Reading time: About 2 minutes Wayne Ng says the biggest obstacles to most writers are internal ones — largely the fear of rejection and public ridicule. “Explore this,” he says. “We all have it.” Wayne Ng is a child of Chinese immigrants born in Anishinabe territory in what is commonly known as downtown Toronto. He […]
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Reading time: About 2 minutes If you need help with your writing, for goodness’ sake, learn how to hire a coach! When should you look for help with your writing? Well, most people don’t look for a personal trainer when they’re already in shape. Nor do they go to a financial advisor when all their
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Reading time: About 2 minutes This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world for material to help other writers. Today I discuss a blog post about the similarities between writing and painting a room… Sarah Welch, a book editor living in Austin, Texas, recently wrote a clever and
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Viewing time: 4 mins. 18 secs. The Write Question is a weekly video podcast about writing that I started in 2017 and that ran, more or less weekly, until April 2022. This is a republication of issue #140, which discusses how to hire a ghostwriter. The post first ran on May 15/20. Transcript: How
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Reading time: Just over 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a series of similes from writer Ellen Barry…. Ellen Barry is a London-based international correspondent for The New York Times, covering immigration, security, demographics and culture across Europe. But what drew
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Reading time: About 2 minutes A desire to connect the words and ideas in her head to the heads of others is the most powerful incentive that Shari Graydon has ever known… Shari Graydon has written newspaper columns, broadcast commentary and political speeches. Her best-selling, award-winning media literacy books for youth include Made You Look, and In Your
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Reading time: About 2 minutes If you’re anything like me, you’ve been watching the news for weeks, obsessively following the U.S. election. So how do you write in times like these? Today, I give you some suggestions…. Today is the most anticipated election in my lifetime. A friend of mine calls it the “mother of
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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 other writers. Today I discuss an interview with author Agnie Abdou about how to create a writing routine… Angie Abdou is a Canadian author and creative
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Viewing time: 4 mins 25 secs. The Write Question is a weekly video podcast about writing that I started in 2017 and that ran, more or less weekly, until April 2022. This is a republication of issue #139, which discusses how to structure a book. The post first ran on May 8/20. Transcript: How do
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Reading time: About 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about the metaphorical language of Ottessa Moshfegh…. Ottessa Moshfegh is an American author and novelist who was born in Boston with a Croatian mother and an Iranian-Jewish father. Her debut novel, Eileen, won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award,
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