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: Less than 3 minutes Frank Sinatra began his musical career as a boy singer with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. But did you know he ended it as a writing inspiration coach? Read on… I’m a longtime fan of Frank Sinatra. Almost incredibly, so are my 21-year-old triplets. […]
Writing advice from Frank Sinatra Read More »
Reading time: About 5 minutes Have you ever wondered how to build a style sheet? Has your boss ever asked you to create one? Here’s a straightforward guide on how to accomplish the task… I’ve long held the belief that good copy editors are born, not made. I’m a very good substantive
How to build your own style sheet Read More »
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Can you write a good sentence? Try one for this cartoon and you could be the winner of it… If I had a dollar for every person who told me they had “no writing talent,” I could treat myself to a no-expense-spared trip to
Write a great cartoon caption and win a piece of art… Read More »
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes “Fail” is one of the most dreaded four-letter words. But it shouldn’t be! Here’s why you should overcome the fear of writing failure… When I worked in daily newspapers, in the early 1980s, I wrote and edited my stories on a computer. This was
Why we should WANT to fail as writers Read More »
Reading time: About 4 minutes Video: Just under 7 minutes Have you ever struggled with mindmapping? Here is a video, and a post, designed to teach you how to create a mindmap… Like a cardiologist who see nothing but hearts with problems — and therefore finds them easier to
How to mindmap… (video) Read More »
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Being a natural writer might sound like a good thing. Here’s why it usually isn’t… My 21-year-old son started singing when he was two years old. We’d taken the kids to a Raffi concert and it was comical the way we could see the lightbulb
Are you a natural writer? Here’s why that’s bad Read More »
Reading time: Just over 3 minutes Do you suffer from bad writing habits? Here are some ideas you need to overcome so you can develop the good habit of writing — easily — every day… I work with dozens of people every year who are trying to build the writing
Trying to build a writing habit? Beware these 5 traps Read More »
Reading time: Just over 4 minutes Looking for some recommended books in time for summer holidays? Here’s my roundup based on my reading so far this year. I aim to read 52 books every year and my habit is to post the names of them for you, twice a year. I
Recommended books: summer 2015 Read More »
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Is a messy desk hurting your writing productivity? One of my classmates in high school had such a messy desk that our teachers — nuns — frequently hassled her and sometimes gave her detentions for her untidiness. In retaliation she posted a sign saying, “a clean desk
Do you suffer from Irritable Desk Syndrome? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 3 minutes If you habitually write copy that’s shorter than you want or need, here are some tips on how to lengthen word count… Here’s my dirty little secret about writing: I often write too short. Give me a word count of 750 words and I’ll
Is your writing too short? Here’s how to fix that Read More »