Reading time: Less than 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today with a simile from Clive Thompson… I discovered journalist and writer Clive Thompson when a colleague forwarded to me a video in which he spoke. (Thompson was addressing the urgent […]
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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: feeble… A recent, thoroughly engaging piece in the New Yorker, “Go Ask Alice,” explores the story of Alice in Wonderland — “as familiar
What’s the origin of the word feeble? 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 blog post about the inner critic written by Lilian Wissink… The inner critic undoes many writers. Do you
Have you spoken with your inner critic lately? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute I’ve long recommended mindmapping for writers but other people in the business suite might find it useful, too… I’ve been promoting mindmapping for years so I found it encouraging to find out, as I did yesterday, that the Harvard Business Review also endorses the
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about some metaphors and similes from Dana Goodyear… I live in Vancouver, Canada which is geographically considered to fall within a coastal rain forest. Trouble is, we haven’t had
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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: eureka. I was reading with interest a New Yorker story about the history of mass-market publishing, written by Louis Menard, when I came
What’s the origin of the word eureka? 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 an article about Grace Paley… Grace Paley (1922 – 2007), pictured above, was an American short story writer, poet, teacher, and political
Writing doesn’t work when the tension is gone… Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute I’m a demon for efficiency and I love it when technology helps me work better, faster. Here’s a redesigned app you might want to put in your pocket… I consider myself a bantam or lightweight nerd when it comes to technology. I love the
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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 series of similes and metaphors from novelist Joshua Ferris… I’m a relatively fast reader but it took me more than two months to get through the
The figurative language of Joshua Ferris… 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: thrawn. I read Kate Atkinson’s 1995 debut novel Behind the Scenes at the Museum more than a decade ago and it has remained one of
What does the word thrawn mean? Read More »
