Word count: 649 words Reading time: About 2.5 minutes I’m frequently impressed by the parallels between writing and music. Today I find writing inspiration from the musical work of Jonathan Mann. I can’t remember who told me about Jonathan Mann (pictured above) but I’m grateful for the tip. I don’t […]
5 reasons why being relentless is a good career strategy Read More »
Word count: 313 words 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. Jim Romenesko is a blogger who writes about the media. The idea for today’s post comes
Things we do not say Read More »
Word count: 204 words Reading time: Less than 1 minute A great way to improve your writing skills is to emulate the work of others. That’s why, every week, I present a sentence that I’d happily imitate. Today’s comes from Nicole Bokat. I have family members who suffer from clinical
I curled myself into a snail-shape… Read More »
Reading time: About 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. Today’s comes from the late Roger Ebert. Even when I was an entertainment editor for about five years, I managed to do the job without owning a TV. (Shhh, don’t tell
The figurative language of Roger Ebert… Read More »
Word count: 240 words 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: mishegoss. Somehow, when I saw the word mishegoss, I knew it was Yiddish, even though I didn’t know
What is mishegoss? Read More »
Word count: 710 words Reading time: less than 3 minutes If you’re unfamiliar with readability statistics, here’s an introduction. And if you haven’t gone beyond the Flesch-Kincaid index, here’s a new idea for you… Did you know that in pre-Elizabethan times an average written sentence was 50 words long? Fifty
How to improve your readability… Read More »
Word count: 286 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 present an article on nominalizations. Are you familiar with “nominalizations”? These are verbs (action words) or
What happens when you turn a verb into a noun? Read More »
Word count: 286 words Reading time: Just over 1 minute A great way to improve your writing skills is to emulate the work of others. That’s why, every week, I present a sentence that I’d happily imitate. Today’s writing comes from Susan Silk and Barry Goldman. Today, I’m going to
Do you worry ever about saying the wrong thing? Read More »
Reading time: Just over 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. Today’s comes from British actor and comedian Russell Brand. When Margaret Thatcher died on April 8, I felt nothing. I hadn’t liked her politics but, then, she wasn’t my Prime
The figurative language of Russell Brand… Read More »
Word count: 195 words 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: maculations. I don’t reach much poetry but whenever I do, I always regret not reading more. A friend
What are maculations? Read More »
