Reading time: About 3 minutes Do you have a half-finished manuscript collecting dust in a bottom drawer? A half dozen articles you’ve started but never managed to wrap up? Here are five tips that will help you learn how to finish your writing. In the deliciously-titled fantasy novel, Miss Peregrine’s […]
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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 writers. Today I discuss an article written by Erik Schneiderhan in which he talks about dealing with mean editors…. I don’t think
Taylor Swift’s advice about mean editors Read More »
Reading time: Just over 1 minute A great way to improve your writing is to emulate the work of others. That’s why, every week, I present a sentence that I’d happily imitate. I comment today on one written by D.T. Max. D.T. Max is a graduate of Harvard University and a
Dorsey never feels the obligation to fill a silence…. Read More »
Reading time: Just over 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I’ve encountered. I write today about a simile from the TV show Chopped. I try not to watch too much television but I have one very guilty pleasure: the TV program, Chopped. A cooking show
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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: bibelots. When I studied French in high school, I loathed the subject. I think I might even have had a mild learning
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Reading time: About 3 minutes Our bodies may start to fall apart as we accumulate years, but if anyone asks me “does writing improve as we age?” I’m ready to answer yes! At age 56 I’m not yet a senior. But I’m starting to become constantly surprised by how young
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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 an article that appeared in the Guardian newspaper describing novelist Philip Hensher’s unwillingness to write for free. Do
Would you write for free? Read More »
Reading time: Just over 1 minute A great way to improve your writing is to emulate the work of others. That’s why, every week, I present a sentence that I’d happily imitate. I comment today on one produced by the talented American fiction writer Maile Meloy. I don’t typically read
As though he were turning to himself to ask a question… 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 1940 simile from Edward R. Murrow. When my husband and I were in Washington, DC earlier this month (in the rain, with all the public
The figurative language of Edward R Murrow… 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: bisque. When I read the 1965 novel, Stoner, by John Williams, I disagreed with the characterization of it as the “perfect novel.”
