Word count: 197 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: relict. I’m not usually stumped by natural history signs, but when I was recently wandering the Mojave Desert […]
What does relict mean? Read More »
Word count: 661 words Reading time: About 2.5 minutes Do you ever take a holiday from your writing? Here’s why you should consider it…. I just participated in a 10-day, two-person workshop designed to improve my writing. It required me to take a plane to a different country and it
Time to take a break? Read More »
Word count: 338 words Reading time: About 2.5 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 link to an article about writing memoir by Alexander Stille from The New York Times.
The perils of writing memoir Read More »
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
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
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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,
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
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
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
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
The figurative language of Emily Nussbaum… Read More »
