Word count: 268 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: fulgurating. I can’t remember where I first heard of Junot Diaz but I read the New Yorker each week so perhaps I encountered his […]
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Reading time: About 3 minutes It’s always essential to know the challenges facing your audience. And no where is this more important than when you’re learning how to write for the Internet… My son is training to become an opera singer. Last week he had his first term recital – he sang Caro Mio Ben
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Word count: 263 words Reading time: About 1 minute Do you have difficulty finding a quiet place to write? My friend Casey Hibbard has a great tip for you. I never thought I’d ever endorse anything to do with guns (most urban Canadians abhor guns). Particularly not for writing! But my friend Casey Hibbard has
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Word count: 433 words Reading time: Less than 2 minutes 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 Taras Grescoe. The first time I went to New York City, in 1984, I didn’t
Performing unscripted drunken operettas… Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute I read widely, watch movies and listen to the radio. In today’s post you’ll see an interesting piece of figurative language I’ve encountered recently, this time focusing on personification. You know, I never fully realized how much I appreciated personification until I started keeping this blog. When in school,
Personification doesn’t need to be reserved for fiction… Read More »
Word count: 299 words Reading time: Just over 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: gimcrack. I adore reading. I like well written historical fiction. And I’m particularly fascinated by the Tudor period. Yet for reasons I cannot
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Word count: 794 words Reading time: Just over 3 minutes Looking for some book suggestions in time for Christmas? I’ve just reached my goal to read 52 books this year. (For more book suggestions, be sure to check out my list from June, as well.) My habit is to post for you the names of
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Word count: 209 words Reading time: Less than 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 look at a piece on writing and Miles Davis. I love extended metaphors. And I love music. Guess what
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Word count: 345 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 Rachel Joyce, author of the Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry…. I wanted to like the
Neon bled pools of amber light… Read More »
Reading time: Just over 1 minute I read widely, watch movies and listen to the radio. In today’s post you’ll see an interesting piece of figurative language I’ve encountered recently, this time in a book by Junot Diaz. I’d heard a lot of buzz about Junot Diaz. I knew he was a Dominican-American writer, a
The figurative language of Junot Diaz… Read More »
