Reading time: About 3.5 minutes Here’s some practical advice on how to write better English if it’s not your native language… I was briefly fluent in French when I was 20. I knew this for two reasons: First, I’d gone to visit a friend in Quebec City and ended up getting so sick with a […]
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Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Do you want to learn how to cure procrastination? Try lying to yourself… I used to hate writing. Twenty years ago, if you’d told me that I could tell myself a simple lie and — suddenly, magically — it would make writing easier and more pleasant, I would have
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Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Are you determined enough to get your writing done? Believe it or not, stubbornness is a virtue… When one of my daughters was two she chose to present her unique personality on a family camping trip. I was about to go for a walk, and she begged to come along.
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Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Are you always able to write the perfect amount of copy? It’s not related to luck. It’s the product of good planning and diligent editing… I awoke at 6 this morning, as I do most mornings, and went to my office to meditate. Then I attacked my “first morning tasks”
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Reading time: About 4 minutes The price of groceries is rising these days. But that’s not true of everything. The Internet allows us to do so much at absolutely no charge. Here’s a digest of great no-cost tools for writers… Do you ever feel that there’s just not enough time in your day to accomplish everything
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Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Do you think there ought to be some new year’s resolutions for writers? Let me suggest something that will work even better… I know it’s resolution season. New year’s plans seem to lurk in blogs like dangerous creatures in swamps. But not here. I don’t believe in new year’s
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Reading time: Just over 4 minutes Is your major aim reducing writing stress? Over the last 40 years, I’ve developed 11 strategies that really work… My number 1 stressor right now? Organizing high school debate tournaments. Picture this: An event featuring 48 articulate and argumentative teenagers who must be matched against each other in 12
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Reading time: About 3 minutes Whenever I read, I copy my favourite lines and passages into my gigantic collection of quotes about writing. Here are some that have spoken to me at various phases of my writing life. 1) Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice. ~Margaret Atwood I particularly like the way Atwood suggests
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Reading time: Less than 4 minutes Some people think meditation should be reserved for monks and hippies. I disagree. Many business people are starting to meditate and I’m a big believer in meditation for writers. Many years ago, when my kids were young, I took a course in meditation. Each Monday night I headed out
Why and how to meditate — even if you think it’s crazy Read More »
Reading time: Less than 4 minutes Looking for some recommended books in time Christmas gift-giving? Here’s my semi-annual roundup — this time of books I’ve read since June. I aim to read 52 books every 12 months and my habit is to post the names of them for you, twice a year. This past June, I
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