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: murmurous…. Today’s word comes from a book of short stories, The Shell Collector, by Anthony Doerr. Published in 2002, it predates his spectacular, […]
What does ‘murmurous’ mean? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes The recent American election — and subsequent backlash — has more people following politics than in recent memory. If you want to get involved, here’s how to write more effective letters to elected representatives… I love getting questions from readers. Today’s comes from American
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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 about Tim Ferriss…. I am neither a Tim Ferriss fan, nor one of his
Time management advice from a bestselling author… 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: gamboling… If you had asked me what the word “gamboling” meant, I would have told you, correctly, that it refers to running or jumping about
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Reading time: Just over 2 minutes Blog posts can start with nothing more than an interesting story but, eventually, they need to evolve into a big idea. Here’s why you need to accomplish that…. When I met with bloggers Mitchell and Jordan (not their real names), they looked nervous. They were
What’s your big idea? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Time is the most valuable commodity we all have. But let me ask you if you’re regularly wasting your writing time…. If Superman, or the tooth fairy or Dumbledore offered you either $1,500 or a thousand minutes of your life back, which would you
Are you wasting your writing time? Read More »
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 by Jonathan Mead… It was the headline that grabbed my attention. “Seven weird
Exploring the upside of doubt Read More »
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: zeugma… My favourite television show of all time remains the West Wing a political drama (1999 to 2006) about the fictitious Democratic presidency of Josiah Bartlet (played by Martin Sheen). The stories
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Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Do you figure that time or hard work is enough to improve your writing? Alas, it’s not — if you consider the Pareto Principle in writing…. When I worked on my BA in political science in the late 1970s some form of madness overtook
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Reading time: Just over 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 about Ernest Hemingway’s protégé Arnold Samuelson…. Arnold Samuelson was a 22-year-old aspiring writer during the
Hemingway’s protégé: Arnold Samuelson Read More »
