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: augury…. Sometimes, if I’m struggling with a word, I’ll stop to see if there’s anything in the root of it that seems vaguely familiar to me. This […]
What’s an ‘augury’? Read More »
Reading time: About 5 minutes You already know that writing takes time, but here’s what it takes to be a good writer…. You’ve probably heard of the 10,000-hour rule, even if you know little more than the name. Best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell is the person who popularized the notion that in order to be fantastic
What it takes to be a good writer (and it’s not just 10,000 hours) Read More »
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 a blog post on digital minimalism written by Cal Newport… I’ve followed Cal Newport for years. A computer science professor at
Exploring the idea of digital minimalism Read More »
Viewing time: 5 min. 58 sec. 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 #71, with advice on reducing clichés. The post first ran on Oct. 26/18. Transcript: Welcome to The Write
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Reading time: Less than 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 Lisa Brennan-Jobs…. When I read the rave reviews of Lisa Brennan-Jobs’ memoir, about her life with her father Steve Jobs, I rushed to buy her book,
Lisa Brennan-Jobs and figurative language Read More »
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: lambrequin… One of the great — and simultaneously annoying — aspects of historical novels is that they may use words no longer part of the common lexicon.
What is a lambrequin? Read More »
Reading time: About 5 minutes When the day ends, do you find you’ve run out of time for writing? Here’s how to be more productive… I love August. My email drops by about 50% and my meetings by 75%. The entire world appears to have become like Paris — everyone’s gone on holiday at once. I
How to be more productive — in the summer Read More »
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 a blog post about inclusivity in images…. If this blog post was about children’s health, what would be the problem with
The value of inclusivity in images Read More »
Viewing time: 5 min. 10 sec. 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 #70, with advice on how to protect your book’s confidentiality. The post first ran on Oct. 19/18. Transcript:
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about several similes from Candian writer Wayne Grady…. A translator, writer and writing teacher, Wayne Grady, is also the son of an African-Canadian father who passed for white. Interestingly, he didn’t discover
The figurative language of Wayne Grady…. Read More »
