Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Arthur Quiller-Couch developed his famous maxim — murder your darlings — while working as a professor of English at Cambridge University near the turn of the last century. Here’s why his advice still applies to writers today…. I have a close friend, whose work […]
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A member of the Get It Done group recently asked me for advice on how to juggle different writing projects. I wrote her a detailed response before it occurred to me that other people in the group would benefit from this information, too. So, for anyone who’s ever struggled with multiple writing projects — or
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Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Do you tend to set big fat writing goals for yourself? Today’s column describes what the Japanese can teach you about writing…. When my family and I moved out of our house for a major renovation 10 years ago, we wore our paper shredder to
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As a a member of the Get It Done program you’ve probably already heard my lecture about NOT editing while you write. I wouldn’t belabour the point except that postponing your editing is going to make you a much better writer. Why? Because if you try to edit WHILE you’re writing, you’re doing three major disservices
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Reading time: less than 3 minutes Many people use PowerPoint as the default tool for writing their speeches and presentations. That’s not always a wise decision…. Whenever I’ve written about the software PowerPoint, I’ve usually received a flood of email. A few readers may disagree with my basic premise that
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Before you start a long-form writing project – whether it’s a book or a dissertation (or something else) be sure you have a piece of software for recording and saving your research. If you are an academic, consider software that will both manage your research AND automatically create citations for you. You can see a
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Reading time: Just over 2 minutes The pomodoro technique is a time-management tool used by millions of people around the world. It’s particularly useful for writers and students…. I’m a big believer in the magic of three. You know — the three little pigs, the three Musketeers, the three Stooges. There’s something
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The Get It Done program is about support, accountability, common sense and honesty. While most of us will acknowledge that honesty is a great policy, however, you might have a hard time figuring out what it has to do with writing. Here’s why I think honesty is so important: If you commit to producing 350
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Reading time: Just over 3 minutes Multi-tasking isn’t the good idea it’s often cracked up to be. But there are some especially important reasons why writers shouldn’t multi-task… I have a simple question I ask everyone I coach and it’s this: Do you let your computer collect your email for
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Many of my clients tell me they want to commit great gobs of time to writing. Two hours, they’ll say if they’re academics. And for everyone else the time commitment they suggest is usually, a full hour. But this enormous amount of time is almost always a mistake. Why? Because you aren’t well enough conditioned
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