Word count: 796 words Reading time: About 3 minutes Here is the second entry in my three-part series on Deliberate Practice for writers. Be sure to read part 1 first! Here is the most important thing to know about Deliberate Practice. It is not a writing activity. It’s either a […]
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Word count: 746 words Reading time: About 3 minutes Here is the first entry in my three-part series on Deliberate Practice for writers. I’ll never forget the headline that led me to Cal Newport. It read: “How an MIT postdoc writes 3 books, a PhD defense, and 6+ peer-reviewed papers
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Word count: 691 words Reading time: Less than 3 minutes I know this will make me sound horribly old-fashioned, but I’ve been convinced that all writers — even non-fiction ones — should read poetry. Here’s why…. My relationship with poetry has been troubled. It didn’t start well. When I was
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Word count: 656 words Reading time: About 2.5 minutes Did you smile when a host of Mary Poppinses floated down from the ceiling during the opening ceremonies of the Olympics? The Games have writing tips to teach us as well… My summer sport is walking – not a competitive event,
Are you an Olympic writer? Read More »
Word count: 518 words Reading time: About 2 minutes Even when I don’t go looking for stories, I seem to fall over them. If you’re a writer, be sure to keep an eye out for them, too…. I took myself out for lunch following my blog launch. I wanted a
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Word count: 563 words Reading time: Just over 2 minutes The idea of copying another writer may seem distasteful to you, but, trust me, you can learn a lot from the practice… * I didn’t cheat on exams when I was in high school. I restricted myself to reading novels
Why you should copy (a modest proposal) Read More »
Word count: 725 words Reading time: Less than 3 minutes Although H.L. Mencken felt that “criticism is prejudice made plausible,” I believe all writers can learn from criticism they receive. Here’s how: How are you at handling criticism? I don’t mean comments about your driving or your housework or your management style.
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Reading time: About 3 minutes Here’s why I insist that you spend some of your writing time, NOT writing, but instead incubating…. When I was a callow teenager and completed my honours political science thesis in June 1979, I finished it only because my professor declined to give me another
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Word Count: 732 words Reading time: About 3 minutes Want to improve your writing? Stop doing these 17 things! Negative writing tips, I find, can be just as helpful as a positive ones. And, often, they’re far more memorable. Here, then are 17 things you should stop doing immediately, if
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Word count: 750 words Reading time: About 3 minutes Do you know your writing angle? I’m not talking geometry here. My “angle” comes from journalism. But the term is important for ALL types of writing… Early in my newspaper career, when I worked at a neighbourhood weekly, my heart suffered a
What’s your writing angle? Read More »
