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 simile from Ben McGrath… I was serious about canoeing as a young person. The high point of my life, when I was 16 years old, was an 80-mile […]
A monologue as unstoppable as a river… 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: coruscating… I briefly worked for Conrad Black. Not face-to-face (thank goodness); he owned the newspaper chain where I was an editor. Black once controlled Hollinger
What does ‘coruscating’ mean? Read More »
Reading time: About 3 minutes When you write, do you begin by taking an inventory of all the stories you have at your disposal? Here’s why you should try to collect as many as you possibly can… Let me begin by telling you a story. It dates back to the
How to find stories for your writing 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 about the late author John D. MacDonald… John D. MacDonald (1916 to 1986) was
Writing advice from John D. MacDonald Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute The worst thing about taking the bus should be having to sit next to someone you don’t like. But in a recent bus imbroglio, two teenagers learned things can get much worse than that… Public relations is harder for companies than used to be.
Greyhound caught in bus imbroglio 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 a couple of similes and metaphors from New Yorker writer Carolyn Korman… Can a restaurant for the rich benefit the poor? That was the opening question in a very
The figurative language of Carolyn Korman 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: splenetic… When my reader, John Friesen, emailed me the word splenetic I had to confess I hadn’t encountered it before. He discovered it
What does ‘splenetic’ mean? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Do you know how to write freely? Here’s a metaphor that might help. Pretend you’re a jazz musician who’s improvising… When I moved away from home at the age of 21, I started pondering how to take music lessons. I’d always wanted to learn
Why you should write like a jazz musician plays Read More »
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 post on apps for writer from an Australian-based editing and proofeading company…. Are you prepared to
A guide to apps for writers… Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute In a crisis, it’s always wise to help your people on the front lines… If your company is facing a crisis you’re probably attending lots of high-level strategy meetings. Perhaps your job is to produce the key messages. Or maybe you have to handle the
Support your people on the front lines… Read More »
