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 where to look for a literary agent…. Readers ask me all the time for good tricks to […]
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Viewing time: 5 mins 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 #193, which addresses how to use transitions more skillfully. The post first ran on July 2/21. Transcript: How can
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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 and metaphors from Kristen Arnett… When I heard that the main character in a first novel by Kristen Arnett (pictured above) was a taxidermist, my spidey senses
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Reading time: About 2 minutes Farah Ghafoor encourages new writers to follow their own interests and write about what is most captivating to them. Farah Ghafoor is an award-winning poet based in Toronto, Ontario. Her debut collection of poetry, recently released by House of Anansi Press. Shadow Price, explores the idea of value at the intersection of
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Reading time: About 4 minutes How do you increase your attention? You consider these seven steps to deal with attention residue, that’s how! Do you ever feel as though your mind has become like a library bulletin board, plastered with reminders you never requested? Even if you’re not aware of the problem, the answer is
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Reading time: About 1 minute 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 what to do when you feel like quitting. Do you ever feel like quitting? Maybe you have too many responsibilities? Perhaps you’ve
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Viewing time: 3 mins 38 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 #192, which addresses how to improve undergrad writing. The post first ran on June 25/21. Transcript: How
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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 similes from Megan Hunter… Megan Hunter is an English novelist and poet who achieved some acclaim with her 2017 debut novel The End We Start From which was It was adapted into
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Reading time: About one minute Canadian writer Nicholas Ruddock says that writing is neither easy nor hard. Instead, “it’s a million steps between”…. Nicholas Ruddock is a Canadian physician and writer. He has published three novels, The Parabolist, Night Ambulance, and Last Hummingbird West of Chile (audiobook by Gerard Doyle 2025), short stories in How
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Reading time: About 2 minutes Being observant is practically a job requirement for writers. Here’s how to get better at noticing… Once, when I was a teenager, I’d lined up for lunch in the cafeteria with friends. I remember looking at the appalling desserts in the glass case and commenting that the lemon meringue pie
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