Reading time: Just over 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about similes from the American author Steven Rowley… I was walking by a remainder table in my favourite bookstore when the title of a book grabbed me by the eyeballs and gave […]
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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: carnelian…. I have a pretty good vocabulary with a few gaping holes. I was a Liberal Arts student in school, favouring literature and history classes over anything
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Reading time: About 3 minutes The Covid pandemic has taught many of us about the perils of hoarding. But my advice relates specifically to computers: don’t be a digital hoarder…. Have you ever seen the TV program Hoarders? That’s the one where people have kitchens filled with dirty dishes and kitty litter boxes and living-rooms
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Viewing time: 4 mins. 32 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 #34, describing how fiction writers can capture their characters’ travels. The post first ran on Oct. 20/17. Transcript:
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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 metaphors from Lionel Shriver…. American writer Lionel Shriver (pictured above) had her break-out novel in 2003. Titled We Need to Talk about Kevin it tells the story of a fictional high
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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: augural…. When I encountered the word augural, I assumed I didn’t know what it meant. I found it in the moving and insightful memoir An Exact Replica of
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Reading time: Just over 4 minutes Looking for some recommended books in time for Christmas reading or gift-giving? Here’s my semi-annual roundup of books I’ve read this year. I aim to read at least 52 books every 12 months and my habit is to post a complete list of the names of them for you, in November
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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 post about the downside of being perfectionistic with your book pitch… I like to do things proficiently, with a certain
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Viewing time: 4 mins. 53 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 #33, describing when writing by hand is better than writing by keyboard . The post first ran on
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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 personification from English novelist Jonathan Coe… It’s always interesting to me to see how different writers use different types of figurative language. Some for example, have a particular love of simile.
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