I was pleased to see an op-ed in the New York Times a few weeks ago that addressed weak language construction. That is, using the phrase “I feel like” to precede stating an opinion, belief, preference, et cetera. The writer made the essay more political than I would have liked; I was hoping for an in-depth discussion of how we all use qualifiers and word clutter when we speak and write. I have … [Read more...]
Writing Tips
I Haven’t Written for a While
I’m writing this as much for me as for other writers. Because, no, I haven't written for a while. Anyone who regularly visits this blog or the blog on my book website--that website is here--knows that I haven’t posted for several weeks. First there was a large editorial project that ate up all my time from mid-November into early December; and then another project in December that I finished just … [Read more...]
Create in Solitude
I’m going to start there: Create in Solitude. I doubt there is a successful artist who wouldn’t agree that solitude is essential if you are going to paint or sculpt or compose or write. If your immediate space is filled with distractions—other people, e-mails and texts and phone calls, unrelenting noise—how can you connect with the muse that dwells inside? (I don’t normally reach for euphemisms … [Read more...]
Proofreading
Humans are endlessly fallible. We are never going to be error-free, all the time, no matter how careful we are. Some mistakes in stories, essays, books, etc. are because a writer (and editor and proofreader, if they’re involved in the process) doesn’t know any better. For instance, all the times I’ve read “The data is …”, I know the writer simply doesn’t know that data is a plural noun and that it … [Read more...]
Kairos
In the August 30, 2015, issue of the New York Times, an essay in the Magazine section caught my attention. Called “Standstill,” by Sam Anderson, it is an essay about “the political world’s obsession with the moment.” Acknowledging that modern humans weren’t the first to consider “the moment,” Anderson looks back to the Greeks to explain two different kinds of time: … chronus (the vast, inhuman, … [Read more...]