Reading time: About 2.5 minutes 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: scurf. I read the book Tinkers by Paul Harding in 2010, the same year it won the Pulitzer Prize. Although I didn’t find […]
Reading time: About 2.5 minutes Most writers aren’t terribly sporty but did you know you can help your writing by talking like an athlete? I’ve written before about how we writers seem addicted to self-sabotage by trash-talking to ourselves. I really don’t know how to write… My boss is going
How to help your writing by talking like an athlete Read More »
Reading time: About 2 minutes This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world to find websites, books and articles to help writers. Today I discuss the book Still Writing by Dani Shapiro….. I have already read most of the big-time books about writing:
Are you still writing? Read More »
Reading time: About 1.5 minutes Writing signage is one of the most challenging tasks facing many businesses (even if they don’t realize it.) Be sure to choose your words carefully! I’m seldom hired to consult on signage, but judging by the gaffes I’ve seen over the years, more organizations really
Choose your words carefully — especially for signs Read More »
Reading time: About 1.5 minutes I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about two similes from American writer and psychologist Dan Shapiro…. I recently finished the marvellous non-fiction book Delivering Doctor Amelia by Dan Shapiro. A psychologist, the author describes
The figurative language of Dan Shapiro… 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: vitrine. It’s not often I stumble across a noun I find difficult to define (unless, of course, it’s a scientific name for
Reading time: About 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 writers. Today I discuss a New York Times article by songwriter Darrell Brown… I love the New York Times “Opinionator.” A daily essay,
Why you should lower your standards Read More »
Reading time: About 1 minute When you’re writing arts marketing copy, don’t reach for hyperbole. You’ll make your audience suspicious when what you really want is for them to buy tickets… Hyperbole can be dangerous. All writers need to learn this principle and none more acutely than marketing writers. Here’s
Nothing short of a miracle? 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 simile from Laura Shapiro… As you may have sensed from some of my previous blog entries, I’m a big believer in home cooking. Thus, when
The figurative language of Laura Shapiro… 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: fungible. I’d heard the adjective fungible before but I’d never retained its meaning, perhaps because I’d never had cause to use it
What does fungible mean? Read More »
