doing my least-favourite task in the entire world: rounding up and categorizing invoices and receipts for my bookkeeper. I […]
What is progress bias and how do writers fall victim to it? Read More »
Are you comfortable with numbers? More importantly, are your readers? Numeracy is a big problem in our society. I know because I have a mild version of dyscalculia (kind of like dyslexia for numbers.) But there are many other people who don’t have dyscalculia but who are also uncomfortable with numbers. Have you ever noticed how many
Don’t numb with numbers 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 from Tana French… I don’t usually read mysteries. But if more people wrote like Tana French, I would. Sometimes described as, “the First Lady of Irish Crime,”
The figurative language of Tana French 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: apoptosis… The Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk won won the Man Booker International Prize for her 2018 novel Flights and the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature. I know her, however, as the
What does the word ‘apoptosis’ mean? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 5 minutes Here are my 10 favourite articles or posts from last month, focusing on the most useful, helpful and entertaining pieces for writers. The days are getting longer in the Northern hemisphere and I’m usually surprised by how quickly it happens. One evening I’m reading a book at 8 pm
Pubcoach top 10: April 2021 Read More »
Most writing coaches or teachers will tell you to avoid clichés — those hackneyed expressions like “tall, dark and handsome” or “as red as a rose” that seem to tumble from our lips as carelessly as a soother falls out of an exhausted baby’s mouth. Now, readers and clients have occasionally told me they find
Why and how to attack clichés 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 from James Nestor…. James Nestor (pictured above) is an American journalist who has written for Scientific American, Outside Magazine, The New York Times and The Atlantic. But
The figurative language of James Nestor… 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: foehn wind…. A literary murder mystery, by Olga Tokarczuk — winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature — contains several interesting words of the week. Today,
What does the term ‘foehn wind’ mean? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 4 minutes If you’re someone who’s easily distracted, learning how to focus when writing will give you a big payoff in productivity… Do you ever sit at your computer and find the prospect of writing to be defeating you? You know you need to work on your paper (or report or
How to focus when writing Read More »
Allie Jaynes (pictured above) was the type of 36-year-old you might call a “hot mess.” She was scattered, disorganized and a world traveler who lost her passport regularly. I recently listened to a radio documentary about her and her diagnosis with ADHD as an adult. (Her story grabbed my attention because my son has the
Three lessons for writers in a story about procrastination Read More »
