Human beings are abstraction-makers. We love using labels and categories to group things and make sense of the world. The ability to think and speak in abstractions makes modern civilization possible—and saves us time as well. But categories have a cost. When groups of people become an abstract category, they feel more distant, less human. […]
Writing
When technology changes the writing process
Is AI changing your writing process? Most of us are still figuring it out, as in the early days of word processing, impressed by the time savings.
The Writing Time Treasure Hunt
Every day this month (or at least 6 days a week), go on a treasure hunt for writing time. Your goal is to find at least 30 minutes.
The story of your writing life
If I were to ask you about your writing identity today, what would you say?
Getting creative with touch-based images
For the next month, try coming up with a sensory description or analogy every day. Go beyond simple visual imagery to the less-common senses, and specifically touch,.
Writing Voice: Try a soundtrack
As readers, we are tuned to find emotions in the text. As writers, our emotions definitely influence the way our “voice” appears on the page. (You usually know if someone was angry when writing an email, even if they don’t use ALL CAPS!) In this month’s writing voice exercise, we’ll experiment with channeling emotions into […]