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.
Word count: 721 words Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Do you allow yourself to get tied up in your own writing problems? Here are five strategies to try the next time you get stuck. My husband and I were in Oregon last week and spent several days on the Coast, […]
5 writing lessons from the Oregon Trail Read More »
Word count: 741 words Reading time: Less than 3 minutes We are all good at something. Too bad we don’t get to choose our talents. I’d like to be able to sing….or to learn languages easily…or even to write… My triplets turned 19 on Saturday. The family milestone has set
Why your writing talent doesn’t matter Read More »
Word count: 732 words Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Some people don’t think they’re creative enough to write. If that feeling plagues you, be sure to consider these five tips on how to boost your creativity. I was reading the book Imagine by Jonah Lehrer last week and had
5 more ways to boost your creativity for writing Read More »
Word count: 654 words Reading time: Less than 3 minutes You probably learned the difference between past, present and future in preschool. But how hard do you think about tense when you’re writing? Perhaps, not hard enough…. I am fascinated by tense. Not becoming tense, of course. Just tense. What
Are you tense over your verbs? Read More »
Word count: 767 words Reading time: About 3 minutes When I use the phrase “expressing yourself,” I’m making a pun. Today’s column is about my recent Battle Royale with American Express…. I’ve been fighting a guerrilla war with American Express since last November. On the theory that my experience might
Do you have difficulty expressing yourself? Read More »
Word count: 661 words Reading time: About 2.5 minutes Do you ever take a holiday from your writing? Here’s why you should consider it…. I just participated in a 10-day, two-person workshop designed to improve my writing. It required me to take a plane to a different country and it
Time to take a break? Read More »
Word count: 762 words Reading time: About 3 minutes Do you need to undaunt yourself over your writing? Here are three tips I can offer from the one task that has always daunted me: bookkeeping! While I’m no longer a procrastinating writer, I am a procrastinating bookkeeper. But I’ve just
How to undaunt yourself Read More »
Word count: 756 words Reading time: About 3 minutes Being called a copycat is generally an insult. Instead, I think it’s a valuable tool for writers to try… If you’d been able to sneak into my home office last Wednesday at 6:15 am, you would have found me hunched over
Why you should be a copycat Read More »
Word count: 641 words How did you fall in love with writing? Here is my story…. I’ve sounded off many times about the difficulties I’ve had with writing – the horror of producing my honours’ thesis, my mean Scottish editor, and my struggle to stop editing while I wrote. But
How did you fall in love with writing? Read More »
Word count: 756 words Reading time: About 3 minutes We all have writing troubles. But how deeply do you understand your own problems?…. The US Department of Transportation has proposed that all new cars be required to have a brake override. The purpose? To disable the accelerator when the brake
What’s your real problem? Read More »
