5 days agoMember-onlyHow to Tighten Your Writing (Part 4): Avoid clichés and strive for fresh imageryHave you ever read a story or article where the writers is so enamoured by well-worn and tired phrases that you wonder how they ever got past the slush pile? In the final instalment of my series on how to tighten your writing, let’s talk clichés. These boring same-old idioms…Writing Tips3 min readWriting Tips3 min read
Dec 31, 2022Member-onlyHow to Tighten Your Writing (Part 3): Beware the run-on sentenceIn this third part of my four-part series on tight writing, it’s time to learn about the importance of sentence variety. Too often the pacing of a paragraph or page is under-valued, disregarded in favour of what may seem more integral to strong writing, such as compelling verbs/nouns and strengthening…Writing3 min readWriting3 min read
Oct 31, 2022Member-onlyHow You Can Tighten Your Writing (Part 2): Avoiding Hedging and QualifiersIn this second part of a four-part series on writing tight, I want to break down one of the less obvious but detrimental offences a writer can commit: using evasive language such as qualifiers. What does that mean? Qualifiers such as “most” and “often” and “many” dot our spoken language…Writing Advice2 min readWriting Advice2 min read
Sep 24, 2022Member-onlyHow You Can Tighten Your Writing (Part 1): Rejecting RedundanciesWhen I coach writers, whether they work in creative fields or in journalism, I often see how their copy is laden with redundancies and filler. I preach the gospel of tight writing, which focuses on writing compelling sentences without the frills some writers believe they need to engage readers. For…Writing2 min readWriting2 min read
Sep 8, 2022Member-onlyWhat separates great writers from good writers? Discipline.When I coach creative writers, I stress one key point: If you want to be a skilled writer, you need to be disciplined. You have to put that bum in the seat EVERY DAY for at least an hour, writing new work (and not editing). I underline this behaviour because…Freelance Writer2 min readFreelance Writer2 min read
Aug 12, 2022Member-onlyHow writers can avoid burnoutAs a freelance writer, whether you work in journalism or prose/poetry, you’re told to hustle. Getting those gigs can lead to more revenue and experience and deeper relationships with editors. But the dark side of all that hustle is burnout, which can develop as a benign feeling of low-grade anxiety…Writers On Writing2 min readWriters On Writing2 min read
Jul 21, 2022Member-onlyNot born with talent? Then earn a skillIf you’re not among the 99% of people born with a talent for writing, don’t despair. You can still be a successful writer by developing your skills, a process available to us. Talent can carry with its false assurances. It may cause us to think, Well, I’ve been given this…Writing Tips2 min readWriting Tips2 min read
Jun 27, 2022Member-onlyHow browsing on LinkedIn helped me secure a $0.65/word writing gigEvery day, I leave at least 10 minutes to scroll through my LinkedIn feed. As a full-time freelance writer, I’m not interested in finding a job, but gauging what my connections have been doing recently and if there’s any opportunity in what they’re posting about. So in early December 2020…Linked In2 min readLinked In2 min read
May 28, 2022Member-onlyHow working as a journalist has made me a stronger creative writerWhen I first began writing as a journalist, I was worried. I had spent years believing I would grow up to become a fiction novelist or creative writer of some importance, and here I was delving into media law and CP style and wondering if my passion for writing fiction…Creative Writing2 min readCreative Writing2 min read
May 11, 2022Member-onlyNeed to write engaging scenes? Use the strongest verbs and nounsWhether you write prose or non-fiction, you have to create descriptive scenes that pull readers into your story. Exposition won’t cut it; neither will internal monologues. …Writing3 min readWriting3 min read
