Imagine for a moment that you’ve just published a piece of writing into which you have poured your heart and soul. It might be an essay, short story, poem, blog post, or book. As it goes out in the world, you start to have second thoughts. The wind leaves your sails. The very moment at […]
Writing
The Business of Being a Writer – A Book Review
Short Version It’s fashionable to complain that no one can make a living writing, or that self-publishing is for hobbyists only. In The Business of Being a Writer, Jane Friedman begs to differ. She knows a great deal about the publishing industry, and in this book she suggests that you can make a living, but […]
How Do You Measure Success for Your Writing?
“What’s the moment you realize you’ve been successful?” A friend who was about to publish her first book asked me this question the other day. It made me pause. Most authors, indie or otherwise, won’t find their books on the New York Times best seller list. They won’t make hundreds of thousands of dollars, at […]
Collaborative Writing
Although writing in the workplace is a team sport, usually only one team member bats at a time. After the planning phase, the designated writer accepts responsibility for putting the words together for the first draft. In some situations, however, team participation also extends to the drafting phase. Truly collaborative writing presents significant challenges for […]
How to Improve Your Technical Explanations [Video]
In this Femgineer video, Poornima Vijayashanker and I discuss techniques for being understood when you’re writing or speaking about abstract topics. Highlights include: Getting over your misconceptions about using story Balancing brevity and repetition Dumbing down vs. being clear The video covers topics from my book Writing to Be Understood. If you like the […]
Humor in Otherwise Serious Nonfiction Writing
The careful application of humor catches the reader’s attention, sustains their interest, and, if done well, earns their trust.
