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: tignon… If you had said the word tignon to me, I wouldn’t have been able to guess its meaning. But, encountering it in the book Up From […]
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Reading time: Less than 2 minutes 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 written by Mike Sanger…. Award-winning journalist and longtime writer-at-large for Esquire, Mike Sanger once wrote a blog post under
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Viewing time: 5 minutes and 17 seconds 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 #16, addressing the best publishing option. The post first ran on May 12/17. Transcript: Welcome to The Write
What’s the best option for publishing? (video) Read More »
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 and metaphors from Elizabeth Strout… I’ve admired the writing of Elizabeth Strout (pictured above) ever since I read her remarkable Pulitzer-Prize winning novel Olive Kitteridge. For her acute
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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: pentimento…. Like many people, I was obsessed with the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court hearings in 2018 and the riveting testimony of Christine Blasey Ford. I quit work
What does ‘pentimento’ mean? Read More »
Reading time: About 5 minutes Are you looking for business tool recommendations? Here are nine tried-and-true options that make a big difference to my working life every day of the week…. Each of my grandparents was born in the late 1800s — not just before computers, but before domestic refrigerators, airplanes and televisions. All of
9 business tool recommendations for writers 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 blog post about how to work smarter not harder… When I confess that I am the hardest worker I know,
How to work smarter (not harder) Read More »
Viewing time: 3 minutes 14 seconds 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 #15, addressing the thorny topic of inspiration. The post first ran on April 28/17. Transcript: Welcome to The Write
Is it worth waiting for inspiration? (video) Read More »
Reading time: Less than 2 minutes I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a series of metaphors from Wayne Johnston… Novelist Wayne Johnston (pictured above) was born and raised in the St. John’s area of Newfoundland but now lives in Toronto. Canadian readers will
The figurative language of Wayne Johnston… 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: belfry…. Of course, I know that a belfry is the part of a bell tower or steeple in which bells are housed. But when I encountered the
What’s the origin of the word ‘belfry’? Read More »
