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: 756 words Reading time: About 3 minutes Do you habitually leave everything until the last minute? Or are you smart enough to plan your writing time? Here’s how you can plan it in reverse…. Last week I was out for breakfast with friends when I received an urgent […]
How to plan your writing time Read More »
Reading time: About 3 minutes Today’s post is a letter I’ve written to one of my coaching students (I’ve changed her name to preserve anonymity.) I think you might find these thoughts helpful, as well. Dear Sarah, I’m writing to follow up on our last coaching call. I think you’re
Why you should stay longer with your writing questions Read More »
Word count: 730 words Reading time: About 3 minutes How do you work when you really, really don’t want to? Take my advice on how to overcome adversity in your writing… I’m blaming it on a hard-boiled egg. I had food poisoning last week. I’m guessing the egg, although refrigerated, had
How to overcome adversity in your writing Read More »
Word count: 632 words Reading time: About 2.5 minutes Our need to learn doesn’t stop when we graduate from college. So why do so many of us act as though it does?…. I am 55 years old. I have an honours degree in political science. I’ve written professionally for 33
5 reasons you might want to learn more Read More »
Word count: 649 words Reading time: About 2.5 minutes I’m frequently impressed by the parallels between writing and music. Today I find writing inspiration from the musical work of Jonathan Mann. I can’t remember who told me about Jonathan Mann (pictured above) but I’m grateful for the tip. I don’t
5 reasons why being relentless is a good career strategy Read More »
Word count: 710 words Reading time: less than 3 minutes If you’re unfamiliar with readability statistics, here’s an introduction. And if you haven’t gone beyond the Flesch-Kincaid index, here’s a new idea for you… Did you know that in pre-Elizabethan times an average written sentence was 50 words long? Fifty
How to improve your readability… Read More »
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 »
