Reading time: About 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: helter-skelter… I’ve known the meaning of the adverb and adjective helter-skelter for at least 45 years. It means something done in a haphazard manner or
What’s a helter-skelter? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Have you ever thought of the value of self-talk? I’d always seen it as a liability but there are ways in which it can help you… I adore open-area offices. When I started working in a newsroom 30 years ago — with a hundred
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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 other writers. Today I discuss an article written by Tim Kreider. I hadn’t heard of Tim Kreider until I regularly started reading
Not necessarily shown to your best advantage… Read More »
Reading time: About 2 minutes Do you ever get tense over tenses? I’m talking about verb tenses— and the the time or state they express. But, honestly, there’s no need to get upset… Most of us know that there are present, past and future tenses and we can identify them
Do verbs make you tense? Read More »
Reading time: About 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a simile from Margaret Talbot… My kids introduced me to young adult videographer and writer John Green about four years ago. I found his Vlog Brothers videos, which he prepares
The figurative language of Margaret Talbot… Read More »
Reading time: About 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: palaver. I had never heard of the bestselling novel The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared until I saw my 20-year-old daughter
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes For some people perfectionism and writing go together like salt and pepper or a hammer and nails— you don’t have one without the other. Here’s some advice on how to fix that…. I injured my arm while making Hollandaise sauce, about six weeks ago.
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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 other writers. Today I discuss an article written by Amy Klein….. I’m not a big supporter of most writing groups. In brief, I
If the story does not move forward, there is no story… Read More »
Reading time: About 1 minute Signage writing is a demanding art. Yet is looks so easy that few small companies take it seriously enough. They make this mistake at their peril… Signs are harder to write than they appear. In addition to attending to grammar and spelling, you also need to
Come in and say hello… Read More »
Reading time: About 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a simile from Kim Echlin. Going on holiday, for me, is all about reading. Why then, did I go out of town a few weeks ago with no books and
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