Power Writing began as a weekly newsletter in April 2006. Its purpose? To give tips and advice about writing, to tell interesting stories and to help writers everywhere work faster, better. I distribute the newsletter by email to thousands of readers around the world every week and, since March 2012, it has become the Tuesday entry of my blog.
You can read many Power Writing entries here – I back-entered all columns until the beginning of 2009, and a handful of ones that were earlier than that. But I hope you’ll consider subscribing, too. Just enter your name and email in the box next to my photo on the home page of my website. If you do that, you’ll not only receive Power Writing by email each week, you’ll also automatically get access to a 10-minute video on how to unblock your writing.
Reading time: About 3 minutes When the mercury starts to climb you might appreciate an icy drink — and some advice about how to write when it’s too damn hot…. If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen, according to an old adage. But those of us living in certain parts of […]
How to write when it’s too damn hot Read More »
Reading time: About 5 mins (faster if scanning) Here are my 10 favourite articles or posts from last month, focusing on the most useful, helpful and entertaining pieces for writers. I love blue, cloudless skies, but I don’t much like heat, unless I can park myself beside a big pool — under an umbrella for
PubCoach top 10: June 2021* Read More »
Reading time: About 5 mins. Looking for some recommended books in time for summer reading? Here’s my semi-annual roundup of books I’ve read this year. I aim to read 52 books every 12 months, and my habit is to post a complete list of the names of them for you, in early summer and December. Here is
Recommended books: summer 2021 Read More »
Reading time: About 5 minutes If you’re feeling overwhelmed right now, perhaps the concept of project management software for writers has crossed your mind. Be very careful before you take the step of buying something… Writers sometimes ask me to recommend project management software. I must confess, I’ve never used it myself, but I recently
The best project management software for writers Read More »
Reading time: About 3 minutes Sure, you may read for fun. But if you learn how reading helps writing, you’ll start approaching the task a little differently…. An essay by Joan Didion described her husband — the late John Gregory Dunne — reading a novel. I could be wrong, but I seem to recall the
How reading helps writing Read More »
Reading time: About 4 minutes If you want to flourish as a writer, take some simple steps that will make the act of writing less painful and more fun…. As the pandemic starts to fade — in the developed world, at least — I’m noticing lots of talk about languishing and flourishing, two sides of
How to flourish as a writer Read More »
Reading time: About 5 mins (faster if scanning) Here are my 10 favourite articles or posts from last month, focusing on the most useful, helpful and entertaining pieces for writers. With rates of COVID vaccination increasing, those of us in the developed world may be able to enjoy something approaching a more “normal” summer this
PubCoach top 10: May 2021 Read More »
Reading time: Fewer than 4 minutes If you want to learn how to be a successful freelancer, today’s post pulls together my experience from 40 years of being an editor… I was a teenage editor. I started by editing the essays of friends then advanced to the high school yearbook. From there I began work
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Reading time: Fewer than 3 minutes Do you allow yourself enough thinking time? Surprisingly, many writers don’t…. How much time do you spend thinking? Not worrying. Not writing. Not organizing. Just thinking. Smart guy George Bernard Shaw said, “few people think more than two or three times a year.” Then he added a little smugly,
Why you need a Schultz Hour for thinking time Read More »
Reading time: Fewer than 3 minutes Our perception of how we’re doing — whether in writing or something else — can sometimes be wrong. This error is known as progress bias…. I spent 30 minutes yesterday doing my least-favourite task in the entire world: rounding up and categorizing invoices and receipts for my bookkeeper. I
What is progress bias and how do writers fall victim to it? Read More »
