Reading time: About 4 minutes Scientists now believe there are excellent reasons you should doodle. Don’t view doodling as dilly-dallying or time-wasting… My mother became an artist at the age of 65. She took up chalk pastels and almost immediately started producing beautiful, saleable work. That’s a photo of one […]
Can’t write? Can’t draw? Here’s why you should doodle Read More »
Reading time: Just over 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 BBC post giving advice on how to read more… Most people who consult my website
Viewing time: 4 min. 42 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 #46, about why you should start your stories in medias res. The post first
Why you should start your stories in medias res (video) Read More »
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 young adult author Vicki Grant…. I don’t typically read a lot of young adult fiction. I make a happy exception for
The figurative language of Vicki Grant 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: teasel… I keep a Word document containing all the new and interesting words I encounter in my daily reading. When I collected
What is a ‘teasel’? Read More »
Reading time: About 4 minutes You should stop being a people pleaser if you want to become a more effective writer… If you’re a writer and a people pleaser, I can tell you how your life is going to go. Your writing side will lose and your people-pleasing side will
Stop being a people pleaser! 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 Don Massenzio blog post on getting your computer to read your writing aloud…. I’ve long
Get your computer to read your writing aloud Read More »
Viewing time: 4 min. 32 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 #45, about how people who speak English as a second language can improve
How to improve fluency in English (video) Read More »
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 simile from Belinda McKeon…. I can no longer recall how I discovered Belinda McKeon’s remarkable novel, Tender. I think, perhaps, I was browsing in a
The figurative language of Belinda McKeon… 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: caesura…. When I saw the word caesura, I knew it meant a gap or a pause and I assumed the term to
What’s a ‘caesura’? Read More »
