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Reading time: Just over 3 minutes If you’ve ever vowed to stop editing while you write, here’s a tool that will really make you want to keep that promise. Watch the video to see how writers waste time, editing while they write… Do you have difficulty writing your crappy first

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

Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Do you suffer from the toxic combination of writing and perfectionism? If so, I suspect the heart of the issue may be your own grandiosity… I’m not typically grandiose about my writing but I do have overblown, elaborate or pretentious moments in other parts

This post first appeared on Oct. 23, 2007. Reading time: less than 2 minutes I’ve noticed that effective writers tend to share seven traits. So, with apologies to Stephen Covey (pictured above), here is my own list of 7 habits worth adopting. Have you ever wondered why some people write

Reading time: Just over 3 minutes Does the idea of improving writing skills make you feel hopeful and excited? If so, the term “deliberate practice” is one you need to learn… Has our writing improved in the last 100 years? This question occurred to me as I listened to a

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

Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Writing something stupid makes sense when the alternative is simply staring at a blank computer screen…  When I was a teenager, I used to babysit a girl I’ll call Michelle. She lived directly across the street from me and she was famous in our

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

Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Have you ever wondered how to fight perfectionism? I’ve battled it for many years. Let me share my strategy… Born into a highly competitive family, with a father — a writer — who believed his five children always needed to try a whole lot harder,

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,

Reading time: Just over 3 minutes When someone thanks you, when someone helps you, when you need something, when you don’t know what to say, here’s a tip: Just say thanks… Why is the phrase “thank you” so hard to accept and so hard to say? Think about the last

Reading time: Less than 3 minutes There are many benefits of walking for writers. Staying in shape is one of them. But becoming more creative is the biggest gain…  I have a neighbour who often drove her three kids to school. I’m too polite to have told her off for

Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Do you know how to write freely? Here’s a metaphor that might help. Pretend you’re a jazz musician who’s improvising… When I moved away from home at the age of 21, I started pondering how to take music lessons. I’d always wanted to learn