Word count: 234 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 Alice Munro. If I could write like anyone, anyone, I’d chose to write like Alice […]
A dismal sort of longing… 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 Cheryl Strayed, author of the memoir, Wild. I’d heard nothing but rave reviews about Wild by Cheryl Strayed. “I couldn’t put it down,” said one friend. “How I loved that book,” said another.
The figurative language of Cheryl Strayed… Read More »
Word count: 254 words 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: desiderata I know I’m dating myself when I admit this, but I had an onionskin copy of the prose poem, Desiderata, by American writer Max
What’s desiderata? Read More »
Word count: 762 words Reading time: About 3 minutes Do you need to undaunt yourself over your writing? Here are three tips I can offer from the one task that has always daunted me: bookkeeping! While I’m no longer a procrastinating writer, I am a procrastinating bookkeeper. But I’ve just accomplished something remarkable. I got
How to undaunt yourself Read More »
Word count: 295 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 find an interesting piece on the problem of too much attention. I usually work with writers who are distracted beyond
The opposite of distracted… Read More »
Word count: 289 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 comes from Rebecca Mead via The New Yorker. I’m a big believer in reading aloud to children.
The lighting was persuasively unflattering… 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 Emily Nussbaum, via the New Yorker. My son and I spent many happy hours watching The West Wing. I loved that talky, realistic, dramatic show, about one of my favourite subjects — politics.
The figurative language of Emily Nussbaum… Read More »
Word count: 243 words 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: trilby. I had a Danish boyfriend when I was young and I learned a little about the culture but not enough to recognize the
Word count: 756 words Reading time: About 3 minutes Being called a copycat is generally an insult. Instead, I think it’s a valuable tool for writers to try… If you’d been able to sneak into my home office last Wednesday at 6:15 am, you would have found me hunched over my computer, coping text from
Why you should be a copycat Read More »
Word count: 440 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 discuss John Lehrer’s apology for plagiarism. I was a longtime fan of Jonah Lehrer. I loved his 2009 book How
