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 Today’s column looks at three wildly unrelated topics and finds the key point they all share. I live in Vancouver, the 2010 Olympic host city although, I confess, sports don’t mean much to me. Still, when hockey player Wayne Gretzky lit the cauldron last […]
About the Olympics, my house and your writing Read More »
Reading time: About 3 minutes Today’s column looks at the important topic of preventing mistakes — and dealing with the ones you haven’t been able to avoid making. I live in a glass house. No, I’m not talking about my own home, which we’re currently renovating. (Project to be finished
My big fat mea culpa for mistakes Read More »
Reading time: About 3 minutes Today’s column looks at the important topic of telling stories — admittedly, through the eyes of a horse! I have never ridden a horse. Nor have I had much interest in them. When I was in my early 20s, a journalist friend of mine was
Writing lessons from a horse? Check out Seabiscuit! Read More »
Reading time: About 3 minutes Today’s column tackles the controversial topic of multitasking. Is it the sign of a highly skilled writer or a totally delusional one? Read on to find out. I work mostly from home and I’m the mother of triplets. In some ways, I think I’m a marvelous
Are you frittering away your life by multitasking? Read More »
Reading time: About 3 minutes Today’s column is five-step guide on how to kill creativity. Follow these steps carefully, and I guarantee you’ll never be able to avoid writer’s block ever again! There I was, sitting in a doctor’s office, waiting for my appointment. Actually, it was much later than my
How to kill creativity Read More »
Reading time: About 3 minutes Today’s column is all about good habits and how to develop them. I’m not a big believer in new year’s resolutions. I’m the kind of person who already has a mile long “to do” list every day. Okay, well it’s not exactly a mile. But
How good writers forge good habits Read More »
Reading time: About 3 minutes My best books of the year column is always one of my most popular…. I was late to start reading but once I did, I fell in love with it. I distinctly remember, throughout grades 4 to 7, always keeping a novel perched on the top
10 best books I read in 2009 Read More »
Reading time: About 3 minutes In this, my last column of 2009, I bring you 12 blogs — one for each of the days of Christmas. This is what I like to call a “high concept” column. I’m taking the song the 12 days of Christmas and, um, re-purposing the
Welcome to the 12 best blogs of Christmas Read More »
Reading time: About 3 minutes What’s even more important than what you’re writing right now? Why, the headline you put on top of it, of course. Here are some tips on how to write better headlines. I’ve written before about how to produce good headlines. But as the year’s end approaches
7 tips for better headlines and 10 hilariously bad heads Read More »
Reading time: About 3 minutes I love Twitter. Not that I spend a lot of time on it — I don’t. But I find it’s a great way connect with a wide range of people really quickly. I’m constantly telling clients that they should be on Twitter too and I
A rank amateur’s guide to Twitter Read More »
