Word count: 217 words Reading time: Less than 1 minute A great way to improve your writing skills is to emulate the work of others. Here is a sentence I read recently that I’d happily imitate. It shows how writers can have fun with numbers…. I’m pretty much allergic to […]
Playing with numbers Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute I read widely, watch movies and listen to the radio. Here, catch an interesting piece of figurative language I’ve encountered recently in the novel The Grief of Others. It took writing this blog to teach me something important about myself. Every Thursday I produce
Finding personification in the grief of others Read More »
Word count: 206 words Reading time: Less than 1 minute If you increase your vocabulary you’ll not only help your reading, you’ll also make your writing more precise. Here is my word of the week, tenebrous. I’ve already told you about reading a profile of Christopher Kimball in the New
What does tenebrous mean? Read More »
Word count: 745 words Reading time: About 3 minutes This will sound counterintuitive, but, in order to improve your writing, sometimes you may need to stop writing. Just as making great music isn’t always about being pitch perfect (think of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen), writing isn’t always about, well, writing.
10 non-writing activities that will improve your writing Read More »
Word count: 285 words 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 by political speechwriter Robert Lehrman. I’ve written lots of speeches in my
On political speechwriting with Robert Lehrman Read More »
Word count: 194 words Reading time: Less than 1 minute A great way to improve your writing is to emulate the work of others. Here is a sentence I read recently that I’d happily imitate. This one offers a how-to lesson on dealing with cliches. I always enjoying seeing cliches
How to salvage a cliche Read More »
Reading time: About 2 minutes I read widely, watch movies and listen to the radio. Here, catch an interesting piece of figurative language I’ve encountered recently. Today’s choice comes from the Obama 2012 speech that wrapped up the election. I had no vote in this week’s US presidential election. I’m
Obama 2012 speech delivers figurative language Read More »
Word count: 354 words Reading time: About 1.5 minutes If you increase your vocabulary you’ll not only help your reading, you’ll also make your writing more precise. Here is my word of the week: anodyne. I’m still reading Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres and I continue to find
What does anodyne mean? Read More »
Word count: 750 words Reading time: About 3 minutes It’s hard to feel much joy when you’re reading really bad writing. But I have an idea that might just help turn your frown upside down… The managing editor couldn’t have been any nastier. “We’ve had a bomb threat,” he said
Why you should appreciate some bad writing Read More »
Word count: 371 words Reading time: About 1.5 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 look at the book English Prepositional Idioms. My father was a bit of a crank.
The power of prepositional idioms Read More »
