Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Being called a copycat is generally an insult. Instead, I think it’s a valuable tool for writers to try… If you were ever able to sneak into my home office around 6 am on a weekday morning, you just might find me hunched over my computer, […]
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Reading time: About 3 minutes How does your writing life intersect with your sleeping one? In fact, how much sleep do writers need, anyway? How often do you hear that it’s just about mandatory to start writing earlier in the day? About 30 seconds of research showed me that a great
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Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Has a piece of writing ever left you stymied? My guess is that you may have overthought it. Here’s why overthinking is bad for writers… When I teach people about mindmapping, I try to be explicit about one thing. My use of the phrases “left
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Reading time: Just over 3 minutes Do you understand how many of the blogs you read and the podcasts you hear earn their money through advertising and sponsorships? In the world of the internet, it’s a case of buyer beware… How do you feel about advertising on the internet? And
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Reading time: Just over 3 minutes I’m sure you’ve read elsewhere that good writers are always good readers. Here are the reasons why…. A grade 2 teacher reported to my parents more than 50 years ago that I wasn’t reading enough. The reaction? It was like an alarm going off in a nuclear
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Reading time: Just over 3 minutes Does the mere thought of a test make your stomach clench? Here are some basic writing assessment test tips… I once failed a personality test. OK, to be honest, it’s not technically possible to fail such a test because we all have personalities. But I
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Reading time: Just over 4 minutes Are you a writer who’s addicted to social media? Consider joining me in quitting Facebook for at least 99 days…. I have long mocked my brother-in-law for never having had a Facebook account. He’s a structural engineer, so you might be inclined to brand
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Reading time: Just over 3 minutes Some writers try to figure out what they want to say by writing. Here’s why you should think first, write later…. Here are the mistakes I see some (not all!) academic writers make: They use the passive voice too much, hiding the ‘actor’ of
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Reading time: Just over 2 minutes Do you know how to eliminate your verbal tics? It’s not easy but it’s possible. It just takes some commitment and concentration… You don’t need to have Tourette syndrome to have verbal tics. I know because I have such a tic myself: It’s the word
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Reading time: Less than 3 minutes You’ve probably heard the term “emotional intelligence” lots of times. Did you know it was something that could help writers do their work better? I read the bestselling book Emotional Intelligence — also known as EI — by Daniel Goleman, in 1996 when my
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